Greetings,

Thanks for listening and promoting these Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives podcast streams either here or on Mixcloud.

While you enjoy the sounds of cool roots going on 26 plus years, (debuted on KRCL 90.9FM July 2, 1988),  I get to boast up myself by tracking the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives progress on Mixcloud’s music charts. Let’s see how WE did the last last 2 weeks.

Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: June 14, 2014 edition

• Vinyl: 7
• Reggae: 30
• Dub: 17

Jump straight to the June 21, 2014 Ark-Ive stream

Here’s what I featured and you can check above (with the Playlist below)

Snuck away last week for a cratedig – Library conference in Las Vegas. Hit 112 on the thermometer. 122 in my car. I found some rare Vinyl and worried it would cook from the shop to Circus Circus. So I blasted the Air Conditioner on High (pun intended) straight onto the black wax:

Jimmy Riley, Third World 12″s, Josey Wales Jamaican deejay 12″. Record store day pic sleeve 45s by Mazzy Star and Ronnie Spector and the E Street Band; when the Two Sevens Clashed (1977)

I thought I could take this edited Smile Jamaica Ark-Ive on the road and upload to Mixcloud off of my iPad.

You know what they say about assumptions. Mixcloud doesn’t allow you to upload via iPad. They suggested Traktor DJ. Downloaded that App but due to my steep learning curve, I couldn’t get it to sync the file to then upload. Grrrr.

So, home sweet home:

So how does a deejay, such as myself, – who has been doing the same thing, every Saturday, same time, same channel, same show for 25 plus years keep from getting bored? Or boring? Rinse and Repeat.

Since I only deejay Smile Jamaica once every Saturday, I pack the most into my time. 3 hours: All Killer, No Filler!

7 0’clock comes. I pack up, go home and start loading up tunes for next week. Brilliant. I volunteer my time. Never taken one dime for doing Smile Jamaica. Ever and ever. Amen! Selah!

No paycheck makes it a “labour of love” (pun intended) for I!

I actively listen to music between 4-6 hours a day. More when baseball season ends and my beloved Giants take the winter off.

A lot of that listening are disks that I harvest to my iPod. I pull the best songs and slot them into playlists by themes. When I get enough in a iTunes playlist to feature on Smile Jamaica, I know right where to go.

Lo-fi, no computers for I ‘n’ I. I don’t play digital. Itunes is for my mobile listening through earbuds. On Smile Jamaica, unless it is a request from my digital Library, it’s going to be either a CD, Vinyl or Vinyl single.

As a Librarian, this is how my profession works. Organizing information into categories. Once I get my playlists in a searchable format, I can easily track down the physical object within the massive Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives.

So I had enough to do a set devoted to Neoliberal hit man James Bond.

I played the ska cover theme version by Studio One sax stalwart Roland Alphonso; Roland again alongside Los Jah-ngeles, Collie-fornya Third Wave ska group Jump With Joey. I ended the set with The Specials 2 Tone Brit Ska livication, name checking  of all the James Bond movies

Forward ever backwards never. Fifteen minutes into mo’ Roots, I get a phone call. A listener on his way from Nebraska to UC Davis was channel surfing through the valley and came upon Smile Jamaica at 90.9FM.

The dude was ecstatic that he could catch some classic ska after a thousand miles of talk radio, NPR and commercial radio. Not to mention static radio in remote areas. He asked if Smile Jamaica was an all Reggae Radio station.  I said, “I wish”, but told him that he had 90 more minutes of it heading West on I 80 losing the signal around Wendover.

He checked off and promised to ketch the streams here on the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ive page. Made another friend on the Reggae radio airwaves.

And THAT is why I do radio for free. For 26 years and beyond.

Selah!

bless, robt

Playlist

• Jimmy Riley – Summertime; 12” (DEB); cover of Billie Holliday/Porgy & Bess classic
• Sly & Robbie – Hott Stuff; Bebo’s in a Dub Style (Bebo’s Music); ‘ 85 Dub Album of the Week
• Aswad – Ways of the Lord; New Chapter (Columbia/Legacy) ’81 UK roots. Name means “black” in Arabic/Amharic
• Dennis Alcapone – Shades of Hudson; Guns Don’t Argue (Trojan) dubble disk best of
• Ken Boothe – Can’t Fight Me Down; Everything I Own (Trojan); best of
• Jimmy Cliff – World Is Upside Down; Hawaii 5-0 Soundtrack (CBS); Joe Higgs cover
• Mystic Roots – Pass the Marijuana; Constant Struggle (Stay Positive); 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement; Chico, Collie-fornya
• Jessica Burks – Hollywood Sign; Hollywood Sign EP (jessicaburks.com) 2009***End of Set 1

• Bob Marley & the Wailers – Zimbabwe; Live Forever (Tuff Gong); last live show: Pittsburgh, Jah-sylvania 9/23/80; Wailers Family Tree set
• Bunny Wailer – Another Dance; Rootsman Skanking (Shanachie) ‘86
• Peter Tosh – 400 Years; Equal Rights (Deluxe Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) ’77 dubble disk of rarities
• Martha Velez – Get Up, Stand Up; Angels of the Future/Past (Sire); ’76 Bob’s girlfriend on Wailers tune***End of Set 2

• Hollie Cook – Ari Up; Twice (Mr. Bongo) New; Mutant Dubstress livicated to late Slits vocalist
• Culture – Revelation Time; Power of the Trinity (Shanachie); Request
• Aksumites – Ark of the Covenant; 12” (Thebes Sounds) ’81; Axum = Ancient Ethiopia
• Aldubb feat. Ras Perez – Let There Be Dub; Let There Be Dub (One Drop) 2010 Jah-many mutant dub***End of Set 3

• Roland Alphanso – James Bond; Something Special (Studio One/Heartbeat); James Bond set: ’65 ska instrumental
• Jump With Joey – James Bond; Strictly For You vol. 2 (Rykodisc); ’94 third wave LA ska group
• Specials – Sock it to ‘em J.B.; More Specials (2 Tone) ’80 Brit ska***End of Set 4

• Cimarons – Utopian Feeling; In Time (Trojan) ’74 UK: Vinyl is Vital Set
• Mike Brooks – Lover’s Street; One Love (Vista Sounds) ’83 UK
• Chalawa feat. Merri & Sandi Callender; Capture Land (Green Weenie) ’78 Jah-ntario, Canada
• Jah Ruby – Kunta Kinte; Dread Affair (Afrik) ’77 JA; from Alex Haley’s Roots TV miniseries
• Tony Bell & Kutchie – Weep and Moan; Mercy (Indigo) ’89 Jah-cago***End of Set 5

• Abyssinians – Smokey Joe; Reunion (AO!) ’98 Seven Leaf Herb set
• Weeding Dub feat. Humble-I – Sound of Reality; 10” (Control Tower); 2009 Fr. about French law against herb
• Black Roots – Earth Land; On the Ground (Sugar Shack) 2012 UK
• Jacob Miller – Healing of the Nation; Jacob Miller Meets the Fatman Riddim Section (Crocodisc) ’78; from Revelation 22:2***End of Set 6

• No Doubt – Rock Steady; Rock Steady (Interscope) 2001 feat. Sly & Robbie***End of Set 7
• The Dynamics – Fever; Version Excursions (Groove Attack) 2007; Little Willie John cover; Mutant Dub set
• Kenny Knots Meets de Bush Chemists – My God is Real + Real Dub; Gi Me De Music (Conscious Sounds) 2003 UK; Sleng Teng riddim
• Cosmic Rocker & Zeb feat. Harmony – dub; Babylon is Ours: The USA in Dub (Echo Beach) ‘96
• Natacha Atlas – Fun Does Not Exist; Best of Natacha Atlas (Mantra) 2000 French/Al-jahrian female artist