Here are our top recommendations for gifts for your fellow rude boys and rude gals.  For a heavy-hitting gift, there’s the Ska CD of the Month Club and Ska Wax of the Month Club from Jump Up Records.  The CD club offers 14 CDs and the wax club offers 12 LPs for the year.  Check out the order page for more details.

Our personal favorite gift is the King Tubby Dub Box Set featuring 14 killer dubs on vinyl.  This 7″ set includes rare version sides and early tracks from King Tubby’s first four albums.  Listen to samples and buy a set here.

For the record enthusiast, we recommend a sweet Soul Jazz record bag.  This bag holds up to seventy-five 7″ records.  Even for the non-record collector, it makes for a cool lunch bag.  Check it out at Ernie B’s here.

There’s also a Kickstarter campaign called the 3rd Wave Ska Preservation Society Vinyl Reissue Project, where they are reissuing ska albums from the 90s on vinyl.  Pledges range from $1-$1000 and with the different levels buyers get various items.  Just $20 gets you a copy of Oolooloo by the Pietasters, Pilfers’ self-titled, an Edna’s Goldfish album, or a Suburban Legends’ album.  Complete details can be found here.

If you have a crafty friend, who also likes scooters, they might like some scooter-print fabric.  It’s available on Amazon.com here.  No, I wasn’t talking about me.

Gelaskins offers custom or pre-designed skins for laptops and a variety of mobile devices.  Order a custom one or pick this Baltimore-themed one here.

The 9:30 Club also offers gift cards in amounts from $25-$100.  These gift cards are good at the box office, bars, and kitchen.  You can purchase them here.

Another good gift is a pair of headphones or earbuds.  Check out CNET’s guide on their top picks for your audiophile here.

And lastly, because we’re a bit nerdy, we highly recommend the easy-to-build Theremin kit!  This mini-Theremin is great for musicians and non-musicians alike.  It’s available for purchase at the Maker Shed.

As I’ve pointed out in my review of their EP, it’s clear that they’re comfortable (and enjoyable) when working in the “dirty reggae” style or in a mid-tempo dance ska beat. No song on this album could make that clearer than the third track, “Hooligans,” where the lightly-overdriven guitars and organ dominate.

The songs with a slower, more dub-influenced style take some getting used to. “Let Me Take You Out” is an echo-tinged relaxed reggae style tune, and “Mad Dog” plays with a kind of spooky ska-reggae vibe. Both are fun songs, but they’re not danceable tracks like most of the album. Still, “Mad Dog” demonstrates a clear awareness of King Django-style dub (think “Thirsty” off of the album “A Single Thread,” probably my favorite example of this particular kind of 3^rd wave ska).

From “I Want Justice” on to the last track, The Beatdown gets back to the groove with a hopping rhythm and backing vocals that make The Beatdown their most fun.  I’ll admit I’m a sucker for ska harmonica, and The Beatdown do it well. There’s a soul/ska treat for Pietasters fans at the end of the album with the last track, “Beatdown,” a song where the new attitude of ruff & tuff ska is absolutely clear.

Coast to Coast is partly an album of love songs, with song titles like “Til’ I Die,” “Sweet Maria” and “Longing for You,” and partly a travel-themed reflection of the title.  With the typical ska upbeat often punctuated by a stomping on-beat, many tracks are just more evidence of how much East Coast ska has gone back to soul and R&B for inspiration.

There are a lot of small accents that make this album fun. Slide guitar somehow snuck into “Longing For You,” where you might have expected to hear saxophone. It’s an especially nice track, and a great example of the kind of song Royal City Riot does best: a moderate tempo, solid horn work, and the occasional surprise.

The one-drop selections on the EP (“Get Ready,” “It’s Allright”) bear clear resemblance to The Aggrolites’ “dirty reggae” style, but have a little more third-wave ska edge to them. It took me until the first chorus to realize that “Get Ready” was, in fact, a cover of the Smokey Robinson/Temptations classic, a great sign that The Beatdown know how to make a song their own.

The final track, “Movin On” is a nice, chuggy rocksteady number, and otherwise solid, it’s just begging for the backing vocals present throughout much of the rest of the EP. I was delighted to hear harmonica, one of the least frequently used instruments in ska, used tastefully, and was hoping for more.  For any fan of The Slackers, The Aggrolites, or Hepcat, this is a solid listen. If you’re a fan of the Beatdown, you’ll want this EP as it has extra cuts and versions from their self-titled, full-length album.  B+

Punk legend Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks) brings together an eclectic band of equally accomplished musicians made up of Dimitri Coats (Burning Brides), Steve McDonald (Red Kross) and Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes.)  OFF! has decades of professional musicianship that is not often found in punk acts these days.

As they were setting up, OFF! looked to me like record store clerks who decided to start a band.  But when they kicked into the first song of their set with “Black Thoughts” — a one-minute, hard-hitting song about ruminations of desolation and alcoholism — these real McCoy musicians blew the audience away. Do not let the bald spot on Morris’ head fool you: This guy rocks just as hard as he used to, with all of the vocal abilities he had 30 years ago but with lyrics that are more coherent and thought provoking. Just take the lines in the beginning of “Poison City”: “No pictures, no flowers / Crumbling towers / Glamorize falling rubble / Stirring up all this trouble / Spreading the fear in the poison city.”  It’s a song about the impact of 9/11 on U.S. foreign policy suggesting those in power use scare tactics and terrorist attacks to make citizens pro-war.

It was around the third song, “I Don’t Belong,” I started to think that we in the younger crowd did not miss out on the heyday of hardcore punk after all.  Morris moved and sounded as he would during his Black Flag days through songs like “Panic Attack” and “Upside Down.”  Coats pays homage to Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn with the low chords so common to the Black Flag sound.

And of course, there was a mosh pit.

OFF! unfortunately just played the last leg of their tour in Minnesota with no future East Coast dates set.  But I wouldn’t worry about it; a band like this isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Photo by Chris Suspect -- see more photos from the show here!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-TqbQBO1uc

YouTube video provided by joesuburb.

THE LONDON INTERNATIONAL SKA FESTIVAL
21-24 April 2011 @ The Clapham Grand Theatre, London

THE LONDON INTL SKA FESTIVAL promises 37 bands & DJs from 11 countries, showcasing the very best SKA has to offer from it’s roots in American Rhythm & Blues, to the Jamaican originators, their progression into rocksteady & reggae, through 2 Tone & right uptodate with 21st century ska sounds. Headliners include Jamaican legends; KEN BOOTHE, famed for his UK No.1 hit ‘Everything I Own’, one of reggae’s most influential singer/songwriters, BOB ANDY will be teaming up once agian with the ‘Queen of Reggae’ MARCIA GRIFFITHS. Their chart topping duets as BOB & MARCIA included ‘Young Gifted & Black’ & ‘Pied Piper”. And reuniting for the first time since the 1970′s DAVE & ANSELL COLLINS, will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their UK No.1 ‘Double Barrel’.

From the 2 Tone era, we have THE ENGLISH BEAT starring DAVE WAKELING… the lead singer & songwriter of The Beat (or The English Beat as they’re known in the USA, where he now lives & tours). Expect their classic hits ‘Mirror In The Bathroom’, ‘Too Nice To Talk To’, ‘Hands Off She’s Mine’, their 2 Tone single ‘Tears Of A Clown’ and some fantastic new material in this rare UK appearance.

We have Grammy nominated sensation JAMES HUNTER, rightly described by Van Morrison as “one of the best voices in British R’n’B and Soul” and from Japan, a band to rival The Skatalites, THE SKA FLAMES. We have Sunday Best’s dancefloor killers, the DUB PISTOLS, Gaelic Ska adventurers THE TROJANS plus 2 bands that played the first London Intl Ska Festival (Dec’88) reforming for one offs, THE LOAFERS and HOTKNIVES. From Italy, a band that has released 6 gold selling albums, the highly stylised GIULIANO PALMA & THE BLUEBEATERS. Added to all this is a stella line up of DJs, from club specialists to band cameos, radio disc jockeys to JA legends, including CLIVE CHIN, boss of Jamaica’s vital Randys Records, celebrating the labels 50th anniversary, Lynval Golding (from The Specials) and many more

From it’s birth in Jamaica, Ska has come along way, morphing and inspiring every generation and reaching all corners of the world. We are delighted to be celebrating the wonderful world of SKA in all it’s colourful guises.

For more information/tickets go to www.londoninternationalskafestival.co.uk

Full line up:

KEN BOOTHE (Jamaica)*
THE ENGLISH BEAT with DAVE WAKELING
DAVE & ANSELL COLLINS (Jamaica)
BOB ANDY & MARCIA GRIFFITHS (Jamaica)*
JAMES HUNTER
THE SKA FLAMES (Japan)*
DUB PISTOLS
THE TROJANS
THE LOAFERS (one-off reformation)*
HOTKNIVES (orig.line up)*
BIM SKALA BIM (USA)*
GIULIANO PALMA & THE BLUEBEATERS (Italy)*
MAROON TOWN
INTENSIFIED
NAPOLEON SOLO (Denmark)*
THE CAROLOREGIANS (Belgium)
SKAOS (Germany)*
EJECTES (France)*
THE AMPHETAMEANIES (Scotland)
THE SIDEWALK DOCTORS
CARTOON VIOLENCE (Wales)
JIMMY THE SQUIRREL
DJS:

CLIVE CHIN (Randys)
LYNVAL GOLDING (The Specials)*
MARK LAMARR
GAZ MAYALL (Gazs Rockin Blues)
RHODA DAKAR (Bodysnatchers/Special AKA)
WRONGTOM
TOMMY ROCK-A-SHACKA (Japan)
DUB VENDOR ALL-STARS
THE TIGHTEN UP CREW ft. CHAMPIAN MC
JIM COX
TAKESHI OKAWA (Japan-The Ska Flames/Sun Shot)
GREEDY G
FELIX HALL

*exclusive UK shows

Full details and tickets available now at
http://www.londoninternationalskafestival.co.uk/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=osHF8d_dDDE

The most dynamic change in their sound on this album is the addition of backing vocals.  This minor change really creates more vocal dynamics with Sharon using call and response.   The songs themes are about love, loss, regret, and life, which are real issues that anyone can relate to.   Soul music may be the “in” thing, but Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings are the real deal.  “The Game Gets Old” opens up with a horn and string harmonizing chord and then Sharon tells a story about losing at the game of love.

The next few songs show the funk side of the group. “Better Things” has a J.B. trumpet hook opening the track.

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings shine the most on the sixties soul sound.  “The Reason” is a track that gives the Dap Kings room to stretch out.   Their horn and rhythm section go all out.  “Window Shopping” is another song showcasing Sharon’s songwriting skill.   For a singer who left music for so many years working as a security guard, she has a lifetime of stories to sing about.   “Mama Don’t Like My Man” demonstrates an earlier style of doo-wop and Supremes-style Motown vocals.  “When I Come Home” ends the album on a funky, high note by delivering a foot-stomping funk that makes this band a must see and a must hear by any fan of soul music!

Watch the video of “I Learned the Hard Way”.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cckkzRDBAo