Staring At The Rude Boys

so the BLK JKS record has me digging out some stuff i haven't spun in a while... one of them is this compilation. it's the first disc from a four disc set my little brother bought in '93 called Tougher Than Tough: The Story Of Jamaican Music.



Forward March 1958 - 1967, has always been one of my favorites. it is by no means a definitive ska and rocksteady comp, but a pretty damn good one if you ask me, a solid listen all the way through. this stuff has always been my favorite Jamaican music.

download this comp now

Forward March 1958 - 1967
1. Oh Carolina - The Folkes Brothers
2. Boogie in My Bones - Laurel Aitken
3. Midnight Track - Owen Gray
4. Easy Snappin' - Theophilus Beckford
5. Housewives Choice - Derrick Morgan, Patsy Todd
6. Forward March - Derrick Morgan
7. Miss Jamaica - Jimmy Cliff
8. My Boy Lollipop - Millie Small
9. Six and Seven Books of Moses - The Maytals
10. Simmer Down - The Wailers
11. Man in the Street - Don Drummond
12. Carry Go Bring Come - Justin Hinds & Dominoes
13. Guns of Navarone - The Skatalites
14. Al Capone - Prince Buster
15. Hard Man Fe Dead - Prince Buster
16. Tougher Than Tough - Derrick Morgan
17. Girl I've Got a Date - Alton Ellis
18. Happy Go Lucky Girl - The Paragons
19. Dancing Mood - Delroy Wilson
20. Train Is Coming - Ken Boothe
21. Take It Easy - Hopeton Lewis
22. Ba Ba Boom - The Jamaicans
23. 007 (Shanty Town) - Desmond Dekker
24. I've Got to Go Back Home - Bob Andy, Bob Andy
25. Queen Majesty - The Techniques
26. Loving Pauper - Dobby Dobson
27. Don't Stay Away - Phyllis Dillon

BLKS JKS

BLK JKS Mystery EP (Secretly Canadian)
01 Lakeside
02 Mystery
03 Summertime
04 It's In Everything You See

BLK JKS are from South Africa and play rock music with traces of dub, post-punk dance, and afro-pop (imagine that!). they've been written up in just about every blog that exists on the internet and i just like adding to the pile of hype/buzz/drool/etc. i think i like this because it sounds so completely different than all the stupid garage rock and indie pop i have been obsessed with lately. give it a chance, you will dig it.

here is an alternate (and better) version of the song "Lakeside"


download the EP here

Have you heard American Princes?

"auditorium"


American Princes might be one of the most unsung bands out there right now. these guys actually moved out of Brooklyn to live in Little Rock, Arkansas. that might help you figure out how careerist they are. what i love about this band is that they aren't part of any scene or riding any wave of hype like most bands we read about every day, they seem to exist only for me... don't laugh!

whenever i play these records for people in my car, they comment on how they think they have heard it before, which means that of course they have never heard it before, it's just really really good.

anyway, these two records are up there with my favorites released the last few years. the main reason is that this band knows how to write songs, not just sounds, but songs that are there in your head when you wake up in the morning. i don't see why anyone who is a fan of The Replacements, Pixies, and antiquated genre tags like "college rock" would not like this band. that's the thing here, they have this sound, this strange and romantic sound that reminds me of growing up safe and sound in the south suburbs and watching 120 Minutes on a Sunday nite in the basement when you should have been studying. but this isn't some new nostalgia show for today's 30 something crowd, believe me, they still manage to sound contemporary and new.

listen to these records, they go deep for me, great listens all the way through... especially Less and Less.

American Princes - Other People (Yep Roc 2008)

"watch as they go"

"don't ever promise"



Other People is their 80's record and they will fully admit it. the band decided to build on the edgy guitar drama of Less and Less and hired hip-hop producer Chuck Brody to accentuate the pop hooks written into these tunes, plus the low end sounds amazing. i hear The Cure, Paul Westerberg, and even a little Wall Of Voodoo on this album. ha. not sure i've ever typed out "Wall Of Voodoo" before...

grab it here

American Princes - Less And Less (Yep Roc 2006)

"never grow old"


"stolen blues"


this is my favorite of the two records i'm posting. it has higher highs and lower lows, at times noisier and more aggressive than Other People, but also has a few Westerberg style acoustic ballads thrown in for balance. they have three guitar players and i love the layers of guitar lines running throughout these songs. this one reminds me of all those Fort Appache bands in the early 90's and early good Soul Asylum.

grab it here

Somewhere Over The Rainbo

Disappears - Live Over The Rainbo (self-released)

1. (crowd noise)
2. MARIGOLD
3. NOT NOTHING
4. MAGICS
5. OLD FRIEND
6. GONE COMPLETELY
7. LUX
8. NEEDS
9. HEARING THINGS
10. NEW CROSS

want the whole thing?

i cannot stop listening to these guys. you can download their 2 singles at their blog for free... finally got to see them at the Hideout and man were they solid. Lanterns were amazing too. people are calling Disappears a Chicago super-group and i just think that is silly. i bought this on cassette (2nd cassette purchased during the last year!) and grabbed a CD-R version, now you can hear it too.

it's kind of a fake live album, recorded live but without an audience. they have two 7 inches and this record, which has different versions of the 7 inch tunes (plus others). i'm not gonna list the bands they remind me of, but believe me they are all good bands. here is a song called "Old Friend" and it's serious business. this is the 7 inch version.