Sell Out Records - A Music Review Blog

We end the year on a sad note. The Specials drummer John Bradbury has passed away. He was 62 years old. This comes in light of the death of Lemmy, and Scott Weiland this December. It's been a tough month for music fans. As a ska fan, I am saddened to hear of the passing of Bradbury. I hope you're skanking in the sky, and hopefully we'll hear The Specials again up there.

The Fury of The Aquabats (1997)  From the very first thing that you hear on this record from 1997, you know you’re in for a fun time. The Aquabats are a ska band that got big in the 1990s and are still kicking today. They play a fun type of music where they are superheros and they take on the super villains. The songs all have a fun pace, mixing punk, third wave ska, and lots of great story telling. “The Fury of The Aquabats” was the first major exposure any of us punk kids got to a man by the name of Travis Barker. Surely, you don’t mean Travis Barker of Blink 182 fame, do you Jorge? Yes! That very same guy is on this record playing drums, long before Blink called him up, he was the drummer for this recording, and super group The Aquabats!

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones "Let's Face It" LP  Let’s go back to 1997 for a minute. That was when I was young and dumb, but loved ska music. A lot of my friends thought that the genre was dumb or lame. I didn’t care, I still love the world of ska music and will recommend a ton of records to people that ask. With that in mind, one of the most popular and o utstanding works from the genre is none other than The Mighty Might Bosstones “Let’s Face It” . This is a record that absolutely skyrocketed the band from being a third wave ska act into the mainstream circus of music. In fact, it was their lead single that seemed to get the band the recognition that I had been trying to give them since I first heard their debut on cassette. Whatever the case is, the band saw significant success in ska music and the mainstream as a result of this compelling record. The tracks that stand out here include “Noise Brigade”, “The Rascal King”, “The Impression That I Get”, “Numbered Days...

Hepcat "Right On Time" LP  Hepcat is a band that should be on every jazz fans list. This is a jazzy ska record that doesn’t get enough respect, if you ask me. There’s something special about “Right on Time” , from the introductory phone call from one of the member’s father, to the way that the music flows through time. This was released in the 1990s, and yet it sounds like something that you’d find on a juke box from your favorite 50’s diner. This is a very intriguing ska record because of the way the vocal harmonies work. If that doesn’t grab you and take you back in time, then at least consider the way that the music works. Hepcat’s “Right on Time” presents a lot of jazz momentum. The trumpet alone is beautiful, and the horn section just puts on a showcase of interludes, bridges, and moments that are too much like jazz to call ska alone. Through the record you get a feeling that these guys are traditionally trained, and not just a rag tag grouping that were picked up...

The Dingees have been one of those bands that people love to hate. That’s at least what I got from people whenever I said I was a fan. I saw them play a lot. I saw them play at the mega show that was Skamania with The Supertones and Slick Shoes. I saw them play with Stavesacre and Project 86, and I booked them to play a show at a church in Orange County with Makeshift3, Beauty to Ashes, and The Discarded. I recall begrudgingly paying Pegleg (the singer) their fee, even though not a lot of people came to the show. But hey, we broke even, and I got a free shirt for my troubles. He was down. “The Crucial Conspiracy” had come out and it seemed like no one cared about the once promising band on the Tooth and Nail roster. “The Crucial Conspiracy” seems like a concept record , as the artwork is amazing. The art done for the record is definitely something to see, as the band’s record is placed into an Orwellian perspective. I love how the art and design flows through a very concrete and v...

When it comes to reggae and ska, I’ve listened to it all. I’ve heard good and I’ve heard terrible, and whenever a band claims they are playing this style of music, I get a bit nervous. Sono Vero, however, completely floored me. They are solid, well produced, and know how to fuse the best parts of rock, ska, and reggae to follow through on the traditional but put their own unique spin on it. This is exactly the kind of power that Sublime was able to call upon, and the same kind of influence that Dirty Heads are doing on KROQ. However, Sono Vero is doing it differently, they have a certain intangible quality that makes this release shine among the others on the market today. “Roses are Reckless” represents the finest fusion of modern rock, reggae, and melody I’ve heard in a LONG time. The band has been getting serious airplay, and has been getting requested on radio today. The hip hop portion of this band is clean, amidst the island sound, which is definitely a highlight of the recor...

Less Than Jake plays a brand of ska that has been part of my collection for a long time. Mixing punk and ska elements to create some of my favorite music ever is all part of their day job. My day job is not as cool, but that’s not here nor there. The band released a record on Fat Wreck Chords and I personally love their return to the independent scene after floating around the majors. Wait, that hasn’t been for a while hasn’t it? Whatever the case is, they have a new record and it’s been spinning around the house when no one is around, and apparently puts the cats to sleep as they are slumbering right now. As you will find out from this video, Less Than Jake wanted to include all of their friends in the production of “My Money is On The Long Shot”. I posted a link to it online, and everyone ignored it. So I waited, and now they have released it on youtube, which means that I can feature it. The band sent a message to all their friends asking them to sing the song on camera. What w...

Before sell out records became a blog, I spent a lot of time writing about the history of music. One of the bands that has been a part of my collection since I first discovered alternative music was this mighty band, Skatalites. Every time they have come around, I have missed them, and I was even made fun of and called gay for liking the genre. Well, that's too bad for all those idiots that didn't like this brand of music, because they are the ones that are missing out. This is one of the best examples of the genre and the band has been around for what seems like forever. They do not play third wave, they play the traditional ska set from the 1960s and it's a jazz fusion in many ways. I wrote this original condensed history a few years ago. However, I found that it fits in this website a lot better than it did on my other website, so I wanted to move it, and make sure it got a little bit more of the sell out records treatment. So here it is, a condensed history of the ban...

Today I woke up at 4 in the morning, and didn’t start listening to music until it was nearly noon. Even with the limited amount of time, I did find myself drifting into a variety of different musical genres. It’s funny how polarizing certain things are when you label yourself a fan. I’m definitely someone that is a lover of all music types, and often times find that my tastes are not necessarily one way or another. They are eclectic, and as cliché as that sounds, it’s definitely showcased by today’s daily spin. Today is Thursday December 5, 2013 and I was all over the place in terms of subjects. I don’t know what drives me to pick the records that I do, or play what I do, but Spotify has made it a lot easier than cycling through my iTunes folders from hell. I got a free month of premium, so that’s a good thing, 31 days of nonstop music. I wish I would’ve gone into broadcasting, I’d love to be a rock and roll dj. Vj’s are dead right? Who knows? Anyways, here’s the records I listened...

Hot Chick :) Not me If you know, particularly Jorge Sellout (Sir Jorge), than you will know that I love ska . I’ve loved ska music since I was a kid, and no matter what I go back to the trumpets, horns, and upstrummed guitar work that has come out of Jamaica. I love traditional, dub, reggae, two tone, new wave, and speak about it on my blogs. I’ve spoken about Trojan Records in the past, and often times find that no one knows what I’m talking about or even buys the records. I even linked the top records here, and nothing, no one seems to care about them. That’s ok. I wanted to bring to light that I live in Pomona and have recently found an awesome shop. Demented Clothing in downtown, where I live, features a lot of cool stuff that you should see in Hot Topic, but don’t. Remember when that store was all about the music? Well, it’s no longer about the music, it’s about something else. Well, I was in the shop recently and they had a lot of cool patches, and one caught my eye that ...

Hecpat Traditional Ska The 1990’s brought out of the woodworks all sorts of ska bands. The third wave ska movement has since died off, with only the top bands still playing today. Most of them stopped playing traditional rock steady and ska, but still manage to have a following, including The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, and No Doubt, just to name a few. However, for the purists of ska music from the Jamaican tradition, there wasn’t much to be had in the third wave, but out came Hepcat and their third record continued their traditional of replicating and enhancing traditional ska motif’s. The fourth album from Hepcat was called “Push ‘N Shove” and was recorded in their hometown of Los Angeles and was released in the summer of 2000. The music on their fourth record was somewhat derivative and was more steady and reggae, which was not the norm at the time. In fact, few people even called the release ska, and by the end of 1999, no one was listening to ska, at least not ...

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