Ska Boom - An American Ska & Reggae Podcast

Welcome to Ska Boom! Stories, which is the audio companion to my new book Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History now available for pre-sale through DiWulf Publishing.  The first 500 pre-orders get a rare 80 minute all USA ska mix CD courtesy of DJ Chuck Wren of Jump Up Records.  Click here to order: http://www.diwulf.com/booksNow that the book is finally finished and going into produc...

Welcome to Ska Boom! Stories, which is the audio companion to my new book Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History now available for pre-sale through DiWulf Publishing.  Now that the book is finally finished and going into production, I want to use this series to share a behind the scenes look at what readers can expect from the book. In 400+ pages across 19 chapters, I’ve attempted to...

Welcome to Ska Boom! Stories, which is the audio companion to my new book Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History now available for pre-sale through DiWulf Publishing.  Now that the book is finally finished and going into production, I want to use this series to share a behind the scenes look at what readers can expect from the book. In 400+ pages across 19 chapters, I’ve attempted to...

Welcome to the first episode of Ska Boom Stories -- a new podcast series that will highlight stories, anecdotes and gossip taken from all 19 chapters of Ska Boom! An American Ska & Reggae Oral History that is now available for pre-order through the DiWulf Publishing website. The book will be available on 7/4/21. While Ska Boom! focuses on telling the story of the birth of a uniquely American v...

In this  last episode of I Don’t Like Reggae, I Love It, a special audio series on the historical origins and impact of reggae on popular music, I focus on the 1976 UK top 20  hit “Reggae Like It Used To Be” by Paul Nicholas , who before he took a turn as a pop star had a very successful career in musical theatre starring in Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and more. Nicholas was also cast as “Cousin...

Unlike the macho posturing of 80s heavy metal, which I found misogynistic and dumb, goth bands and music appealed to me. The music was moody and danceable and explored the more existential and darker questions of life and death.  Where 2 Tone molded my emerging political sensibilities and gave me a world view and an identity, goth spoke to the misunderstood romantic in me who was interested in exp...

As reggae and punk rock were colliding and coming together in the UK in the 70s, The Clash’s version of Junior Murvin’s "Police and Thieves" would create a cultural domino effect that would result in several iconic songs including Bob Marley’s “Punky Reggae Party” which gave the new social phenomenon a name. It was also to serve as a direct influence on a young up and coming singer-songw...

In this  episode of "I Don’t Like Reggae, I Love It"  a special audio series of the Ska Boom podcast about the historical origins and impact of reggae on popular music, I focus on the king of all cod reggae songs -- "D'yer Mak'er" by Led Zeppelin. As a new wave and ska kid who completely ignored hard rock, I was completely caught off guard when I started hearing the s...

In this  episode of I Don’t Like Reggae, I Love It, a special audio series of the Ska Boom podcast, on the historical origins and impact of reggae on popular music, I focus on Patti Smith’s embrace of reggae that started with the song “Redondo Beach” on her 1975 debut album “Horses.” The origin story of Redondo Beach is fascinating.  Originally written and published as a poem in 1972, “Redondo Bea...

In this  episode of I Don’t Like Reggae, I Love It, a special audio series about the historical origins and impact of reggae on popular music, I focus on the 1971 UK one hit wonder “Johnny Reggae” by The Piglets that reached #3 in the charts selling 5 million copies! “Johnny Reggae” was notable as the first hit song with a cod skinhead reggae sound to have been written and recorded by white Englis...

In this  episode of I Don’t Like Reggae, I Love It, a special audio series on the historical origins and impact of reggae on popular music, I explore the convergence of punk and reggae music in the late 70s in England and how that extraordinary coming together of Black and white street  culture helped to change the sound of popular music as punks looked to apply the techniques of reggae music to r...

In this  episode of I Don’t Like Reggae, I Love It, a special audio series on the historical origins and impact of reggae on popular music, I go back to the beginning and tell the story behind the granddaddy of all cod reggae tracks – Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da by The Beatles.  As Beatlemania was reaching a frenzy in 1964, ska music was also exploding in popularity in the UK. And like everyone else in Engl...

This is the first episode of I Don’t Like Reggae, I Love It, a special audio series I’m doing on the historical origins and impact of cod reggae on popular music. The series will explore the socio-political cultural and racial implications of cod reggae's development. The series title is taken from the 10CC song “Dreadlock Holiday” which is one of the more controversial cod reggae songs that...

On this episode, I focus on the Jamaican band Third World and their iconic song "1865 (96 Degrees In The Shade) from their 1977 album of the same name. As a kid who loved social studies and world history and paid attention to current events, '1865 (96 Degrees In The Shade)” really drew me.  In case you aren’t familiar with the song, it is a dramatic and powerful retelling of the events o...

In this episode I turn my ska gaze up to the Great White North and focus on the amazing story of The Villains. Never heard of them you say….well, its your lucky day.  Sit back and have a listen to the story of the band of Brits who snuck into Canada and were then arrested and sent to prison for playing ska! The Villains became one of the most popular bands in Canada in the 80s and made a huge impr...

Listening to London Calling as a teen required an open mind and a willingness to follow The Clash on an existential and esoteric journey through the darkness of recent history and the darker realms of the human psyche.  It was a bit like a history and philosophy class set to music and it didn’t always make sense to me but listen I did, and as I listened, I found myself drawn more and more to the s...

 On this episode I take a look at a number of key Gen X era musicians who dabbled in or experimented with playing ska and reggae music before they went on to have huge star making careers. While kids in the UK lived next door to Jamaican neighbors and were accustomed to hearing reggae music all the time, there was no corresponding culture or experience with the genre here in the U.S.  Occasionally...

In this episode, I focus on the incredibly influential and often overlooked role that Eddy Grant has played in merging the sounds of ska, reggae, pop, dance and rock music. I’ve always been a huge fan and consider Grant a musical futurist who has successfully combined the best of James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley into something completely unique. I’ll be taking a look at Grant’s diverse mus...

On this episode, I focus on the story behind the Madness song “It Must Be Love” which along with "Our House" is the song most Americans are familiar with by the band. Each of them charted in the top 40 with Our House hitting #7 and It Must Be Love at #33 in 1983.  Madness came along at just the right time for me.  I was a newly minted teenager when their music entered my consciousness an...

On this episode, I focus on the story behind the 1990 live compilation album NYC SKA LIVE.   It’s hard to believe its been 30 years since it was recorded and released. The NYC SKA LIVE concert was originally organized by Moon Records so that the crop of bands then on the NYC ska scene could be filmed by director Joe Massot for New York City Ska Craze, a planned sequel to his 2 Tone era film Dance...

In this episode I focus on Ranking Roger and his autobiography “I Just Can’t Stop It: My Life In The Beat” co-written with Daniel Rachel. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, I highly recommend it. Sadly the book was released after Roger passed away in March of 2019 at the age of 56.   I fell in love with all of the 2 Tone bands around the same time when I was 14 years old and each had a big in...

In this episode, I look back at the International Ska Festival held at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA on Earth Day in April of 1990. The all day festival with a sold-out crowd estimated at 10,000, is a key event in the development of a uniquely American version of ska. First, the line-up included a number of leading American ska bands featured in my book including The Uptones, Gangster Fun and...

My guest on this episode of the Ska Boom podcast  is Josh Harris, keyboardist and vocalist for The Untouchables, who has a long history helping to popularize Jamaican music in the US. He also has the distinction of being in two the band featured in my forthcoming book Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History which will be published in 2021.Josh was one of the very first American musicia...

My forthcoming book Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History will feature 19 chapters that tell the stories of important bands  -- some well known, others not so much -- who deserve credit for giving birth to a uniquely American version of ska and reggae.  The stories of each band are intrinsically linked to the songs they wrote and performed and and in this episode I tell the story of...

My guest on this episode of the Ska Boom podcast  is Aaron Carnes, the author of the forthcoming ska book "In Defense of Ska" that will be published in May of 2021 by Clash Books. Aaron's book asks the important question: "Why doesn’t ska get its due as a rich, diverse genre the way punk, metal, hip-hop and electronic music does?" Or more to the point, why are ska fans so...