The Uptones are an American

ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

band, based in Northern California. Formed in 1981 by a group of high school students in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, The Uptones were influenced by the English

2 Tone Two-tone, two tone, or 2 tone, etc., may refer to: Audio and sound * Second-order intercept point#Two-tone analysis, Two-tone analysis, in nonlinear system measurement * Two-tone attention signal * Two-tone Warning chime, chime, such as the "ding ...

sound, as well as the British mod scene, punk rock, and the original Jamaica ska sound. The Uptones were one of the first U.S. bands devoted to playing

and were an influence on the burgeoning West Coast punk/ska scene.Selvin, Joel
"Uptones Get Down"
''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'', San Francisco, Sunday, March 23, 2008. Retrieved March 10, 2021. The band reformed with core founding members in the early 2000s and continued to play live shows throughout the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

until 2018.

History

Formation

The Uptones were formed by nine high-school students in 1981, and such was their musical synergy that they started writing songs and playing live shows the same year. Band members Eric Din, Paul Jackson, Ben Eastwood, Erik Rader and Charles Stella were attending Berkeley High School and

Cazadero Performing Arts Camp The Cazadero Performing Arts Camp (also known as Cazadero Music Camp, or Cazadero) is a performing arts camp located in the Sonoma redwoods in Northern California, United States.Burrell, Jackie. (July 15, 2007) Contra Costa Times Harmony among t ...

at the time. They had been inspired to start a ska band after attending an English Beat show in San Francisco. According to Din, another main influence was the documentary ''

Dance Craze ''Dance Craze'' is a 1981 documentary film about the British Two-tone (music genre), 2 Tone music genre. The film was directed by Joe Massot, who originally wanted to do a film only about the band Madness (band), Madness, whom he met during th ...

'', “...basically a bunch of concert footage of the English two-tone bands.”Kopp, Bill
"415 Records: Pioneers of Punk Get Reissue Series"
''

SFWeekly ''SF Weekly'' is an online music publication and formerly alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper ha ...

'', San Francisco, November 24, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2021. Writing original songs throughout the Reagan era, The Uptones were a dance band with a political bent, covering topics such as the Cold War and the increased militarization of the U.S.Carnes, Aaron
"The Uptones: The East Bay’s Seminal Ska Band"
''

East Bay Express The ''East Bay Express'' is an Oakland-based weekly newspaper serving the Berkeley, Oakland and East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is distributed throughout Alameda County and parts of Contra Costa County every Wednesday. Th ...

'', Oakland, September 19, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2021.

Live Shows

One of their first public gigs in 1981 was at Barrington Hall in Berkeley with MDC headlining. The Uptones, consisting entirely of 15- and 16-year-olds, would continue to play sold-out shows throughout the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

for the next seven years. East Bay venues included The Keystone Berkeley,

Berkeley Square Berkeley Square is a garden square in the West End of London. It is one of the best known of the many squares in London, located in Mayfair in the City of Westminster. It was laid out in the mid 18th century by the architect William Kent, ...

, and Ruthie's Inn. San Francisco gigs took place at the On Broadway, The Farm, the

Old Waldorf Old Waldorf was a music venue located in San Francisco, California. The famous club was located at 444 Battery St, and was originally opened by Jeffrey Pollack in 1976 before selling it to Bill Graham who closed it in 1983. During its time Old Wal ...

, The Stone, the

Kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...

, and Wolfgang's, which sold out to large audiences consisting mainly of high school students. Rock promoter Bill Graham took note and started booking the band as support for major acts such as

the Go-Go's The Go-Go's are an American all-female Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar ...

and

UB40 UB40 are an English reggae band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart and has also achieved considerable international success. They have been nominated for the Grammy ...

at the Greek Theater in Berkeley; X, Madness and the English Beat at the Kabuki;

Oingo Boingo Oingo Boingo () was an American new wave music, new wave band formed by songwriter Danny Elfman in 1979. The band emerged from a Surrealism, surrealist musical theatre troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, that Elfman had led and wri ...

at the Warfield;

General Public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

at the Henry J. Kaiser Center; and

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...

at the Oakland Coliseum. The Uptones have also played numerous shows with Los Angeles bands

Fishbone Fishbone is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1979, the band plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative ...

and

The Untouchables Untouchable or Untouchables may refer to: People * Untouchability, the practice of socially ostracizing a minority group of very low social status * Untouchables, word for the Dalits or Scheduled Castes of India * Untouchables (law enforcement), ...

Influence

Despite starting out in their teens and breaking up before they could record a substantial discography, The Uptones were highly influential players in the early 1980s underground music scene. Joe Marchese of ''The Second Disc'' calls them a "leading light of the mid-’80s ska eruption." Citing an enormous impact on the West Coast ska scene, Marchese writes, "They bridged the era of the Specials and Madness with the era of

Green Day Green Day is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Rodeo, California, in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, with drummer Tré Cool joining in 1990. In 1994, their majo ...

, Sublime, and Rancid."Marchese, Joe
"Still Disturbing the Peace: New Liberation Hall Label Reissues Bay Area New Wave, Punk, Ska from 415 Records"
''The Second Disc'', October 20, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2021. Rancid included their cover of Uptones' song "Get Out of My Way" on their 1993 self-titled album. Jesse Michaels of

Operation Ivy Operation Ivy was the eighth series of American nuclear tests, coming after '' Tumbler-Snapper'' and before '' Upshot–Knothole''. The two explosions were staged in late 1952 at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshall I ...

has cited the Uptones as a key influence. His bandmates Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman were also influenced by the Uptones, having opened for them in their earlier band, Basic Radio. Michaels describes the Uptones' place in the underground Berkeley ska scene in an interview:

"There was a ska scene in Berkeley that most people don't know about, in the mid-80s... There was this great band called the Uptones that would get on stage nd dothe whole 2-Tone thing...and they looked and played like a punk band, really dynamic and exciting. People would be stage diving and going crazy at their shows."Ink19 , Common Rider - An Interview with Jesse Michaels , Tom Minarchick
/ref>

Reformation

Despite critical acclaim and a devoted following, after seven years the band went their separate ways. Their recording output had been minimal, and they were mostly known by word-of-mouth from their live shows. Original band members Din, Jackson and Eastwood went on to form new rock bands, first Hobo and then Stiff Richards, playing a combination of alt-rock, ska and reggae, though Din would always consider The Uptones his main band. Subsequently, The Uptones reunited 2002. According to Din, the other bands "were just keeping the heart of the Uptones alive." The new line-up included original members singer/guitarist Din, singer/keyboardist Jackson, bass-player Eastwood and saxophonist Adam Beach, along with new members Musashi (Moose) Lethridge on guitar, Mike Stevens on drums, and a horn section featuring Jeanne Geiger on trombone and Scott Bertrand on trumpet. The band currently plays live shows throughout the Bay Area and was featured in a cover story in the ''San Francisco Chronicle Datebook'' in March, 2008. In 2008, the Uptones recorded a new CD, ''Skankin' Foolz Unite!'' with producers Matthew King Kaufman and Michael Rosen for the Fun Fun Fun Recordings label. Guitarist Moose Lethridge left The Uptones to join the English Beat in 2010. He was replaced by singer/guitarist Emily Jayne. In 2013, Lethridge rejoined The Uptones, and in 2018 he left again. In June, 2010, the Uptones played four California dates on The Warped Tour. On November 5, 2017, The Uptones played a benefit concert at the Ashkenaz in Berkeley to raise money for the Northern California fire relief effort. This was their first show since December 2013. In 2019 Berkeley Cat Records released a digital reissue of the OUTBACK six-song EP, including the original version of Burning Sky which had been a hit on KITS "Live 105" commercial alternative radio in San Francisco in 1987 and remained in rotation through the 1990s. In 2020, Liberation Hall Records released The Uptones' "Get Out of My Way, the early recordings" CD, along with ''415 Records: Still Disturbing The Peace'', a compilation of bands originally on the roster of Howie Klein's 415 label. The compilation includes music from Uptones contemporaries of the 1970s/80s Bay Area punk and new-wave music scene, including

The Nuns The Nuns was an American rock band based in San Francisco and New York City. Best known as one of the founding acts of the early San Francisco punk scene, the band went through a number of hiatuses and periodic reunions, lineup changes, and ch ...

The Mutants ''The Mutants'' is the fourth serial of the ninth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 April to 13 May 1972. The serial is set on and high above the ...

, Pop-O-Pies, and SVT. In 2024, Berkeley Cat Records released a live UpTones recording from November, 1986 at the Rheem Theater in Moraga, California.

Critical acclaim

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

praises the Uptones for being ahead of the mid-1980s

Third wave ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

movement:

"Their impact upon the evolving ska scene was enormous ... With a musical maturity far beyond their years and a groundbreaking third wave sound ... the Uptones knocked out high-energy songs quite removed from anything or anyone else ... Light years ahead of their time, the Uptones were a pivotal band and a seminal one."

The review notes the Uptones' rabid hometown following and strong influence on later ska practitioners. ''

'' music critic

Joel Selvin Joel Selvin (born February 14, 1950) is an American San Francisco-based music critic and author known for his weekly column in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', which ran from 1972 to 2009. Selvin has written books covering various aspects of po ...

wrote of the Uptones in San Francisco Chronicle's list of top 100 Bay Area bands:

"Along with
Operation Ivy Operation Ivy was the eighth series of American nuclear tests, coming after '' Tumbler-Snapper'' and before '' Upshot–Knothole''. The two explosions were staged in late 1952 at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshall I ...
, the Uptones formed the core of the Berkeley
ska-punk Ska punk (also spelled ska-punk) is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music. Ska punk tends to feature brass instruments, especially horns such as trumpets, trombones and woodwind instruments like saxophones, making the genre ...
scene that paved the way for the likes of Rancid. A hard-edged, upbeat band that would have been huge if it hadn't been years ahead of its time."

The discovery of a DAT tape of a

924 Gilman Street The Alternative Music Foundation located at 924 Gilman Street, almost exclusively referred to as "Gilman", is a non-profit, all-ages, collectively organized music club. It is located in the West Berkeley, Berkeley, California, West Berkeley ar ...

show led to the release of the album ''The Uptones Live!! 924 Gilman'' in 1995. ''

Crawdaddy! ''Crawdaddy'' was an American rock music magazine launched in 1966. It was created by Paul Williams, a Swarthmore College student at the time, in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music. The magazine w ...

'' called it "the best live ska record ever."EastBayExpress Archives
"Best Ska Band - The Uptones"
''

'', Oakland, June 25, 2008. Retrieved March 10, 2021.

Discography

*''Live at the Rheem Theater, 1986'' Berkeley Cat Records, 2024 *''Get Out Of My Way, the early recordings'' Liberation Hall, 2020 *''415 Records: Still Disturbing The Peace'' Liberation Hall, 2020 (compilation/415 reissue) *''East Bay Orbits,'' Fun Fun Fun Recordings, 2010 *''Skankin' Foolz Unite!,'' Fun Fun Fun Recordings, 2008 *''The Uptones Live!! 924 Gilman'', Son of Beserkley, 1995 *''Burning Sky b/w Outback'' 45RPM 7" single, Beserkley Records UK, 1987 *''Outback'' 6-song EP, 1986 (reissued digitally on Berkeley Cat Records in 2019) *''KUSA'',

415 Records 415 Records was a San Francisco record label created in 1978. The label focused its efforts on local punk rock and new wave music acts of the late 1970s through the late 1980s, including The Offs, The Nuns, The Units, Romeo Void, and Wire Tra ...

, 1985

References

External links

Official Uptones siteOfficial Uptones Facebook pageUptones on YouTubeFun Fun Fun Recordings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uptones, The American ska musical groups Musical groups established in 1981 Musical groups from Berkeley, California 1981 establishments in California