NYC SKA
By Michelle Ska
Welcome Rudeboys and Rudegirls to NYC!
Bits and Pieces from My Checkered Matter
May 15, 2012 - I've got news. I'm blunt. Shut up and listen. Good. Here we go:
- My photographer friend Bryan Kremkau just signed the docs to have his photography, that he took of the Bosstones at the NYC Irving Plaza show 2 summers ago, featured on VH1's episode of The Top 100 songs of the 90s....which most of you can easily guess is for The Impression That I Get. Here is Bryan's link to these Bosstones pics!
- No Doubt announced that they are releasing a new album....yeah, you heard that right! This ND unnamed album is due on September 25th, 2012, their first album since 2001's Rocksteady (thought it was very much NOTHING like rocksteady). You can hear it from the horse's mouth for yourself....yes, I called Gwen a horse.
- Kiss me and tell me you love me. Dammit, just do it. Ok, FINE! Don't. How bout just be happy that I updated the ska calendar with 15 more shows from the Toasters, Fishbone, Badfish and the English Beat? Deal.
- Living Social, the discount site that feature local deals, just posted an offer to go see Badfish, the Sublime cover band, on a NYC booze cruise!!! What's better than ska, alcohol and the wobbly feeling of drunkenness before you get drunk!?!??! You have a choice to go see them on June 19, 20, 23, 28 or 29th. The special is going to last one more day. Hurry! Go! Now!
- Tomorrow is Wednesday...and that means The Aggrolites are in town!!! They'll be playing their own booze cruise that boards at 7pm on 23rd Street and the FDR. Tickets are still available at Rocks Off's event page. I'm also looking forward to hearing the reggae/rocksteady/ska sounds of The Slacker's Agent Jay and NYC's own DJ Jah Point spinning records all night. You need to go. Yeah you.
- This weekend also brings back our good friends FISHBONE!!! Yes, I've heard from one of the guys in the band that the tour is on, they are heading to the east coast and will start the tour on Thursday. The local shows they'll be playing are Friday at Bamboozle and Stage One in CT on Sunday. I'm looking forward to welcoming back Angelo. The ska scene just isn't the same without him. There are other Fishbone shows coming up in the area, but not until the beginning of July for the show in NYC at Brooklyn Bowl. Wait for it.....wait...for...it.
- If you're not making it out to Las Vegas Memorial weekend, you might want to head up to Boston: Big D and the Kid's Table are going to be recording videos that weekend!!! The guys told me that on Friday May 25th, they will be recording live at the Middle East in Cambridge and then again on Saturday May 26th at McGreevy's Bar (owned by Dropkick Murphy's Ken Casey's...which also is the place of the annual Bosstones Hometown Throwdown Meet and Greet!). THAT is probably going to be AWESOME!!!
- I went to the Stubborn Records 20th Anniversary show at the Knitting Factory over the weekend...and it was OUTSTANDING!!! It reminded me of the day-long great lineups like they used to have at Wetlands. I'm upset that Skinnerbox didn't play Jump Dung, but on the other hand, I'm INCREDIBLY happy that The Radiation Kings are AMAZINGGGGG. I haven't seen them since all them were 16 yrs old, but 10+ years later and they are better than ever. Lisa's vocals makes the hairs stand up on your arms and the band is tight as hell. i NEVER want to miss one of their shows...which shouldn't be too hard since they rarely play, but I guarantee you that I'm making a point to to go every one of them I know about. That was easily the best set of the night. Congratulations and thank you to Django for 20 great years of making and keeping ska alive! You can visit Stubborn's site for merch, news, and to contact Django and tell me how great I am for sending you his way.
- Finally ending on a good note was something I heard when I went to go see Big D and the Kids' Table this past Friday in Stanhope NJ. Dave has been standing on a monitor singing and gets taken out by a
crowd wave forward. They asked "Are you alright?!??" Dave McWane said stands up
laughing and says "I'm fine! I beat cancer! Falling off a monitor is
NOTHING." ♥ He later showed me his leg with huge scrapes on his shin and plenty of blood and he still blew it off. What a trooper!
May 6, 2012 - Like the new pic above? The cards on Someecards.com are awesome in general, but this card is my favorite one for obvious reasons. Oh come on, it's true though!!!
Congratulations to DC's ska/rocksteady/soul band The Scotch Bonnets for reaching their KickStarter goal to fund their new album! Long Island's Royal City Riot's bassist Matt Spitz is about half way to his Kickstarter goal for making his dream of Moustache Brewery come true. I know we can do it. Just look at the successful fundraising Whatevski.com got on KickStarter! $5,000 was Whatevski's goal and they raised over $11,000! I love seeing so much support in the ska scene in so many ways.
Just as a reminder, be sure and go back to read some of the older news I've posted. I don't like repeating myself (wow, that sounds so mommy-like of me) so you might want to see if you missed anything. The Ska News Archives link will get ya to the older news...duh. Not saying you're stupid or anything, but just making the obvious more obvious...just in case. Hey, you never know.
WOW. Check this out!!! I was just browsing around YouTube when I found this: The Legends of Ska trailer, a documentary that will be released soon about this great music. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this! You might also want to check out Dance Craze, a 2Tone film of live songs from the label's bands. If you haven't seen it by now, bend down and touch your toes because you're going to get a helluva hard smack in the ass.
Are you ready for an incredible 2 weeks of ska??? Are you sitting...ready for this???
1) This Thursday is Big D at Toad's Place in New Haven CT.
2) Next weekend is Stubborn Record's 20th Anniv show with Skinnerbox, Hub City, Radiation Kings, Django Septet, Rudie Crew, Rocker T and The Snails.
3) Next Wednesday is the Aggrolites NYC booze Cruise.
4) A few days later are Fishbone and Less Than Jake at Bamboozle
5) ...and Fishbone playing the next day in Fairfield CT.
Can life get any better than this!?!??! Something that's been making me psyched for it is my recent find of the Aggrolites' video for Reggae in L.A. Why did I not find this sooner!?!??! The huge list of cameos in it are outstanding! Now when is a NYC ska band going to do that!?!?! See you at the shows!!!
May 4, 2012 - You know how people say death comes in threes? I believe in it. Yesterday Lloyd Brevett, original bassist of the Skatalites passed away. Today, Adam Yauch (aka MCA) of the Beastie Boys died. Then I heard today too that on April 25th, Matt Brown, the original and lifelong drummer of Regatta 69 passed away too. I'm really hoping this is the three and no more are about to happen.
Hey ska-punk kids, I know you guys all wet your pants hearing about the awesome line up with RBF/GF/BigD/SL this summer. Now we have another great ska-punk tour announced! I heard today that Less Than Jake will be the opening band for NOFX starting in June. I'll give you more info about that later when I hear more about it.
Finally, you know it kills me to miss a show and as we speak...well, as I type, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are about to take the stage in Florida! I'm not there, but many of the 737 family (the other hardcore Bosstone fans) are there. I'll probably hear play by play news of which songs they are playing and I'll get back to you on how the show was. Dammit, I wish I was there!!! Agahhhhh. See you at the show!
May 3, 2012 - Sorry to start off with sad news, but the ska scene has lost one of it's most important musicians. Lloyd Brevett, the original bassist of the Skatalites, passed away today. You can read the full article on him in this Washington Post article. I'm glad I had the joy of seeing him many times live and enjoyed every time I heard him play. He will be missed very much. RIP Lloyd and thank you for creating the music I love so much. According to the article Lester Sterling is now the last surviving original Skatalites member. When I saw the Skatalites in February Lester was with them. When Lester isn't with us anymore it makes me wonder if it will be the end of the Skatalites. Hmm, I gonna stop wondering and continue enjoying every moment of it. Sounds good, right?
In more upbeat news (get it??? hardy har har), it's already great that Reel Big Fish is touring this summer with Goldfinger and Suburban Legends in tow, but now it's official that Big D and the Kid's Table has been added to this ska-punk tour of the decade!!! That's right kids!! Who needs Warped Tour when you have the perfect line up right here!!! This tour comes around NYC at the end of June. You can count on it that I'll be there! The music is great and all, but I just need to take out my frustration on little kids in the pit. Don't we all???
Finally, I'm making the roadtrip down to Philly this weekend. Reel Big Fish is playing a FREEEEEE show at Xfinity Live! The show is on Saturday night and the band's manager confirmed they will be playing at 8pm. Did I mention it's FREEEEE??? From what I hear, there's a good raw bar there with oysters (my other weakness besides ska). I plan on going down and doing some serious sucking...uh...that didn't come out just right. Anywho, it's been a whopping 5 months since I've seen RBF. In "Michelle Ska time," that's in like forever, ya know? FREEEEE!!! See you at the show!!!
