23min of Ska : Roof Access

This episode was brought to you by me locking myself out of my apartment last week. That’s right, all I had was my cell phone and my lap top and I put this together for you guys, that’s how dedicated I am to 23min of Ska and it’s listeners! I was literally sitting in the stairwell editing it together. After a while I tried to get out onto my apartments roof so I wouldn’t bother my neighbors so much. Unfortunately the roof access was blocked but I tried to imbue this show with spirit of the freedom of sitting on a building’s roof in the middle of town because it is the closest thing to the wide open space of a park for blocks.

Ruder Than You – On a String (Philly Stylee ’05)
the Caroloregians – Wet Nurse (Funkify Your Reggay ’10)
Big D & the Kids Table – One Day (For the Damned, the Dumb & the Delirious ’11)
Less Than Jake – Oldest Trick in the Book (Greetings From ’11)
Thorpedians – Hurt So Badly (Maximum Hard Reggae fro the Top ’10)
4 Point 0 – Imaginary Breakdown (the College Try ’09)
Bobby Pins & the Saloon Soldiers – the Revenge (Dancing on the Moon ’09)
New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble – Kansas City (Step Forward ’08)

If you’re in a ska band and would like to be interviewed or have a song featured, please email me at radjose[at]gmail[dot]com.

This episode and all episodes can always be found here. You can also subscribe to the podcast by going to your advanced tab on iTunes, then select “subscribe to podcast…” and entering this address: http://23minofska.podomatic.com/rss2.xml into the box that opens. You can also download the episode! Also if you’d like, find & like us on facebook.

Why I Like Ska (Day Five of Five: Finding New Bands, Constantly and Being Amazed at Their Twist on the Classic Ska Beat They Come Up With)

This one is pretty long and pretty self explanatory but I’ll try to write something more about it anyway. Ska has been around for so long that things could stagnate, but each new band brings their own musical ideas to add to the classic ska beat. I, for one, can’t believe that even after several years of me personally listening to ska that I still find it as fresh as I do. I’ve admitted before that after I moved from the Midwest to L.A. in ’06 that I fell out of the ska scene for a few years, in fact I’d even say starting in about ’02 I really was only paying attention to just Midwest ska and missed a lot of what was going on with the national and especially international ska scene. Ska has this wonderful ability to sound new even when dealing with a sound that is several decades old. I feel like I’m just repeating myself here… hmmm… I think we now know why I’m a podcaster and not a blogger about ska. I can’t write for anything, but I think I got across the point in the last week, and that is explaining some of the many reasons why I like ska.

Why I Like Ska (Day Four of Five: Attend a Show Alone, Leave with New Friends)

I can’t tell you how many times this scenario has played out, I try to get some of my buddies to go to a ska show with me and they’re all busy. I don’t let that stop me and I go to the show anyway. Being a loner at a show is an odd feeling, but at a ska show that never seems to last long. Ska fans are a friendly bunch, that’s just how it works. I know this isn’t just exclusive to ska music, the sense of real community, but that kind of thing is always great when ever it pops up and I’m really glad the ska scene has that. It is just the pure friendliness and looking out for each other that is so amazing. I’ve made both extremely fun, hang for the show and the rest of the night kind of acquaintances and amazing lifelong friends at ska shows! Once I was seeming MU330 and my glass fell off and before I could say “Hold up! My glasses!” and start looking for them, 2 strangers popped up with the frames and the lens that fell out. At the very worst, when I don’t end up becoming friends with any fellow crowd members I end up getting chummy with the bands. While my future wife is not a ska fan she knows what the scene means to me and encourages me to go to shows and have fun, in fact she suggested I do a ska podcast about a year and a half before I actually started 23min of Ska. She’s great, the ska scene is great and plenty of my ska pals will be at that wedding too! I’ve lived a wonderful life and ska music had a lot to do with the excellent pals I’ve met along the way.

Why I Like Ska (Day Three of Five: Fans Come to the Shows to DANCE!)

One of the first local shows that I saw was a ska show in the Spring of 1996. It was great, everyone was dancing, yelling “hup, hup, hup” to the beat of the song and had a smile on their faces. This is what I thought local shows were all about, I didn’t know at the time it was a “ska thing.” I was lucky enough to hit up a few local power pop shows after that, where at least half of the crowd was good to dance, but it wasn’t much after that I found out the dirty no-fun secret “you don’t dance at local shows”. I don’t know if it was because it is in a church basement, pizza parlor backroom, coffee show, VFW or American Legion Hall but you did not dance, you stand near the back with your arms crossed and nod your head a bit. It was every bit as forgein to me then as it is now. Not dancing is effed up. For some reason this “rule” is all but thrown out the window at a ska show and I couldn’t be happier about it, I think it has as much to do with the fans as it does the music. It doesn’t matter if you skank, pogo or do that dance around in a circle thing that always pops up, you are dancing. You are dancing because the music is moving you. You are moved by the music because you came to have a good time and to be entertained. This works well for huge mainstream head liner acts as well, but it doesn’t work as well (in my experience) on the local level as greatly as it does for ska. I would always rather go to a bad ska show than a bad any other genre of music show, because even when the band isn’t hitting it like they should (you know, long tour, too new, practiced too much that afternoon and blew out their chops) the crowd is still dancing and having fun. This is pretty magical. In fact the only guys not dancing at a ska show are usually the performers (because they have something else to do) and the guys at the bar drinking a pint, but they usually still have a smile on their face.

Why I Like Ska (Day Two of Five: Let’s Face it, I’m a Brass Man.)

As far back as I can remember I’d always been a fan of trumpets. This is mostly what led me to take up cornet when joined the concert band in grade five. I’d always liked old school swing music as well as any 60′s surf song that had a strong brass component. In junior high I start listening to They Might Be Giants and other indie acts of the early 90s and was always quite drawn to the songs that incorporated horns. Maybe due to growing up during the 80s that I was kind of burnt out on saxophones in rock music, but this brass, this I liked. Now I wish I could tell you all the first ska song I ever heard, but I really can’t, what I do know is that it was the Toasters. My friend was fast forwarding through a mix tape to find a song to play in class one day (the teacher was a cool and lax guy who enjoyed this kind of thing) and as he searched he hit a Toasters song on the cassette. Sweet brass blared out of those speakers for a second or two but that is all it took for me. After class I asked him what it was and he told me, I bookmarked it in my brain and that week I went out and bought the then new Dub 56. It was my intro the wide world of ska.

Why I Like Ska (Day One of Five : Maybe Because I’m A.D.D.)

Maybe because I’m A.D.D. that the rapid fire beat keeps me entertained more than other music. I say maybe because as I’ve gotten older I’ve grown an appreciation for rocksteady, reggae and two tone ska as well which take their time, aren’t as rushed and more about finding a good grove to settle into. Third wave ska, first wave ska and ska mixed with pop and punk really go far too fast to get a grip on and get your mind racing in a energetic mode. It was this manicness that clicked with me initially that practically forced me to dance. For the first time music moved me to do more than just stand and enjoy it. May brain was always going at speeds that were hard to handle and while I wasn’t hyperactive as a child and teenager, I couldn’t always slow down my thoughts to find enjoyment in a lot of music. Ska turned that all around for me. A decades old music style that fit my naturally caffeinated brain and made me feel less out of place in the world. Grabbing onto that speedy hook and appreciating it got me comfortable to a place to really ponder the music and lead to a love of the wide range of the genre, which ripples out into everything in my life.

23min of Ska : Seven Inches

Here’s bunch of songs that I ripped from my seven inch record collection. The one thing I’ve always enjoyed is going to a concert and picking up a seven inch record from a band I just saw. I don’t know if it is because of the delayed time in between buying it and driving home before you can listen to it or if there really IS something special about how vinyl sounds. If you hear any pops or crackle… well, that’s kind of the point.

the Forthrights – Other People (Anywhere I Roam/Other People 7″ ’09)
the Smooths – Fish in My Bed (Kiss the Carnage 7″ ’95)
the Amphetameanies – Good One Go (Nothing’s OK/Good One Go 7″ ’09)
the Articles – Black Eyes (Song of the Volga Boat Men) (Romanov’s Bones 7″ ’96)
David Hillyard & the Rocksteady 7 – Change of Plans (Change of Plans/Esta Tarde 7″ ’09)
the MIBs – MIB (the MIBs 7″ ’96)
Spies on Sabbatical – Inside Out (On Safari with Beat Happy Music 7″ ’95)
the Hotknives – Seaside Skank (Echo Beach/Seaside Skank 7″ ’02)

If you’re in a ska band and would like to be interviewed or have a song featured, please email me at radjose[at]gmail[dot]com.

This episode and all episodes can always be found here. You can also subscribe to the podcast by going to your advanced tab on iTunes, then select “subscribe to podcast…” and entering this address: http://23minofska.podomatic.com/rss2.xml into the box that opens. You can also download it and keep it for your collection. Also if you’d like, find & like us on facebook.

23min of Ska Interview : Moon

This month I’m interviewing Seattle, Washington’s own Moon. I’m talking to Ben Dorey (Vocals/Sax), Luke Swart (Bass/Vocals) and Robin Ray (Guitar/Keys/Vocals). We talk about the beginnings of Moon, why they like playing second wave ska as well as what it is like to be a ska band based in Seattle. We also get to listen to the songs “Get Some Sleep” and “Rough Weather” from their new album “the Landing”.

You can find Moon at:
http://www.myspace.com/moonavenue

Upcoming Moon shows in July & August
* Saturday, July 9 at 7:00pm at the Mirkwood Shire Cafe (Arlington, WA)
w/ the Skablins

* Saturday, July 16 at 8:00pm at the Mirkwood Shire Cafe (Arlington, WA)
w/ the Diablotones

* Saturday, August 6 at 8:00pm at the Celtic Bayou (Lynnwood, WA)

Moon’s song “Running Back to You” was previously featured on the episode “We Survive” from May 23rd, 2011.

If you’re in a ska band and would like to be interviewed or have a song featured, please email me at radjose[at]gmail[dot]com.

This episode and all episodes can always be found here. You can also subscribe to the podcast by going to your advanced tab on iTunes, then select “subscribe to podcast…” and entering this address: http://23minofska.podomatic.com/rss2.xml into the box that opens. Also if you’d like, find & like us on facebook. You could also download it.