ROOTS ROCK REBEL PODCAST ARCHIVE

Roots Rock Rebel has been on the air on CKUT radio in Montreal (90.3FM) since 2003. The show is heard every wednesday night from 10pm-12am on the FM dial, and is also streamed live and archived/podcasted (yes! archived for 2 months) at www.ckut.ca.

The show originally began as an overnight show called “Rude Rude Radio”, and was heard every Tuesday morning from 3-5am. We moved into our current timeslot in November, 2005, and haven’t looked back since.

Roots Rock Rebel is the only place on the FM dial in Montreal where you can hear top quality ska, reggae, rocksteady, punk, and soul. We have a deep love and affection for Jamaican music, and hence with Roots Rock Rebel, we try every week to uncover the history and the roots of ska and reggae music. We generally spin a nice mix of old school (1960′s Jamaican, 70′s British) and new school (1990′s and beyond) on the show. Yes, it’s true – we have a strong bias towards old-sounding, traditional ska, so you won’t hear a lot of ska-punk here.

On top of that, Roots Rock Rebel is a show which wears its politics on its sleeve. We have a strong belief in radical, anti-authoritarian politics and lifestyle. This goes hand in hand with Roots Rock Rebel, in our opinion, because ska music was the music of Jamaica’s liberation, and the music of the shantytowns. At its core, it is a rebellious, working-class, people’s music. The 2-Tone movement brought an anti-racist consciousness into ska and punk, and as the Specials said, “if you have a racist friend, now is the time for your friendship to end.” So turn up your speakers, slap on your dancing boots, and fire yor boss! Because if I can’t fucking skank, it’s not my revolution.

Artists often heard on Roots Rock Rebel include: The Slackers, The Skatalites, One Night Band, Lo and the Magnetics, Marcia Griffiths, The Selecter, The Toasters, Go Jimmy Go, Deal’s Gone Bad, The Specials, and much much more. For other questions, requests, and playlists, you can email us at rebel@ckut.ca.