That's right, it's ska season. There's something about the temperature turning 60 that immediately leads me to load my 30 favorite third wave records onto my phone and make them my walking/driving soundtrack. Foremost amongst them is this, Hepcat's second of four LPs, 1996's "Scientific".
I played the ever-loving shit out of this and the promo single "Bobby & Joe b/w Dollar Dance" in the summer and fall of 1996. It slotted nicely alongside the Slackers' "Better Late Than Never" and the Stubborn All-Stars' "Open Season"; a trio of contemporary records from either coast that could have just as easily come out on Trojan in 1968. It was a very good summer to make friends and meet girls and stay up all night and raise the slightest bit of hell. There wasn't a need for anything much stronger than a Mickey's wide-mouth and a pack of Marlboros, and it was mighty easy to find a few bucks to pay for both.
Yeah, this evokes a fair amount of nostalgia for me. But it still feels lively and fresh and the sort of thing I want to play for my nieces this summer. This, of all the Hepcat records, appears to be out of print (sadly), so enjoy with a free conscience...at least until Jump Up puts in for a reissue.
Click here to download.
3 comments:
It must indeed be ska season. I just got done posting up Citizen Fish & went for a stroll & came across your recent. Just wanted to say: "Gotta love that cosmic entanglement" & your offering. Thanks.
@NØ: glad to connect via the heavy, heavy monster sounds. Thanks for stopping by!
Hell yes. Slackers, Hepcat, and Stubborn All-Stars were, sure, riding a wave at that particular moment but put records from that triad up against anyone thirty years in either direction, and they'll still sound unfuckwithable. Thanks for this one! I'm currently (re)discovering for the first time the I Just Can't Stop It LP by The English Beat, and it's gonna be 85% of what I listen to all summer. I dunno how I missed it in my first ska/punk phase back in the 90s but man it is hitting at the right time and right place. Dig.
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