Better than Coffee: “One Step” and 2 Tone

Good morning, rude boys and girls. Just a wee bit o’ Madness to help you start your week off on the right foot…then the left foot… then the right foot…all the way to school:

I’d actually never seen this extra silly extended version of the “One Step Beyond” video before stumbling across it on YouTube recently. Now I’m reveling in a full-on personal 2 Tone revival. Must. Stop. Skankin‘. (I’ve already kicked the cat twice.)

Join me in looking like a right fookin’ idiot getting that sluggish blood pumping with an assortment of rocksteady beats beyond the jump. Oi!

The Beat: Mirror in the Bathroom

The Bodysnatchers: Do the Rocksteady

The Specials: Gangsters

The Selecter: Missing Words

Swinging Cats: Mantovani

Elvis Costello & the Attractions: Radio Radio

Bad Manners: Lip Up Fatty


The Selecter (yes, again, because Pauline Black is the BEST): On My Radio


The Specials (again, again!): Ghost Town

Gleeee!

23 Responses to “Better than Coffee: “One Step” and 2 Tone”

  1. Thews Says:

    I think it would be cool if Mer played some ska music with the theremin, that would really wake us up.

  2. Thews Says:

    don,t forget to brush your teeth before you leave for school.

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gdcVRueT2cw

  3. Tequila Says:

    The neighbors are not liking these. I will have to play them louder.

    Maybe I can incite one of those “everyone comes out of their house to dance” scenes like you see in movies.

  4. Warren Ellis Says:

    That’s like an entire eighteen months of my childhood right there.

    Bad Manners are still touring.

  5. David Forbes Says:

    After a rough weekend, I needed this. Thank you.

  6. Anatomie Says:

    I completely lost my shit after watching the intro to One Step Beyond. Thanks, you made my day!

  7. Rex Parker Says:

    Oh, thank you thank you for all of this (esp. “One Step Beyond”). I desperately needed something to get THIS out of my head:

    Sonseed!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-NOZU2iPA8

    rp

    PS if I botched the formatting on that link, I apologize ahead of time.

  8. Damien Says:

    Thank you for this awesome way to open the day.

  9. Suzanne Forbes Says:

    wow. I am seriously messed up by how young Elvis looks. Jesus I’m old. Thank you anyway for this delightful treeet!

  10. gooby Says:

    So funny that I just last week put “This Is Two Tone” AND “Madness: 7” on my itunes at work.

    I had no idea there was ever a video for Missing Words! Youtube, you can be such a treasure chest sometimes.. Now if only I could fins a decent video for Fishbone’s “Skankin to the Beat”.

    Pauline Black IS the best! And if I could a find a drummer like Charley H. Bembridge, my world would be complete.

  11. gooby Says:

    Yeah, it amazes me to think that Bad Manners are still touring, I would have thought Buster would have busted a pretty major bloodvessel by now.

    Warren: Please tell me you were dancing in your studio for a few minutes there?!

  12. Warren Ellis Says:

    Me? Dancing?

    You remember that bit in the old Willy Wonka movie where Gene Wilder comes out and he’s this knackered hunched-over old geezer with a cane who shuffles along and everyone is sad and then he leaps up and starts dancing and everyone is happy?

    I’m that guy, except without the leaping up and starting dancing.

  13. Nadya Says:

    @ Warren: I LOL’d.

    That is so going in our secret stash of best-ever Coilhouse Quotes.

  14. Mer Says:

    and everyone is sad and then he leaps up and starts dancing and everyone is happy?

    Heee. I can totally see it. We just need to put actual amphetamines in your Red Bull.

  15. Mer Says:

    MOAR.

  16. gooby Says:

    Well, we may not get the leaping up and dancing, but at least we get the “And everyone is happy” part.

    Cheers!

  17. Mer Says:

    Goo, meant to say. I really wanted include “Party at Ground Zero” here but they’re technically third wave, and Californian, so no dice. But I’ll definitely post it some future Monday….

  18. gooby Says:

    Totally, I understand.

    You’re right, Fishbone were never really part of the Two Tone scene, the California thing kinda got in the way. Which it was unfortunate, cuz they’d been together since ’79, and put out “Party at Ground Zero” same year as Madness put out “Our House”.

    And the Third wave was definitely viewed as the California Skaquake, and it pained me to have Fishbone lumped in with the likes of Sublime and No Doubt (Op Ivy? Sure!). Fishbone have definitely needed their own spot.

    Not they never get the love they deserve, anyone who grew up in Southern California in the 80’s knows that, it was just.. there was the ska scene, and then there was Fishbone.

    Thews: Thanks for posting the Baggy Trousers Toothpaste ad, I had no idea!

  19. Tequila Says:

    @Thews…a theremin version of Ghost Town sounds like it could work. Someone poke Mer with a stick until she agrees to try it!

    Hmm…Warren skanking…oh what a youtube treat that would make…or at least a fun lil gif. Not that I would ever make such a thing of course…

    Neighbors are liking the songs better now…or at least pounding the walls to the beat anyhow.

  20. Jon Munger Says:

    I could watch that fat bee-man dance for what feels like days.

  21. Chris L Says:

    You guys are totally skawesome.

    (Boooooo… but seriously, skawesome.)

  22. Ed Autumn Says:

    I skanked all mornin’ and thought I’d come back for more! :D
    Good thing MY cat is not around >.>

    Thanks Mer! <333333

  23. zombiemonk3y Says:

    oldschool ska rocks my arse around the room

    Cheers