Here's an excerpt to get you started!
Shaking The
Foundation
It’s Wednesday night at the Echo-Plex music hall, situated
in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The venue is dark save a few red stage
lights and twinkling bulbs around the bar. Decked in a blazer and denim, with
his straight, shoulder-length hair falling over his eyes, DJ Tom Chasteen is getting
things set up for another edition of the Dub Club, a weekly reggae party
running since 2000. Flight cases and crates filled with vinyl LPs and boxes
crammed with 45s are hefted up on stage as the club’s resident MCs Jah Faith
and Ras Benji mill about backstage.
But it’s not just another night for the 13-year running
weekly event, instead, they’re celebrating the release of Foundation Come Again, Dub Club’s new 20 track compilation on
Stones Throw Records. Soon, veteran Jamaican toasters Trinity, Ranking Joe and
Tippa Lee will be on stage, offering classic roots and rub-a-dub lyrics to a
capacity crowd. Dub Club has showcased many similarly historic performances, including
Tappa Zukie, Little John, Mad Professor Anthony B and Scientist, as well as
Johnny Osbourne, Ranking Trevor, Tristan Palma, Ras Michael, Shinehead, and
hundreds more.
It’s unusual for a mid-sized club to host as many high
profile acts as this night has – the honor is usually reserved for festivals,
and large venues like House of Blues. But Chasteen and partners Boss Harmony,
Dungeon Master and Roy Corduroy are all serious vinyl collectors and students
of Jamaican music. They do research and legwork to track down significant and
often unheralded artists. The new compilation represents Dub Club’s intense
interest in preserving reggae music’s cornerstone artists and sounds.
- Read the full article on United Reggae.
- + Check ForwardEver's previous post for interview outtakes and audio clips!
- Dub Club: Shaking The Foundation: Part 1
