Tuba City

Amazon.com

In reviving the British two-tone movement, itself a politicized rewrite of ’60s Jamaican ska, America’s third-generation ska movement often seems superfluous to anyone not caught up in the skadiddly up-tempo fun of music that’s equal parts punk adrenaline and moody pop cool. Boston-based Bim Skala Bim, however, are easily among the best of the American bunch. The late Roland Alphonso, a founding member of the Skatalites, who virtually invented ska, adds shy saxophone lines (and authenticity), while singer Jackie Starr evokes Selecter vocalist Pauline Black’s breathy admonitions to shape up or ship out. The good, perky fun of “Gopher Rodeo” and “Let Me In” is musically at least one step beyond the group’s peers, while “Native” and “Things You Do” are dark and dubby. The final two tracks, ska covers of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love” and the Beatles’ “Rain,” prove that good taste is eternal and not genre specific.
–Richard Gehr