Restocked! LAUREL AITKEN vs THE SKATALITES “Ska Titans” LP vinyl – 1999 Moon NYC classic on wax for the first time

First time on vinyl for this classic Moon Ska NYC title released in 1999 – “Ska Titans” is a wonderful collaboration between the “Godfather of Ska” Laurel Aitken and the legendary Skatalites recorded in the studio during 1996’s European Ska Splash tour – it was the first time the titans met up on record since 1964!  The album features original Skatalites Roland Alphonso, Lester Sterling, Lloyd Brevett, and Lloyd Knibb alongside longtime members Devon James, Will Clark, and Nathan Breedlove backing Aitken’s amazing vocals on a set of classics, including several Aitken originals. As an added bonus three live tracks are included, taken from the Ska Splash’s stop in Amsterdam. Continue reading Restocked! LAUREL AITKEN vs THE SKATALITES “Ska Titans” LP vinyl – 1999 Moon NYC classic on wax for the first time

RSD 2023: HIGHBALL HOLIDAY “S/T” LP – 1997 Moon Ska Classic on vinyl for the first time!

It’s that time of the year again! For Record Store Day we’ve reissued one of our favorite albums from the Moon Ska archives – the self titled 1997 debut from Milwaukee’s HIGHBALL HOLIDAY! Technically the first album on Moon Ska NYC’s “Ska Satellite”  imprint, this beautiful slice of traditional ska & rocksteady truly took the world by storm;  fans demanded more after getting a taste from “American Skathic Vol 2”, “Skarmageddon 3”,  and “Girls Go Ska” compilations. Lead by the powerful vocals of Shahanna McKinney (who possesses one of the finest voices in ska), we once again relive the classics “Wake Up Call”, “Speedway”, “Why?”, “First That Crosses” and “Skinhead Girls”. The original 10 tracks plus remixes/dubs are all included, plus bonus tracks that appeared on later compilations: “Welfare” (from Who’s The Man) and “Ignorance” (from Love And Affection).  Limited to 250 on red and white, you can also get this amazing album in both our RSD deals currently running!

BUFORD O’SULLIVAN & THE ROBOTS “Stolen Soul” LP vinyl – THE SCOFFLAWS & Easy Star All Stars trombone legend!

Buford O’Sullivan is a trombonist and composer who has performed world-wide since the 1980’s. His first band, ‘Big Noise’ traveled the Northeast Corridor playing the alt music circuit from NYC and Albany to Boston. Big Noise played regularly at CBGBs, The Cat Club, and the music strip of Bleeker Street. In the 1990’s, Buford toured the 3rd wave ska craze extensively with The Scofflaws and The Toasters, traveling all across the USA and Canada, Europe, and South America. The Scofflaws second release ‘Ska in Hi Fi’ featured several of his songs, including ‘William Shatner’ and ‘Nude Beach’ for which a video was made and aired on MTV. He contributed a drinking song ‘Can I Get Another’ to the Toasters’ final Moon records release “Enemy of the System”. After the millennium, he joined The Easy Star All-Stars and his reach spanned the globe with performances at The Glastonbury Music Festival in the UK, the Fuji Rock festival in Japan, Blues Festival in Australia, Moscow, Singapore, with countless tours of England, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, and these international trips continue to this day. He has also worked with other bands such as Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Dave Hillyard and the Rock Steady Seven, The Brooklyn Attractors, and Dub is a Weapon. He continues to be the stand-in for Vin Gordon in the trombone chair for ‘The Skatalites Band’. His latest solo album “Stolen Soul” technically dropped at the end of 2019, and our initial plans for a vinyl release were side tracked by the pandemic. The album is so good we never gave up on it! As Buford puts it “Stolen Soul is a project that attempts to digitize the human soul. Using the wonders of 21st century technology, all of the anguish and sacrifice that goes into the human act of making music have been beatmaped and sampled to provide an album’s worth of listening enjoyment!” All songs written, produced, and performed by Buford himself, it’s a wonderful selection of 13 tracks that range from jazzy roots reggae, scorching ska, dub, early/skinhead reggae and modern 2-Tone – mostly instrumental but Buford belts it out on some songs too! Limited edition on red and clear vinyl. ***2023 Subscription Club Selection***

REPRESS! MEPHISKAPHELES “Might-Ay White-Ay” LP – white vinyl

REPRESSED!  NYC satanic ska/metal band’s third album from 1999 finally on vinyl for the first time! Demanded by fans – we heard you! After our reissues of “GOD BLESS SATAN” and “MAXIMUM PERVERSION”of course we’d be dropping this on you for Black Friday 2019! At the time of this release the band was having issues with their new label, and it suffered from promotion and distribution problems. The final master was not up to snuff either. We are proud to announce that this has been completely remastered by the band, perfected for vinyl! Repressed on cloudy white vinyl! Continue reading REPRESS! MEPHISKAPHELES “Might-Ay White-Ay” LP – white vinyl

REPRESS on RED vinyl : THE SKUNKS “Chaos In Skaville” LP – an early 90’s classic!

The Skunks were a third wave ska band formed in 1988 by a group of high school friends from suburban Maryland. They recorded three albums, performed extensively in the Washington, DC/Baltimore, Maryland area, and toured across the United States. “Chaos in Skaville” was the band’s first album,  issues as a limited self-released cassette in 1991. The success of this release saw the band’s schedule become much more active, and during the summer of 1992 the band toured with The Toasters including legendary gigs at he Masquerade in Atlanta, Wilmington NC, Madison & Milwaukee WI and at Cabaret Metro in Chicago. The tour culminated, on February 27, 1993, with Moon Ska’s Skalapalooza at The Ritz in New York City, where The Skunks appeared with The Toasters, Bad Manners, The Skatalites, The Scofflaws, and Ruder Than You. After the tour, the Skunks signed with Moon Ska and shortly thereafter, “Chaos in Skaville” appeared in Moon’s catalog, where it was listed as MR034. Continue reading REPRESS on RED vinyl : THE SKUNKS “Chaos In Skaville” LP – an early 90’s classic!

REPRESS: THE TOASTERS “SKABOOM” LP – hear where American Third Wave Ska began 30 years ago!

The Toasters originally released their debut US album SKABOOM back in 1987, on the Celluloid label. The album is often stated as being the origin of modern, or “third-wave” ska in the United States. It followed the RECRIMINATIONS and EAST SIDE BEAT EPs that were released both in the USA and UK, introducing the world to a fresh new wave-y ska sound that was uniquely American yet linked to 2-TONE through secret producer JOE JACKSON. Two years later, THE TOASTERS’ official “debut” album POOLSHARK arrived via the UK label Unicorn, yet six tracks from that set were culled for inclusion on the legendary debut American full-length named SKABOOM. That set was brasher, brighter, and more emphatically ska driven than their earlier material, albeit with eclectic backdrops that ranged from the surf-side to the juke joint. Now boasting a brass section, and two new vocalists, THE TOASTERS’ sound was significantly shifting while the lineup continued expanding. By the time they came to record SKABOOM, the group had ballooned into an 11-piece aggregate. The resulting high adrenaline album found the band in top form, their playing extremely tight, and the arrangements increasingly intricate and innovative. Continue reading REPRESS: THE TOASTERS “SKABOOM” LP – hear where American Third Wave Ska began 30 years ago!

Black Friday 2021: MEPHISKAPHELES “Never Born Again” Digital Print Picture Disc LP

Longtime fans of MEPHISKAPHELES know that JUMP UP has reissued their first three classic full lengths on vinyl over the past decade, plus we’ve distributed their self titled mini-LP from 2015. In 2019 the band released a brand new 4 song EP and since then we’ve been trying to figure out how to make this a cool vinyl release. Then one day we were shown a process where a printer can put a digital print on a blank side of a record – and the idea behind the “NEVER BORN AGAIN” vinyl was born! MEPHISKAPHELES added two never before released demo versions brining the music side to 6 songs total, pressed on clear vinyl and limited to 500 copies. Due to the complex nature of this project this will remain a one time pressing! Originally set to ship out the second week of December, a pressing and printer delay unexpectedly kicked this to the beginning of January.

Moon Ska Classic! THE SKALARS “Skoolin’ With The Skalars” LP {OUT OF STOCK – REPRESS end of 2022}

{CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK, SORRY}  Another incredible 90’s Moon Ska NYC classic gets a vinyl on BLACK FRIDAY! ! St Louis’ ska darlings debut album from 1996 on orange vinyl limited edition of 200 copies! Not familiar with The Skalars? Too young? Here’s a great review from back in the day: Continue reading Moon Ska Classic! THE SKALARS “Skoolin’ With The Skalars” LP {OUT OF STOCK – REPRESS end of 2022}

THE TOASTERS “NEW YORK FEVER” LP (JUMP084LP) {OUT OF PRINT}

THE TOASTERS “NEW YORK FEVER” is finally back on vinyl! Reissue of 1992 third wave Moon Ska Records classic on random color vinyl, housed in a double sided full color poster sleeve with rare photos. Songwriter and lead singer Rob Hingley perfected a smooth, American-inflected vocal style across these eleven tunes, creating a blueprint for the top-ranking outfit’s authentic-yet-unique revival sound. And while New York Fever is founded on the best of the Jamaican and U.K. ska scenes, it also burns with the special flame of the hyperactive New York City outpost of ska’s international cosmos. The band’s playing is stunning on this third long-player, with brilliant bursts of horns punctuating an airtight rhythm section – every track provides the speedy rush that modern ska fans craze. Listening to NY FEVER again brought back memories of how great the US ska scene was before it was taken over by hype…um, and by bandwagon bands trying to be the next Reel Big Fish! This album is full of class, charm, and honest energy – elements that made the “third wave” ska scene great.  Songs like “NEW YORK FEVER”, “HISTORY BOOK”, “SOCIAL SECURITY” and “PLOUGHSHARES INTO GUNS” are simply great songs – THEN and NOW.  Hell, why else would JOE JACKSON get involved and mix the record?!? NEW YORK FEVER in many ways was the transitional record that positioned the band for major chart success in the 90’s. Personally, we grew up in the 80s and got hooked with their “POOL SHARK”, “THRILL ME UP” and “SKABOOM” albums – but when “NEW YORK FEVER” was finally released it was obvious to us that SKA was going to go big with bands like THE TOASTERS….it was just a matter of time. Issued on beautiful heavy weight marble grey vinyl, double sided full color poster sleeve.

Vinyl Tracklisting:  New York Fever – Ploughshares Into Guns – History Book – Too Hip To Be Cool – Night Train – Social Security – Shebeen – Johnny Forsake Her – Too Much Happening – Pool Shark (Reprise) – B27   Download Card has all the above PLUS:  Ploughshares Version – History Book Version – Pablo’s Night Train – Pablo’s Shebeen

 

MEPHISKAPHELES “Maximum Perversion” LP – repressed on RED vinyl + their latest Mini-LP

The year was 1997. Rabid fans worldwide had played “God Bless Satan” to death for 3 long years. Everyone wondered what they were in for with “Maximum Perversion” – and nobody expected what the band was about to unleash! If you were still a kid when it came out, you probably felt musically thrown from a moving car…wondering what had just happened! Simply put, this album was light years ahead of it’s time. The band’s extravagant rhythms heralded a new shift into experimental territories. From the funky breaks and avant-garde solos of “Break Your Ankle Punk” to the occasional forays into metal and hardcore territory and even more genre fusions, the band was taking chances left and right expending more energy on unusual arrangements and broadening its “ska” sound. The brass players continued to sound top-notch, while the manic rhythms propelled the album along with a demonic gusto. Twenty years later, we figured that you’d finally understand the avant-ska of “Maximum Perversion”…thus we have reissued it on vinyl to bring this masterpiece to a whole new generation of fans. God bless Mephiskapheles!

Did you miss MEPHISKAPHELES’ latest mini-LP released a couple years ago? No fear we’ve got some copies in stock NOW. Six tracks of classic demon-ska: 1 Satan Stole My Weed 2 Hell on Earth 3 Let Them Come 4 Snakes In The Garden 5 Friends Like You 6 Any Fool.  And that’s not all! If you didn’t get the bonus “demos” 7″ single years ago when we released “God Bless Satan” – here’s your chance to get it as we have a small stash set aside!