Jesus Is My Friend

some important lessons...to a catchy ska tune...

Cutty Ranks PNP Rally 1986

I'm a big fan of all reggae, up to around '84, especially the DJ's, Roots, Dub and Rocksteady. As fr as I am concerned most of the current dancehall pretty much sucks and so because of that I ignored most of the early digital dancehall. Recently I have been digging a lot of Toyan, early Cutty Ranks and the like.....ripping stuff. Here we have Cutty Ranks decimating the Sleng Teng rthymn at a PNP rally....

It doesn't get much better than this

Straight Ahead live @ CBGB's 1988




Breakdown live @ Tompkins Square NYC 1988



"Talk about Unity" NYHC documentary that never saw the light of day...

Weller/Mayfield Mash Up

Superb Northern Soul track covered by The Jam.

Are "Friends" Electric?

Gary Numan was the weird gay robot bloke who freaked you out a little bit when he came on Top Of The Pops. I have to admit though, I was really into synthesizer music when I was a nipper. I was into science fiction and computers, so stuff like the Pet Shop Boys, The Communards, and yes, Gary Numan seemed like the music of the future. After reading Simon Reynolds' post-punk history Rip It Up And Start Again I started revisiting some of that stuff. Some of it I just had to dig out my old records, but even more of it I found at Amoeba in the bargain bin. There wasn't a lot of demand for Heaven 17 singles for some reason. When it comes to this stuff, not much can touch The Normal or the first Human League single, but lately I've been coming back to Gary Numan/Tubeway Army a lot. I usually always drop 'Cars' when I DJ but he's got loads of good songs with some super hard, solid guitar or synth riffs and some amazingly solid drumming. Not showy, but expertly holding down prog/kraut rhythms and giving life to what could otherwise be fairly soul-less music. Maybe that's what a lot of electronic music is lacking: live drums. Anyway, check out the two Tubeway Army albums (s/t and Replicas) and the first Gary Numan album (The Pleasure Principle) if you get a chance. You won't be sorry. There's a Tubeway Army demos album which is supposedly more punk/new wave but I haven't heard that. Oh yeah, and as it turns out he wasn't actually gay; in fact, he married a member of his fan club.

Prince Buster

I recently scored a bunch of great rocksteady and ska 7"s off ebay. One of them was Prince Buster's "Ten Commandments", just an amazing rocksteady tune. I can hardly wait to drop this sucker at the next B&M! I was going to post up the tune, but instead I'll link to this Youtube video of a woman making a necklace to the tune, with what appears to be a St. George's flag on the sofa behind her!

Prince Buster - 10 Commandments

Skinheads in 1988

From a local NYC news show in 1988. Featuring a very young Marcus Pacheco of Primal Urge(now called Skull&Sword) Tattoo in SF. Shop is owned and run by Marcus and Grime.
PrimalUrgeSF, Short Interview, SHARP Skins