Ska Talk – 08 Mar

We are talking and playing a lot of Ska today, with recent shows on our minds by Fishbone, The English Beat and The Aquabats (with Mustard Plug).

Fishbone at the House of Blues - Chicago
Fishbone at House of Blues
We are talking and playing a lot of Ska today, with recent shows on our minds by Fishbone, The English Beat and The Aquabats (with Mustard Plug).
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  • Desmond Dekker — Get Up Edina — 2:40
  • Bob Marley — Simmer Down — 2:50
  • The Ethiopians — Train to Skaville — 2:42
  • The Specials — Little Bitch — 2:34
  • Madness — One Step Beyond — 3:35
  • The English Beat — Mirror in the Bathroom — 3:10
  • The Clash — Wrong’em Boyo — 3:11
  • Fishbone — Lyin’ Ass Bitch — 4:16
  • The Toasters — Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down — 2:51
  • The Slackers — Dave’s Friend — 4:55
  • Mighty Mighty Bosstones — Someday I Suppose — 3:27
  • Operation Ivy (ska-core) — Sound system — 2:14
  • Hepcat — Goodbye Street (3:37)
  • MU330 – La (3:02)
  • The Pietasteres- Out All Night — 3:17
  • Mustard Plug — Mr. Smiley — 2:45
  • The Aquabats — Ska Robot Army — 2:12

#0076 – The Road Most Traveled

Just your basic mix of cover songs. Ska covers! Bluegrass covers! Metal covers! Punk covers!

Just your basic mix of cover songs. Ska covers! Bluegrass covers! Metal covers! Punk covers!

I know, it’s been done, but dammit it’s MY TURN.

It was brought to my attention though that on a few of these, the original songs may be less well known, so I’ve created a second mix containing the same playlist in the same order, but all original songs rather than the cover versions.

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01. Turisas – Rasputin (Boney M)
02. Van Canto – Kings of Metal (Manowar)
03. Dinosaur Jr. – Just Like Heaven (The Cure)
04. Melvins – Going Blind (KISS)
05. Apocalyptica – Welcome Home (Sanitarium) (Metallica)
06. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Puff The Magic Dragon (Peter Paul and Mary)
07. The English Beat – Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles)
08. Fishbone – Date Rape (Sublime)
09. Reel Big Fish – Hungry Like The Wolf (Duran Duran)
10. The Meat Purveyors – Round and Round (Ratt)
11. Iron Horse – Polar Opposites (Modest Mouse)
12. Lucero – Kiss The Bottle (Jawbreaker)
13. Ramones – Needles and Pins (The Searchers)
14. Seu Jorge – Five Years (David Bowie)
15. The Slackers – Wanted Dead Or Alive (Bon Jovi)
16. Five Iron Frenzy – It’s Not Unusual (Tom Jones)
17. The Urge – This Is Radio Clash (The Clash)
18. The Protomen – No Easy Way Out (Robert Tepper)

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Play

#0070 – Ska

ska

This mix has been sitting in my iTunes library for well over eight months.  There just hasn’t been the right time to release it.  Jim’s oldest son, Damian, asked about ska and as a big fan, I wanted to help address this ska need — because everyone needs ska.  Everyone.

Then, this last weekend, with the Aquabats playing at the Metro in Chicago, I was committed to getting this mix out — and then I messed up my ankle, which kept me from getting to see the Aquabats and made me a very sad panda.  Hours of Guitar Hero later, I was comfortable with keeping my quantum of solace in check enough to produce this mix.

So I share with you, future lovers of 2 Tone just the lowest hanging fruit on the interwoven branches of ska, punk, rocksteady, new wave, reggae, rock and pop.

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Everyone loves ska.  Just remember that, and you’ll be aiight.

  • Monkey Man – The Specials
  • Everything Sucks – Reel Big Fish
  • Beat Surrender – The Jam
  • Simmer Down – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
  • Roots Radicals – Rancid
  • Freedom of Choice – Devo
  • Canary in a Coalmine – The Police
  • Dub 56 – The Toasters
  • Turning Japanese – Skankin’ Pickle
  • Come On Eileen – Save Ferris
  • One Step Beyond – Madness
  • Ska Boss – The Aquabats
  • Rudy, A Message To You – Dandy Livingstone
  • Shame and Scandal – Peter Tosh
  • Pressure Drop – The Specials
  • Rudie Can’t Fail – The Clash
  • Pick It Up – Alex Desert (Hepcat)
  • Banana – The Aggrolites
  • Kong – MU330
  • Into Action – Tim Armstrong

#0056 – IRON DJ – Herbalism

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Iron Deejay

…in which I take you on a trip… through the mind, inner space and time itself.  In the past few weeks, I’ve had the good fortune of recovering some first blog entries going back to 2003 where Suzy and I took a long-delayed honeymoon to Amsterdam for two glorious weeks.  I could regale you with my writings forever, but instead, let us take the quest to enlightenment, self-discovery as we travel through giddiness, joy, peace, love, bemusement, reflection, questioning, anxiety, paranoia, panic, anger, badassery and ultimately resolution — the kind that generally leads to three grand slam breakfast skillets at Denny’s around 2am and about 13 boxes of Nerds.

This extra-special mix includes:

  1. Electric Light Orchestra – I’m Alive
  2. Elmore James – Hawaiian Boogie
  3. Poi Dog Pondering – Living With the Dreaming Body
  4. VHS or Beta – Heaven
  5. Duran Duran – New Moon on Monday
  6. The Verve – Sonnet
  7. The High Llamas – Painters Paint
  8. The Clash – Lost in the Supermarket
  9. Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind
  10. Lou Reed – How Do You Think It Feels
  11. The Police – Does Everyone Stare?
  12. Soul Coughing – True Dreams of Witchita
  13. Super Furry Animals – Run! Christian, Run!
  14. Grandaddy – A.M. 180
  15. Godspeed You Black Emperor! – Kicking Horse on Broken Hill
  16. Shriekback – The Reptiles and I
  17. System of a Down – X
  18. Cypress Hill – Cock the Hammer
  19. Danger Mouse – What More Can I Say? (Jay Z / Beatles Mashup)
  20. The White Stripes – Your Southern Can Is Mine
  21. Queen – All Dead, All Dead

#0050 – The Mix That Was Forced To Go Undercover

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(Kevin) Cover songs are great. I can’t help myself. This mix may run a tad long, but stick with it to the end and you’ll be rewarded with a few treats. At least they’re treats to me anyway. The name of this mix comes from all the thousands of bad TV shows where someone is “forced to go undercover” to solve some ridiculous mystery, perhaps as part of a “race against time.”

#0003 – File under: Punk, History

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This week’s episode of Radio Gen1us takes us to the very cliffs of insanity that were the American Punk scene starting in the late 60s with The Velvet Underground and their connections to the UK with the Sex Pistols and the Clash. Artists this week include The Buzzcocks, The Jam, MC5, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, Richard Hell of the Heartbreakers, The Runaways, Patti Smith, Television, The New York Dolls, The Ramones, The Dead Boys, The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Clash and Plastic Bertrand (just for fun).

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