Bedouin Soundclash

Sounding A Mosaic (Side One Dummy)
by Scott Hefflon

A stretch for Side One Dummy, but it makes sense. See, every generation of college kids goes thru a Bob Marley phase (gee, why do you think that is?). They probably (hopefully) listen to The Specials, too, and maybe old Billy Bragg. And thank god for that. While they mostly listen to Fall Out Boy and Straylight Run, they experiment, and dig into where those mainstream pop bands got their influence. Not just the expected “old school punk” stuff (probably considered Green Day and Rancid now, cuz let’s face it, even college kids don’t research things very deeply, just enough to pass). But digging up “island music” influences is not much of a stretch, especially for anyone into ska punk. UB40 and The Police are easy places to start, and Bob Marley, and some reach The Specials or Paul Simon’s work with the Boyoyo Boys. Lots of new bands play up their influences, but sometimes ya really gotta dig back a few decades. And yes, there were mainstream sell-out bands in genres and music movements you never even knew existed. You think your generation invented selling out?

Bedouin Soundclash? Sure, why not? They come from the expected hotbed of island roots music, Toronto, Ontario. Heh. Put it this way: If they’re from there and they’re passionate enough about the music to take all the funny looks and mismatched bookings, they must be pretty deep into it, right? They didn’t start a punk band to meet girls, they’re here for the music. So you can probably trust them, ya know?
(www.sideonedummy.com)