ska
You can add ska-punk legends Fishbone to the increasingly lengthy list of musicians who are not fans of Donald Trump. The veteran band released a pointed broadside against convicted felon Trump on Thursday (Oct. 31), just days before the Nov. 5 presidential election.
“Proud to have this new song out… it was actually written back in 2017, but never got on tape until now. Sad part is that it’s only gotten worse,” the band wrote on Instagram about the bubbling verbal takedown “Racist Piece of S–t” (also tagged as “RxPxOxS” to seemingly beat censors.)
“Here’s the thing, this song pulled no punches… if you are a fan of this band from the start, you know we have never been shy of speaking our truth,” they wrote on Instagram of the track whose lyric video features a cascade of news headlines about the deadly January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
And, indeed, the lyrics to the two-tone takedown are precise and concise. “I see you coming down the street/ With tiki torches and hate speech/ You’re not a proud boy/ You’re just a F$@k Boy/ Drinking the kool aid Of a mad orange king,” singer Angelo Moore spits in reference to the white supremacist rally Charlottesville in 2017 in which neo-Nazis spewed antisemitic and racist hates speech at an event where Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides.”
The song continues with lyrics aimed at one of the celebrity supporters of the former reality star, before getting to the pointed chorus. “Another Kid Rock/ With all the hate talk/ Murder Sickness global crisis coup d’état vanilla isis/ Ohhhh.. you’re just a racist piece of s–t,” Moore sings, adding, “The Power zombies said/ Let’s put this lie to bed/ Here’s an ignorant pillow for your empty racist head.”
“As artists, this is our platform, be it music, art or words. If you don’t agree, that’s fine,” Fishbone said in their statement. “Just don’t come in here telling us to shut up and dribble, you are talking to the wrong brothers. We speak our reality and if you are still “undecided” well, maybe this song and perspective will open you up with a straight up call out of what is at stake.”
The Los Angeles group has long made standing up to racism and fascism part of their brand, mixing uptempo party jams with conscious lyrics on their beloved 1988 second album, Truth and Soul, including on the punk blitz “Subliminal Fascism” and funk rocking “Ghetto Soundwave.”
In an email interview with Rolling Stone, founding keyboard/trombone player Christopher Dowd said he knew he had to write a song about Trump a decade ago when Trump announced his first run for the White House. “The timing of this release couldn’t be more perfect,” Dowd told the magazine. “With Election Day five days away, maybe hearing this song, if you are ‘undecided,’ will trigger your subconscious to think about who could win and what that would look like to the country and the world. One person in a leadership position can automatically make you guilty by association. So will you want to be associated and represented by a person with non-apologetic racist tendencies or a person that doesn’t?”
The post ended with an urgent plea to vote on Tuesday (Nov. 5)in the election that pollsters continue to say is a near dead-heat between Vice President Kamala Harris and twice impeached Trump.
Listen to “Racist Piece of S–t” below.
Operation Ivy fans rejoice! The legendary late 1980s Berkeley, California ska punk band featuring Rancid singer/guitarist Tim Armstrong and singer Jesse Michaels is partially reunited on the debut single from Armstrong and Michaels’ new band, Bad Optix.
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See latest videos, charts and news
Their easy skanking first track, “Raid,” dropped on Wednesday (March 29) and it features the former bandmates trading off vocals on a track about looking for distraction in a time of anxiety and confusion. “Rethrone a crown with their hands made of stone / New crew got oil in our bones / Good things perish on the road to the castle,” Armstrong sings in his signature dead-set vocal style over a bubbling ska arrangement.
“RAID/ Hit them where they live, where they kill, where they bury/ RAID/ We won’t step in line for the party secretary,” the group gang up on the anti-authoritarian song’s urgent chorus. The band featuring Circle Jerks/The Bronx drummer Joey Castillo and Trash Talk bassist Spencer Pollard share a writing and production credit on the song, which will kick off the new Hellcat Single Club.
The Club will roll out a series of releases by a number of as-yet-unnamed bands curated by Armstrong and the Hellcat squad.
“’Raid’ is about every person’s spiritual autonomy from the powers that be, regardless of who they are or what their particular struggle is,” Michaels said in a statement about the rockstady song. “Like many of the tracks we have worked on, I heard the music and wrote the lyrics very quickly, almost on the spot. This was only the second song we did but it felt hot immediately and just flowed so we thought it would be a good way to introduce the new band to the world.”
According to the statement, the group formed in March 2021 and Michaels said despite the more than three-decade gap between the 1989 dissolution of the short-lived Op Ivy and the formation of Optix, his creative connection with Armstrong has only gotten stronger. The band was birthed when Michaels and Armstrong reconnected to hang out and Armstrong played his old friend some tracks he’d been working on.
“As soon as we started writing together, we found that we had the same collaborative energy that we had in the past, so it was natural and fun just to keep going,” Michaels said of the immediate lyrical/vocal inspiration he felt. “It came back, just like that. Like when we were kids,” Armstrong added. “There is a special chemistry between us and I don’t take it for granted.”
Armstrong and Michaels performed together for only the second time in 33 years last February to play the Op Ivy song “Sound System” at the Musack Charity Concert in Los Angeles.
Armstrong nodded to his long association with Michaels in an Instagram post, writing that they’ve been friends since they were teens in the early 1980s. “We formed Operation Ivy in 1987 and 2 years later we broke up. Jesse and I both continued down our own musical journeys through the years,” he said. “I always felt a little sadness that Jesse and I stoped making music together. But we never lost touch. And then it happened. A few years ago we started writing songs again! A couple of the songs ended up on Grade 2’s record. Jesse and I just stared writing again a lot. It came back. Just like that. Like when we we were kids. There is a special chemistry between us and I don’t take it for granted.”
Armstrong also had high praise for Castillo, who he called “one of the best drummers in the world and a dear friend,” and Pollard, who he met a few years ago when Castillo brought Trash Talk to record at Armstrong’s studio. “The rhythm section of Joey and Spencer is as good as it gets and their respected styled has added another element to the song writing,” he wrote.
In an Instagram Story, Michaels elaborated on the inspiration for Bad Optix and what’s to come, writing, “It’s funny how life happens because I had been sort of thinking about anything and everything besides doing music at that time but that’s the way it always works. Anyway, we kept writing songs over the last year and we have more to share, which we will do over the coming months.” He also teased some live shows (“eventually”), but said for now they’re just taking things slowly and having fun.
While “Raid” has a vibe that fits with both men’s musical lane, Michaels promised that they’ve also written “a lot of punk stuff and some stuff that is hard to even categorize. Really excited about this project and hope you guys dig it,” he wrote.
Listen to “Raid” and see Armstrong’s post below.
Just says after the death of The Specials singer Terry Hall at age 63 after what the band described as a “brief illness,” the group’s bassist revealed the beloved singer’s cancer diagnosis, as well as the previously undisclosed album the group was preparing to record.
“We had it all planned out. Make the album we were going to do in 2020 – a reggae album,” wrote Horace Panter, an original member of the second wave British two tone ska revivalist group of the sessions that were already booked in Los Angeles during the first winter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Panter said Aggrolites keyboardist Roger Rivas was set to co-produce the set and famed street artists Shepard Fairey was on board to create the cover.
With 8 songs prepped for the sessions by Hall, “confidence was high,” Panter wrote, noting that a revised plan called for them to hit the studio in September of this year. “Terry e-mails everyone and says he’s in bed with a stomach bug and can’t do the first week of pre-production sessions,” according to Panter. “No big deal, we can knock everything back a week. We’re not due to fly out until November 4th. The next week, Terry is no better and is in hospital. There’s not much we can do except wait for him to get better. Sunday October 2nd and I get a phone call from Manager Steve. And everything turns to s–t.”
Panter said that Hall’s illness was “a lot worse” than anyone thought, writing that the singer had been “diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas which has spread to his liver. This is serious. Like life-threatening serious.” At press time Billboard was unable to independently confirm the description of Hall’s illness and cause of death.
After the pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Panter said that Hall then developed diabetes, with chemotherapy going well, but pushing any potential plans to record vocals to March 2023 at the earliest. “He is in and out of hospital to stabilise the diabetes issue and also to manage pain. It then goes quiet,” Panter wrote. “Beginning of December and reports are not good. Terry has lost a lot of weight and is very frail. His friend Ian Broudie visits and phones Manager Steve. He fears that Terry is slipping away. 15th December and Manager Steve drives up to London to visit. He calls me on his return journey and says things are not looking promising. Terry is dying.”
The day after the visit, Panter said Hall was placed on morphine and was essentially unconscious most of the time. He described Hall’s wife holding the phone to the singer’s ear so he could say goodbyes to his bandmates and family, including to Panter. The bassist said the “Ghost Town” singer died on Sunday evening. “The world has lost a unique voice and I have lost a good friend,” he lamented.
One of the leading lights of the late ’70s British ska revival, The Specials (originally billed as Special AKA) formed in Coventry, England, in 1977, with Hall replacing original singer Tim Strickland in the group notable for its multiracial makeup. Coinciding with the burgeoning Rock Against Racism movement in the U.K. at the time, the band members made a statement in their rude boy two-tone suits and porkpie hats and blasted out of the gate on their Elvis Costello-produced self-titled debut on their 2 Tone label, which featured their signature cover of Dandy Livingstone’s 1967 single “A Message to You Rudy.”
The outpouring of grief over Hall’s death came in a torrent in the days after, with everyone from Elvis Costello (who produced the band’s self-titled 1979 debut), to Go-Gos guitarist Jane Wiedlin (who sang backing vocals on the group’s 1980s More Specials album) and dozens of other friends, peers and collaborators sharing their thoughts.
One of the most moving was a wordless, emotional piano performance of The Specials’ 1980s track “Friday Night, Saturday Morning” by Blur/Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn. “Terry, you meant the world to me. I love you,” Albarn wrote.
See Panter’s FB postand see Albarn’s tribute below.
Terry Hall, the charismatic lead vocalist of British ska revivalists The Specials has died at 63. The band announced Hall’s passing on Monday (Dec. 19), revealing that the singer passed after an undisclosed “brief illness.”
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing, following a brief illness, of Terry, our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced,” the band said in a statement.
“Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls. His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but mostly the love. He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity.”
One of the leading lights of the late ’70s British ska revival, the Specials (originally billed as Special AKA) formed in Coventry, England in 1977, with Hall replacing original singer Tim Strickland in the group notable for its multi-racial makeup. Coinciding with the burgeoning Rock Against Racism movement in the UK at the time, the band made a statement in their rude boy two-tone suits and porkpie hats and blasted out of the gate on their Elvis Costello-produced self-titled debut on their 2 Tone label, which featured their signature cover of Dandy Livingstone’s 1967 single “A Message To You Rudy.”
Terence Edward Hall was born on March 19, 1959 in Coventry and began his singing career in local punk bands as a teenager before joining the Specials and splitting vocal duties with the excitable Neville Staple.
On such pointedly political songs as “Concrete Jungle,” “Ghost Town and “Rat Race,” the band mixed Caribbean sway, ska horns, loungey grooves and Jamaican rhythms to form a uniquely uplifting, danceable sound while delivering sharp social critiques about the late 1970s political, racial and economic struggles in the UK. Go-Gos guitarist Jane Wiedlin — who sang backing vocals on the Specials’ 1980 album More Specials — paid tribute to her friend in a touching tweet.
“Gutted to hear of the passing of #terryhall. He was a lovely, sensitive, talented and unique person,” he wrote. “Our extremely brief romance resulted in the song ‘Our Lips Are Sealed,’ which will forever tie us together in music history. Terrible news to hear this.”
The group scored a string of UK top 10 singles in their short initial run (1979-1981), before Hall and co-vocalist Staple and guitarist Lynval Golding split to form the more pop-oriented group Fun Boy Three. Hall then formed the group the Coclourfield in 1984, releasing two albums with that project before pivoting to release an album with his trio featuring actress Blair Booth and jeweler Anouchka Grose: Terry, Blair & Anouchka. He also recorded an album of electro pop songs with Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart as Vegas in 1992 before releasing a pair of solo albums, Home (1994) and Laugh (1997).
Hall returned for a reunion in 2008 and performed on-and-off with the band until his death, appearing on their eight studio album, 2019’s Encore.
In the early 2000s Hall sang on the 2001 Gorillaz song “911” and sat in on the Toots and the Maytals 2004 Grammy-winning album True Love. Though the Specials formed and reformed a number of times over the years with a wide variety of lineups, Hall will be remembered for the indelible mark he left on their first two albums and the long tail of influence in the band’s music, message and style, which was carried on in spirit by everyone from Fishbone to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt, Blur, Sublime, and Operation Ivy/Rancid.
In a moving nod to the Specials’ message of unity, the band noted in its tribute that Hall often left the stage at the end of shows by uttering a signature affirming three-word mantra: “Love Love Love.”
Watch “A Message to You Rudy” and see some tributes to Hall below.
Gutted to hear of the passing of #terryhall. He was a lovely, sensitive, talented and unique person. Our extremely brief romance resulted in the song Our Lips Are Sealed, which will forever tie us together in music history. Terrible news to hear this. 😢 pic.twitter.com/Fxxqr0p01T— Jane Wiedlin (@janewiedlin) December 19, 2022
The Specials were a celebration of how British culture was envigorated by Caribbean immigration but the onstage demenour of their lead singer was a reminder that they were in the serious business of challenging our perception of who we were in the late 1970s. RIP Terry Hall pic.twitter.com/PVwbXyXubq— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) December 19, 2022
“I was deeply saddened to hear about Terry Hall’s passing on Sunday. @SugaryStaple was called as we arrived in Egypt. We knew Terry had been unwell but didn’t realise how serious until recently. We had only just confirmed some 2023 joint music agreements together. This has hit me pic.twitter.com/sHNMJIwPII— From THE SPECIALS Neville Staple (@NevilleStaple) December 19, 2022
This is very very sad newsOnly if we had the conscious humour & intelligence in popular music today that #terryhall brought in his lyrics to us all back then.It’s time to put the specials where they belong as one of the greatest British bands ever. #ripterryhall https://t.co/Ghrh2o0uPj— 🏴☠️ Geoff Barrow 🏴☠️ (@jetfury) December 20, 2022
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