Category: Skablog

3 Bookmen Of The Skapocalypse!

2021 saw the release of several skawesome books with some Uptones history all up in ’em.

Aaron Carnes‘ remarkable In Defense Of Ska is an inspired journal by a veteran musician, journalist and Ska superfan. Mr. Carnes takes the post-revival backlash (which some of us old-schoolers were blissfully ignorant of!), flips it, dissects it, and hurls it into the flaming dustbin of cultural oblivion. Indeed his stories have motivated new legions of ska kids young and old to pickitup. We applaud Aaron’s ongoing efforts as he podcasts relentlessly and embarks on an In Defense Of Ska tour! With bands, of course.

Marc Wasserman – also a lifelong ska musician and superfan – created an amazing account called Skaboom! An American Ska and Reggae Oral History. Mr. Wasserman interviewed several Uptones for a chapter on the band’s early years, and did the same with many of our fellow early-skadapters, who ran with the Two-Tone message of love and unity in the ’80s, and even before. It’s a great read from start to finish, including Marc’s recollections of his early attraction to ska, and a forward by The Specials’ “Sir Horace Gentleman” Horace Panter himself!

Lordamercy there’s a 3rd! Coming out verrrrry soon, pre-orderable now (I await mine!) is Bill Kopp‘s new chronicle, DISTURBING THE PEACE – 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave. The Uptones have a chapter in this volume as well, alongside our heroes and friends Translator, Romeo Void, Monkey Rhythm, Wire Train and numerous luminous luminaries of the late ’70s and early ’80s Bay Area scene from whence we sprang. Forward by none other than Joel Selvin. I so look forward to reading this, and by gosh, you can too.

Wishing you all a fabulous new year and safe travels, with oodles of love and unity,

-Eric Din

A Despatch From Headquarters!

Here is the email we sent to our mailing list a coupla weeks ago. If you want to receive our occasional bleats, by all means, sign up here!

Greetings Uptones friends and fans and fam near and far!
Here we are nearing the end of the astonishing year 2020, and this is the moment the cosmos has chosen for the release of “Get Out Of My Way, the early recordings” by The Uptones. Amazing! Here’s a little background.
In 1983 The Uptones recorded a “demo” of Get Out Of My Way. We called it a demo because that’s what people called recordings which were not on records yet. Later, this song appeared on our Live at Gilman CD, then Rancid covered it on their first LP, and The Uptones re-recorded it for Skankin’ Foolz Unite in 2007! Busy little song. The original recording, this so-called demo, was actually a local smash hit on radio stations in the Bay Area. And THAT recording, with our original frontman Erik Rader singing lead, has never been properly released. Now it’s the opening track on this new release on Arny Schorr’s Liberation Hall Records. Over 30 years later!
The title song was penned by Erik Rader and meself, arranged and played by the Uptones first performing lineup – Erik Rader on the mic, Thomas White on drums, Gregory Blanche on Vox organ, Kenny Brooks on tenor sax, Ben Eastwood on Rickenbacker bass, Paul Jackson on trumpet, Michael Wadman on trombone (featuring his epic solo!) Charles Stella on a 1959 hollow-body Rickenbacker (!!) guitar and yours truly Eric Dinwiddie on a short-scale “Electro” baby Rickenbacker solid body. Yes. We piled into John Altmann studios and rolled tape and a certain magic happened. I’m glad to have this available now, along with some more gems we recorded soon afterward.
The first half of the CD (side 1, as I view it) contains our Hyde Street and John Altmann Studio recordings of originals we wrote in high school. The second half (side 2, if you will!) is the classic KUSA EP from 415 Records, which has been out of print for decades. Liner notes from Sarah Cain and cover art and design by Peter Montgomery – both high school friends of the band and early Uptones fans who saw it all happen up close – complete the package.
Howie Klein & friends’ 415 Records is also enjoying a re-launch on Liberation Hall records, with a reissues series including the multi-artist Still Disturbing the Peace compilation, plus expanded reissues from SVT, Readymades, The Uptones and Pop-O-Pies. We are honored to be in such fine and raucous company. When Howie contacted us about all this in 2019, we had already started re-releasing some of our material from the 1980s, so we were happy to jump at the opportunity.
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Tasked with delivering our earliest recordings, Paul Jackson and I went on a yearlong quest to recover the source tapes. In the process, we reached out to our old bandmates, friends, families, and recording engineers. I’ll make a blog post about that, and maybe post this email publicly as well. But it’s getting long and I’d rather not make this a novel, SO! “Get Out Of My Way, the early recordings” comes out Nov. 6 on Liberation Hall. A web search should give you some options to buy the CD or stream, and we’ll send out another hello in November with links when it’s live.
Be safe and vote, with love from all of us in Uptonia,
Eric
The Uptones
Berkeley, CA
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415 Records “Still Disturbing The Peace” – Out Now!

The mailperson brought us the new 415 Records “Still Disturbing The Peace” comp with an UpTones track plus Red Rockers and Pop-o-Pies and Pearl Harbor and The Offs and Monkey Rhythm and more yummy vintage San Francisco new wavey goodness 🙂 It’s on CD and the streaming services…. nnnnow! This is vintage late 70s early 80s stuff from when we wuz babies.