Quick apologies for the long in-between posts. I will reciprocate with musical love to the internet massive. One thing, there’s no such thing as ‘Dubday’. Although it’d be nice won’t it? People walking around humming and throwing a few licks into the air with their portable samplers and guitars. Instead of using verbal conversations, people would communicate with echoed out horns, piano licks, and Augustus Pablo-stylee melodica riffs. How awesome would that be?

So today is sunday (October 25th_10/25, 2009), and later this afternoon from 2pm to 7pm at 1836 East 4th St in Long Beach, Dj Fraze and I will be hosting our generic-named event called Reggae Sundays at The Pike. Generic only in name, but not in sound, which is the opposite if I may add. We think it’s important to keep it generic in that sense, because there’s so many different genres within reggae itself, that we can’t keep it tied down with a specific language. But I did title today’s blog post-promo with “Dubday”, because we’ve created a Top-5 selection podcast of classic reggae-dub music. Without further delay, (sorry I’m a bit chatty), here are some essential tunes from the producers in popular reggae-dub: (click for more track information)

It’s that time again in the LBC, at a little place called “The Pike”. We will not confuse that venue, for the tired-tourist area in the southside of Long Beach waiting to collect your money from greedy valet services.

We will point you to the OTHER Pike, the one that tries to live the spirit of the ORIGINAL Pike, by reminding each and every one of us that PBR is good, Sailor Jerry tattoos are awesome, and vintage SKA is good for sundays. Philip P. aka Selector Fraze, will be on the decks from 2pm-7pm today, so join us with some skanking goodness. If you’re around the north O.C. and Southbay areas, come around, chug a pound, and make love to tunes that are neat & dandy, sweet as candy.


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Download the tunes below to get a feel of what the vibe is like.

More info on the artists in this podcast: Desmond Dekker, Toots & The Maytals, The Specials, The English Beat

Mash up di town!

We’re doing this tonite.

CARBON @ 9300 Venice Blvd.
Culver City / West Los Angeles, CA
10p-1:30a. Free all night, TGP in the back.

Ride and glide.

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Once again its on: Vintage Reggae Sundays at The Pike Bar & Grill with selector Fraze, myself, and one hundred of your closest friends. I also kinda apologize for the misinformation that I’ve been spreading by word of mouth that it wasn’t happening today (sunday), but it is still indeed happening (today and every other sunday). So that being said, if you haven’t been, consider this your primer in ska & rocksteady. For The West’s Kept Secret crowd, GET.READY.TO.ROCK.STEADY ’cause you’ve been drenched in ‘core and classic hip-hop every other wednesday, right? For the veterans, you know where to go.

I realize it is the Sea Breeze festival today at the other Pike, too. But when you get tired of all the bumboclot and counter-oppression slack-filled lyrics, come on down after, or before, whatever.

The Pike Bar & Grill @ 1836 E 4th St, Long Beach, CA‎. 2pm-7pm, no cover.

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Click through for more info.

Just a quick reminder:

By internet blogging standards and ethics, we should not theoretically exist, because sites who don’t update their content often enough are banished into blogger purgatory. Its the stage where no one really knows what’s going on, and asking if you’re either going up or down, staying here, or staying there…pick a choice buddy. Sorry, I can’t really give you a clear answer. But hey, no love lost to the people. Low energy don’t mean killed energy, and nevertheless, the energy is still there. We just don’t use these promotional tools well enough like some people. Its all that gosh darn technology y’all kids are messin’ about. Them tweeters, and them spacebooks, them makes me teeth’rs fall out. Makes a brotha feel old even though he’s only 28 years young. I mean, we do only spin real records, which makes us old anyway…(click more for more dumb-ass ranting)

Apologies for this last minute post, but we still want to stress that WKS, the West’s Kept Secret is on and poppin’ tonite (04.29.09) and 2nd & 4th Wednesday nights at Culver City’s best kept secret venue: CARBON, located at 9300 VENICE BLVD LA CA 90232.

 
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No secrets and mysteries here, it’s pure and simple, with a slightly different format from the original Best Kept Secret. We’ve gone back to basics, more from the underground to the overground, raw, gritty, head-bobbing, fist-pounding, pure lyrical abstractions of vinyl poetry, spun to you live by some of L.A’s underdogs.

Genres: Breaks, Funk, Soul, Classic Hip-Hop, Rocksteady, Dub, Dancehall. 
Info: 10pm to 2am, w/ optional TGP’n in the parking lot, 21 and Over, No Cover, Skate and Graff Vids all over. Booya-ka-sha!

Real music, real vibe. ‘Core livin’, ‘core soul.

They say that the way one starts a year is the way one ends it. From Hepcat’s show in December and seeing The Slackers on January 2nd, I couldn’t have started mine better unless I slept in Scrooge McDuck’s money vault on New Year’s Eve and woke up coughing gold coins and crapping diamonds in the toilet. 

Putting ass-diamonds aside, The Slackers stands among other great contemporary ska bands but with a Brooklyn, New York twist. They’ve been around since 1991, fire-starting the third wave of American ska, and haven’t stop playing since, even enduring the bullsh*t hipster dj 80s mashup scene around Bayridge and Williamsburg (so sad for Brooklyn). With over a hundred-plus shows and 12 albums under their belt, their fan-base has grown worldwide along with numerous side projects like The Stubborn All Stars, Dave Hillyard & The Rocksteady 7, and Vic Ruggiero’s acoustic solo project among others in the Hellcat and Stubborn Records camp.

Their sound is very reminiscent of the original and legendary ska band The Skatalites, due to their well-rounded musical outfit, with Vic Ruggiero’s organ playing (Jackie Mittoo stylee), jumpy & jazzy licks from the brass crew (Glen on the trombone, Dave with the sax), and scale-crawling bass-lines by Marcus Geard. In fact, Marcus plays that non-upright bass guitar as an upright-bass like a rockabilly champ with a dedicated stool and complete with cushioning.

(Notice that subtle in-show advertising on the chair…)

I think the way I respond with this band is the same with my first love of Jamaican ska by way of The Skatalites, and to hear this group play without being too revivalist is a breath of fresh air from all these Sublime-substitutes here in SoCal, and makes me skank in my seat forgetting about that Dirty Spunk(Crunk/Junk/Bunk/Whatever) that’s polluting the airwaves nowadays.

If you happen to catch them live, you know they’re such a great act that there’s never a dull moment even when playing the slower rocksteady tunes. They’ve got so much character and energy, its hard to hate them (unless you hate reggae and ska, or pretend to hate them because you don’t want anyone to know that you like ska). Towards the end of the main set, trombonist Glen Pine and saxophonist Dave Hillyard jumped down from the stage and resumed their solos, sans microphone. Who needs microphones? Live is LIVE, baby.

I couldn’t even begin where to pick my top 4 tunes to post because like picking your Top-10-Songs-Of-All-Time, this was pretty hard. I’ll just pick the best ones (IMO) from each of the first four albums. Also, I copped the show’s set-list again but unfortunately they didn’t include the double-encore set (3 songs per encore), which was kinda odd, but great for us nevertheless. 

More photos after the cliched-jump…

Much thanks for the heads that came out to support and enjoy the musical vibes last saturday night. ‘Twas a hit guaranteed, and a reminder to everyone that it won’t be the last!

All images courtesy of ERTH1 of S.E.A. & Jason Markk

Check more for more event images at JASON MARKK