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Showing posts from December 2, 2012

2012 - A year in Skankin' Review

I have had few more emotionally and physically complicated years than this one in my life. It was a steady road of giant potholes and speed bumps taking me from emergency rooms to specialists and tests while putting my mental well being and my very nerves through paper shredders. Somewhere between a broken heart and a major health scare, I found my voice again in the embrace of the welcoming arms of an old friend. The ska scene. And the many devoted people in it. This was the year my radio show moved to a new home. My format swap was finally complete. No longer was I commuting to a studio in the next state...but simply my kitchen. The control was mine, and my intentions were finally realized and completed...while I am still ironing out the kinks (and learning all the software). My blog gained it's major following with a lot of help and support from the very artists who inspired it in the first place. It's one thing to be able to freely write about the people that move you s

The Bandulus - The Times We Had and an interview with Jeremy Pena

I will admit it. My only knowledge of Texas was what I learned from Urban Cowboy (...I'm slightly obsessed with it) and that the Houston airport smelled like popcorn last time I went through there on my way to San Antonio. I'm not proud. But it seems in Texas, there was also the Bandulus. I was a late Bandulus bloomer. My partner in ska crimes and documentary filming, Randy from Ska Crazy, did an interview with me on his show after we started working on our filming plans. He opened that particular show with the song Ska, Reggae, and Soul by the Bandulus, and that was the first time I had ever heard it. I don't know what it was that hit me the hardest. I am a sucker for vocals, so that was a major factor...but the song itself is just a perfect descriptive of exactly what it talks about. I immediately told Randy I wanted this to be my theme song. I needed some guy to follow me around with a boombox playing this song for the rest of my life. That was it. I was hooked. I fr

The Version City Tour hits the road!

I am so excited about this, I could just spit. The amazing, highly influential, and always delightful King Django will be taking to the road with The Heavy Beat's Matt MacLeod and The Snails for The Version City Tour! It's a total mind-blowing mash-up of talent and from the snippets I hear around about the rehearsals, we are all in for a good damn time. A Perfect Mess is freaking ELATED to be a sponsor of the tour, and I can't wait to get out to see it all go down. The tour is gearing up to kick off in less than two weeks, officially on December 15th in New London, CT. It will run through the balance of 2012 and then through most of January before finishing up in Harrisburg, PA on January 20th. I plan to be there. With bells on. Here is the official press release with a listing of dates and cities...if you don't get out to see this, I don't know what to do with you: V ersion City Tour to Bring New York Ska to the Rest of the East Coast New Brunswick,