23min of Ska Convoy : Looking for Direction

photo by Jason Lawless

Deeply honored to have my pal RJ ask me to do this, and it was an interesting exercise. I appreciate his support and the work he is doing with the podcast and bringing the ska to the people. I took some of my favorite bands as a jumping-off point and the theme materialized out of that. Hope you enjoy it, and if you want to learn to play The Selecter’s Carry Go Bring Come on the Ukulele look for it in an upcoming episode of The Two Tone Singalong.

00:00 – Oreskaband – Carry On (Carry On ’14)
03:37 – the Selecter – Carry Go Bring Come (Too Much Pressure ’79)
06:25 – Cut Capers – Get Moving’ (Get Moving ’17)
09:42 – Sonic Boom Six – Let’s Push Things Forward (Keep On Believing ’13)
13:16 – the Dualers – Don’t Go (Don’t Go ’06)
16:41 – Stubborn All-Stars – Catch That Train (Open Season ’95)
19:06 – Counting Coins – Don’t Look Down (Counting Coins ’15) 

RJ sez: Denver Dave is the man! He’s been showing his enthusiasm for ska via his projects like “This is Ska” and the “Two Town Uke Sing Along” for oh so many years. I was lucky enough to meet him a few years back, and I’m even luckier to call him my friend. I couldn’t think of anyone better than to start off this 7 episode series, where I’m sitting shotgun, and someone else is taking the wheel, than with Denver Dave. Also, this is my 400th episode! Man, that’s a good one to have Denver help out with!

Show support for the bands by clicking on those links and checking out their websites and music! Show support for the podcast by donating on Patreon or by finding & liking 23min of Ska on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Also, feel free to subscribe and listen to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Also, feel free to download this episode if you wanna keep it forever.

Want to submit your band? Email: submissions@23ska.com
Have something else to say? Email: podcast@23ska.com

Another way to support this podcast is to listen to and support our sister podcast the Ska After Party or to buy some records from our partners in crime over at Grandpa’s Casino Recordings, they carry some great vinyl ska records!

23min of Ska : May Mix Tape : the ’70s : Side B (part 2)

Here it is everyone, the end of a long journey through ska’s “lost decade”, the ’70s. We made it! I say we because we took this trip through time and music together! I learned a whole bunch, and listened to a whole lot of music that I’d never heard before, but I really should have! I’ve never been a ska historian, I dig into the now and current a lot more than looking to the past. That’s been a mistake, I can see that now! After putting together this set of songs I’ve learned that if you’re getting sick of ska music, because you think you’ve heard it all, well, shut up, because ska’s history and music runs deep! Let that be a lesson, always be exploring, never rest, get out there, hunt, and enjoy the sweet sounds!

00:00 – Marcia Griffiths – Sweet Bitter Love (Play Me Sweet and Nice ’74)
03:07 – Pluto – Dat (Dat ’74)
06:52 – the Selecter – On My Radio (On My Radio / Too Much Pressure ’79)
09:48 – Althea & Donna – Make a Truce (Uptown Top Ranking ’78)
13:42 – the Specials – Nite Klub (the Specials ’79)
16:42 – Barry Biggs – One Bad Apple (One Bad Apple ’71)
19:20 – Jean & the Gaytones – I Shall Sing (I Shall Sing / Target ’71)

Show support for the band by clicking on those links and checking out their websites and music! Show support for the podcast by finding & liking 23min of Ska on facebook as well as follow on twitter. Also, feel free to download this episode if you wanna keep it forever. Another way to support the podcast is to buy some records from our partners in crime over at Grandpa’s Casino Recordings, they carry some great vinyl ska records!

23min of Ska : It Leads Up to This

At the end of the last episode it should be no surprise how I kicked this one off. Yeah, I was in the mood for some 2Tone bands, which then lead me into a listening session of other more traditional ska bands from the era I like to call “before I got into the ska music”. One of the things about ska is that it has so much riches in it, a lot of people focus on the early days with what was coming out of Jamaica, and some even on the British bands of the late ’70s/early ’80s, but there seems to be a lack of love for the late ’80s/early ’90s ska that isn’t ska/punk. As everything else that has to do w/ ska music, I still need to learn a lot more about it! I hope that mixing that sound along w/ some of the UK’s top acts doesn’t offend your listening sensibilities.

the Specials – Rat Race (Rat Race / Rude Buoys Outa Jail ’80)
the Selecter – Tell Me What’s Wrong (Celebrate the Bullet ’81)
Madness – Bed and Breakfast Man (One Step Beyond ’79)
Skaos – Oh Sally (Catch This Beat ’89)
BOP (harvey) – Bread & Circuses (Bread & Circuses ’90)
the Toasters – Night Train (New York Fever ’92)
the Beat – Ranking Full Stop (Tears of a Clown / Ranking Full Stop ’79)

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 have some great vinyl ska 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 : Too Much 2Tone

I’ve never really thought about centering a whole show around a single label before, but if any record label deserves the honor of being the first, it has got to be the UK’s 2 Tone Records run by the Specials’ Jerry Dammers. This episode is also heavily influenced by a book my wife recently got for me for my birthday, “the Two Tone Story” by George Marshall. This book is a history of the label and the bands on the label. As I was reading it, it made me more and more want to go back and listen to those band and their early songs. I won’t lie, I don’t too much experience with a few of these bands, like the Bodysnatchers and the Selecter so it was nice to hear a little more from each of them. Also, the Swinging Cats are totally new to me and I can’t believe I hadn’t even heard of them before! Rico was a honorary member of the Specials and had studied under Don Drummond before moving to England. He is on a host of ska & rocksteady records from Jamaica and England from ’60s through the to the ’90s (playing with pretty much EVERYONE) and even played on both Dandy Livingstone & the Specials’ versions of “A Message to You, Rudy”. If that isn’t enough awesome we have some classics from the (English) Beat and Madness from their debut singles on 2 Tone. I couldn’t leave out a track from the Dance Craze comp so I went with one of the Bad Manners tracks. Even Bad Manners looks back and says it was a mistake for them to turn down a chance to do a 2 Tone single in their early years. I would be remiss if I didn’t include at least one track from the Specials/the Special AKA, so I went with my all time favorite, “Too Much Too Young” and went out and found a live version of it that I hadn’t heard before! I hope everyone enjoys this trip down memory lane/education type episode. I had a ball putting this together, so I hope it is also great for everyone to listen to.

the Bodysnatchers – Ruder Than You (Let’s Do Rock Steady / Ruder Than You ’80)
the Special AKA – Too Much Too Young (Live) (Too Much Too Young ’80)
Bad Manners – Lip Up Fatty (Live) (Dance Craze compilation ’81)
the Beat – Tears of a Clown (Tears of a Clown / Ranking Full Stop ’79)
Madness – the Prince (the Prince / Madness ’79)
Rico – Carolina (Sea Cruise / Carolina ’80)
the Swinging Cats – Away (Mantovani / Away ’80)
the Selecter – Too Much Pressure (On My Radio / Too Much Pressure ’79)

Also be sure to check out the 2 Tone Records site!

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. Feel the love and download this episode!

Also, hit up www.BigSkaGamble.com for some awesome ska 7″ records.

23min of Ska : Trinity

Here we are, another 23 minutes of ska. What’s really been fun with this project is pulling out some CDs that I haven’t listened to in years and rediscovering some old favorites. I hope this has the same effect for some of the listeners and introduces something new to others. And for the last song I couldn’t find my Catch 22 CD so I went with the Streetlight Manifesto version. Catch your copy by downloading it here.

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