Boomshots

Tag: The Clash

  • HEAR THIS: Horace Andy “Straight to Hell” PREMIERE

    HEAR THIS: Horace Andy “Straight to Hell” PREMIERE

    Studio One Legend Sings The Clash Classic

    Joe Strummer’s flat, affect-less vocals on “Straight to Hell” from The Clash’s  1982 album “Combat Rock” lend a chilling air to the song’s ice cold message, which is now timelier than ever in the Trump administration prepares executive orders, travel bans, mass deportations. and wall building. “Straight to Hell” has long been considered one of the band’s best loved songs, providing raw material for future creations like M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” and Kanye West’s “Swagger Like Us.” Andy himself is a bonafide Studio One legend who’s also worked with the likes of Massive Attack. Strummer first collaborated with him in 1999, writing the militant title track for Andy’s “Living in the Flood” album. The Studio One legend had already attempted a reggae version of “Straight to Hell” but wasn’t happy with the recording. But when he linked with Milwaukee musician Eric Blowtorch, who’s worked with many reggae artists and knew Strummer, they made this brand new roots reggae recording of “Straight to Hell,” which will be released via 12-inch single on Fe True Records March 16th and via digital download on April 14th. Andy’s voacal is backed with a dub side plus Big Youth’s deejay version, “Asylum Seekers.” These type of hardcore reality tunes are all too timely in the current political climate—and do remember 10 per cent of proceeds goes to Doctors Without Borders. Turn up to full watts. Audio After The Jump… (more…)

  • HEAR THIS: Willi Williams ft. U-Roy “Miss Cutie Cutie”

    HEAR THIS: Willi Williams ft. U-Roy “Miss Cutie Cutie”

    Foundation Artists In Action

    Singer-songwriter Willi Williams’ 1979 hit “Armagideon Time” is forever enshrined in the reggae canon. Perhaps the most famous song on Studio One’s immortal Real Rock rhythm, Williams’ original was covered by seminal UK punk band The Clash that same year. Now the foundation singer has teamed up with the godfather of Jamaican deejays, U-Roy, and the Studio One house band the Soul Vendors for a new single “Ms. Cutie Cutie,” released through Williams’ own Drum Street label. This contemporary lovers rock track is a combination version of Williams’ “Natural Beauty,” both of which are available from all major digital distribution services and will be included on a full length release later this year, all backed by the Vendors. “My first recording was ‘Calling’ at Studio One in the late 1960s, and the Soul Vendors were Mr. Dodd’s house band at the time, working with every major act and helping create the Jamaican song book,” Williams explained. “The Vendors played on tracks from my Studio One album Armagideon Time, but this was the first time since then that we got in the studio and really worked together. I’ve been friends with U-Roy since the early 70s but we’ve never recorded together.” Audio After The Jump… (more…)

  • SPECIAL REQUEST: Willi Williams “Armagideon Time”

    SPECIAL REQUEST: Willi Williams “Armagideon Time”

    Don’t Mix Up The Studio One Star With The First Black LAPD Chief, Who Passed Away Today

    What’s in a name? Willie L. Williams became Los Angeles’ first African American police chief in the aftermath of the 1992 riots,  died today of pancreatic cancer at the age of 72, reports the L.A. Times. Williams stepped into the top job at the LAPD at a sensitive time, as the department reeled from criticism over its handling of the riots and Los Angeles struggled to mend racial divides. He replaced Daryl Gates, who had long been criticized for running a department that mistreated minority groups, particularly blacks, in Los Angeles. Williams helped usher in a series of reforms in the wake of the Rodney J. King beating. Under him, the department grew by 2,000 officers and the LAPD adopted more “community policing” strategies that were designed to be less confrontational than Gates’ methods. He won credit for restoring confidence to the department. “I was the guinea pig” he once told a Times reporter. Audio After The Jump… (more…)

  • Reasoning with Adrian Sherwood: “What doesn’t Evolve Stays in the Realm of Nostalgia.”

    Reasoning with Adrian Sherwood:
    “What doesn’t Evolve Stays in the Realm of Nostalgia.”

    The UK Dub Master Breaks It All Down in this In-Depth Interview

    Dub was born in Jamaica where the bold audio experimentation of pioneers like King Tubby’s, Augustus Pablo, and Lee “Scratch” Perry shook the foundations of recorded music. These ideas spread around the globe and took root in fertile ground, places like the UK where many Caribbean immigrants brought sound system culture with them. Dub-minded youths like Adrian Sherwood began standing outside blues dances watching the walls shake and eventually got a chance to spin a few records himself—a bit of novelty reggae with James Brown and “Funky Nassau”—progressing and learning every day as he restlessly expanded his musical horizons. He would go on to tour as mix engineer for The Clash and The Slits, and found no fewer than four labels—Carib Gems (established in 1975 when he was 17 years of age), Hit Run, 4D, and the legendary On-U Sound. His mind-blowingly mic’d, mixed and mastered recordings with in-house groups like Singers and Players, African Head Charge, New Age Steppers, Creation Rebel, Scratch, and Bim Sherman and more are the stuff of legend. And he’s still at it, having just released a critically acclaimed album in collaboration with Pinch.This conversation took place some two years ago, but it’s still every bit as current as when it happened. Like a great dub track, Sherwood moves from deceptively simple to infinite depth in a flash. Interview After The Jump… (more…)

  • Diplo and The Clash Talk “Paper Planes,” Reggae Music

    Diplo and The Clash Talk “Paper Planes,” Reggae Music

    The Seminal UK Punk Band and the Producer Reason with The Reggae Girl About Town

    Combat Rock was the last studio album by seminal UK punk band The Clash. Released in 1982, the disc contained two of the band’s biggest hit, “Rock the Casbah” and “Should I Stay Or Should I Go.” But 25 years later another cut from the album—the reggae-tinged cut “Straight To Hell”—would top the charts around the world. M.I.A. and her DJ Diplo sampled The Clash original to make “Paper Planes,” which became the biggest hit in either artists’ career. The track became so popular that Kanye West sampled the M.I.A. record to make another record called “Swagga Like Us,” which he performed on the Grammys with Jay Z, Lil Wayne, T.I., and a very pregnant M.I.A. It was kind of a big deal. Video After The Jump… (more…)

  • HEAR THIS: Jimmy Cliff “The Guns of Brixton”

    With Your Hands On Your Head—Or On The Trigger Of Your Gun?

    If there were a proper Reggae Hall of Fame, Jimmy Cliff would be amongst the first inductees. As it is, he’s a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who’s inspired everybody from Bob Dylan to the Neville Brothers. Now in his 60s, the man who auditioned Bob Marley for Leslie Kong and went on to portray Ivan, the original StarBwoy, in Perry Henzel’s film The Harder They Come still has a few tricks left up his sleeve. On Cliff’s new EP, Sacred Fire, he linked up with Rancid’s Tim Armstrong to remake a classic by The Clash in a stripped-down acoustic stylee. In an eerily appropriate twist of fate, the late Joe Strummer sings lyrics that are replete with references to Jimmy Cliff’s cinematic debut. (more…)

  • WATCH THIS: Rizzle Kicks “When I Was A Youngster”

    Two Brit Youths Take It All The Way Back To School Days

    These kids weren’t even born when  London Calling came out,  but you can’t blame them for sampling The Clash inna rub-a-dub style. I mean, it sure worked for M.I.A. So the UK rap duo Rizzle Kicks went ahead and flipped that “Revolution Rock.” And guess what? Sounds like a next #1.

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