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!

Oi! Oi! Oi! We’re at the peak of the summer, and the heat rises everyday. Speaking of scorchers, if you’ve got an itch for boss tunes and early rocksteady fever, Fraze from our beloved Best Kept is spinning a set-load of fire-starters at the infamous Fais Do-Do in Mid-West LA. Joining him is our friends from Trojan Lounge, Bigger Boss (from Pama Int’l), Lady Busty Brown, and Soulsides/Trojan Lounge resident, the footballer Marv Mack (j/k, the guy is huge though).

Come on through, because the couches are soft, the drinks are cheap, there’s a cool & DARK patio in the back for extracurricular activities *hint-hint*. Besides, theres a nice collection of new and old Vespas that hang out front, making sure to induce drooling and double-takes on your checking account.

Check Fusicology and www.faisdodo.com for the event calendar.

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.

If you’re in Long Beach strollin’ around on your cruiser, cruise on by to 4th St. and Cherry today (sunday) and every other sunday after today, to hear some classic ska and rocksteady tunes. If you love reggae, you’ll like the older than ‘thou set. Come on through! The Fish & Chips are grand, the PBR pitchers are cheap, and the vibe is sweet and dandy.

Directions and street map to The Pike Bar is below the grapevine

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…

Fraze and myself rolled on to The El Rey Theater with first-class, stage-side primo views last night to see how the years have treated this band. Knowing that they had broken up a few years ago, we thought it’d be interesting to see how they have gotten back together to evolve their contemporary rocksteady & ska sound.

(click below for full story)

I know it is already August, but that doesn’t mean we’re lunching on the mixes that are due for the people! Due to the dynamics of the live recording environment (read: raw, gritty, and lots of alcohol), we can only hook you up with this 32 minute mix spliced from the 5 hour gig from Suzuran.

Tracklisting will be posted shortly, but the vibe on this mix goes from lover’s rock reggae, to vintage ska, to some two-tone reggae (ie. The Specials), back to more instrumental ska, then roundin’ it up with some marchin’ rocksteady.

Remember, if you have any requests, suggestions, or any musical inquiries, don’t hesitate to drop us a line by email, or better yet, by (gasp!)commenting.