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Okay, okay, let's take it from here...
Get set to be upset! This month Radio Scratch concentrates on some of Scratch's wildest productions.
Radio Scratch will be taking a vacation this summer. After over two years of podcasts, I think it's time to take a short break, vibrate on and then wheel and come again with something new. To make up for a few months without any new episodes, the entire series is now available for listening again.
Scratch is scheduled to appear at a few festivals this summer, including The Big Chill in Birmingham, England and Bumbershoot in Seattle, USA. Apparently Scratch is going to put paint on canvas to visually interpret Adrian Sherwood's live dub work at The Big Chill. If you want to buy this upsetting artwork when it's done, the piece will be put on auction with the proceeds going towards Amnesty International.
If you didn't notice already, Ron from Smokey Room has created two sites for Beres Hammond and U Roy that show all the attention to detail that he put into his Upsetter site. Check it!
This month's Radio Scratch is solid gold soul - Upsetter style.
The positive vibes continue over the new documentary on Lee Perry, The Upsetter. Long time Scratch fan and fellow Canadian Doug Heselgrave tells me it's a well done movie that rises above the "crazy old dude who smokes too much ganja" vibe that seems to permeate a lot of articles about Scratch in British pop magazines over the last 10 years.
Pitchfork magazine reports the interesting news that the eccentric, hard rocking, self help guru Andrew WK is producing Scratch's next album Repentance. Recorded in the US, Repentance will apparently will feature guest appearances from Blondie's Chris Stein, Ari Up and even David Tibet from Current 93. Check out Andrew chatting with Scratch backstage at the 2007 SXSW festival. And before I spend the rest of my afternoon side-tracked by YouTube videos, check out Scratch describing dub and also live in action with Dub Is A Weapon.
Radio Scratch celebrates its second anniversary with a crucial selection of Lee Perry productions from all over the map. Check it out!
Last month I announced that the Radio Scratch archives would be drastically cut back. After thinking it over, I decided to keep a year's worth of past episodes online. At some point in the future, I might have to set up some kind of subscription service for the podcast, but for now I'll keep on offering everything for free and encourage people to donate.
It's been a long time since I updated Upsetter Station. I'm working on a couple of cool articles, so let's move this into the "soon come" category.
Quite a lot to report on this month at upsetter.net...
The latest episode of Radio Scratch is called "Upsetters A Go Go" and focuses on some of the killer instrumentals from The Upsetters over the years.
Some important changes are soon come to Radio Scratch. When I re-launched upsetter.net in September 2006, I never dreamed that the website would become this popular. While I am very happy that so many people are tuning into Eternal Thunder and Radio Scratch, there are some upsetting side effects.
At the moment, Eternal Thunder and the other upsetter.net websites receive tens of thousands of visits every week and take up an astonishing 5GB of bandwidth every day. This all translates into greater expenses for me to host the website.
When I first launched Radio Scratch, my plan was to only have the current episode and the previous month's episode online at any given time. However, such was the demand for an archive that I made arrangements to keep the complete series online -- more than 20 hours of music and commentary. Just over a year later, the statistics are incredible: the number of Radio Scratch episodes downloaded in a year is an amazing 232,000.
Therefore, in order to save bandwidth and save costs, I have decided to drastically cut back on the Radio Scratch archives. Starting March 1, people will only be able to access the current episode and the last two month's episodes. It is simply becoming unfeasible for me to keep two years' worth of podcasts online. So if you want a complete collection or haven't heard the earlier episodes yet, download them while you can!
Another important change is the CD of rare Black Ark tracks that I have been giving away with donations of $20 or more. Due to copyright reasons, I have decided to no longer offer the CD as a gift. Please be advised that even though the older podcasts advertise the CD, I cannot and will not be providing them anymore.
While still on the subject of donations, I certainly appreciate all of the donations that I receive -- please keep them coming! While I don't want upsetter.net to be about money, I do enjoy buying new reggae records and beer after all this hard work. If you appreciate Radio Scratch as well as all of the other great resources and information at Eternal Thunder, please make a donation with Paypal. Any amount is appreciated.
Ethan Higbee and Adam Bhala Lough are set to debut The Upsetter, their feature length documentary on Lee Perry, at the famous SXSW Festival this March. Ethan will provide me with more details when he has them. Can't wait to see this one!
The great Steve Barker invited me to do a Scratch selection for the legendary BBC Lancashire program On The Wire late last year. The program was broadcast on January 26. You can check it out at the On The Wire website along with all of the other boss episodes.
Some long overdue additions to the discography have been added. Mainly these are reviews of newer releases such as Trojan's Ape-ology set and the Makasound re-release of The Slicker's Breakthrough album. After more than a year of public jestering, I have slowly but surely started work on the US Singles section of the discography, I swear!
Finally, I have stirred the pot over at my other podcast, Sleeper's Record Shack. I'm now playing selections from the other half of my record collection, so expect to hear some soul, funk, rockabilly and other way out sounds along with the reggae selections.
Happy New Year, everyone. The last six months of 2007 were too busy for me to devote as much time as I would have liked on Eternal Thunder, but hopefully I can tinker a lot more with the website in 2008.
The latest episode of Radio Scratch is now online. It is a bit later than usual due to the amount of editing and production involved: a set of upsetting rhythm showers featuring some of Scratch's best known rhythms.
Our man in England Derek let me know that the BBC 6 website has an archived set of programs featuring Lee Perry and his music. I have heard this 4-part program before, and it's excellent. It may or may not be online for long, so check it out while you can.
In December 2007 I retired my long-running radio show Soul Shakedown Party and started a new program, Bass Culture. While anchored in 1970s reggae and dub, Bass Culture also features electronic dub as well as the newest 7" singles hot off the plane from Jamaica. Check out the website for archived shows, playlists and reviews.
Too busy to announce much else except that the latest episode of Radio Scratch is now online. This month focuses on Scratch's solo material from the Black Ark era.
As 2007 draws to a close, I'd like to wish Eternal Thunder fans all the best for the holidays. Thanks for tuning in to the website and the podcast.
Heartbeat has just announced a new "deluxe" edition of Chicken Scratch, their collection of Lee Perry's Studio One ska numbers. This is good news, since both David Katz and I have been pushing for more of Scratch's Studio One material to be re-released. The six bonus tracks include "Mother In Law", "Mad Head", "Help The Weak", "Cannot Wrong (And Get Right)", "John Tom" and "Run Rudies Run".
The latest episode of Radio Scratch is online. This month I am pleased to welcome back Doug Wendt AKA The Midnight Dread. You can always rely on Doug to come up with an eclectic playlist, and this episode is no exception.
 I've always wondered why none of Lee Perry's rhythms have been versioned in modern roots reggae. Of course, countless Studio One and Treasure Isle rhythms have "come again" over the years and the eternal "Real Rock" and "Stalag" rhythms keep on coming through the door. Other than Luciano's cover of "Police & Thieves", it seems that producers always overlook classic Upsetter rhythms like "Beat Down Babylon" or "Curly Locks". No longer! The always solid Massive B label has just released a few 7" singles on the "Dub Organizer" rhythm. They include:
Anthony B - Black Survivor / Chezidek - Holy Mount Zion
Burro Banton - Africans / Roots Radics - Dub Organizer
Chronicle - Mr. Shottaman / Chezidek - Holy Mount Zion
King Kong - Jah's My Best Friend / Roots Radics - Dub Organizer
Morgan Heritage - Heat Of The Battle / Roots Radics - Dub Organizer
Norris Man - Live Up Right / Steve Machete - Dem A Pagan
Also check out the re-lick of the "Blackboard Jungle" rhythm on Maximum Sound UK:
Alborosie - Holy Mount Zion
Anthony B - On Spot Herb Shop
Burro Banton - Lyrics Daddy
Chezidek - Life Gives Us Everything
Morgan Heritage - Guards Up
Sizzla - Africa Prepare
Thanks to Ian for the heads up on these new platters.
It's getting a bit harder to program Radio Scratch without repeats! With 18 episodes and counting, my "no repeats" policy is getting harder to enforce. As I was figuring out the playlist for this month's episode I had to toss three songs when I discovered that I had played them on previous episodes. This means that the pressure is on for guest selecter The Midnight Dread when he hosts next month's Radio Scratch.
I've been meaning to review and add newer Scratch releases such as Makasound's re-release of The Slickers' Breakthrough and Trojan's Ape-Ology and get them into the discography. However, either these releases haven't found their way into my collection or I just haven't had enough time. Now that winter is just around the corner and I'll be spending less time on my bike or in the mountains, I'll try to mash it up.
It's been a year since I launched the new Eternal Thunder after years of dormancy. It's been great to hear from Scratch fans around the world who appreciate the site. Sadly, even after a year, I haven't been able to finish some of the things that were supposed to be "soon come" on the website (like a US singles discography). But now that summer is over, I can hopefully devote some more time to projects like this.
After a refreshing break for August, Radio Scratch returns, this time with a selection of crucial Leo Graham tracks. Apparently the Upsetter is a big fan of Radio Scratch. I sent him a set of CDs with the first 10 episodes, and he has been enjoying them while on tour. It's always nice to upset the Upsetter...
I have heard it through the grapevine that that Lee Perry has buried the hatchet with Adrian Sherwood and the two of them have recorded new material. Top ranking BBC man Steve Barker was lucky enough to get a rough mix of one of the songs, "Disco Devil Revisited", for the August 18 edition of his excellent On The Wire program. No other details to report, but I can't wait to hear the latest Scratch/Sherwood collaboration.
Even more exciting is the upcoming documentary The Upsetter by Ethan Higbee and Adam Bhala Lough. No word on when the film will be complete, but you can check out the trailer at this website.
Finally, spam can take off its jacket and suck it. The contact e-mail for Eternal Thunder has changed and been encoded in a bullet-proof link. If anyone has a website and is looking for an effective way to defeat spam, check out Hivelogic's excellent Enkoder.
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