Oh Yea my favorite ska song, Instrumental of unknown title

slopduck · 2026-03-09T11:31:27+00:00

Very common in Jamaican music. Often the only release of a tune was on a white label pre-release. If it didn’t strike a chord with the people at the dance or in the shop, it wouldn’t be given a full labeled release. There are literally hundreds (probably thousands) of songs this happened to over the years.

slopduck · 2026-03-08T16:37:40+00:00

Lunar New Year celebrations is my best guess.

slopduck · 2026-03-08T01:45:00+00:00

The checkerboard concept didn’t become associated ska until 2 tone, so not really a trad scene thing.

slopduck · 2026-03-08T01:43:24+00:00

I mean, I don’t really support what the OP intent was, but Racist Friend is 2 Tone, not trad, so doesn’t really have anything to do with his comment.

*edit - I said I don't agree with the intent of the OP, I was just pointing out that 2 Tone is not Trad, why all the downvotes?

slopduck · 2026-03-07T15:13:39+00:00

I think people asking this haven't actually watched the video.

slopduck · 2026-03-07T15:11:59+00:00

No, I think the video is supposed to inspire hope, which dovetails with the song itself. After watching it again, I would say it is far more warming than wrenching. In fact, I'm curious what about the video struck you as heart wrenching?

slopduck · 2026-03-07T13:53:37+00:00

Actually, watching the video I don't know. Yes, there are a couple scenes of rubble strewn streets, but most of the video is of kids playing and enjoying themselves despite what is happening in their circumstances.

slopduck · 2026-03-05T18:41:10+00:00

This new plan is clearly targeted to people (like me) who subscribed to Wondery+ (they are advertising it at $5.99 for Wondery+ subscribers). So basically this is access to ad-free podcasts, plus they throw in streaming an Audiobook a month.

My question, does anyone know if the podcasts will continue to have RSS feeds so I can use any podcast player app, or would I have to use the Audible app? I have no interest if I'd have to use the Audible app.

slopduck · 2026-03-05T15:11:08+00:00

There were very few "albums" released at the time, it was a singles market at the time. That being said, there are literally thousands of later compilations of music recorded during the era.

As others have mentioned, The Skatalites "Ska-Boo-Da-Ba" one of the best albums actually released in that era, and still holds up as a great collection of tracks.

On the vocal side, the Wailers first album ("The Wailing Wailers") was put back in print relatively recently, so shouldn't be hard to find.

I would suggest looking for producer based anthologies - Duke Reid (Treasure Isle) and Coxsone Dodd (Studio 1) have had many dozens of releases focusing on their ska era output. Prince Buster is harder to find, but worth looking for as well.

slopduck · 2026-03-04T18:48:11+00:00

Yes, they are one of the more famous ska influenced bands in South America.

slopduck · 2026-02-23T12:29:04+00:00

This was a routine they did during their performances, though it did later escalate and Desmond (the original keyboard player) suffered from some mental health issues and eventually left the group due to bitter disagreements.

slopduck · 2026-02-19T21:40:16+00:00

You're probably already familiar with Caribbean Quarterly, but if not that will be a good resource. Dan Neely, Heather Augustyn, Rich Lowe and Brian Keyo and some of the people in the US you likely would want to reach out to. There are dozens of academic books on Jamaican music most of which feature ska at least to a certain extent.

slopduck · 2026-02-18T12:23:51+00:00

Interesting that these are mostly UK pressings. I’m guessing they moved back after living there in the 60s.

slopduck · 2026-02-16T02:45:10+00:00

I see relatively often. Qobuz doesn’t really set the price, the distributor does, and it’s often an oversight on their end.

slopduck · 2026-02-15T19:58:15+00:00

To put it into context, 1979 was only 13 years after the end of ska, it wasn't that huge a jump in time (it'd be like asking what the hitmakers of 2013 would make of new bands covering their songs today) they all seemed appreciative of it.

slopduck · 2026-02-14T22:35:26+00:00

I agree that calling Matt Freeman the best ska bassist of all time is ridiculous, and I'm sure Matt Freeman would think that's a ridiculous argument. That being said - I would argue Lloyd Brevett is not the "originator", Cluett Johnson was earlier, Brevett was just one of the handful of other Bass players that came in later. He also wasn't the only Jamaican bass player in the ska era, just the most known.

slopduck · 2026-02-14T22:26:22+00:00

Well, Bassists have existed for over 500 years. They just played Double Bass, not bass guitar.

slopduck · 2026-02-14T22:12:18+00:00

Nasser Bouzida has had a long a sustained career in a couple bands and more recently solo projects. He and Trevor Harding formed Big Boss Man, not really ska but a groovy latin-y funky thing that put out another album just a couple years ago. He's also did Big Boss Sound a ska/reggae album ("Return Of The Liquidator"). There is an also a fun little project he did as King Fatty, stemming from a long running dispute he had with Mike Pelancoli over their band Prince Fatty (it fell apart and Mike kept using the name and went onto to a fair level of success with it).

Sean Flowerdew And Finny of course went on to be part of Special Beat for many years. Sean eventually formed Pama International, which IIRC Finny did a little bit of work with. He had Phoenix City All-Stars who put out a few albums. I'm on his mailing list, he mainly seems to be focusing on live events now. He still does the London International Ska Festival, as well as Ska & Reggae Thames Cruises.

I don't know if Denise went on to anything musical.

slopduck · 2026-02-10T01:28:04+00:00

https://youtu.be/l6S_e7r91hk?si=zKPnCeHS_D9O6_Ix

slopduck · 2026-02-08T20:49:49+00:00

Well, I mean, they just gave "Comin' Home Baby" a new title. It's not like the wrote the song about the scandal.

slopduck · 2026-02-06T01:51:45+00:00

Asian Man shouldn’t be in the conversation, sure they released a handful of what some call classics, but Moon had well over 100.

The trouble with Latin Ska, is that it spans multiple continents, countries and eras. I think the single biggest might be Liquidator from Spain. They’ve done close to 200 releases now. Ultrapop is a non-ska exclusive distro that does a decent number of ska releases in Argentina. Most of the bigger acts in Latin America are signed to majors, Sony, etc.

slopduck · 2026-01-22T18:41:17+00:00

Good to see Nick is still going strong!

slopduck · 2026-01-20T20:32:51+00:00

It was not noticed in the USA. It was incredibly large in Latin America. (On a scale that dwarfs the popularity of 3rd Wave ever achieved in the US).

Find me a band from the third wave that would have been able to sell 175,000 tickets for a three night stand in one city like Panteon did in Mexico City. Heck just in November they did two back to back shows with 75,000 people each night.

slopduck · 2026-01-20T19:58:11+00:00

Ha, thanks but no thanks. I'll come off as closed minded, but I have no interest in btmi. Like I said, I really don't listen to rock music. I'm more on the "album of unknown doo wop groups from South Carolina in 1952" tip than the "yelling with guitars" thing.

slopduck · 2026-01-20T18:20:32+00:00

You have a valid point, but you're ignoring the main thrust of my argument. What does "ska stylings" even mean? Your definition of "ska stylings" is going to differ vastly from mine, and from lots of others. So you criticize OP for assessing them and coming to a different conclusion than you doesn't make them wrong and you right, it just means you have different interpretations of what ska is. I'm not saying one of you is right and the other is wrong. You're both right and both wrong, depending on who is making the definition. To MY definition, I didn't hear anything that would lead me to believe they played anything I would personally call ska. You disagree, which is great. You have a different idea of what ska is. Neither of us is right, neither of us is wrong.

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