Wellington Music Month 5: The Dub Strikes Back
I went for songs rather than albums.
Trinity Roots - Home, Land and Sea
Nominated for a Silver Scroll, this song should be the Don't Dream It's Over for a new generation.
Fat Freddy's Drop - Roady
This comes with a caveat, it has to be played live and in the stinky hot armpit of a late-summer evening with 1,000 of your closest friends. Played properly, Roady takes about 20mins and features every Wellington artist within a 5km (ad-free) radius.
Twinset and Barnaby Weir - Sunny
Again with Barnaby Weir doing covers (this time it's Boney M). Fantastic song for those summer days and Twinset is the only band who can do a standable sax solo.
King Kapisi - Skreems from da Old Plantation
King Kaps was originally from a bunch of places (Auckland, Piha, Samoa) and one of them is Wellington. He also resides here now so I think I'm allowed to count him. I remember back in 2000(?) sitting in the Auckland Uni quad when this came on and everyone was singing along.
Shihad - My Mind's Sedate
What'd you think I was some kind of p*ssy? "Well I trust the Police and the Government!" Wuck-ed!
In his wellington days he was MC bran muffin.
Although I'd classify him as hip hop rather than dub.
That's a popular song, alright. The list of cover-ers includes:
Frank Sinatra
Ella Fitzgerald
Cher
Dusty Springfield
James Brown
Boney M (obviously the one which stuck in your mind!)
Joe Feliciano
and...
Leonard Nimoy!
"Sunny, logic dictates that yesterday my life was filled with rain"
Nice list. Mate o' mine reckons Home, Land and Sea should be the national anthem.
Cheers Zippy.
Tom, I have to admit I didn't even know it was a cover until it was pointed out to me.
Sue: King Kaps (Kapisi apparently means cabbage by the way) is definitely hip-hop but he has done dub too.
The first version I heard was the original (on some sort of Lounge compilation). Would it be terribly embarrassing to admit that I had a friend play a version at my wedding?
Boney M?!? Bobby Hebb, surely?
But yes, it's a nice version alright.