Category: Ska

Saturday Matinee – A Banana, Бра́во, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones & Cam Cole

This banana comes with a cool Django Reinhardt vibe.
[Found here.]

Marty Robbins goes to Russia? Бра́во [Bravo] was founded in 1983 in Moscow, was one of the most popular underground acts.
Ветер знает [The Wind Knows] sounds just like the real deal. (There’s an English version here.)

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones‘ song intro has been stuck in my head for months and now that I’ve rediscovered it I can finally sleep at night. This live version is from 2011.

Cam Cole, busker, bluesman, rocker, recording artist, and “the most impressive one-man band you will ever see” nails the blues to your forehead and plugs it into your ears. This guy is definitely one to watch for.

Have a great weekend, something else will show up here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – The Specials, Rude Pride & The Interrupters

The Specials in 1979, with A Message To You Rudy.
From the Utoobage comments:

“For those who do not know the story already, the “rudy” of this song is not a person. In fact, it refers to the slang term “rude boy” (rude boy-rudie-rudy) that originated in Jamaica in the early ’60s to define a specific sub-culture that used to listen to ska and rocksteady. As you can imagine, the term “rude” refers to the not exactly in-line-with-the-law lifestyle they had. [..] This particular subculture heavily influenced the mods and the skinheads, particularly in the look. And in in regards of music too , obviously, since the genre Oi! is heavily influenced by ska.”

Rude Pride is/was a band from Madrid (2013-2020) that played 1970s style Oi! Although the sub-genre is often misconstrued as music by racist pro-fascist bands, this is not one of them. I just like the song. (BTW, that’s the Flag of Jamaica on the wall in the background.)

Keeping with the accidental theme, let’s go with some nasty ska.
The Interrupters cover Billie Eilish’ Bad Guy, and their version is better. Duh.

I think that’ll do for now. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – George Duke & Dweezil Zappa, MonoNeon & skArmy

George Duke showed up to play Zappa’s classic Uncle Remus with Dweezil Zappa‘s band in 2010. (If you like George Duke, this behind the scenes rehearsal from1978 is kinda fun. Jump to 02:50.)

Ignore the clickbait title – it’s a killer groove by MonoNeon. He’s right-handed, but plays left-handed on an upside-down right-handed bass. Dude can cover Zappa, too.

skArmy covers Save Ferris‘s cover of Dexy’s Mightnight Runners‘s Come On Eileen is a good one to wrap it up.

Have a great weekend folks, gonna do something tomorrow.

 

Saturday Matinee – Grand Funk, Todd Rundgren, Sarah Collins & The Joanna Connor Band

Yeah. Found here. Grand Funk Railroad released “We’re an American Band” in 1973, It was produced by a 25 year old named Todd Rundgren and it went gold.

Many of his own recordings were catchy pop (and somewhat sappy) love songs and covers of the same IMO, but I liked them.  I liked them especially because the pretty coeds would stay around longer when Todd Rundgren was spinning at 33rpm. Then in 1983 he wrote and performed one of the best ska tunes ever – Bang The Drum All Day. (As a resident of Hawaii, he later recorded “Bang The Uke All Day.)

Sarah Collins‘ vocal overdub of The Specials‘ 1979 cover of Dandy Livingstone‘s 1967 rocksteady song Rudy, A Message to You makes me smile, but we can’t close out with that one. Sorry, Sarah.

DO NOT BYPASS THE INTRO.
Joanna Connor covers Son House‘ classic “Walkin’ Blues.” She pats your head, then smacks you twice before you realize what happened. Pure awesome.

Have a great weekend, folks, see you soon.

Saturday Matinee – Live From NorWay, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Fishbone & The Allman Brothers Band

LIVE CAM: Train Engineer’s Cab View in Norway [click here for local time]. Not sure which line this is, where it’s headed, or if it’s running above the Arctic Circle. Check it out in full screen view and I’ll see you back here in a couple of days.

Someday, I suppose I’ll go to Norwegia and ride that train. Meanwhile, I’ll listen to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones from 1993.

Or maybe I’ll roll with Fishbone, one of the tightest ska/rock/funk bands I ever heard. Those guys won me over a long time ago. (Check out this 1987 live version. Sound quality sucks, but the energy is killer.)

Let’s turn it down a bit with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower.” The Allman Brothers Band in 2011 always found a nice groove (presumed band lineup here).

Have a great Easter/Passover/Seder weekend, folks. See you soon.

 

Saturday Matinee – African Raccoons, Toni Tee and Liquid Wisdom & The Specials

Raccoons stirrin’ up sh*t.

Toni Tee & Liquid Wisdom on a bus. They play a cool variety of music (reggae, rock, funk, soul, hiphop, punkadelic) but it’s tough to find a vid with decent a/v on the Utoobage. [h/t Bunkessa – yeah she scored two hits this week; this one and the one above.]

Can’t fight corruption with con tricks;
They use the law to commit crime.
And I dread, dread to think what the future will bring,
When we’re living in gangster time.

The Specials performed their 1979 hit “Gangsters” (with Lily Allen) at the Glastonbury Festival 2007. (The music was lifted from Prince Buster‘s 1964 ska hit “Al Capone.” Have a listen.)

Have a great weekend, folks, and let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Tito Puente, Mickey Hart & Todd Rundgren

Pure percussion by Tito Puente e Los TropiJazz All Stars. I could listen to this stuff all day.

Decades ago (in college) we attended an off-campus house party that seemed to have a live band. I asked the host about it and he replied, “That’s the Rhythm Section. They’re in the basement.” So I went downstairs and found people taking turns on vinyl trash cans, bottles, cans, buckets, with wooden dowels and spoons, and it all sounded great as it morphed, non-stop. No electronics, just stoners people grooving on impromptu syncopated rhythms.

Micky Hart‘s Planet Drum project got my ear as well. Hard to say what musical instrument came first, the bone flute or the drum. I’d guess the latter, because you can bang on anything to create a tempo, and everything else is secondary. (Vocals don’t count unless you’re talmbout Hollerin.)

Then of course there’s this RetroSka classic:

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll be back here tomorrow whether you like it or not.

Saturday Matinee – Heavy Slabs in Tasmania, Puddles Painting Party, Manualist Extraordinaire & Fishbone

August 2016 – “Tasmania’s most famous wave comes to life to launch the Australian winter with a roar. When the southern hemisphere starts to rumble and shake under the weight of wild winter weather, The Stern, out there on the south-eastern tip of Tasmania, bears the full brunt of the conditions.”

[Found here.]

Found here. Yeah, it’s cool for the first minute or so, but hey. I’d rather watch this guy’s stuff.

Dude is awesome.

One of my all time ska favorites. Fishbone kicks it in 2013.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Dog Looks, Skatalites, and others

YES. Dogs do this, especially with a nice soundtrack [via].

Dedicated to all the Social Justice Warriors out there.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for more inanity.

Saturday Matinee – Harrier Lands Sans Nose Gear, El Mariachi Manchester & Bad Manners

Harriers are awesome… and scary as hell if you happen to be the enemy. You hear its death whistle before you see it.

El Mariachi Manchester covers The Smiths‘ “Girl in a Coma” with a poco mariachi, poco ska style. (The trumpet player is using a Harmon mute and Bunkessa said the singer looks like me).

Since I’m in a ska mood, let’s wrap it up with this.

Bad Manners first hooked me with their cover of Millie Small‘s 1964 hit “My Boy Lollipop” which was a cover of a song written by Robert Spencer of The Cadillacs and recorded by Bobbie Gaye in 1956 (according to Wiki).  Bad Manners also recorded one of the prettiest reggae love songs ever in my opinion: “Samson and Delilah.”

So let’s wrap up this babozo with a full dose of British Ska.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow whether you like it or not.