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Last night was the culmination of the holiday weekend, and what a way to end the season - first the dramatic overtime victory for the San Diego Chargers over the Indianapolis Colts, and then a ska show at San Diego’s famous Casbah.

Opening the show were San Diego locals, Self-Made Men. The band features local ska fixture John Roy performing vocals and sax. The band plays a dynamic mix of traditional ska, reggae and calypso-influenced songs and flexes its musical chops across all styles. They definitely got the crowd’s attention, and I think that SMM will be building a strong core of supporters as they continue to gig and record.

Next up were San Francisco’s The Impalers, who showcased their brand of skinhead reggae, highlighted by the strong vocal performance by lead singer Cindy Chi. Fans of The Aggrolites and rocksteady/reggae will definitely want to check out this band. Judging by the packed dance floor during their set, The Impalers are well on their way to establishing themselves in the United States; having already toured Europe.

Finally, headliners and ska veterans The Slackers took the stage, and with the opening notes of their set, brought everyone in from the cold patio and back bar to pack the main room and dance floor. I’ve seen The Slackers several times before, but usually in an outdoor or festival-type setting. It was really nice to see them in the confines of a more intimate venue such as The Casbah, where they really took command of the room and put on a powerful performance. The energy level was high, the musical arrangements tight, and the crowd ate it up. All around the room people were dancing, swaying, and bobbing heads, all with smiles on faces. Whenever you have a strong lineup of bands like last night, you wonder if the headliner will be able to rise above the rest, and The Slackers certainly did that. Maybe it’s just experience, confidence, or longevity, but The Slackers showed why they have been main-stays of ska scene for so long and have maintained the status among top American ska bands throughout all the ups and downs of the ska music world for many years now, and hopefully, many years to come.

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Boston’s Pressure Cooker has been performing and recording for over 10 years now, and has five albums under its belt, quite an accomplishment for just about any band, let alone one that focuses on old-school reggae and ska.

From the opening notes of just about any of their songs, the listener is immediately tipped that this band delivers excellent musicianship. Songs like “Burning Fence” showcase the power of the horn section, with rich harmonies and strong solo pieces. “Nuthin’ Better” opens with a surprising piano line that draws you into the song. The understated yet punchy horn accents provide a nice counterpart to the piano.

Presure Cooker performs primarily in the New England area, but has branched out as far west as Chicago. In addition, the band has supported such notable reggae acts as Toots & The Maytals, The Skatalites, Gregory Isaacs, and Culture.

Check out the band’s website by clicking here and you can listen to streams of their mp3’s. You can also click here to access their discography page, which features links for purchasing albums via CDBaby.com and iTunes. Definitely worth adding to your collection if you appreciate well-crafted old-school ska and reggae!

Band website: http://www.pressurecooker.net/

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This album blasts out of the gate with a short but aggro song called “Aderol” that is total metal, which caught me by surprise, even though the band describes themselves as “…essentially a ska band with very heavy punk and metal influence.” From there, the album slides into a more extreme ska-core sound, featuring songs that are very fast and very punk/metal, with only brief infusions of ska guitar, and sprinklings of horn lines throughout.

According to alto sax player Aaron, the album was self-recorded at  a studio on the campus of the University of New Haven. While I do commend the band for taking on such a project themselves, I would suggest that they re-visit some of the tracks, and possibly get some outside help re-mixing it. On many of the songs, I get the feeling that the overall “listenability” would be helped by tweaking the mix. This can make a big difference between having an album that grows weary after a couple of listens, and an album that you will want to listen to over and over again. In addition, the horns often sound out of tune. Playing horns on top of this style of music is a challenge, but you have to start with good tuning or it just sounds sloppy.

The guitar work is strongest when the band is playing its heavier, chunkier stuff, and the guitar, bass and drums do sound fairly tight together.

A bright spot on the album is the title track, which is a slower, reggae song featuring a flange-heavy guitar.

Overall, not a horrible effort considering its a first album and entirely DIY, but the album suffers from some awkwardness brought on both by the production value, and possibly from a group of musicians that is still working to find its true sound.

You can check out Marx Revolution online at www.myspace.com/marxrevolution.

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Ska music is starting to gain more of a modern web presence with the launch of sites such as SkaPedia.com and SkaToob.com. As you can probably guess, these websites seek to emulate the success and popularity of behemoths WikiPedia and YouTube, albeit with a focus on ska bands and music.

SkaPedia.com is a standard wiki site, and it looks like (based on some band searches) much of the content comes directly from WikiPedia - not an uncommon practice in the wiki world. Still, there does appear to be original content, and SkaPedia does not have some of the silly restrictions regarding what content can be included in a wiki page. Hopefully the wiki-nazis won’t take over like they have at WikiPedia.

SkaToob.com appears to have quite a bit of content, and its focus on ska music means that people looking for ska videos don’t have to filter through the immense collection at YouTube just to find footage of their favorite underground ska bands. I think this is a great idea for a website - someone looking for ska videos is presented with focused content, and will be more likely to find what they are looking for, and possibly get turned onto something new. Sure, SkaToob will not boast the viewership numbers that YouTube has, but then again, ska is a fairly niche market. Just because you’re on YouTube, doesn’t guarantee that millions are going to see your video.

Both sites are part of the SkaSpot network.

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PhillySka.com is worth visiting even you live nowhere near Philadelphia. The website not only demonstrates its active presence in the Philadelphia music scene, (a calendar of local events is featured on the homepage) it has lots of current news about ska record labels, bands and album releases. In addition, PhillySka.com has a growing reviews section, where registered members are encouraged to contribute.

Looking for some free ska, minus the guilt-trip that accompanies flying in the face of the RIAA by - gasp - illegally downloading mp3’s? Be sure to check out the Downloads section for free albums and several PhillySka.com podcasts. Looks like they haven’t been keeping up with the podcasts since September 2007, and maybe it was just my setup, but I wasn’t able to save or play any of the podcast files. Hopefully they are working on a fix for this - podcasts have definitely cemented themselves as a new form of entertainment and information, if mostly a niche one at that.

On the other hand, I downloaded Hotdrop’s "Ready" and was stoked. Nice dubby reggae - mellow and relaxing for a Saturday afternoon.

Something local Philly bands probably appreciate is the Local Bands directory. If it’s kept up-to-date, this must be a great resource for bands, promoters, press, etc. to get an overview of who’s out there.

The Photo Gallery is quite lacking, as it seems to have only one entry. I saw no mention of whether or not the site accepts member contributions, but I bet that would help the gallery fill up quickly.

Overall, PhillySka.com is well-designed and informative site -definitely entertaining and easy to navigate. The fact that some of the sections are a bit sparse in content leads me to wonder how often the site gets human updates, or whether the site is simply new and growing; trying to ‘find itself’ as is the case with the site you’re on now!

URL: http://www.phillyska.com

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In honor of the Montreal Canadiens (my 3rd favorite Canadian hockey team) knocking the Bruins out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I thought I would check out what’s going on in the Montreal ska scene. I quickly found SkaMontreal.com. It’s a very nicely put-together site that covers the ska music scene in Montreal very thoroughly.

SkaMontreal.com features news blurbs, a calendar, lots of links, and an album review section that covers current ska releases from bands such as Streetlight Manifesto, Voodoo Glowskulls, Mustard Plug and Buck-O-Nine.

Surprisingly, the site loaded up in English, but there is a handy link along the top nav bar (francais) that will flip you into the French version.

For you MySpace fanatics, Ska Montreal has recently launched a MySpace page at www.myspace.com/skamontreal.

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At first glance, it would be easy to dismiss We Are The Union’s sound as derivative of the ska-pop-punk sound that predominated ska’s 1990’s surge. However, once you start listening to the album a bit more in depth, you realize that these guys have some serious musical chops, and with “Who We Are” the band has managed to put together a cohesive piece of work, with songs that flow nicely between the various musical styles these guys fuse together. On the surface, musical comparisons to Less Than Jake are inevitable, yet the band manages to take the ”fast-punk-with-horns” sound and sprinkle in a more hardcore feel. When they do play ska, as in the song “War on Everything,” they play it blazingly fast, and with the skill and style that make it a nice compliment to other songs on the album. If you’re looking for an album that is predominantly ska, this may disappoint you, but if you like your ska alongside catchy, fast music with lots of horns, you’ll enjoy this; even more so after a couple of listens.

According to the band’s PureVolume page, We Are The Union originate from Ann Arbor, Michigan. In my opinion, the mid-west is responsible for giving us many of the ska-punk movement’s better, if sometime underrated, bands over the past 10-20 years. Bands such as Gangster Fun, Suicide Machines, Slapstick, Blue Meanies, Mustard Plug and MU330 immediately come to mind when I think of the mid-west, and if “Who We Are” is a sign of things to come, We Are The Union should be able to carry on a legacy of well-respected ska/ska-punk/ska-core bands to sprout up from America’s heartland.

There is a definite youthful feel in the tone and emotions of this album, and this is a positive thing, because the band comes across as drawing from older punk, hardcore and ska sounds, as well as bringing in some more modern production value and musical styles. Even though they sound young, they sound seasoned, and it is this combination that perhaps what makes the album work.

Download We Are The Union’s album, “Who We Are” for free at PureVolume.com/wearetheunion

The band is currently playing the hell out of the mid-west and east coast. Tour Dates: www.myspace.com/wearetheunion

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BigMikeyDread ReggaeRadio is a monthly ska music podcast originating from the U.K. that is downloaded by listeners all over the world. The podcast plays like a ska-themed radio broadcast that mixes up songs from over 50 years of Jamaican music. According to the podcast’s website, there are over 45,000 listeners each month. The music played varies between, “…Mento, Ska, Rocksteady, Early Reggae, Roots Reggae, Dub, Dancehall, Modern Roots, Ragga and a whole heap more” according to the website’s podcast summary.

I listen to a lot of different podcasts, and must say that this is one of the more professionally-produced shows I’ve heard. BigMikeyDread is definitely a natural at the DJ thing, and after listening for several minutes, you’ll think you have the radio on (minus the commercials) instead of a podcast. Host Mike Murphy’s occasional commentary over the music can be a bit intrusive, but overall his enthusiasm for, and knowledge of, ska music is both entertaining and informative.

Definitely good music to have on while blogging about ska music. Check out the BigMikeyDread Reggae Radio website by clicking here.

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If you haven’t heard them, you’ve probably at least heard of them if you are paying attention to the ska music scene these days. Chicago’s Deal’s Gone Bad are one of the bands that has decided to stay the course of more traditional soulful ska rather than speed up the tempo and hit the distortion pedal. In my opinion, it’s difficult to be successful playing this style of ska, for two reasons - 1. You may not immediately appeal to listeners who are unfamiliar with ska music’s extensive timeline and evolution. 2. It’s more difficult to write fresh, quality songs due to the fact that you’re tapping into a musical niche that has been performed for over 40 years by musicians the world over.

On the other hand, if you can flex some musical prowess and find ways to inject creativity and originality into more traditional ska, you can really stand out amongst the crowd -especially when playing at festival-type shows (and what ska show is not booked at a “ska fest”?) full of young bands still trying to hash it out.

If you like your ska in the vein of Skatalites, Hepcat and Aggrolites, you’ll find 2007’s “The Ramblers” a necessary addition to your ska music collection. The album mixes ska and reggae with a strong dose of good ol’ soul and delivers on every track. My favorite - Track 7 - “Rough and Ready.”

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