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Monday, February 21, 2011

Guilty Pleasure / Film Brooklyn Rocksteady Documentary

Posted by Alithea O'Dell on Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 12:04 PM

My main gripe growing up in Olympia was that the ska section at Rainy Day Records was pitiful at best, usually only housing a small selection of albums from the Selecter and the Specials. Ten years ago, I found myself with a gift certificate to spend and no Mephiskapheles albums available for purchase. I went up to the disaffected K Records indie rocker working the counter and, most likely wearing a Hawaiian shirt and plaid old man pants, requested some direction on where I could find some real ska albums. Dude took one look at me, rolled his eyes, and instead of guiding me to what any sane record nerd would consider real ska (Don Drummond, Laurel Aitken), he lead me to the Slackers' Wasted Days.

Thank you, disaffected KAOS DJ, for taking pity on my 16-year-old third wave soul and giving me the gift of modern ska that people would take (uh, somewhat) seriously.

Filmmaker Samuel Gursky has taken up the task of creating a documentary about this scene that the Slackers and bands like them personified—it's called Brooklyn Rocksteady. Interviews with the people behind studios including Version City and Moon Ska NYC show their relationship to each other, and their affect on American ska over the last thirty years. At their Kickstarter page, you can read about the project, watch the trailer, and maybe throw them that $10 you were smart enough to not spend on a Mephiskapheles record.

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I'm interested to see this film, It paints a picture of Brooklyn as being some sort of rocksteady haven?

I'm happy that we have a crew spinning records here in seattle. Jet City Sound System!

Posted by helloian on February 22, 2011 at 11:16 AM

The title track off that album is not just one of the best ska songs ever written, it's one of the best sad love songs ever written. A friend described it as a "breakup hangover" song once, which makes sense yet is not entirely sensical.

Posted by Juris on February 22, 2011 at 3:11 PM