It’s been 30 years since A Tribe Called Quest release their perennial favorite The Low End Theory. I wasn’t a cool enough 8 year old to check it out when it dropped, but did my fair share of catching up in my late teens and early 20s.
A Tribe Called Quest “Check the Rhime”
A classic Tribe song with a great early 90s video. There are some high-tech moves like the inverted color filter, and imposing larger than life MCs in front of their own cribs, that let you know they were serious. The horn line is incredibly recognizable, but I didn’t know it was from a group called Average White Band, great name. You might recognize the chunky drums late in the song from Biz Markie’s “Nobody Beats Da Biz”.
Not only an inspiration for the blog, the Chavez brothers were also big ATCQ proponents. They long extolled the virtues of “Can I Kick It?” as the greatest hip-hop song ever. I’m not quite there yet, but I’ll be damned if Tribe aren’t one of the best groups of all time. I dig the way Q-Tip and Phife take turns, play off each other, and flow smoothly together.
Lately, it’s a certain vegan TikTok? (Maybe IG, Stace shows them to me, I’m not “down” or “with it” enough to have either) that is my current source of ATCQ inspiration. The channel is called Turnip Vegan, and dude’s catch phrase, is “Check the Vibes”. Old school hip-hop classics play while he concocts immaculate vegan dishes. *Chef’s Kiss*. This has also sparked my family to start saying “Check the Vibes” randomly, and aggressively, when tasting amazing food.
Bad Operation “Perilous”
You may recall, back in December 2020, I featured Bad Operation’s first single and video from their debut album. Ska Twitter the past week let me know that Bad Operation are actually playing their very first(?!?) live show in the next few weeks. I guess that’s what happens when you start a band during the pandemic. It’s just odd because I’ve seen their name and album thrown around a lot the last year with great new ska bands. I never considered they wouldn’t have played a show together yet.
I chose this track because of the homage at the beginning. When I first heard the song, I was like, “ummm the Impossibles??”. I was super happy to hear the confirmation (via Joyce Manor on In Defense of Ska podcast), that this was in fact a nod to that 90s-00s band from Austin. Also, great to hear word got back to The Impossibles and they were stoked on it.
Incredible stroke of luck that Barry Johnson, of non-ska band Joyce Manor, was a fan of ska back in the day, enough to make a compelling IDoS guest, is a current collaborator with Rory from The Impossibles, and is down with new enough ska to have heard New Orleans’ No Wave newcomers Bad Operation. Last bit of luck, Adam and Aaron managed to pull this info out unintentionally.
Song Comparison:
The Impossibles “Eightball”: *rollercoaster scream* “Hi! We’re The Impossibles, from Austin, TX”
Bad Operation “Perilous”: *rollercoaster scream* “Hi! We’re Bad Operation, from New Orleans”
Mad Caddies “Destro”
Mad Caddies were one of the first ska bands we were into in the mid 90s, but it was for their Quality Softcore and Duck and Cover albums. By 2000, they released a more rock sounding EP, The Holiday has been Cancelled, and I was unsure of the path they would choose going forward.
If you guessed a pirate themed album was next, followed by a retro 30-40s inspired album, and down the road they would have a rocksteady style cover album of popular punk rock songs, then you’d be a ridiculously good guesser. That stuff seemed randomish to me, but hell, they are quite the unique band that was responsible for the song “Monkeys”. I can’t remember who was which side, but Sles and Michael Banks had polar opposite views on, and reactions to, the song.
