Skaboom!

Skaboom! PDF Author: Marc Wasserman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780991344765
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Musician, podcaster and author Marc Wasserman's debut book is an exhaustive, extensive tale of the pioneers of the American Ska and Reggae movement as told by the people who lived it. Three and a half years in the making, the story is lovingly told through hundreds of hours of intense interviews with musicians, artists, managers, club promoters, writers, promoters, and the fans who were there at the dawn of the 80s through the early 90s to witness the birth and spread of a uniquely American version of ska and reggae. From a chance sighting of The Specials on Saturday Night Live in 1980 to the mighty Skavoovee Tour of 1993, Marc collects stories, anecdotes, history, gossip, and (most importantly) the feeling of what it was like to be there as groups of young, ska-crazed acolytes spread their passion and ignited a fiercely loyal dedication to a burgeoning culture. Interviews include members of seminal bands The Untouchables, Bim Skala Bim, The Toasters, The Uptones, The Scofflaws, Let's Go Bowling, Mephiskapheles, and many more! The book also features photos, an essay from Stephen Shafer, and a forward penned by Horace Panter of The Specials.

Skaboom!

Skaboom! PDF Author: Marc Wasserman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780991344765
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book

Book Description
Musician, podcaster and author Marc Wasserman's debut book is an exhaustive, extensive tale of the pioneers of the American Ska and Reggae movement as told by the people who lived it. Three and a half years in the making, the story is lovingly told through hundreds of hours of intense interviews with musicians, artists, managers, club promoters, writers, promoters, and the fans who were there at the dawn of the 80s through the early 90s to witness the birth and spread of a uniquely American version of ska and reggae. From a chance sighting of The Specials on Saturday Night Live in 1980 to the mighty Skavoovee Tour of 1993, Marc collects stories, anecdotes, history, gossip, and (most importantly) the feeling of what it was like to be there as groups of young, ska-crazed acolytes spread their passion and ignited a fiercely loyal dedication to a burgeoning culture. Interviews include members of seminal bands The Untouchables, Bim Skala Bim, The Toasters, The Uptones, The Scofflaws, Let's Go Bowling, Mephiskapheles, and many more! The book also features photos, an essay from Stephen Shafer, and a forward penned by Horace Panter of The Specials.

Ska

Ska PDF Author: Heather Augustyn
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786461977
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Before Bob Marley brought reggae to the world, before Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh, before thousands of musicians played a Jamaican rhythm, there were the men and women who created ska music, a blend of jazz, American rhythm and blues, and the indigenous music of the Caribbean. This book tells the story of ska music and its development from Jamaica to England, where the music took on a distinctively different tone, and finally to the rest of the world. Through the words of legendary artists, gleaned from more than a decade of interviews, the story of ska music is finally told by those who were there.

A Singing Army

A Singing Army PDF Author: Kim Ruehl
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 147732156X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Zilphia Horton was a pioneer of cultural organizing, an activist and musician who taught people how to use the arts as a tool for social change, and a catalyst for anthems of empowerment such as “We Shall Overcome” and “We Shall Not Be Moved.” Her contributions to the Highlander Folk School, a pivotal center of the labor and civil rights movements in the mid-twentieth century, and her work creating the songbook of the labor movement influenced countless figures, from Woody Guthrie to Eleanor Roosevelt to Rosa Parks. Despite her outsized impact, Horton’s story is little known. A Singing Army introduces this overlooked figure to the world. Drawing on extensive archival and oral history research, as well as numerous interviews with Horton's family and friends, Kim Ruehl chronicles her life from her childhood in Arkansas coal country, through her formative travels and friendship with radical Presbyterian minister Claude C. Williams, and into her instrumental work in desegregation and fostering the music of the civil rights era. Revealing these experiences—as well as her unconventional marriage and controversial death by poisoning—A Singing Army tells the story of an all-but-forgotten woman who inspired thousands of working-class people to stand up and sing for freedom and equality.

Canadiana

Canadiana PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Canada
Languages : en
Pages : 1708

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Book Description


Hell of a Hat

Hell of a Hat PDF Author: Kenneth Partridge
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271090553
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
In the late ’90s, third-wave ska broke across the American alternative music scene like a tsunami. In sweaty clubs across the nation, kids danced themselves dehydrated to the peppy rhythms and punchy horns of bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish. As ska caught fire, a swing revival brought even more sharp-dressed, brass-packing bands to national attention. Hell of a Hat dives deep into this unique musical moment. Prior to invading the Billboard charts and MTV, ska thrived from Orange County, California, to NYC, where Moon Ska Records had eager rude girls and boys snapping up every release. On the swing tip, retro pioneers like Royal Crown Revue had fans doing the jump, jive, and wail long before The Brian Setzer Orchestra resurrected the Louis Prima joint. Drawing on interviews with heavyweights like the Bosstones, Sublime, Less Than Jake, and Cherry Poppin' Daddies—as well as underground heroes like Mustard Plug, The Slackers, Hepcat, and The New Morty Show—Kenneth Partridge argues that the relative economic prosperity and general optimism of the late ’90s created the perfect environment for fast, danceable music that—with some notable exceptions—tended to avoid political commentary. An homage to a time when plaids and skankin’ were king and doing the jitterbug in your best suit was so money, Hell of a Hat is an inside look at ’90s ska, swing, and the loud noises of an era when America was dreaming and didn’t even know it.

Whiskaboom and People Soup

Whiskaboom and People Soup PDF Author: Alan Arkin
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN: 1479420506
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 15

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Book Description
Few people realize it today, but famed actor Alan Arkin wrote two science fiction short stories in the 1950s, beginning with "Whiskaboom" in 1955 and "People Soup" in 1958. This volume collects both classic tales!

Cruel to Be Kind

Cruel to Be Kind PDF Author: Will Birch
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306921979
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
The definitive biography of singer-songwriter Nick Lowe, best-known for "Cruel to Be Kind" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" Described as "Britain's greatest living songwriter," Nick Lowe has made his mark as a pioneer of pub rock, power-pop, and punk rock and as a producer of Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, the Damned, and the Pretenders. He has been a pop star with his bands Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile, a stepson-in-law to Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and is the writer behind hits including "Cruel to Be Kind" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding." In the past decades, however, he has distinguished himself as an artist who is equally acclaimed for the second act of his career as a tender yet sharp-tongued acoustic balladeer. Biographer Will Birch, who in addition to being a music writer was a drummer and songwriter with The Records, has known Lowe for over forty years and melds Lowe's gift as a witty raconteur with his own authoritative analysis of Lowe's background and the cultural scenes he exemplifies. Lowe's parallel fame as one of the best interviews in the business will contribute to this first look into his life and work--and likely the closest thing fans will get to an autobiography by this notoriously charming cult figure. This is not an authorized biography, but Lowe has given it his spiritual blessing and his management and label are fully on board. Cruel to Be Kind will be the colorful yet serious account of one of the world's most talented and admired musicians.

Razabilly

Razabilly PDF Author: Nicholas F. Centino
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477323511
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
Vocals tinged with pain and desperation. The deep thuds of an upright bass. Women with short bangs and men in cuffed jeans. These elements and others are the unmistakable signatures of rockabilly, a musical genre normally associated with white male musicians of the 1950s. But in Los Angeles today, rockabilly's primary producers and consumers are Latinos and Latinas. Why are these "Razabillies" partaking in a visibly "un-Latino" subculture that's thought of as a white person's fixation everywhere else? As a Los Angeles Rockabilly insider, Nicholas F. Centino is the right person to answer this question. Pairing a decade of participant observation with interviews and historical research, Centino explores the reasons behind a Rockabilly renaissance in 1990s Los Angeles and demonstrates how, as a form of working-class leisure, this scene provides Razabillies with spaces of respite and conviviality within the alienating landscape of the urban metropolis. A nuanced account revealing how and why Los Angeles Latinas/os have turned to and transformed the music and aesthetic style of 1950s rockabilly, Razabilly offers rare insight into this musical subculture, its place in rock and roll history, and its passionate practitioners.

Top Rankin'

Top Rankin' PDF Author: Howard Paar
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781644281932
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
It's the dawn of 1980 in Los Angeles and everything's changing. Punks, dopers and assorted miscreants play in the decaying homes of Hollywood golden era stars. The playfully decadent, diverse LA punk scene is under threat from the violent, misogynistic hardcore scene not to mention the suddenly cheap, high grade heroin that's tempting many who haven't managed to get their artistic careers in gear yet. James Dual wants no part of that and inspired by the racially integrated punky ska revival in England starts the ON Klub, a ska, soul, and reggae club at the rough and ready pre-gentrified Silver Lake end of Sunset Blvd. He and partner in crime, actor spawn Drea Dresden, try their best to make the transition out of the '70s in one piece. As the hole in the hillside dump of a joint successfully explodes there's no fighting on the ON Klub dance floor shared by young Jamaicans, sharp-dressed Asian American girls, South Central kids, London escapees, mods on scooters from Orange County, Latino kids from the neighborhood--all united by the inspiring vinyl they can't hear on the radio or anywhere else in the US. This is they only place these kids can go where everyone's welcome and they are treated equally so it becomes home to them. All this attention, not to mention over capacity crowds and under age kids leads to a visit from the soon to be notorious Rampart police division who threaten closure and worse. A journalist friend brings a mob related music man connected to Bob Marley to visit the club, who becomes obsessed with the charismatic young Jamaican singer Loraine Sulley, who is performing that night. He lures James with promises to bring in iconic ska and reggae artists to perform at the club if James convinces Loraine to sign to Marshall's planned new record label. In the meantime, James and Drea are threatened by two corrupt Sheriff's homicide detectives who are still trying to nail an innocent James for the death of a band that occurred soon after he first arrived in LA. James arranges to have Drea hide out in London until things cool down. While there she meets controversial new English band Vortex and subsequently joins them for their first US tour where they warn what things could get like if the unthinkable happens and washed up B movie star, US Republican Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan is elected. Capturing the spirit of LA in 1980, Top Rankin' is populated with real-life characters from the music world in Los Angeles, New York, and London, and leads readers on a tour of the dangers and importance of providing refuge on the precipice of major political upheaval.

The Hopefuls

The Hopefuls PDF Author: Paul V. Allen
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476634564
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Songwriters, performers and producers Erik Appelwick, Eric Fawcett, John Hermanson and Darren Jackson were important players in an early 2000s musical collective. This collective included genres such as folk, power pop, R & B, electro-funk and indie rock. Well-known bands Storyhill, Spymob, Alva Star, Kid Dakota, Vicious Vicious, Tapes 'n Tapes, Olympic Hopefuls and others were part of this movement. These four men worked for their rock 'n' roll dreams, producing well-crafted albums and exciting live performances along the way. Their shared biography draws from dozens of new interviews and hundreds of articles to document their intersecting musical journeys--from playing air guitar to KISS records to rocking gyms in high school cover bands to touring the world with some of pop music's biggest names. Equal parts celebration and cautionary tale, this book discusses both the rewards and difficulties of life as an independent musician.