Bring me back up edition | Friday and whatnot #46

I’m not afraid to jump on the Op Ivy reunion bandwagon. #SkaTwitter has been abuzz with various incarnations of Operation Ivy content, mostly centering around Laura Jane Grace, Catbite, and Eve 6(?). Quite an eclectic list of bands in that previous sentence. In short, Laura Jane Grace put up a change.org petition for Op Ivy to get back together. Many people share her love for them, and as such, have joined in with various forms of support. My favorite so far has been the promise of an Op Ivy cover set fronted by Laura and backed by the band Catbite.

Operation Ivy tl;dr history:

East Bay ska punk band
Members included Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman (who went on to form Rancid), Jesse Michaels, and some other guy (who is that guy?)
Released 1 full length album before breaking up
It’s your favorite ska, ska punk, or punk band’s favorite album

We Are The Union + Eve 6 “Sound System”

Today brought an interesting turn in the Bring Op Ivy back saga. The “heart in a blender” guy from Now That’s What I Call The Majority of Alt Rock Radio in the 90s and Bad Time Record’s own We Are The Union covered the Op Ivy classic “Sound System”. This unlikely collaboration came out of endless trolling posts between each of the bands related to Op Ivy, Riot Fest, and Op Ivy playing at Riot Fest.

Eve 6 guy’s twitter is a bit off the rails at some points, but it’s a decent follow. Every once in a while you get gems like this one. Gotta love the Crazy Town Butterfly shirt and Good Charlotte make up he’s rocking too.

Desmond Dekker & The Aces “007 (Shanty Town)

I’d run across this album cover when researching some first wave ska mentioned in the In Defense of Ska book. As someone that does design for a living, I was immediately drawn to it. Tbh the poker player in me was drawn to aces part too.

I watched a stellar documentary recently, Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records, which featured this song. You hear about the history of rude boys, first wave ska, and the record label that captured it all. It’s told straight from those that lived it, including Dandy Livingstone (original Rudy Can’t Fail artist), Toots Hibbert (of Toots & The Maytals), Lee “Scratch” Jones, Derrick Morgan, and Neville Staple (The Specials) to name a few.

Fun Fact: Sound Systems were the names for the groups that got together and played ska music in the streets of Jamaica. Artists would record and press records the same day, just to get played by the local System System that night

The soundtrack is an amazing listen and a great one to save for a time you really need to chill out. Perhaps I’ll take my own advice on one of these seemingly endless wake up several times a night nights.

Lute “Amen” featuring Little Brother

Ok, so every single song doesn’t have to be ska or ska-adjacent. If you’ve been reading the blog pre-In Defense of Ska, you’d know I’m a huge Little Brother fan. Their 2018 album, May the Lord Watch, is still in heavy rotation on my work playlist along with plenty of Phonte and RBP work too.

In addition to their own solo work, Phonte and Rapper Big Pooh have continued to produce for myriad talented artists over the past few years. This week saw the unfortunately timed release of an album they produced called Gold Mouf by newcomer Lute. The album happened to drop on Monday, just as FB/IG/WA etc went down. Not great for whole digital marketing plan.

Phonte’s verse inspired today’s cover art. Pictured is a outdoor team building / ropes course we stumbled upon when walking a loop trail at UCSD. On the other side of the trees you get a view of the Geisel Library.