Greetings, campers, here are the song-by-song notes for my solo skampilation, Poppin’ the Ska, copied over from my Bandcamp pages, now here in blog form. Cos why not?
Donkeyfish
A ska song about ska? Why yes, Petunia. Conjured up at home in late 2024 and quickly released as a single, this song gave me the notion to compile my more Ska solo efforts into an album, and, here that album is. Put on yr dancing shoes and dive in!
Bennie Got A Boat
A true story, in parts. Features the good Captain Bennie himself, on Bass, and two UpTones horn cats! I’ve had this recording sitting about for a long while, recorded in the early 2000s while the UpTones were having a third (or so) resurrection. As for the Captain, he’s indeed a sailor, always was, since youth, so this part, in the very least, is true!
I Quit (Gone Fishen)
A theme develops! UpTones drummer John Mader helped me bring this puppy home, remote from our studio-caves during the Covidopalypse. A fun and bouncy rejection of all that might vex us in our quest for not being vexed. I’m especially fond of the bass guitar descending octave run a’la funky ’70s, a technique brought forward in ska music by Horace Panter. The huge reverb snare-thingy was quite a project, I pored over this track for a while before calling it soup yet. Listening back now as I compile this album I can say, wow, it actually works quite well! So I’m goin’ fishen.
Rabbitus Maximus
Conceived and recorded on January 1, 2024 and promptly released as a single, appearing here again as part of my Poppin’ the Ska album, Rabbitus Maximus is one of my personal favorites.
Coventry
So much backstory here but when I start to write it, it feels better to let the song speak for itself, and someday I shall write a book. This song came to me so fast, I hardly remember creating it. It took about one day from idea to final mix (quite unlike some of the other tracks in the skallection!)
Bond Meets The Godfather
High-concept? Low-brow?! I dunno, but I like it. Silliest idea but I just had to pursue it, and it was so fun. Can you spot the melodic Easter eggs? We quote the Godfather theme, Gangsters by the Specials, and of course Bond themes! But just a taste, you know, so they don’t send their goons. Mind the ejector seat.
Jupiter Girls
The Poppermost of my Ska-Poppin’, Jupiter Girls was on my first solo album and released as a single. The long-distance production with Steven Bernstein and Jay Lane was ambitious, and I didn’t know if it’d work, but the ska-pop gods smiled upon it! This was another created during my Covidopalypse Renaissance in isolation. The original lyrical idea, I had scribbled on a napkin tipsy on the 51 bus after a night at Jupiter and indeed, there were dancing babies, and the beers were not spilled.
Radiation Boy (solo acoustic live version)
Recorded live at Down Home Music on August 12, 2023, this is one of the first songs I wrote for the UpTones, way back in ’82. I was surprised to find out it works well as a solo acoustic number, enough to include it here.
1983
No accident this comes right after RadBoy on this comp. And wow, what a production this turned out to be. Went big on it, real studio, real drums. Even called in my UpTones bro Paul Jackson to sing BGs on it, and it was all a blast. Rest in peace, Juliet, who made her exit this year, a star to all who knew her. “Scooter rides on the Quake” is a nod to a Robert Seidler (AKA Cole Panther) hit on KQAK and KUSF at the same time those now-legendary stations were spinning the early UpTones. Our original lineup (or, most of it) played our final show on New Years Eve going into 1984, opening for Oingo Boingo at the Warfield in San Francisco. Bill Graham himself brought us a bottle of champagne at midnight, as Boingo sang “Wake up, it’s 1984.”
Talkin’ To The Wall
This is one of the wilder productions I’ve made. I had a recording of myself and Moose Lethridge playing acoustic guitars at my cottage in Rockridge, singing this song which I had just written. The UpTones were semi-retired (again!) and I didn’t see an immediate opportunity to try the song with the band, so I forgot about it for a while. Enter, Covidopalypse! Listening to old tapes (hard drives, rather) I found this and thought, hmm, can I add bass and drums and flesh this out a bit? Sure enough, Thomas White, UpTones founding drummer knocks it out of the park, I add bass, and Adam Beach, UpTones sax man extraordinaire, does his extraordinary thing. All remotely, from their own studio-caves, as such. I love Adam’s phrasing on this. He has a way of dragging a melody into last week and still somehow connecting with the beat in a coherent way. It’s uncanny. Unskanny, if you will. So this track in a funny way, once I Frankensteined it all together, turned out to be a mini-UpTones.
People I May Know (D. Backle remix)
The last and greatest remix of one of my personal faves. Ironic timing, too, since I am in fact (for the first time) in FB exile! Perhaps permanently? We’ll see. Send me kittycats!
Bennie Got A Boat (reprise)
Composed to-order for this collection, Bennie Got A Boat (reprise) is a clear and blatant nod to Enjoy Yourself (reprise) by The Specials. I whipped it up as Shannon finished the cover art, which is also a clear nod! Can you name the R. Crumb album art it’s based on? If you’re around my age, your parents had a copy! One guitar track, some vocals and reverb and very large waves. Hey, is it a true story? As the Clash would say, some of it is, Gabriella! <3 Bon voyage
