Amy Winehouse “Ska EP” Review
Blasphemy! Amy Winehouse on the pages of Under the Dog? Something is not right… Or so it would seem as I’m pretty sure while being to lazy to look it up that she is RIAA material(but I’m 99% sure she is) not to mention all those embarrassing videos of her doing trashy stuff. So why would I write about her?
Well, I am a pretty big fan of the ska/rocksteady/reggae/toasting styles of the yesteryear but I am consistently disappointed with most modern release starting with the mid to late 1990′s save bands like the Slackers and Heptcat. Around that time the ska market was completely flooded to the point that there were christian ska bands. I’ve got nothing against christians or them making music, but before the internet, christian music seemed to stay a decade behind the rest of the world with of course some exceptions.
I personally prefer the rocksteady sounds and the R&B influenced stuff way more than the fast and goofy third wave stuff but I also have a few bands from those days that still get played like Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake not to mention more serious stuff like Operation Ivy and The Subhumans.
With that said when I saw the ep making the rounds in the top 10 lists I had to check it knowing that it would more than likely suck. Boy was I wrong. This gal can belt it out. It’s hard to believe that this voice can come out of her. Every track is spot on and sounds just like it could have come out 20-30 years ago. The tracks are all covers but 3 of them were played by the Specials even though they have different songwriting credits. Ska was a kind of folk music with traditional songs and all of that.
But don’t take my word for it. I have a video of a live performance of the Specials Little Rich Girl and a blog post from the Phil Spector blog containing the EP in it’s entirety. Apparently this 7in record is going for REALLY high amounts. It’s also a bootleg and none of the songwriters are getting paid. Or at least that is the word on the streets.
Little Rich GIrl
Tunes can be found at…
