Long Beach Dub Allstars
Right Back
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It's not easy being a white boy who praises Jah. But it's harder still to resist the easy-skanking optimism of this record by former Sublime band mates bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh. Formed after Sublime's singer, Brad Nowell, died of a heroin OD in 1996, the Allstars -- a loose collection of Southern California singers, instrumentalists and DJs -- specialize in dubby grooves piled thick with funk horns, punk guitars and hip-hop beats; rasta toasting comes courtesy of reggae luminaries Tippa Irie, Barrington Levy, Half Pint and Bad Brains' H.R.
In the road-trip rocker "Rosarito," the band balances the thrill of a south-of-the-border tequila party with the hangover of gringo
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guilt. Elsewhere the band riffs off Fugazi, reprises "Saw Red" -- Sublime's version of the chilling Barrington Levy murder ballad "She's Mine" -- and digs into its own brand of delinquent dub. In the hook-y "My Own Life," vocalist Opie Ortiz's rant about independence and self-control suggests that these notorious slackers may be edging toward adulthood.
The whole thing could be a stoned mess, but instead the music radiates energy and hope, and the songs are filled with sly humor and a social conscience; after a summer dominated by Limp Bizkit's flailing rage, Right Back sounds positively enlightened. (RS 823)
JASON FINE
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