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Coolie Ranx | |
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| Birth name | Obiajula Ugbomah |
| Born | 9 March 1965 London, England |
| Genres | Pop, reggae, ska |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, singer |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Labels | Moon Records, Mojo Records Bravel Records Lindwood Records |
Coolie Ranx (born Obiajula Ugbomah; 9 March 1965) is a British-American actor and singer best known for his membership in the third wave ska bands the Toasters and Pilfers. He is a long-time resident of New York City.
Ranx was born in London on 9 March 1965 and was raised in New York City. His mother is from Jamaica and his father is from Nigeria. He was discovered in 1990 when the lead singer and guitarist of the Toasters, Rob "Bucket" Hingley, heard Ranx's dancehall reggae EP. Joining the Toasters in the early 1990s, he toured and recorded two albums with the band, including Dub 56, which features two songs he wrote.
After leaving the Toasters, Ranx co-founded a band called Pilfers. In Pilfers, he shared vocal duties with Vinny Nobile. Pilfers played a combination of third wave ska music, punk rock, and reggae that they called "raggacore". After self-releasing their first album, the band signed to Mojo Records, who released the band's second album, Chawalaleng . He made frequent guest appearances on the albums of other third wave ska bands, such as Spring Heeled Jack, Metro Stylee and Mojo labelmates Reel Big Fish.
After a lineup change, which saw the replacement of the rhythm section, Pilfers disbanded in 2001. Ranx began a solo career, recording and playing shows around the world with Fear Nuttin' Band as his new backup band. In November 2005, he and the other four original members of Pilfers, reunited at the Knitting Factory in New York City for a sold-out performance.
Ranx provided the voice of Little Jacob in the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV .
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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 walking bass line accented with rhythms on the off beat. It was developed in Jamaica in the 1960s when Stranger Cole, Prince Buster, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, and Duke Reid formed sound systems to play American rhythm and blues and then began recording their own songs. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British mods and with many skinheads.
Reel Big Fish is an American ska punk band from Huntington Beach, California. The band gained mainstream recognition in the mid-to-late 1990s during the third wave of ska with the release of the gold-certified album Turn the Radio Off. Soon after, the band lost mainstream recognition but gained an underground cult following. As of 2006, the band was no longer signed to a major record label and has since been independent. After numerous line-up changes, frontman Aaron Barrett is the last remaining founding member still performing in the band.
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 distinct from other forms of punk rock. It is closely tied to third wave ska which reached its zenith in the mid-1990s.
The Toasters are one of the original American third wave of ska bands. Founded in New York City in 1981, the band has released nine studio albums, primarily through Moon Ska Records.
Go Jimmy Go was an American ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul influenced band from Honolulu, Hawaii. Although chronologically, the band belongs to the third-wave, their mellow, slower tempo sound is reminiscent of the classic style of the original 1960s Jamaican first wave of ska.
Bim Skala Bim is a ska band formed in Boston that was influenced by the bands in England's two-tone movement as well as artists such as the Clash, UB40 and Bob Marley. Their "Boston Blue Beat" sound, a mix of upbeat two-tone ska, rock 'n' roll, and calypso with a noticeable reggae undertone, made them, along with The Toasters, some of the first bands in the third wave of ska in the 1980s. Shortly after, other bands became inspired, resulting in a lively scene in Boston and much of the United States.
Chawalaleng is the second album by the American band Pilfers, released in 1999 through Mojo Records.
Why Do They Rock So Hard? is the third full-length studio album by the ska punk band Reel Big Fish.
Cheer Up! is the fourth studio album by American rock band Reel Big Fish. Released on June 25, 2002, the album was the band's first after the turn of the new millennium, following the release of 1998's Why Do They Rock So Hard? With the advent of the 2000s, and following the band's mainstream success during the third wave of ska, the marketability of and interest in ska waned; despite this, Reel Big Fish continued to tour successfully and maintain a significant fan base while recording Cheer Up! across a number of different recording studios in California. Val Garay produced the majority of the tracks, with frontman Aaron Barrett, trumpeter Scott Klopfenstein and Gordie Johnson producing select songs.
Edna's Goldfish was an American ska punk band from Long Island, New York.
Pilfers are an American ska band formed in 1997, when former Toasters vocalist, Coolie Ranx, at the urging of Pietaster's vocalist Steve Jackson, joined with former Bim Skala Bim trombonist, Vinny Nobile. To complete the lineup, they recruited the Skinnerbox rhythm section of Anna Milat-Meyer on bass and James Blanck on drums, as well as guitar player, Nick Bacon of The Erratics.
Spring Heeled Jack is a third wave ska band based out of New Haven, Connecticut. The band was formed by guitarist/vocalist Ron Ragona and drummer Dave Karcich in 1991. After a short breakup, Ragona and Karcich reformed the band with a new lineup. This lineup went on to record two albums before announcing a hiatus in 2000. While the band members moved on to perform in several new bands, their intention was to play the occasional reunion show. This plan would never come to fruition as a cerebral aneurysm would be cause for Karcich's death in 2002. In 2015, several band members returned to reform the band full-time. A third studio album, Sound Salvation, followed in 2017.
Sonic Boom Six are an English five-piece band from Manchester, United Kingdom. Their eclectic sound combines different elements of several genres and has been described by Kerrang! as "taking ska, pop, grime, dubstep, punk and metal apart, then rebuilding them as a hyperactive hybrid". Their lyrics tend to focus on social commentary with a live show known for "clashing activism and good times". The band's influences include Bad Brains, Public Enemy, The Fugees, The Specials, The Streets, and The Clash.
Ruder Than You is an American ska band that was founded in 1989 at Penn State University and, in 1991, the group relocated to Philadelphia. While ska and reggae stylings have always provided the common musical thread, over the past 15 plus years Ruder Than You has been mixing in dancehall, hip hop, rocksteady, and rub-a-dub – even adding elements of funk, jazz, and punk.
The Ruff Guide to Genre-Terrorism is the first full-length release by Manchester, UK based Sonic Boom Six. This album marks the first recording by SB6 since the departure of original guitarist Dave "Hellfire" Kelly.
Brian Wayne Klemm is the guitarist for the Orange County-based third-wave ska band Suburban Legends. He joined Suburban Legends in 1999, shortly before the release of Origin Edition, although he did not play guitar on the album. Klemm also briefly joined Big D and the Kids Table in 2009 as their touring guitarist until 2010. Klemm also occasionally performs with Reel Big Fish.
Murphy's Kids was a six-piece American ska punk band from Richmond, Virginia, formed in 1999. The group has toured up and down the East Coast of the United States and is noted for organizing the yearly Happy Skalidays charity benefit show. The Band is also known for being politically active.
Candy Coated Fury is the eighth studio album by the American ska punk band Reel Big Fish, released on July 31, 2012. The cover art was made by artist Thom Foolery. The album was recorded at the band's personal studio in Orange, California.
Stroll, along with Stomp, are the seventh and eighth studio albums by the Boston ska punk band Big D and the Kids Table, released simultaneously on June 11, 2013 by Strictly Rude Records.
Wayne Rhoden is a music producer, singer, songwriter, sound engineer and video editor/director who is professionally known as the artist Father Goose Music, is the winner of the 18th Annual Independent Music Awards and the Grammy Awards with the group “Dan Zanes and Friends” also Nominated for the 64th Grammy Awards for Best Children's Album with the group 1 Tribe Collective and he is also known as Rankin Don and Don Chibaka. Seen on the Disney Channel, he also peaked at # 7 on the Billboard Reggae Chart.
