Review Revue: The Uptown Rulers - Twelve Inches, 12!

Every once in a while in this series, I like to take a break from posting albums by bands I'm embarrassed not to know more about, in order to post an album by a band that there's pretty much no way I could ever have heard of - unless I was born a decade earlier in the midwest, or was a college radio DJ in the '80s. Neither of those being the case, the band name The Uptown Rulers was completely new to me - I wasn't even aware of the early '00s L.A. party band of the same name.

The best online source I could find for information was a youtube posting of the band's version of "Exodus" as it appears on this EP. According to FlyswatterOne - who seems trustworthy - "Uptown Rulers were an American 2 Tone Ska/New Wave band from Normal, Illinois. They released this album and a 7" album called Speak Up. From what I could find, the founding members went on to form an Alternative Country band called Souled American." (This is corroborated in Souled American's Wikipedia entry.)

It seems like most of the KCMU crew were into this release. I wonder if that one guy's sour opinion (you'll know it when you read it) somehow killed any chances the band had of becoming a household name in the world of American 2nd-wave ska. I guess we'll never know.

"Upbeat rock-reggae. Really fun!"

"Check out their version of 'Exodus.' Sounds like the Raybeats meets the Tornadoes!!"

"I like this!"

"'Cardboard Box' is mondo!"

"Mondo, yes, but I like it too!"

"Metric!"

"I like it too!"

"Great."

"Catchy."

"Heck, I like it."

"Plenty of bands like this around. White and feeling oppressed, good musicians always turn to reggae or jazz sounds. They have no 'feeling.' Sorry, but this stinks. I bet these guys wear Birkenstocks!"