Tag Archives: roots Rock Rebel

Exit Roots Rock Rebel, Enter The Rebel Beat

For those of you who dig ska, you’re probably familiar with longstanding CKUT show Roots Rock Rebel. For nearly a decade it’s been the go-to for Montreal’s ska movers and shakers, but there are changes afoot. To give you the news from the horse’s mouth, we’re turning things over to Aaron Maiden himself — read on for the full scoop:

To all the rude boys, rude girls, punks, mods, and rockers,

I have some bittersweet news. After broadcasting for 9 years, Roots Rock Rebel will be no more after January 2015. It has been an incredible passion and honour for me to serve the local and international ska, punk, and reggae scenes with this show, interviewing bands from around the world, and giving space to promote underground artists.

I am going to carry on doing a radio show and podcast every Wednesday from 10pm-12am on CKUT, but the show is getting a total overhaul. So I’m very excited to introduce to all of you – The Rebel Beat.

The Rebel Beat will launch with its first edition on February 4, 2015.

 Roots Rock Rebel has always been about ska, reggae, punk, and class war on the dance floor. With The Rebel Beat, my plan is to put the emphasis on the latter, and showcase revolutionary political music across different genres, and across different continents. 

We live in serious times. Militarized police states. Ecological devastation taking such a toll on our planet. Racism so crude that you’d think it was 1950, not 2015. But serious times call for serious action, and a serious soundtrack. That is where I hope The Rebel Beat will come in –  a show to connect musicians and artists with global movements for revolutionary change. Indeed, class war on the dance floor.

What will you hear when you tune in? Less ska and reggae, more hip-hop against police brutality, riot folk, anarcho-punk, union picket line hymns, slam poetry, plus interviews with artists, agitators, revolutionaries, community organizers, and more.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has listened to the show over the years and supported us. People who have really come through and who should be named include:  Val Desnoyers, Cath Marchand, Reggie McClean and the Fundamentals, Victor Rice (who composed our theme song!), Danny Rebel and the KGB, Kman and the 45s, Lorraine Muller, Matt, Mike, Lora, Alex, and everyone at Stomp Records, Rebel Time Records, Jay Nugent, Dave Hillyard, and the Slackers, The Hangers, and of course the whole Montreal Ska Festival crew.

Below you’ll find some more info on The Rebel Beat. I hope you keep tuning in every Wednesday night on CKUT, or keep downloading the podcast, because this new show promises to be amazing.

Link us up!
www.rebelbeatradio.com
Twitter
Facebook
Email: rebel@ckut.ca

Until next week, stay rude, and stay rebel,
Aaron Maiden

 ——

About the Rebel Beat
The Rebel Beat is a show of radical political music across different genres, and across different continents. It is the mixtape to a riot against police brutality. It is your nightly newscast set to bass and beats. It is a rallying cry against apathy. It is protest anthems from Hong Kong to Istanbul to Ferguson to Montreal.

Tune in every Wednesday from 10pm-12am EST on CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal, or stream or download the podcast at http://www.ckut.ca. Curated and hosted by Aaron Maiden (formerly Roots Rock Rebel), and featuring regular collaborators and guest DJs.

The Planet Smashers Celebrate 20 Years of Ska on Roots Rock Rebel April 23

This Wednesday, April 23, CKUT’s Aaron Maiden and Roots Rock Rebel will be hosting a little bit of history in our studios up on the mountain. Montreal’s very own party ska kings, The Planet Smashers, will be invading the studio from 10pm-12am to celebrate their 20th anniversary of making off-beat, off-kilter, and highly danceable music about drinking, surfing, the 80 bus, hockey, fighting aliens, and more drinking. Not only that, they’re fresh off a cross-Canada tour to launch their brand new album “Mixed Messages” on the label they started in a little garage in St-Lambert, Stomp Records. Both the Planet Smashers and Stomp Records would go on to pave the way for the rise of the Canadian ska scene, giving notable bands like The Kingpins, Bedouin Soundclash, and The Beatdown their start.

The Planet Smashers will also be celebrating their 20th anniversary with a big blow-out show on April 26 at Theatre Corona, alongside their labelmates The Creepshow, The Hunters, and The Skinny. We’ll be giving away a pair of tickets to a lucky listener who calls in, so you don’t wanna miss this!

Again, that’s this Wednesday, April 23 from 10pm-12am right here on the mothership, CKUT!

A little bit about the Planet Smashers from Stomprecords.com:

FLASHBACK!: The year was 1994 and the world was a very different place….A happy-go-lucky Bill Clinton presided over the free world; Ace of Base topped the music charts with their insipid reggae-inspired hit The Sign; cats had yet to take over the internet, men and women wore acidwashed overalls slung from one shoulder à la Joey from Friends; and a young band of ragtag miscreants released their first full-length to an unsuspecting public. In case you haven’t been paying attention, that band was (and still is) The Planet Smashers.

Fast forward two decades, seven albums, one million records sold worldwide, six gazillion beers consumed, countless tours and one extremely blurry never-ending party to this futuristic and confusing present day. Who will save us from this current clusterfuck filled with beliebers, honey-booboos and bathroom selfies? Who will stand boldly in the face of the autotuned, deep-vee wearing douche chills crapping in the earholes of the world? Who will dare to play their own instruments while blasting out ska hooks so catchy you wish you could scoop them up and eat them like ice-cream?….You’re goddamned right it’s The Planet Smashers.

Mixed Messages is the 8th and arguably best long-player from our stalwart musical heroes. Combining their trademark concoction of two-tone ska, new wave, punkrock and pop sensibilities, The Smashers showcase their classic knack for writing immediately lovable tunes straight from the gut, all the while keeping their collective tongues planted firmly in their respective cheeks. These thirteen prolific tracks run the thematic gamut of party-punk anthems, dancefloor bangers, lovesongy crooners, geeky highsteppers to pissed-off melodic fistpumpers and back again, leaving the listener pleasantly spent and basking in an eargasmic afterglow. Mixed Messages is definitely a definitive, must-have album for new and old fans alike….or maybe it’s not, but it probably is…I think…or whatever. (see what I did there?).

BLACK HISTORY MONTH PROGRAMMING ON ROOTS ROCK REBEL

Tune in to Roots Rock Rebel Every Wednesday night in February from 10-12pm February is Black History Month, and as we do each and every year on Roots Rock
Rebel, we bring you programming, music, and interviews which celebrate the
contributions that the tiny island of Jamaica has made in music around the world.

Wednesday, February 2nd – A conversation with Fritz Williams Listen!
The father of celebrated Montreal-based DJ and music historian Andy Williams, Fritz
was on one of the first ships (The Santa Maria) of Jamaican migrants which sailed to
England in 1957. In our extended interview, he spoke about the socio-economic
conditions that early Jamaican migrants to the UK were forced to live under (baaaad
baaad housing, lack of jobs), the club scene in the Midlands, fashion, and of
course, reggae music!

Wednesday, February 9th – Nantali Indongo aka. I am Black Girl (Nomadic Massive)

Not only an artist with the celebrated hip-hop ensemble Nomadic Massive and a regular contributor to Community Contact, Quebec’s major English-language black community newspaper, Nantali is an alternative educator using hip-hop culture as a
contemporary educational tool. While institutional education tends to stick to set
curricula and rigid social codes, Indongo, co-founder with Maryse Legagneur, of the
“Hip Hop No Pop”program has been invited to tour high-schools and CEGEP campuses and
teach workshops on more relevant topics to youth today, including the history of
hip-hop, sexuality and language.

Nantali will join us live in the CKUT studios to discuss West Indian diasporas in
Montreal, and using music as a tool for education and social change.

Tune in to Roots Rock Rebel every Wednesday from 10pm-12am EST this February to
enjoy this programming and much more, plus plenty of great old school vibes from
Jamaica! In the Montreal area, tune in at 90.3FM, or stream it live at
www.ckut.ca/listen.php everywhere else!

specials

THE SPECIALS On Roots Rock REBEL

A Specials Special!

UK 2-tone ska heroes
The Specials on Roots Rock Rebel –

Wednesday, September 8, 10pm-12am



31 years ago, a group of working class kids in the poverty-striken town of
Coventry, England, were looking for something to do to break away from the
racism, monotony, and boredom of everyday life in the UK. They took ska and
reggae music from Jamaica, threw in a pinch of British punk, a dash of New
Wave, and so became The Specials! The Specials would go on to kick off the
2-Tone ska craze, and change the face of popular music to come.

In 2009, 30 years after taking the world stage, The Specials reformed for a
reunion tour, which included 6 of the original members of the band. And on
August 27 and 28th, the band came back to Canada to play two shows in
Toronto after many decades of absence.

CKUT's Aaron Lakoff was at the show, and caught up with The Specials
guitarist Lynval Golding for an interview. Tune in to Roots Rock Rebel on
Wednesday, September 8 from 10pm-12am for a two hour Special on the Specials
which will feature the interview with Golding, plus live in studio
appearances from members of Montreal ska bands such as The Kingpins, The
Fundamentals, and Danny Rebel and the KGB who will select their favorite
2-Tone songs and reflect on the Specials concert in Toronto. Enjoy yourself,
it's later than you think!