MNSKA band The Dropsteppers are releasing their new album Get Up In It! on Megalith Records and have been making a splash world-wide.  This past week, the band had songs played on GO FEET! Radio in Australia and on Roots Rock Rebel in Montreal, Canada.  Both of these radio programs are available in podcast form at Musical Occupation and are great showcases for the latest ska-related music.

Listen to GO FEET! Radio HERE

Listen to Roots Rock Rebel HERE

Friend of MNSKA and bassist for Brooklyn rocksteady band The Forthrights, Sammy Kay has started an Official Tour Blog over at Musical Occupation.  The Forthrights will be embarking on the Ska Is Dead: Young Guns Tour with We Are The Union, Stuck Lucky, Brunt Of It, and Green Room Rockers.  After that, the band will be heading West with Maddie Ruthless on the Rocksteady Ruined My Life Tour, which will be hitting Minneapolis on Thursday, May 26th at The Terminal Bar, featuring MNSKA bands The Dropsteppers and The Prizefighters.  Read through Sammy’s first blog entry and find a free download from Babylon Party Machine (aka Matt Wixson) who is mashing up The Forthrights’ latest EP Camp Birdman with the sounds of Motown.

You can follow The Forthrights tour blog HERE

Our friend Andrew Barker over at Musical Occupation took a trip to Chicago to see The Moon Invaders and the Caroloregians in Chicago.  In his review of the show, he mentions the show’s opener, MNSKA’s very own The Prizefighters.

Barker says:

The first band to play was the Prizefighters from Minnesota. We walked in about halfway through the set. What I recollect is it being a two-tone influenced mashed with early skinhead reggae. They are still raw but one of my friend’s said “they have soul.” I’d have to agree with her and look forward to hearing more from these cats as they progress.

Way to represent MN sound, Prizefighters!

You can read the rest of Andrew’s show review HERE

This week’s guest hosts the longest running ska radio program in the country and writes a blog with one of the funniest names.  Join Courtney as he talks to JJ Loy, host of Ska’s The Limit on 88.1 KDHX in St. Louis, MO and creator of Ska Blah Blah.  The guys discuss their tastes in music, how MU330 is like a gateway drug, and what was like to recreate a classic Slackers album with a bunch of live bootlegs.

Ska’s The Limit airs every Saturday night from 7pm-9pm at KDHX.org or you can stream last week’s episode HERE.

Check out JJ’s blog Ska Blah Blah HERE.

Listen to JJ Loy Presents: Redlight Redid at Musical Occupation.

This show is brought to you in part by MNSKA.com, Minnesota’s Ska Community and the Fancy Pants Gangsters podcast network.  Become a fan of the show on Facebook, follow Courtney on Twitter, or email him at FOSS@fancypantsgangsters.com.

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You can download this episode HERE or subscribe to the show on iTunes.

My buddy Gabe Pressure over at Musical Occupation has kindly allowed me to post updates on his site.  I will be trying to post there weekly with updates and promotions from MNSKA to Gabe’s faithful followers.  I posted my first blog entry there today to introduce the Flyover Ska Show.  You can check out that entry HERE.

Be sure to add Musical Occupation to your regular rotation of websites to listen to all of the great podcasts there as well as keeping current on the happenings in the world of ska and reggae.

Roots reggae artist Vivian “Yabby You” Jackson died on January 14, 2010.  Sources indicate that his death was the result of a ruptured aneurysm. He was 63.

Andrew Barker from Musical Occupation had this to say about Yabby You:

I was shocked and saddened to hear that Vivian “Yabby You” Jackson. He was a great Jamaican artist/ producer. Before I got into “Scratch” Perry and King Tubby, I can remember listening to Yabby You “Jesus Dread” on Vinyl and rocking to the heavy roots. Expect a Yabby You mixtape soon.

You can read his full obituary HERE.

Chicago reggae-soul band Deal’s Gone Bad have been working on some brand new songs for an upcoming album, their long-awaited follow-up to 2007′s The Ramblers.  Here’s a video of their recent show in St. Louis, MO where they played one of those new songs.  If this is any indication of what the new album will sound like, it appears that there will be more of the great soulful tunes that we have come to expect from Deal’s Gone Bad.

Big thanks to Musical Occupation for the video link!

Friend of MNSKA and overall ska luminary JJ Loy (Ska Blah Blah, Ska’s The Limit) has been very busy lately.  By digging into his collection of concert bootlegs of The Slackers, he decided to put together a special compilation album.  With the band’s blessing, he has put together a recreation of their classic album Redlight using live bootleg recordings from a multitude of different shows.  The compilation is titled Redlight Redid and is put on in part with Musical Occupation.

Head over to the Musical Occupation blog site to listen and download this creative rendition of one the Slackers’ best albums.

Ska and Reggae blog Musical Occupation has just posted an mp3 preview of the brand new 10″ split EP Midwest Soundclash featuring Green Room Rockers from Lafayette, IN, and The Pinstripes from Cincinnati, OH.  The EP is being released by Dashiki Clout Records (run by Mustard Plug’s Dave Kirchgessner) and is produced by Dave Hillyard (The Slackers) and mastered by Mass Giorgini (Squirtgun) at Sonic Iguana Studios.

Midwest Soundclash will be released this month on 10″ blue/black/clear vinyl as well as digital download.  You can download and listen to the preview HERE.