King 7 and the Soulsonics profile picture

King 7 and the Soulsonics

Rudeboy Invasion on your radio station!

About Me

I still have some RUDEBOY INVASION 7inch singles available on Red Vinyl, Contact me to buy one!!! (the single is the original recording and not the King Django Mix that you hear on this page here) King 7 and the Soulsonics were a Ska band based in Ft. Lauderdale Florida from 1995 - 1999. The band was formed by a mish-mash group of disgruntled punks, indie rockers,skins, rudies, and band camp geeks. We managed to establish a pretty good following throughout Florida and the South East, touring the east coast twice and playing long weekends in the Florida-Georgia area constantly. We even managed to get ourselves banned from Georgia's coolest venue- the Velvet Elvis. We often shared local shows with our Florida-ska friends Magadog, the Coldspot 8, Pork Pie Tribe, the Strangeways The Usuals, and the Double Agents. We sometimes got to play shows with our friends from Florida's finest indie bands like the Belltones, AAA, Gus, The Vacant Andy's, the Shakers, the Starts, Shai Halud, Tension, The Agency and A New Found Glory. We were often asked play bigger shows while touring throughout the southeast with the likes of The Skatalites, The Selecter, Yellowman, Slackers, The Specials, Stubborn All Stars, The Toasters, the Scofflaws, The Pilfers, Skavoovie, Los Fabulous Cadillacs, Venice Shoreline Chris Murray, and many many other great groups. We played the fucking SLAMMIES!!! - we may have even won a slammie, but I never actually saw it (Tim probably smashed it). We played some of floriduh's finest venues including the Edge, the Cameo Theater, The State Theater, Sapphire Supper Club, Covered Dish, Hardback Cafe, Respectable Street Cafe's, Tavern 213, Cheers, Button South, etc....we played our fair share of warehouse shows too. We released a 7"inch single (Rudeboy Invasion) and appeared on a bunch of complilations including Moon SKa's Skarmegeddon 3. They put us on the cover of the Miami New times...The Skatalite's Lloyd Brevett even blew up Tim's Bass Amp! what an honor! Clint O'Neil gave us props on the air!! and Prince Buster showed up at the Button (Ok, he was probably there to see the Selector)......Our best recordings were done throughout 1998 with Jeremey DuBois at Tapeworm Studios in N. Miami beach - unfortunately these 12 songs were never actually released and they really were our best work...They do exist though - I have the masters and I intend to use them! Check out the 4 songs here. By the end of our run we were touring florida as the backing band for King Django in the winter of 1998-1999, we broke it up almost immediately after that short tour. We had a bunch of different members in those 3 years and we always had a great time. The Florida Ska Scene was always good to us. Some of us still play music with other bands. Thanx.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 12/15/2005
Band Website: yeah right!
Band Members: Original Lineup 1996 Tim McGrath - Bass and vocals (and lots of songwriting) Sam Gelberd - Baritone Sax and Vocals (and lots of Songwriting) Sean Portanova - Trumpet, trombone and Songwriting, Joe Basi -Drums (van rentals, soccer enthusiast, complaints department) Mike Weaver - Guitar (then switched to Trombone before our first show) Brent Andres- Guitar (after Mike decided he wanted to play trombone) Stan - Keyboards and all things scooter related Other Members: Teo Castellanos - Master of Ceremonies, percussion, Words of Wisdom (Teo was pretty much with us immediately following our first show and stayed till the end) Joey Jewkes - Trombone (Joey had previously played in AAA and the Double Agents, he replaced Mike Weaver, Joey was with us for 2 tours in 1997-1998) Christine Menendez - Trumpet (Christine was recommended by Sean, she played about 4 shows then quit, she was around for a few months in 1997) Lori Roberts - Alto Sax (Lori had previously been in the Double Agents she was with us for 2 tours in 1997-1998) Doug Conroy - Bass. Doug was on lone to us from the Pork Pie Tribe he played acouple of shows with us towards the end in 1998 when Tim switched to vocals. Roman Fleysher - Tenor Sax (Roman was in the band for about a year, 1998 I think...Roman played on the entire 12 songs that were never released he had previously played in the Hippos and later went on to play in the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Stubborn All Stars) and Will from the Strangeways played Trumpet on the studio recordings, Sam Gelberd and BRent Andres later played on King Django's "Reason" Album on HEllcat records. Man, that's a long story isn't it?
Influences: The Wailers, Broward Brown, 'Ol Dirty Bastard, The Clash, The Skatalites, The Belltones, Skinnerbox, RUN DMC, The Bones Brigade, Vulcan Scooter Club, Graffitti Art, Chuck Taylor's, Shakespears Pub, Mike Sadutto, Mr. Bean, Thelonious Monk, Pete's stash, The Congos, Daniel Johnston, Ramen Noodles, Canada (just Brent), Finster, Budget Truck/van rental, Little Pink Houses, World Cup 98, Big Lots, Tapeworm....
Sounds Like: "MC 900 ft Jesus goes Ska" - a reviewer in a certain zine actually said this.
Record Label: Cole Mack
Type of Label: Major