More Two-Tone

While The Specials, Madness, and The Beat dominated the two-tone movement (sharing the airwaves with The Selecter, Bad Manners, and Northern Soul revivalists Dexy's Midnight Runners,) one two tone band that doesn't get nearly enough attention (in part because of limited output, particularly when compared to Madness or The Beat,) is The Body Snatchers. Like The Specials and The Beat, (and unlike Madness,) The Body Snatchers were multiracial, ("two-tone,") and openly antiracist. Unlike any of these bands, and perhaps any band in the history of ska and reggae to that point (the late 1970s,) The Body Snatchers were all women. While there were several very important female singers prominent in Jamaican popular music since its roots in the Mento and Buru of the '50s - Phyllis Dillon, Millie Smalls, Marcia Griffiths, Doreen Shaffer, etc, -- all were backed by male session musicians like the omnipresent Skatalites. So the body snatchers were really quite unique even as revivalists. Their lyrics, on songs like the wonderful "Easy Life," were explicitly feminist and anti-authoritarian, and their vocal arrangements and singing styles were clearly very influential on later bands, like the American transplant The Toasters, whose old label i worked for when I was in high school. But this stuff stands on its own, and I urge readers to get ahold of "Easy Life," "Ruder Than You," and whatever else you can get your hands on. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Other songs i'm listening to obsessively tonight:
The Gin Blossoms - "Until I Fall Away" I've always loved "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You," but i kind of forgot about "Until I Fall Away" after i hit puberty i guess. It's pretty good.

The Stone Roses "I want to be adored" - what the fuck happened to this band? This song is incredible!

The (English) Beat - "Rotating Head" - unfortunately, being the soundtrack to every single zany comedy trailer for at least the first 15 years after its release has made this song harder to appreciate than the rest of the band's opus. The great bouncy syncopated guitar lines are typical of the band at its best.