23min of Ska : May Mix Tape : the ’00s : Side A (part one)

It’s May and that means another mix tape! Hurrah! Now, the ’00s were getting to be a dark time for ska music. Bands were breaking up, switching over to emo and rock and/or dropping their horn sections all together. It was sad. Luckily, two things were going on, some bands were sticking it out and other bands were forming to fill that void. Getting booked wasn’t easy, ska was on its way back underground, but you’d have to be really out of touch to miss these acts. This whole month is dedicated to those bands in the form of a 90min mix tape broken up over a month. Enjoy it, let it take you back, it did for me!

Big D & the Kids Table – Evil Girl / Angry Girl (the Gipsy Hill EP ’02)
Cornerstone 96-98 – Eggshells (Cornerstone 96-98 ’04)
Johnny Nine & the Racers – My Beat (Chin Up ’09)
the Homecoming Queens – Timmy Goes to Summer Camp (a Sound You Once Knew ’08)
the Amphetameanies – the Devil Lives Upstairs (Now! That’s What I Call… ’06)
Squid 58 – the Last Fag (Dismantled ’07)
Monkey – Voice of America (Cruel Tutelage ’06)

Find & like 23min of Ska on facebook. Also, feel free to download this episode. Ska is better on vinyl. Hit up Grandpa’s Casino Recordings, we don’t have any cassettes, but we have some great vinyl records!

Rerun : Trinity

Once again, time and making records has got the best of me! I know, incredibly frustrating! All I have to do is sit around all day and listen to ska music and throw it all together for you to listen to once a week! You might be surprised, but I maybe put too much thought into it and too much pressure on myself to make these! So here’s an oldie but a goody, from way back when my only listeners were me, my friends Jen & Marianne and my cats, full of some great great music!

Skankin’ Pickle – Song #3 (Skankin’ Pickle Fever ’92)
the Siren Six! – Frame Up (the Voice with the Built in Promise ’97)
Let’s Go Bowling – Spy Market (Mr. Twist ‘ 96)
the Small Mediums at Large – the Blues (the Small Mediums at Large ’99)
Hepcat – Bobby & Joe (Scientific ’96)
Skavoovie & the Epitones – Sonic Boom (Fat Footin’ 95)
the Selecter – Three Minute Hero (Too Much Pressure ’80)
Johnny Too Bad & the Strike Outs – Cherry Pie (Patchwork Girl ’97)
Streetlight Manifesto – 9mm & a Three-Piece Suit (Keasbey Nights ’06)

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. Also, feel free to download this episode.

Hey, be a pal, check out these ska records that I’m making over at the Big Ska Gamble!

23min of Ska : an Early Delivery

BAM! When you least expect it, here’s a full on music episode! Time to get down and dance! A lot of newer stuff going down here too! We open up w/ the Shifters, who if you haven’t heard of by now, now you know, and now that you’ve heard them, you love them. It’s cool, it happens to everyone! Love of the Shifters is inevitable. This episode also as Survay Says bringing some awesome ska-punk from their new single and the Suburban Legends hitting us up w/ some pop-ska from their latest album. The Upsessions and the Rotterdam Ska-Jazz Foundation bringing us all some great music from Netherlands and a brand new song from the Loose Ties and their upcoming album. This episode closes out w/ a song from the One Droppers who sadly broke up late last week. You were a great band, the One Droppers, you’ll be missed! Thanks for all the music!

the Shifters – You Say (In It! ’12)
Survay Says! – Gas Money Millionaires (Dear JCP&L, I’m Tired of This Nonsense ’12)
the Upsessions – Hold Me Belinda (Beat You Reggae ’09)
Suburban Legends – Emergency (Day Job ’12)
Rotterdam Ska-Jazz Foundation – No More Sorrow (Motiv Loco ’07)
the Loose Ties – Where’s the Girl? (Champ of the Week ’12)
the One Droppers – the UpBeat (the Big One ’11)

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. Also, feel free to download this episode.

Don’t forget to enjoy the fruits of my labor and get some awesome ska vinyl by hitting up the Big Ska Gamble.

Special : You Call It Vol. 2

So once again I went to the awesome listeners of the show (this time in /r/ska) and asked them what they’d like to hear. I looked at the suggestions, counted them, and considered some of their reasons and it has resulted in this brand new fancy episode. “Super Rad” and “a Better Place, a Better Time” were some of the most suggested songs, so they were picked as the opening and closing tracks. I’d never heard of los Capitanes before, and I’m so glad to have found them now! The other four songs are from bands that I like that, for some reason, I haven’t played as much as I should have! So I thank you listeners for righting that wrong! There was a lot of other great suggestions but a bunch of those bands I had just played in the last few episodes, and I like to keep a good variety going! Thanks again for the help, this was a blast to put together for all of you!

the Aquabats! – Super Rad (the Fury of the Aquabats! ’97)
los Capitanes – Feelin’ Seedy (No Fun Intended ’06)
Bomb the Music Industry! – 25 Hour Goddamn Telethon (Get Warmer ’07)
Mad Caddies – No Hope (Duck and Cover ’98)
Green Room Rockers – Northbound Train (Hoosier Homegrown ’07)
Mustard Plug – You (Evildoers Beware! ’97)
Streetlight Manifesto – a Better Place, a Better Time (Everything Goes Numb ’03)

Big thanks to : palmamod, Nilerocks77, chr1sp, CafeMephisto, SkankinPacman, 4AM_Mooney_SoHo, ikorolou, Vermidj, daniel7860, HymenShredder, Dollywoodhogan, HugeFedora, musicrages, itsSparkky & swinden who suggested songs I may or may not have used, but had great ideas and sparked some great discussion about ska!

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. Also, feel free to download this episode.

Hey, be a pal, check out these ska records that I’m making over at the Big Ska Gamble!

23min of Ska : May Mix Tape : Side B (part one)

Back with more straight outta the 90s! If you don’t know some of these bands, well, I feel sorry for you, because these are bands that would TEAR DOWN THE HOUSE LIVE! Ok, I haven’t seen all of these bands live, but the ones I have, I can vouch for. Secret Society rocked the back room of the Peoria Pizza Works, Stretch Armstrong stole the show from Mustard Plug and Hepcat, doctormanette snapped me out a mid show stupor in at a Rockford skate park and then made the entire crowd at the Metro in Chicago forget that they were there to see the Aquabats, and seeing Unsteady at the Knitting Factory is flat out one of my personal life high-lights. The Scofflaws are a true classic in the ska scene, so check them out right away. Also hit up Punch the Clown who was always a ska compilation ringer, and when you get an album of theirs and hear how great all the songs are it is even more clear how great they were. Speaking of ska compilations, Insatiable and this song was the shining star on the “Ska: the 3rd Wave Vol. II” that just about everyone I knew had a copy of growing up. It was a decent comp, but that song was just killer! It’s a excellent way to get us to the midway point of side B.

Secret Society – Did it Again (Can I Borrow Your Beard? ’97)
Stretch Armstrong – Drool (Lollygag ’94)
Punch the Clown – Leaving (the Secret Life of Punch the Clown ’98)
the Scofflaws – Nude Beach (Ska in Hi-Fi ’95)
doctormanette – Happiness (the Same Thing Over & Over ’99)
Unsteady – Bad Attitude (Tightrope ’96)
Insatiable – GPC’s (Can’t Get Enough ’94)

This is part three of a 90min ska mix tape from the nineties running each Thursday throughout May.

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 at 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. Don’t forget to download this episode and dub it onto a blank tape and pretend it is like the olden days.

23min of Ska : May Mix Tape : Side A (part two)

Even more mid to late 90s ska excitement. Still in mix cassette form. As near as I can get in this digital age at least. This is the second half of the first side and maybe some of the names aren’t as big as were on the last one, but they run just a deep in my musical life as any of the rest. Heck, four of these bands I’ve seen live a hand full of times and they always brought the fun. Back when there was a ska show, just about every other week (where I grew up at least) bands that brought the house down live were what you wanted to go see, no questions asked, that’s what it was all about. A band just needed to get that crowd dancing, with punky excitement or steady grooves, it mattered not. If there were more people on the dance floor than standing with their arms crossed around the edges, if there were more soak through suits, dresses and t-shirts than there was dry, if there was hardly any barrier between the band and the crowd, well, you went and bought their tape or CD, you kicked in a few extra for some after show beers and you made sure to see them the next time they were near.

Johnny Socko – Vinnie’s Hooch (Oh, I do Hope it is Roast Beef! ’95)
the Articles – Mr. Pink (Flip F’real ’97)
the Insteps – Don’t Ask (Eleven Steps to Power ’96)
the NY Citizens – Boxer Shorts (the Rude Awakening 2 comp ’90)
the Aquabats! – Marshmallow Man (the Return of the Aquabats! ’96)
the Robustos – Don’t Stay Away (Introducing… ’97)
Save Ferris – Sorry My Friend (Introducing… ’96)

This is part two of a 90min ska mix tape from the nineties running each Thursday throughout May.

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. Don’t forget to download this episode and blast it out of your ’89 Chevy Eurosport while on your way to a show across the state line.

23min of Ska : May Mix Tape : Side A (part one)

Getting older makes on nostalgic for their youth and instead of just wallowing in it, I’m taking you on that journey. Throughout May I’ll be providing you with a 90min mix tape divided into 4 parts each Thursday. That’s not all, this mix tape will be set in the 90′s, when mix tapes were still king. The average year will more than likely be 1996 or 1997 when we come to the end of it. This is filled with music that evokes those years more than any other and are all mix tape “classic” tracks tracks for me. I hope you enjoy this month’s ride down memory lane for me. This is the stuff that got me into ska as a kid, it is my roots, and I don’t care that they are showing.

Goldfinger – King for a Day (Goldfinger ’96)
Less Than Jake – How’s My Driving, Doug Hastings? (Losing Streak ’96)
MU330 – Hoosier Love (Press ’94)
Reel Big Fish – S.R. (Everything Sucks ’94)
Mad Caddies – Mike Booted Our First Song, So We Recorded This… (Short Music for Short People comp ’99)
the Siren Six! – No Compromise (the Voice with the Built in Promise ’97)
Big D & the Kids Table – 51 Gardner (Good Luck ’99)
Skankin’ Pickle – I Missed the Bus (Skankin’ Pickle Fever ’92)
the Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Someday I Suppose (Don’t Know How to Party ’93)

This is part one of a 90min ska mix tape from the nineties running each Thursday throughout May.

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. Go ahead and download this episode and throw down with the Big Ska Gamble.

23min of Ska : Help from Friends

So I’m just minding my own business, trying to promote this podcast (as well as www.BigSkaGamble.com) by invading people’s personal lives on twitter when a single delightful reply comes my way with about a half dozen suggestions on what I should be playing on this podcast. After a few exchanges back and forth about music, I came to learn about a ton of new bands that I’d missed and I had also made a new online pal. Some of her suggestions were already mixed into the last episode, but this one has a lot of stuff she flipped me on to, or I was listening to while tracking some of this down. This ones for you Bezz, thanks, now everyone, rock out!

Half Past Two – Day Goes Down (Songs with Friends ’11)
the Simmertones – Bring Your Love to Me (Everything’s Comin’ Up Ska ’11)
Sally Brown - Madrid (Madrid/Boss Nass ’12)
New Town Kings – Steal for His Bread (M.O.J.O. ’12)
Two Steps Twice – Streets are on Fire (Two Steps Twice ’12)
No Such Noise! – Sluts (Life Goes On ’12)
Rude King – Leave a Message (Ruder, Better, Faster, Stronger ’11)

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. Go ahead and download this episode and throw down with the Big Ska Gamble.

the Big Ska Gamble Video

Interview : Jorge Pezzimenti

I got to talk to Jorge Pezzimenti and it was awesome! Jorge is better known as the Jorge of Jorge & the Landladies or as a former member of the Pietasters. Jorge is hilarious! So get ready for a ton of laughing on my part. We talk a lot about the sound of his new album “Monobound” as well as Sunday morning albums, songs about hand-jobs and Mighty Mighty Bosstones cassette tapes. Jorge also gives us some insight into the song “Stop Locking the Front Door” which plays at the end of this episode.

Check out “Monobound” from Whatevski : Jorge & the Landladies – Monobound

The intro for this episode is “Let’s Not Rewind These” by Jorge and the Landladies, off of the “Monobound”.

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. Also, feel free to download this episode.