Orange Amps Forum

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been listening to a lot of hepcat lately. forget all the middle aged white guys and snot nosed punkers, these guys have the soul and all the talent. love this band, tons of dub stuff (lee perry, king tubby), all the early stuff like the melodians, desmond dekker, skatalites, the early wailers stuff is alright but just the tip of the iceberg. also lots of second wave (the specials, the beat, madness).

discuss.

I like the Specials. I have some dub stuff too. Really weird spaced out crap from the 70s or 80s. I can't remember what it's called right now. I liked some of the pop punk ska crap when I was like 15 or 16 but I quickly realized that stuff was pretty lame. It was the 90s... there were like a million ska bands. Op Ivy was good of course.

I don't get into it too much these days, it all kinda sounds the same to me with slight variations, that's kinda the same way I feel about a lot of Blues too. I guess if I was going to get into that kinda stuff these days, it would be black guys playing reggae.

there's a few groups going right now like the slackers and hepcat who've done a great job of updating the old reggae/ska sounds with touches of jazz, latin, soul and rhythm and blues sounds. truly great stuff. the third wave stuff that got huge in the mid-90's like reel big fish, rancid and save ferris is catchy and fun but just a pale imitation of the great stuff.

baytamusic wrote:I like the Specials. I have some dub stuff too. Really weird spaced out crap from the 70s or 80s. I can't remember what it's called right now. I liked some of the pop punk ska crap when I was like 15 or 16 but I quickly realized that stuff was pretty lame. It was the 90s... there were like a million ska bands. Op Ivy was good of course.

I don't get into it too much these days, it all kinda sounds the same to me with slight variations, that's kinda the same way I feel about a lot of Blues too. I guess if I was going to get into that kinda stuff these days, it would be black guys playing reggae.

+1 on the Op Ivy!! I'm from Fla, and the mid 90s we saw lots of awesome ska bands in our state.

I have a load of proper jamaican ska 7 inch singles from about 1963-1972, I found them in an abandoned flat in Manchester in 1989. They are in pretty poor nick, put play ok. On a modern stereo deck a lot of them sound rough like somebody is frying bacon, but on my 1953 low-end radiogram with a mono crystal cartridge they sound brilliant.
It cranks out a whole 5 watts of power through a single EL84 (I upgraded it from an EL41) - that's enough power to get the neighbours complaining believe me.
I loved two tone also, but the 90s 3rd wave stuff didn't do it for me at all.

chinese fork tie wrote:there's a few groups going right now like the slackers and hepcat who've done a great job of updating the old reggae/ska sounds with touches of jazz, latin, soul and rhythm and blues sounds. truly great stuff. the third wave stuff that got huge in the mid-90's like reel big fish, rancid and save ferris is catchy and fun but just a pale imitation of the great stuff.

Well, I wasn't into THOSE pop punk bands (maybe Rancid on the first record). Not to sound like I think I'm cool but those were kind of the mainstream poppy punk ska bands that came around a little later (Save Ferris, Reel Big Fish). I was more into Less Than Jake, Slapstick, The Goofs, Suicide Machines, Skankin' Pickle, Mustard Plug, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Blue Meanies, Buck-o-Nine etc. There was a huge ska scene in Chicago in the early-mid 90s. HUGE. It kind of faded out of the underground in the late 90s and became more of an MTV and Warp Tour thing. Anyways, I didn't really ever get all that into it. I was more into garage rock and punk back then.

These days I'd definitely prefer stuff like Madness though, or some dub, or just straight Reggae etc. I'll have to check out the newer bands you are talking about, although I thought Hepcat has been around since the 80s...

jontheid wrote:I have a load of proper jamaican ska 7 inch singles from about 1963-1972, I found them in an abandoned flat in Manchester in 1989. They are in pretty poor nick, put play ok. On a modern stereo deck a lot of them sound rough like somebody is frying bacon, but on my 1953 low-end radiogram with a mono crystal cartridge they sound brilliant.
It cranks out a whole 5 watts of power through a single EL84 (I upgraded it from an EL41) - that's enough power to get the neighbours complaining believe me.
I loved two tone also, but the 90s 3rd wave stuff didn't do it for me at all.

So awesome! You "upgraded" the tube in your record player. Nice man! haha.

baytamusic wrote:

chinese fork tie wrote:there's a few groups going right now like the slackers and hepcat who've done a great job of updating the old reggae/ska sounds with touches of jazz, latin, soul and rhythm and blues sounds. truly great stuff. the third wave stuff that got huge in the mid-90's like reel big fish, rancid and save ferris is catchy and fun but just a pale imitation of the great stuff.

Well, I wasn't into THOSE pop punk bands (maybe Rancid on the first record). Not to sound like I think I'm cool but those were kind of the mainstream poppy punk ska bands that came around a little later (Save Ferris, Reel Big Fish). I was more into Less Than Jake, Slapstick, The Goofs, Suicide Machines, Skankin' Pickle, Mustard Plug, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Blue Meanies, Buck-o-Nine etc. There was a huge ska scene in Chicago in the early-mid 90s. HUGE. It kind of faded out of the underground in the late 90s and became more of an MTV and Warp Tour thing. Anyways, I didn't really ever get all that into it. I was more into garage rock and punk back then.

These days I'd definitely prefer stuff like Madness though, or some dub, or just straight Reggae etc. I'll have to check out the newer bands you are talking about, although I thought Hepcat has been around since the 80s...

yeah hepcat and the slackers both date back to the late 80's/early 90's. just a couple bands who are still going and keeping the spirit of first wave alive. some of that 3rd wave stuff was good, mu330 and a lot of the asian man stuff, vgs, etc. it's just that bands like reel big fish gave people such a bad taste of what ska was about that most people don't dig it based purely on bands from the 90's who didn't even get the style or sound.

chinese fork tie wrote:there's a few groups going right now like the slackers and hepcat who've done a great job of updating the old reggae/ska sounds with touches of jazz, latin, soul and rhythm and blues sounds. truly great stuff. the third wave stuff that got huge in the mid-90's like reel big fish, rancid and save ferris is catchy and fun but just a pale imitation of the great stuff.

i don't think it's fair to lump Rancid in with bad 3rd wave pop-ska bands.
the few ska tunes they recorded were better and more tasteful than the majority of that whole scene....

StonieSlagg wrote:

chinese fork tie wrote:there's a few groups going right now like the slackers and hepcat who've done a great job of updating the old reggae/ska sounds with touches of jazz, latin, soul and rhythm and blues sounds. truly great stuff. the third wave stuff that got huge in the mid-90's like reel big fish, rancid and save ferris is catchy and fun but just a pale imitation of the great stuff.

i don't think it's fair to lump Rancid in with bad 3rd wave pop-ska bands.
the few ska tunes they recorded were better and more tasteful than the majority of that whole scene....

they had their moments. personally i like the first three albums they did, but it's largely all just a third-rate clash ripoff.

chinese fork tie wrote:

StonieSlagg wrote:

chinese fork tie wrote:there's a few groups going right now like the slackers and hepcat who've done a great job of updating the old reggae/ska sounds with touches of jazz, latin, soul and rhythm and blues sounds. truly great stuff. the third wave stuff that got huge in the mid-90's like reel big fish, rancid and save ferris is catchy and fun but just a pale imitation of the great stuff.

i don't think it's fair to lump Rancid in with bad 3rd wave pop-ska bands.
the few ska tunes they recorded were better and more tasteful than the majority of that whole scene....

they had their moments. personally i like the first three albums they did, but it's largely all just a third-rate clash ripoff.

i'd say they were a first-rate Clash rip-off at times.
when they aren't channeling the Clash they definitely have their own sound that no one can replicate.
i'd say if you only dig the first three records you're missing out, i think the first five are all great.
"Life Won't Wait" was the "Paul's Boutique" of the 90's....

The toasters are coming here soon and I'll probably go see them, but they're more like early 3rd wave ska.

I dig the specials, skatelites, desmond dekker, and some others too.

baytamusic wrote:

chinese fork tie wrote:there's a few groups going right now like the slackers and hepcat who've done a great job of updating the old reggae/ska sounds with touches of jazz, latin, soul and rhythm and blues sounds. truly great stuff. the third wave stuff that got huge in the mid-90's like reel big fish, rancid and save ferris is catchy and fun but just a pale imitation of the great stuff.

Well, I wasn't into THOSE pop punk bands (maybe Rancid on the first record). Not to sound like I think I'm cool but those were kind of the mainstream poppy punk ska bands that came around a little later (Save Ferris, Reel Big Fish). I was more into Less Than Jake, Slapstick, The Goofs, Suicide Machines, Skankin' Pickle, Mustard Plug, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Blue Meanies, Buck-o-Nine etc. There was a huge ska scene in Chicago in the early-mid 90s. HUGE. It kind of faded out of the underground in the late 90s and became more of an MTV and Warp Tour thing. Anyways, I didn't really ever get all that into it. I was more into garage rock and punk back then.

These days I'd definitely prefer stuff like Madness though, or some dub, or just straight Reggae etc. I'll have to check out the newer bands you are talking about, although I thought Hepcat has been around since the 80s...

The Slackers! Oh my that is a good band. Seen them a few times. Have you guys heard Vic Ruggiero's solo piano stuff? It's really really good!

Less Than Jake were the craziest shows too: clowns, toilet paper guns, silly string, left side of the crowd vs. right side of the crowd mosh pits. A lot of fun in those days.

The Skatalites are the kings. I find that the older sets really should be undisputed in that regard. You can compare whatever you want to it but it's all pretty much a derivative from their core sound as they nail the whole Jamaican vibe better than any band that I have heard. Hell, they define it.

Of course everything musical is subjective and it might not be your cup of tea, etc but to even compare the Skatalites to some of the modern "ska" bands does them a great injustice and I'll go on to extend that injustice to whomever the comparison was suggested to. Sure, we have to group the so-called ska bands together loosely somehow as they play similar instruments with similar beats but that's about the end of the similarity.

Check out these two takes of the same song. The first is the original by the wailers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37cxSDJ3lA0



The second is the Skatalites version. If that's not tight, then I don't know what is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9HyXc4e7Qc


To the OP, yes Hepcat is also an unadulterated sampling of great ska music. I also like the King Tubby, and the others listed as well. Just a big ol place reserved for the Skatalites in my mind.

I had the distinct privilege of seeing Desmond Dekker and his band about 10 years ago. Incredible show from the originator. Don't really have a taste for the imitators, especially the punk/ska boys. Meh. I like the way a lot of other bands throw in ska for flavor and such. Stylistic redirects = nice! (see Mr. Bungle).