Tone and Wave's ska favorites of 2014

There were so many good ska releases this year I had to leave a lot of them out. I had so many in the end that I did two podcasts - The Morning Edition for the punk/new wave/mod stuff and The Evening Edition for the slower/reggae/rocksteady stuff.

The Morning Edition

The Talks - Don't Look Behind You
Heavyball - Black Eye Friday
Rude Boy George - The Metro
2 Rude - Rude Boy Can't Get No Bail
Briatore - Skankin' Tonight
Rifffs - Tommy Twister
Rancid - Everybody's Sufferin'
Cabstars - Ends in Goodbye
Amphetameanies - Good One Go
Beat Brigade - Another Cause
Bruce Lee Band - AGH!!!
Skabrot - Alternatives
Max & the Invaders - Running on Fumes
Planet Smashers - Scientific Explanation
Strange Tenants - I Don't Want to Fight Your War
Keystone Ska Exchange - Nancy Says
The Kubricks - Self Help Wannabe
Skaos - Cool Cat
The Talks - Hacks
Buster Shuffle - Devon

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The Evening Edition

Bluebeaters - Catch That Teardrop
The Dodgy Few - The Wild Bunch
Zack Keeman - One Smile
Targarians - Latin Goes Ska
Mighty Fishers - Give Me Some
Deals Gone Bad - Sweet Morning
Ska Four Ensemble - Precipitous Cliff
Upsessions & Lee 'Scratch' Perry - Millicent Go Big Up Your Waist
Ziggy Marley - Give It Away
Ali Campbell - Cyber Bully Boys
Alpheus - Stand Up
New York Ska Jazz Ensemble - Moving On
The Fabulous Lolo - Right the Wrong
Skamanians - Ghosts in the Park
Delirians - Get Up
Snails - Liberty Street Lights
Jaya the Cat - Unconditional Love
Many Loves Ska Band - Ipse Dixie
Ska Vendors - All Without You
Joe Cang - Long Time Dead

DOWNLOAD THE EVENING EDITION



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*NOTE:
A lot of other things were cut for no other reason than I felt like it didn't flow with the rest of the songs.
Supertonic Sound Club's "Scheherazade" was cut because I find Dave Barker's vocals a bit grating.
The Dualers were cut because I couldn't pick one song that really stood out. "Back to Paradise" is a great album beginning to end.
I really like the Pisdicables debut but it didn't really fit in with the other songs. 
Neville Staples' album was disappointing. Chock full of cover versions of songs that have already been covered too many times. The only thing that would have made it worse would've been adding Israelites and Wooly Bully to the list. How many covers of Johnny Too Bad are out there?
Rebelution just isn't my cup of tea. Neither is the Skints or any other band that uses hip-hop or rap to try to attract an audience. It's been done. It's over done.
The 80s Canadian band Dub Rifles only released 2 EPs in their career but in 2014 they released all of their recordings No Town, No Country. I didn't include them for the same reason I never posted the EPs - they're good but they don't really stand out. They're easy to forget.
  
Some bands I just forgot to include.

Roy Ellis released a great single, The Autonomads, T-Killas, The Interrupters,  I never even got the Yellow Cap album, and I just realized that I didn't include the Buster's Supersonic Eskalator.

There were a lot of non-ska band with notable ska songs released in 2014. I only included one - Joe Cang's Long Time Dead, but I cut a few more because, although I appreciate it when artists foray into the ska/reggae realm, the focus of this post it to bring awareness to actual ska bands. I cut The Iscariots - Follow You Down , Santana's cover of Iron, Lion, Zion (feat. Ziggy Marley), and, do you remember the grunge band Cracker? They released an album called "Berkeley to Bakersfield" in 2014 and it had a ska (ska-ish) song called "March of the Billionaires".

There are a couple things that technically should not have made the cut. Although Amphetameanies "Good One Go" was released on their 2014 album "Last Chance Bordello" it was released a few years back as a single. And the Kubricks' "Self Help Wannabe" was actually released in 2013 but it didn't come to my attention until 2014 and it's really good. It doesn't deserve to be overlooked for another year.

Willo Selects - Rare Australian ska 1980 - 1986

Things have been extremely busy here at Tone and Wave headquarters so I haven't had much time to post anything. I do have lots of new stuff as well as re-posts but I just don't have the time this week.

             Working hard AND hardly working. You can do both. It's called multi-tasking.

Your friend and mine Willo J Irie has stepped up to the plate to provide an interesting podcast of rare Australian ska which are all unique rips. Never before posted on Tone and Wave or anywhere else on the WWW.

 Doing the Kangaroo Skank
Australian Ska 1980-1986

60 minutes of shit hot Aussie Ska all from vinyl!


Jump Vision - The Jump [1981]
Naughty Rhythms - Look Like Me [1981]
The Eighty Eights - She Fell in Love with James Bond [1980]
The Allniters - She Made a Monkey Out of Me [1981]
Paul Kelly & The Dots - Billy Baxter [1980]
Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons - Rub Up Push Up [1981]
Strange Tenants - Soldier Boy [1982]
No Nonsense - Titan [1982]
Strange Tenants - Hard Times [1983]
The Allniters - Solomon Gundie [1983]
The Girlfriends - Gone With The Wind [1983]
Naughty Rhythms - Without Your Love [1983]
The Allniters - Mr unioshi [1983]
Strange Tenants - Killer Zombies [1983]
Furious Turtles - Hard World Mad World [1984]
The Leftovers - Lemondade Song [1984]
Naughty Rhythms - Have Some Fun [1984]
The Allniters - So Long [1984]
The Leftovers - So Long, Farewell [1985]
Off The Shelf - OTS Tonight [1985]
Itchy Feet - Cliff Young Shuffle [1986]


Selected by Willo J Irie
2014

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I hope to post something in the middle of the upcoming week, but no promises.

(Thanks Willo for the Jump Vision track. I've never found my own copy yet. It's good to finally be able to hear it!)

If you have a podcast you'd like to submit send it to toneandwave@gmail.com.

Tone and Wave podcast - Episode 7

Eighties and nineties bands on this one. Some of the nineties band recorded in the '00s so we're transcending the waves here.

Podomatic is being difficult so I did it a different way this time.

Ventilators - Bring Me Your Cup (2004)
Freres Jackman and the International Elevators - Leave Our Kriz-e Alone (1992)
Freres Jackman and the International Elevators - Limbo Police (1992)
The Bruce Lee Band - Forward and Back (2005)
Guitars and Drums - Nightclubland (1983)
Steppin' Lazer - Follow the Leader (1983)
Steppin' Lazer - All I do is Ska (1983)
Ventilators - Alone in the Alley (1993)
Ventilators - Sitting and Drinking (1997)
Fun Boy Three - Farmyard Connection (1983)
Dave's Big Deluxe - Say Goodbye to Me (1997)
Klang - Beat It (1981)
Klang - Nagasaki Sun (1981)
Dead Milkmen - Quality of Death (2011)
Dead Milkmen - A Message to You Rudy (1996)



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Tone and Wave Podcast - episode 6

It took me a long time to do this one because, to be honest, I'm bored with the gimmick of non-ska bands doing ska music. I diverted from that and just played some rare 80s ska instead.

Even if you don't want to listen to the whole thing I recommend skipping to the end to hear the last song.

Mi-Sex - Mystery
Delayed Action - Give it Up
Mark Foggo - Nothing to Hide (unreleased)
The Cartoons - Self Conscious
Cowboys - Supermarket
Cowboys - Rude Boy
Rifffs - Dance Music for the 80's Depression
The Lovely Bodies - Shark Bites
The Pretenders - How do I Miss You
The Drivers - Stolen Treasures
Monroes - Arabian Night
Student Nurse - Discover Your Feet
The Tuners - Shuffle Your Feet
Child's Play - Playground Romance



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Tone and Wave podcast - Episode 5

This episode was just supposed to be a re-cap on the last 3 years of the blog. It was going to focus not on the things that were downloaded most, but things that were downloaded the least. Before I started putting sound clips there were a lot of things that got very little interest based either on my minimal description, or, I don't know...maybe the cover wasn't conducive enough to what you thought a ska cover should look like. Who knows?
I already have episode 6 in the works (it won't take as long as this one did) but I will probably do the re-cap in episode 7.

Speaking of covers..I figure that I had to do this one at some point so here it is. It's cheesy, yes, but it had to be done.

This episode is chock-full of the big names:
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Cure, Simply Red, Blondie, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger...

...and Steven Seagal






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Oh yeah, that little clip at the beginning was John Lennon in 1971 during the rehearsal of How Do You Sleep from the Imagine album. He recommends playing it as a reggae song. In the end it didn't wind up that way. Damn shame that.

Ruder Than Rude Podcast

A friend to Tone and Wave Freddy Vidal has started a podcast. The first volume is a collection of well known favorites but I know Freddy's interests encompass everything from the most common to the most obscure ska from all eras so I'm sure future episodes will be full of suprises.

Listen here:

RUDER THAN RUDE

En Espanol!!

Marco On The Bass - Tone and Wave podcast

I've been considering doing a podcast for a while now but never got around to it. Marco On The Bass has been presenting some great rarities in podcast form for a few sessions now. His next one was going to be on American ska bands from 1979 to 1989. He invited me to select some bands to add to his already perfect list. Here's what I came up with, or, rather, what we came up with:

MARCO'S SELECTIONS
1 Heavy Manners - Taking the Queen to Tea (Chicago, 1982)
2 The X-Streams - Rhythm of Life (Arizona, 1980)
3 The Boilers - Coeur A Voil (New York,1988)
4 Bim Skala Bim - Jah Laundromat (Boston,1985)
5 The Nails - Transcontinental Ska (New York/1980)
6 The Terrorists - Love Is Better Now 12" (New York,1981)
7 The Untouchables - Tropical Bird (Los Angeles,1983)
8 The Hoovers - I Got You Babe (San Francisco,1980)
9 The Uptones - Outback Master (San Francisco,1983)
10 Blue Riddim Band - Nancy Reagan (Kansas City,1982)

TONE AND WAVE'S SELECTIONS
11 The Plugz - Touch for Cash (Los Angeles, 1981)
12 The Donkey Show - Insomnia (San Diego, 1989)
13 Camper Van Beethoven - Skinhead Stomp (Redlands, California, 1985)
14 Talk Back - Rudy (Southern California, 1984)
15 Kill Me - Mr. Potato Head (New York 1985)
16 The Young Executives - Original Sin (Washington, 1982)
17 Cryin' Out Loud - Live It Up (Hoboken, NJ, 1985)
18 Crazy 8s - Find Myself a Sunny Spot (live) (Oregon, 1988)
19 Eddie Vedder - Reggae Woman (California, 1988)

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Check out Marco On The Bass for more information on his selections.

* 11 originally from the album "Better Luck", but this is a remastered version that has never been released (a Tone and Wave exclusive)
*12 from the Unicorn Records release "Bali Island" 6-song EP
*13 from the album "Telephone Free Landslide Victory"
*14 from the album "When Drums Talk" (Talk Back performed this song live in the movie 'Pretty in Pink' but were not featured on the soundtrack)
*15 Kill Me was not a ska band, but a comedic funk band made up by members of the Toasters. They released only 1 6-song EP which I do have but I cannot post because it was released on Moon and Megalith will raise a stink if I do (even though they're probably never going to sell it).
*16 as far as I know the Young Executives only released one 12" EP. This was the only ska song on that recording, but they included more of a ska influence in their live set. The other 3 songs were pretty damn good though. I have the full EP and I will post it if anybody's interested. It's worth having if you are into the 80s post-punk sound.
*17 I will be posting Cryin' Out Loud's only recording in the next few weeks. It's a 4 song 12" recorded before Don Brody formed The Marys.
*18 This is a live version of a song that was originally on Crazy 8s 2nd album - 1985's "Nervous in Suburbia"
*19 Eddie Vedder recorded lots of music before he was asked to sing for Mookie Blaylock who, of course, later became a little-known band called Pearl Jam. This song isn't bad, but it's not very good either. I included it mostly for the novelty of it.