You Need To Know: Reggae Cover Band Easy Star All-Stars
Every Tuesday, You Need to Know spotlights a rising artist we're positive will blow up big. Listen now. Thank us later.
I thought the same thing you did before I heard Easy Star All-Stars, the Brooklyn-based reggae/dub collective who rose to prominence via a series of acclaimed cover albums of decidedly non-reggae music: This will sustain itself for a song—maybe two—before revealing itself as the gimmick that it is.
Their first album, 2003’s Dub Side of the Moon, took on Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side of the Moon and immediately, gimmick became belief. Familiarity only goes so far, but founders Michael G and Ticklah (the latter a NYC mainstay who has performed with Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and many others) re-interpreted the prog rock album into their own distinct, dubby sound. In retrospect, it made perfect sense: Stoner music reimagined as stoner music, and went on to become one of the best-selling reggae albums of the decade.
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