Category Archives: Iration

Aloha! Hawaiian Reggae (blog)

In my last blog I discussed California reggae bands.  One artist that could have been included in that discussion is J Boog.  J’s blood line comes from Samoa and was born and raised in California.  Residing in Hawaii since 2006, his music is considered part of the reggae movement from the Hawaiian islands.  Boog has built up quite a following in Hawaii and some of his songs feature vocal performances from Richie Spice and Peetah (Morgan).

The Green is another reggae band from Hawaii who are doing extensive touring this spring including some dates in Hawaii with Bruno Mars.  That’s BIG!  They are doing a lot of dates in California including California Roots Festival in Monterey.  The Green will hit the east coast of USA with 2 of the bands from my last post, Rebelution and Iration.

Inna Vision, a band from Maui consider themselves “Hawaii’s underground roots, reggae ambassadors”.  They will be touring with reggae artists New Kingston and Tribal Seeds.

One more artist I want to mention is Mishka.  Based in Hawaii, this Reggae Pop star was born in Bermuda and raised in the Caribbean.  He music is more acoustic reggae with Caribbean and Hawaiian influences.

 

 

 

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Top Reggae Albums – March 2014 (blog)

I was checking out the iTunes Top Reggae Albums chart.  As usual, the top of the chart is dominated by Bob Marley, Bob Marley and The Wailers and we see the pre-sale of Ziggy Marley’s new release “Fly Rasta” at #3.  As you scan down the chart you can see the likes of Jamaican artists Collie Buddz, Shaggy, Gregory Isaacs, Sizzla, Barrington Levy, Toots and The Maytals, Jimmy Cliff and course Damian and Stephen Marley.

Then, there is the new generation of non-Jamaican reggae artists in the top 40 albums.  Most were born in California, USA.  Included in that list are Rebelution (Santa Barbara, Ca.), Iration (Isla Vista, Ca.) and Tribal Seeds (San Diego, Ca.).  I noticed one band omitted from the reggae chart that is very popular, also out of San Diego, the band Slightly Stoopid.  This band is listed under the Alternative music category but, certainly could be in the reggae genre.

Other reggae bands on the charts that are from the next generation American reggae artists/bands are SOJA, Matisyahu, J. Boog and The Green (both from Hawaii).

My band Island Head are an instrumental reggae band and most of us are from New York, Mikey ‘Mao’ Chung is from Kingston, Jamaica and David Frank is from Los Angeles, Ca.