Here's a video that surfaced in 2006...when the Aggrolites were in the Bay Area...a jam session with the occupants of the Strange Manors, which includes members of the Soul Captives and Phenomenauts...
Los Angeles' ska/rocksteady/latin super group, See Spot released their third full length album, "The Robbery" in 2008. Unfortunately, it was a little difficult to track down this album unless you were lucky enough to see them in action.
| Say a prayer for 'The Godfather of Rocksteady' Alton Ellis being treated for cancer in London hospital |
| By Basil Walters Sunday Observer staff reporter waltersb@jamaicaobserver.com Sunday, December 16, 2007 |
Alton Ellis, the man acclaimed as 'The Godfather of Rocksteady', has, for several weeks now, been in hospital in London undergoing treatment for cancer of the lymph glands and is scheduled to start chemotherapy soon.
Alton Neamiah Ellis was born 63 years ago and is regarded as one of Jamaica's finest musical treasures for almost 50 years.
Born into an artistic family, he is also uncle to another popular comedian, Ity of Ity and Fancy Cat fame; and brother of the late songstress Hortense Ellis, Leslie Ellis (the father of Blacka & 
Ity Ellis) who used to be a member of the Flames, as well as pioneer steel pannist Irving Ellis.
The legendary singer/songwriter, who began his artistic life as a dancer, is best known for musical jewels such as Cry Tough, Can't Stand It, All My Tears Come Rolling, Tumbling Tears, Can't Stop Now, and Girl I've Got A Date.
Ellis shares the distinction with Eddie Perkins - with whom he formed the duo Alton and Eddie - of scoring a hit with their first recording, Muriel.
Throughout his career, Ellis has recorded a slew of other hits, among them a cover of Chuck Jackson's smash, Williow Tree, If I Could Rule This World, Why (Birds Follow Spring), Dance Crasher, the sentimental I'm Just A Guy, Ain't That Loving You, La La Means I Love You,This Feeling of Love, Breaking Up Is So Hard To Do, I'm Still In Love With You Girl, Pearl, Christmas Coming, the sequel to Sunday Coming and Lord Deliver Us.
Apart from his smooth, soulful, infectious vocal styling, and his slick stage presence, a signature feature of Ellis's musical career is his ability to put his stamp on the songs of other singers in such a way that they become reggae anthems.
His most profound example of this is his treatment of Let Him Try, originally recorded by Rosco Gordon.
Original article can be found here: Jamaican Observer article on Alton Ellis
Strange Manor is a place in Richmond, California, which houses several musicians who play in various bands across the BAY, such as The Soul Captives, The Struts, and the Phenomenauts...
Last year, they recorded and produced a Christmas album that reflected their musical tastes and backgrounds. It was a a great holiday album and thank god they've recorded another one this year!
Rock, funk, country, and of course, ska and reggae are just some of the styles represented in this year's Christmas album....
My favorite song? Definitely "Run Rude Rudolph" which sounds as if it was the Specials themselves who recorded the song...
You can check it out here: http://www.thesoulcaptives.com/strangemanor/07/
And if you missed their album last year, you can check it out here: http://www.thesoulcaptives.com/strangemanor/06/
Still in the mood for Christmas tunes? Don't forget to check out Go Jimmy Go's new holiday album, "Holiday Hell Yeah!" which was just released last month. 10 tracks of holiday cheer(some covers, mostly originals) with a Hawaiian flavor mixed in for good fun!
It'll get you in the holiday spirit, and remind you why you love Go Jimmy Go so much...(they've been relatively low profile lately haven't they?)
You can buy the album here: Holiday Hell Yeah!
You can also buy the album on Itunes!
And don't forget to check out Go Jimmy Go's website: http://www.gojimmygo.com/
Proceeds go to Dave's family
To keep updated, check this topic: http://www.dancingmood.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=658
The Upsessions are one of those bands that seem to come out of nowhere and hit you like freight train. They hit that reggae sound with such an infectious groove that you can't help but move your feet. In their short time together, they have already made a name for themselves. With an album out on Moon Ska World and a tight group of top notch musicians, they are definitely a force to be reckoned with.
We had some questions for them, and their singer/guitarist Boss Van Trigt was good enough to sit down and answer them.
1. So tell us, who make up The Upsessions and where do you come from?
It was Giel, our trombone player, who had the first idea. he was playing in a Dutch ska-punk band called 'the Hardheid'. He was having a good time with them,
but had the deep wish to form a ' skinhead reggae' band. I knew about his idea, 'cause he told me, but I was busy playing with the top Dutch ska act 'Rude Rich and the Highnotes'. Giel kept on calling me and asking me to start up a ' skinhead reggae' band with him, and his enthusiastic ideas made me decide to collaborate.
He searched for the right musicians, I started to write new songs. In a week, everything was set up. Giel brought the right musicians: Ron was exactly the drummer we were searching for. He just had it, played the right beats and was really one of the best reggae drummers around. Stijn shared our obsessions for dirty organ sounds and he came in.
With Bart, a great solo/picking guitar player and Peter as the bassman ( electric and double bass!!) the puzzle was complete. The first song we played was ' Jackie Miller Down'
and after that song, we all knew that we had just started a great thing.
We all come from around Amsterdam, except for Giel, he lives in Rotterdam, so he has to make a long train ride for every rehearsal.
2. It looks like theres allot of great Ska and Reggae coming out of Holland. What do you think it is about this small country that produces such great music?
It's true. Holland is way too small for all those ska bands, that's why a lot of them drive to Germany, where the scene is bigger. If we would only play in Holland, we would just play 10 shows a year. But I think Holland has got a great ska history, with acts that are known all over Europe, like Mr.Review, Mark Foggo, Rude rich and the Highnotes and the Beatbusters. I really don't know why it's just Holland that produces so many ska bands, while the scene is so small.
3. How would you describe your music?
I would describe it as ' Skinhead reggae' or ' early reggae'. That's the main thing, but we play some ska, soul, funk, rocksteady and reggae too.
4. What would you say are some of the strongest musical influences for The Upsessions?
We all love the old Jamaican acts like Derrick Morgan, Prince Buster, Desmond Dekker, Jackie Mittoo, Bob Marley, Laurel Aitken, Winston Wright, The Pioneers, and .The Ethiopians. And we share a big passion for Lee Perry. We love all his organ work, 'cause it's so bad. You got to have a lot of courage to bring out organ stuff like that.
But next to that, we all love soul ( James Brown, Marvin Gaye and so on), old funk ( the Funk Brothers), trad. ska ( Skatalites), calypso and so on.
5. How long did you guys work on the album New Heavyweight Champion? And how has it been received so far?
I think from the start 'till the end it was something like 6 or 7 months. As we are all working guys, we all just had the weekends to record stuff, we had no shows. Besides that we recorded it by ourselves, not in a studio. We had an 8 track tape recorder and some very cheap gear, and a lot of gear died during our recordings
so it was fun, but also difficult to do. It's been received very well, we had good reviews from Holland, Germany, the UK and France. One review said all our songs could have been from a Duke Reid sampler. To read things like that, is great.
6. How did you get hooked up with Moon Ska World?
In the old, traditional way; We just send them a demo-CD, then we received a letter, that they wanted to offer us a record deal. To be on Moon Ska CD is fantastic, when we were young, we used to buy Moon CDs. It really is a highlight in our career
7.It looks like you've been quite busy spreading your sound. Are there any places where you really enjoy performing, and why?
Well, in my time with Rude Rich, we used to do a lot of international shows, and I loved it. That's why I started thinking internationally immediately. As said before, the scene in Holland is great, but small. You gotta move to Germany or France now and then to play at big festivals. The best place to perform until now was the Potsdammer Ska festival in Germany. It's a two day ska festival in Potsdam, near Berlin. It's strange to see all these people singing our lyrics exactly. Memories like that are fantastic!
8. Are there any bands from Holland we should look out for?
I saw you found the J-stars already, big friends of ours, great up tempo ska band. Also we got Juicebox, the best Dutch soul/popcorn band. Outside Holland we all love the Big from the UK and the Moon invaders from Belgium
9.What's next for The Upsessions?
It's the recording thing we all love to do. We got so many songs to record, many bad organ versions to make. We all got a big obsession for very bad organ tunes. Tunes that make people think why they were ever recorded, hahahaha, we love that. We just don't wanna take it all too serious. Also we want to make a complete rocksteady album, with just lovers tunes on it, as well as a complete organ album, and maybe a ska EP. Enough plans for the future, hope we can find the time for all this.
And we got some big festivals we'd like to play all over Europe.
For more on The Upsessions, please visit these sites:
Upsessions website
The Upsessions on Myspace
Moon Ska World
"Surfer/Song Writer/Soul Seeker Colin Giles has been on the Los Angeles music scene for over 10 years. Currently playing with The L.A. All-star Revue, The Roundabouts, and The Big Sound (Stand So Tall, released in 2004), Colin is taking a new turn is his musical journey by currently releasing his debut solo album. It's an acoustic, stripped down, soul induced blend of hypnotic guitar rhythms and sweet vocal melodies. Music in its most simple and raw form, a man and his guitar. Colin is heavily influenced by American Soul and late 1960s Jamaican music. It's Plain, it's simple, it's raw, it's real. Almost anyday, you can find Colin on the beach, at Third Point Malibu, playing his guitar and singing a few songs."
Back in January of this year, I sat down to email "a bunch of questions"(Arnold Schwarzenegger voice) to Colin Giles and this is how it went...
Jan 19, 2007
Who are some of your main musical influences?
Colin: Main musical influences are: Ken Boothe, Desmond Dekker, Jackie Mittoo,
Sam Cooke, Delroy Wilson
Any current bands that you really dig and would recommend?
Colin: Some current bands... Hepcat, The Aggrolites & Lost In Los Angeles.
Let's settle this once and for all, how many myspace pages do you have?
Colin: I have only 1 myspace page. 1 for me, 1 for the Big Sound, and 1 for everything else..ha ha..
Pressure Drop: Which is is well in the hundreds!!
Everyone that knows you knows you surf, can you tell us a little about that part of your life?
How did you get started, and how involved are you?
Colin: Well, I started surfing from when I was about 13. I loved it and I knew thats what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I grew up competing,and I still compete today as a professional.
Which bands have you performed with past and present?
Colin: I've performed with many bands.. The Channels, Colin & Kelly,
The Roundabouts, The Big Sound, The LA Allstar Revue, and even some cant remember the names of.
Other than Mouth Organ, which other instruments do you play in these
millions of bands?
Colin: I've played Piano, Organ, Trumpet, & Bass in some of
these bands...
How did The Big Sound come together?
Colin: The Big Sound came together over the phone. I was travelling in the southern hemisphere and I called Jake and Jim (Bass player and Drummer of The Big Sound) and we talked about starting up a band after I came home. When I came home, I helped Jake buy a bass, and that was that..
When can we expect to see a new album from The Big Sound?
Colin: We recorded over 20 songs about a year ago, but we weren't 100% happy with the way it came out, so we didn't release it. I'm hoping we're going to try again sometime this year.
Now tell us about this solo album you've been working on for so
long?
Colin: I've been wanting to do a solo album for quite sometime now. The idea of this solo album started in Summer '06, but didn't get rolling till late Autumn. The reality of it is, it only took 3 weeks to complete because of the simplicity of the songs.
What can we expect to hear on it?
Colin: Lately, I've been writing a lot of different kinds of songs.
I've have been liking the way they've turned out, so I wanted to put it out.
There are lots of different kinds of styles on there... from Rockabilly to
Rocksteady to Folk to Funk, and back again. There is a song for everyone. It has all been done with an acoustic guitar. Chris Murray is a special guest on the CD and one of the tracks, is a song that we wrote together.
What inspired you to do it?
Colin: The Inspiration was from a friend who heard me singing "Cecilia." He demanded that I record it. So, I though to myself... why not record a bunch of 'em?
Most importantly WHEN will it be released?!
Colin: It will be released in early Feb 2007. It will be available at CD Baby, and others.
So there you have it, the inside scoop from the man himself.
Make sure you pick up a copy of this new album Let's Get Away on CD or on ITunes
For more info check out these great sites...
Hopefully, this blog can be the start of something big! But even if it doesn't blow up, it's alright, it's always nice to have a blog where I can just post random shit about music.
Growing up, music was never a huge part of my life...I didn't have a group of friends who were into different kinds of music...the kinds of music I (and my friends) were into was mainly what the older kids were listening to...and that was the rap that was being played on the radio. My parents were never into western music, so I didn't really grow up with western music in the house...Around 7th grade, I started expanding my musical tastes, but all for the wrong reasons. I wanted to be different...since people around me were all listening to hip hop and the likes, I wanted to stand out...I turned to rock and pop-punk, or whatever was popular on the rock stations at the time...Blink 182 and Green Day had recently got big, and I thought I was special cause I was listening to a top 40 band that was played on the rock station instead of a top 40 on the rap station.
That's basically how I first got into ska in the first place...I had grown tired of punk, or at least what MTV was portraying punk as, and I thought too many people were into it, and when I first heard, "Take on Me" by Reel Big Fish, I saw it as something that was cool, but at the same time, not mainstream. Close enough to punk, but not quite punk! I developed a, "holier than thou" attitude and went through that stage where you look like a retard, but you thought you were cooler than everybody else (LOOK AT ME GUYS! I'M WEARING CHECKERS!).
Then one day I went to a local show...there were 4 bands, but the only two I remember now are
Hebro and Monkey. The other two bands bored me to tears, but when Hebro hit the stage, there was something about them that made me want to actually stand up and dance...something about them mesmerized me. I had heard traditional ska before, but this was the first time that I saw something even remotely resembling traditional ska being played live, and I loved it...
So here I am...addicted to dis riddim...I'm no longer listening to the music for some lame ego boosting reason...a friend once asked me why I liked ska and reggae, and you know, I couldn't give her a good reason...it's just something that seems so natural to me, I find it hard to believe somebody can NOT like it...
