Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Shootin' Goon - Splottside Rocksteady


You know what it’s like you buy something from places like Amazon and then you constantly get emails saying “We noticed you liked this... so we are recommending this!” Well usually these things go straight in the bin, but on this instance the recommendation was for this Shootin' Goon’s ‘Splottside Rocksteady’. Now I first heard of this group while rediscovering my musical mojo back around the early 2000's on a great Do The Dog compilation titled This Are UK Ska (‘Back Again’) and also on another real good compilation from the Sucka Punch record label called Compunktion Vol1 (‘Wootini’).I really liked these tunes and thought I must investigate more, but for whatever reason I never did get round to buying this LP......until, thanks to that email from Amazon, now!
Shootin' Goon hailed from Cardiff around the late 1990s and early 2000's and were first signed to the Moon Ska Europe record label (on which this was originally released) before joining Good Clean Fun Records. After being unavailable for sometime this LP has now just been re-released on Cadiz.
The idea behind the title of the album is that Splott is an area of Cardiff, while the Rocksteady part however I'm not sure of because that is a million miles from what you get, as the pace on here rarely drops below frantic!! Their music style is Ska / Punk in the same vain of people like Less Than Jake, MU330, King Prawn and was once described somewhere as "Punk with horns". Indeed on its original release it got rave reviews in magazines like Kerrang and Fracture.
This LP shows off a band with a great, infectious energy, who can still keep things tuneful and melodic, and this has to be worth a punt just for their version of YMCA. I'm really glad I read that email now, and just a little disappointed I didn't take the plunge and get it first time round. So if you like dancing around, going nuts and bouncing off the walls to a Ska band with a good healthy chunk of Punk thrown in the mix, then don't like me miss out and go grab a copy now, this is the perfect goodtime soundtrack!

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"I thought I was at the f***ing circus!" - Bam Margera
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Tracklist
1. Rick Loves Jo
2. Bradley
3. My Art
4. Back Again
5. To Anyone
6. Prove Yourself
7. Wootini
8. Black and Blue
9. Fallin'
10. Changes
11. Creeps
12. Late Night Rumbles
13. Plain to See
14. YMCA

2 comments:

ReV RuSSeLL said...

Can't find the link.

Thanks

Gibsy Rhodes said...

Sorry Rev, but no file shares on here.
There are some downloads that have been given to us by various artists. Click Free Downloads label to find.