Red Scare has sent us exclusive details on the forthcoming tribute to the Swingin’ Utters. Titled Untitled 21: A Juvenile Tribute to Swingin’ Utters, the 31-song tribute is due out February 16, 2010. Participating bands include Off With Their Heads, Fucked Up, Useless ID, Vultures United, Teenage Bottlerocket, Cobra Skulls, Dropkick Murphys, Druglords of the Avenues, Everybody Out!, Flatfoot 56, La Plebe, Left Alone, Roll The Tanks, Smalltown, Street Dogs, Teen Idols, The Forgotten, The Frantic, The Hollowpoints and many more.

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Down To Nothing has posted a new video from the recording sessions of their new 7-inch on Repear Records. The video features a brand new song not heard anywhere else.

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In an interview with Exclaim Winnipeg-based singer / songwriter Greg MacPherson further detailed his upcoming full length Mr. Invitation. MacPherson revealed that the record features the work of two drummers, Jason Tait of Weakerthans and Ryan Ahoff of speed-metal act Annihilator. The delay between the record and 2005’s Night Flares was also explained:

After my last record was released I spent the better part of three years on tour. During that time, I worked and quit four or five different day jobs, ruined a couple of relationships and nearly got myself killed a few times, some stories I’d prefer to forget. I’ve always been a ‘put your head down and run’ kind of person and it hit me at the end of that stretch that I needed to step back and try a more considered approach to how I’ve been doing things. There’s no secret to any of this – I would have put something out sooner if I could have but that just wasn’t the way things worked out.

The new record arrives on March 30th via Smallman Records.
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Pioneering rocksteady guitarist Lynn Taitt passed away this past Wednesday in Montreal following a long battle with cancer.

The musician was born Nerlynn Taitt in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago and began playing guitar in the early `60s. He first traveled to Jamaica in 1963 for a gig booked by influential band leader and record producer Byron Lee. Taitt went on perform with nearly every major ska act of the era, including The Skatalites, The Sheiks and The Cavaliers. When rocksteady emerged in 1966 Taitt and his band the Jets became in-demand session musicians, with the guitarist helping to establish the Federal Studios sound with hits by Derrick Morgan, Alton Ellis and others. He is credited with creating the first rocksteady bassline on the song “Take It Easy” by Hopeton Lewis. Lynn Taitt relocated to Canada in 1968, eventually settling in Montreal. There he worked for local reggae, jazz and calypso groups as a writer and recorded with third-wave ska band the Kingpins.

Our deepest condolences go out to Lynn’s family and friends.
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