The Uptones
"Skankin' Foolz Unite!"
my music
Ridiculous
pop, rock, reggae/ska
Whether we have the time to look at this world in a serene state of meditation or not...the most popular response I have heard, so far, from just about anyone is that it's ridiculous. So it struck me the world needed a ridiculous song. One day with my band, The Uptones, we all got ridiculous in the studio. Here's the result. I'm really proud of it. - Moose
East Of A Western Bay
rock, jazz, reggae/ska, punky ska, ska
Outstrumental rockerz inna jazzbo ska stylee.
Oh No!
pop, rock, reggae/ska, punky ska
SOMEONE GET THE GREASE!!
East of the Pond (dub)
reggae/ska, pop, mod, ska, dub
...fell in love ... followed her to London...had to leave 6 months later...not happy about it...wrote a song about it...The Uptones liked it and now I'm in the group...
...This song is about the pain of long distance relationships... - Moose
Big Time
pop, rock, reggae/ska, punky ska
Snobbery made simple. This was an early Uptones original, and it went through a lot of strange morphs as the band moved along. I recall rants about leg warmers and clove cigarets, cafe lattes and "stadium rock", it was all very unpredictable. when we played this song, it was fair game to dis ourselves and each other and anything else most rudely. Needless to say we were completely full of shit. Here's the version from the Live!! 924 Gilman album. It rocks.
Out To Sea
pop, rock, reggae/ska, punky ska, ska
Our original tape of Out To Sea, which was played a lot on KALX and KUSF and then KQAK (The Quake) back in 1984. Buncha high school kids have a local hit ranting about the military industrial complex? Yep. "USA incorporated armed force Bechtel" indeed. Wish we were wrong. -Eric
Idiot Box
rock, reggae/ska, punky ska, ska
Same as it ever was. I remember walking in downtown Berkeley as a teenager one year when the 49ers were on their big roll with Joe Montana, and it was superbowl Sunday and there was butt-no one on the street. Struck me that football is bigger than Christmas, bigger than elections, bigger than rock and roll. So absolutely nobody out except me and two buddies and a TV, which we gleefully smashed on Berkeley High School campus. Um, then I wrote this song. -Eric
No Provision For Appeals
reggae/ska, ska, punky ska
We wrote this rant after being denied a permit to host a block party for what was to be our very first show. Year was 1982 and we had scooters. The city manager said no go. We said can't we appeal? He said there is no provision for appeals in that area. So we wrote this song, and played the Berkeley Square and Keystone instead. This was always a good one live - we'd leap into the crowd and dance with everyone during the bass and drum solos. Everyone except Ben and Tommy, that is, someone had to hold it down! This is another from the Live!! 924 Gilman CD.
Bonnie Dub
reggae/ska, dub
Charles Stella's amazing dub mix of the ever so skankable Bonnie and Clyde. The bit with the horns near the end just melts me down. Blast this and watch out for that trick in the road. -Skanking Fool
No Lies
pop, rock, reggae/ska
I love Charles Stella's vocal on this song. This is from the same session as Burning Sky, Outback, Bonnie and Clyde, and Radiation Boy. What a fun day, we were in and out in four hours flat and outta there. Why mess around? It was sunny out.
Outback
rock, reggae/ska, dub, hard rock
This song started as a bass line. When I rocked that and Eric and Paul came in on the skank, with that colossal dub attack, I knew we were onto something. I wrote the lyrics about what was on my mind that day, and here it is years later, another one that seems almost more relevant in today's world. Crank it and skank it. - Ben
Physical High
reggae/ska, pop, lovers rock, dub
Wow, this song really takes me back. I was 19 years old when I wrote this. I was sussing out how great pussy is, smoking weed and playing reggae music with the Uptones. It was an epiphany! Pussy is like music, man! All I can say is I'm glad I waited to go college. -Paul
Radiation Boy
reggae/ska, rock
In the wrong place at the wrong time, young Radiation boy, as he has come to be known, woke up purple one fine morning saw fit to rebel. American hero? Urban myth? Rad little ska song? You decide.
Get Out Of My Way (Live!)
reggae/ska, two-tone ska
A week before our first gig at the Berkeley Square, I'm walking to a party with some fellow Uptones and I realize we need an opening number for our set. Thinking on that, I hear this drum roll and the opening chord. It rings in my head and then that horn line just kicks in. Erik Rader hears us play the music at rehearsal a coupla days later and spits the lyrics in a frenzy of writing and coffee spilling.
