Last week one of our customers and good pals JAH POINT invited us to come out to check out his new band THE EQUILIBRIANS at a space out in Brooklyn called the Bushwick Music Studios. Basically, the whole present-day Ska / reggae / early reggae band thing is something I know next to nothing about. To me ignorance is never bliss and the minute you cut yourself off from learning or experiencing new things, you might as well be dead. So, in the spirit of new discoveries, me and Mr. K decided to jump in a cab and head out to the wilds of Bushwick to check out the crazy scene.
As we pulled up to the space, which is located on a totally industrial and uninhabited block, we heard the sweet strains of someone singing Delroy Wilson's "Once Upon a Time" ; our cab driver, who turned out to be a Yardie, started doing the harmonies and said..."Man....I'm going to park the cab and come in there with you. I need to check this out!" So, accompanied by our trusty cab driver we paid our $5 and passed through the doors....
This is the EQUILIBRIANS and their vocalist JAH POINT. You ask who was sounding like Delroy Wilson...well here he is!!! The Equilibrians play a brand of minor key Ska and rocksteady that had me hyped and I was so relieved that I liked the band! There is nothing worse than really liking a person and HATING their band, or their mix Cd or their cooking or whatever it is that they do...So, Jah Point! Big VOICE!...In between THE EQUILIBRIANS' cover tunes, their originals and Jah Point's frequent exaltations of "FOUR LOKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the whole place was going bananas!
Now, you got to understand that from the outside the spot looked like a BIG WAREHOUSE, but when you get in the room -- well it is not much bigger than our store, and our store is damn small! So...this created an awesome connection between the crowd and the band...sweaty, jumping, loud, energetic and simply infused with joyousness and a hard core D.I.Y. ethic that I REALLY appreciate.
Next up was the band HARD TIMES.
These guys were NUTS!!! The band is totally instrumental and, at least to my untrained ears, sounded like a combination of Ska / surf guitar / early reggae with some fuzztone garage stuff mixed in!!! I don't know what really to call it and since I don't know the language of how to describe musicians and musicianship, let's just say, it was super fun music played with a ton of energy and great vibe. At a certain point our man ROY RADICS of the RUDIE CREW jumped onto the stage with HARDTIMES and let loose a display of his DJ talents...flipping it inna UK / fast chat style that had me bawling for forwards!!!!
After HARD TIMES finished up I grabbed another 10 PBRs and sucked them down and chatted with with a guy who is a serious Old School NY anti-fascist / anti-rascist early reggae fanatic. He filled me in on a lot of the history of NY Skinhead stuff and told me how excited he was that this great, local scene was developing at this Bushwick Music Studios with bands and sound systems and the like. Looking around at the crowd, I could definitely understand his pride and happiness -- this was a group of people with no attitude simply united by a love of music, a desire to support their friends and a definite ability to drink a lot of FOUR LOKO!!!! and enjoy themselves!
SHOCKWAVE SOUND with JAH POINT got on the tables and started dropping some serious music with our man ROY RADICS grabbing the mic when the riddims turned digital...he sounded KILLER!!! But all of a sudden this one dude grabbed the mic -- and this is a guy we have seen around in the store and at shows for years -- and he suddenly RIPPED it in a PURE Singjay / Half Pint / Barrington Levy stylee! K and I looked at each other and the surprise made us bust out laughing! This dude was GREAT and had the whole place screaming & shouting!!!!!!!!!! Amazing how sometimes, when you least expect it, someone can just MURDER it!!
Next up was a band from Florida called the DUPPIES. They kind of had to pull people's attention away from the DJs and selectors, but these guys came in FAST and TIGHT!!!
This is the EQUILIBRIANS and their vocalist JAH POINT. You ask who was sounding like Delroy Wilson...well here he is!!! The Equilibrians play a brand of minor key Ska and rocksteady that had me hyped and I was so relieved that I liked the band! There is nothing worse than really liking a person and HATING their band, or their mix Cd or their cooking or whatever it is that they do...So, Jah Point! Big VOICE!...In between THE EQUILIBRIANS' cover tunes, their originals and Jah Point's frequent exaltations of "FOUR LOKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the whole place was going bananas!
Now, you got to understand that from the outside the spot looked like a BIG WAREHOUSE, but when you get in the room -- well it is not much bigger than our store, and our store is damn small! So...this created an awesome connection between the crowd and the band...sweaty, jumping, loud, energetic and simply infused with joyousness and a hard core D.I.Y. ethic that I REALLY appreciate.
When the Equilibrians finished up I grabbed about 6 PBRs, sucked them down while listening to the sounds of SHOCKWAVE SOUND SYSTEM and one of their Selectors, Rata. The sounds boomed out onto the street where all these hooligans were hanging around!
Next up was the band HARD TIMES.
These guys were NUTS!!! The band is totally instrumental and, at least to my untrained ears, sounded like a combination of Ska / surf guitar / early reggae with some fuzztone garage stuff mixed in!!! I don't know what really to call it and since I don't know the language of how to describe musicians and musicianship, let's just say, it was super fun music played with a ton of energy and great vibe. At a certain point our man ROY RADICS of the RUDIE CREW jumped onto the stage with HARDTIMES and let loose a display of his DJ talents...flipping it inna UK / fast chat style that had me bawling for forwards!!!!
After HARD TIMES finished up I grabbed another 10 PBRs and sucked them down and chatted with with a guy who is a serious Old School NY anti-fascist / anti-rascist early reggae fanatic. He filled me in on a lot of the history of NY Skinhead stuff and told me how excited he was that this great, local scene was developing at this Bushwick Music Studios with bands and sound systems and the like. Looking around at the crowd, I could definitely understand his pride and happiness -- this was a group of people with no attitude simply united by a love of music, a desire to support their friends and a definite ability to drink a lot of FOUR LOKO!!!! and enjoy themselves!
And then the surprises started.....
SHOCKWAVE SOUND with JAH POINT got on the tables and started dropping some serious music with our man ROY RADICS grabbing the mic when the riddims turned digital...he sounded KILLER!!! But all of a sudden this one dude grabbed the mic -- and this is a guy we have seen around in the store and at shows for years -- and he suddenly RIPPED it in a PURE Singjay / Half Pint / Barrington Levy stylee! K and I looked at each other and the surprise made us bust out laughing! This dude was GREAT and had the whole place screaming & shouting!!!!!!!!!! Amazing how sometimes, when you least expect it, someone can just MURDER it!!
Next up was a band from Florida called the DUPPIES. They kind of had to pull people's attention away from the DJs and selectors, but these guys came in FAST and TIGHT!!!
They were definitely kind of slicker and poppier than the other two bands.....I would say that if MTV or something corporatel like that wanted to embrace one of these bands...these would be the guys they grabbed up. But, to be honest, I just wasn't really feeling them -- while super talented and tight, they just didn't have the rawness and joy of HARD TIMES or the EQUILIBRIANS.
With the witching hour soon coming and the buzz of 240 cans of PBR hitting us, me and Mr. K decided to leave out and grab a quick photo with Jah Point and some of the other big people pon the scene! We are sorry that we missed Royal City Riot, but will make sure to check them in the future.
So, all in all this night out in Bushwick was both great fun and a true learning experience. Spending one night out with these people gave me a great respect for their passion and their support for each other. All of us find the music in different ways -- some through Sound System Culture, some through family, some through Punk Rock, some through Skinhead culture and some through happenstance and coincidence as if the love of Jamaican music was fate itself -- and those different ways are the manner in which Jamaican music has truly become one of the stronger bridges between different cultures. So, Big Ups to Jah Point & Shockwave Sound, Yana, Dan, Crazy Baldhead Sound, Rata, Roy Radics, Bob Timms, The Equilibrians, Hard Times, The Duppies and Royal City Riot. NUFF RESPECT EACH AND EVERY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FOR MORE INFO:
http://myspace.com/bushwickmusicstudios
http://myspace.com/shockwavesound
http://myspace.com/hardtimesreggae
FOR MORE INFO:
http://myspace.com/bushwickmusicstudios
http://myspace.com/shockwavesound
http://myspace.com/hardtimesreggae
