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The Toasters practiced at the 171A rehearsal space, rubbing shoulders with the Bad Brains, the Cro-Mags and Murphy's Law. At that time a bunch of high school kids were playing garage punk in the area. The Toasters drummer Scott Jarvis produced one of their first EPs, "Cookie Puss." The Lower East Side of Manhattan has produced more than just great ska bands like the Toasters: also international rap-popsters the Beastie Boys. After the first EP, Moon Records slowly came into its own as more than simply a mouth-piece for the Toasters. The two Toaster's albums, Skaboom (1987) and Thrill Me Up (1988) actually did not originally appear on Moon, but on a branch of the independent Celluloid called Skaloid. After getting ripped off by all companies who were licensing Toasters albums (Celluloid, Unicorn and Ska Records,) Hingley heard a loud sucking sound - a complete vacuum created by the need for a strong indie that could do ska music justice. One of the few Moon releases during this period was 1988's classic On the Move LP by the NY Citizens Buck envisioned a strong indie ska label in it's own right, not just the Toasters. And in 1990, Moon Records saw the release of the Toasters third full length This Gun For Hire, the seminal New York Citizen's Stranger Things Have Happened EP, and New York City Ska Live, a document recorded at the Cat Club which featured all the bands on the scene at that moment in time. Nineteen Ninety-One saw the debut of New York City ska-masters the Scofflaws, and an unprecedented move on Moon's part into the vast nether-regions of California. Because of a lack of an indie on the West Coast willing to step to the ska beat, Hingley came on in and released classic debut albums by Let's Go Bowling (Music To Bowl By) and the Dance Hall Crashers. The year 1992 saw further expansion of the Moon Ska horizon, with a debut from Cali's hepcat (out of nowhere), a compilation of Cali bands called California Skaquake and Dead or Alive by Germany's Busters. Moon started to pick up music for distribution, some of the firsts being King Apparatus from Canada and the Skunks for Washington, DC. A trading agreement with Pork Pie Records in Germany saw a whole slew of ska records being made available to a ska-hungry American public. Since then, Moon has expanded and only gotten better. More albums, more artists, a mail order catalog with literally 100s of albums and merchandise, and a storefront office on the Lower East side of Manhattan (where Hingley originally began jamming the ska.) In 1992, Moon organized a show at a venue called the Ritz under the banner of 'Skalapalooza', which featured Bad Manners, the Skatalites, the Toasters and many |
