10/25/2012 Rocket Ship Ska Trip

(10/25/12)

Thought I’d point you all right in the direction off the “Ooh” first this week, just because that mix of the Peel session into the single release of The English Beat’s “Ranking Full Stop” came out soooo perfect! You’ll find it sandwiched between The Specialsand Morgan (“The Hoople”) Fisher (I’ll be playing that Hybrid-ized take of “MacArthur Park” ‘til I die.) Other “Ooh” highlights included advance Skalloween pick “Hard Man fe Dead” by Prince Buster and my current fave Blues Blasters cut “Marjie”. Sherwood featured selections from a recent expedition to Hymie’s Records, including two completely different tunes identified as “La Bomba” (played by Joe Loco and Arthur Lyman, respectively), one of which is in fact “La Bamba”! Other choice cuts from the trip included goodies by the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra featuring jazz poet Ruth Yorke, Woody Herman, and the Red Dougherty Sextetfeaturing Eddie Tolck on vibes, sounding very much to these delighted ears like the aforementioned late, great Mr. Lyman gone trad jazz. Shiina Ringo warned us again this week that “rain’s a-comin’ down, rain’s a-comin’ down” and, sure enough, I took my bike ride home after the show in a steady light drizzle. The Skatalites gotchaSKAvered (fourth week in a row… a show record!), this time with their ’64 Treasure Isle-label cover of “Pachito E Che” a.k.a. “Latin Goes Ska”, kicking off a late-starting Home Stretch. “Skalitics” was the order of the day on the 5@5:05, and topics ranging from faux news, war, hunger and gender equality, to the ugly truth about Columbus were touched on in the song selection. You’ll want to catch this election-season commemorative set on the archives, where everything originating from KFAI’s air studio exists for 2 weeks from date of broadcast. There’s more Skalloween-type stuff in this week’s Home Stretch as well… eeeeeeeeeek!