“THIS IS NOT ISLAND REGGAE, THIS IS DESERT REGGAE” EVOLVING IN PHOENIX!

“I didn’t start playing in a (reggae) band until I saw Synrgy when I was in college,” said Cori Rios lead singer of The Hourglass Cats. “The reggae wave is coming in right now.”“Reggae is synonymous with world beat, and world beat is synonymous with unity consciences,” said Roger Clyne of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. “I wanted that to be in our music so I started to figure out how to make rock and roll integrate with reggae like The Clash did and like The Police did.”

“I feel like RAC was one of the first tastes of Desert Reggae,” said Stilwell who recently attended a RAC show at Rockbar in Scottsdale. RAC has been making “Desert Reggae” together for eight years and on May 27 celebrated the sixth anniversary of their first album Lost in Paradise.

Reggae isn’t a new thing in the Valley of the Sun; Walt Richardson has been performing his more traditional reggae sounds for decades.  More recently, bands like RAC, RCPM and Captain Squeegee are going on almost 10 years together. Valley Love has been together for about four years according to Hall, The Black Bottom Lighters have been together for two years, and The Hourglass Cats, or THC, has been making funky desert reggae for about 18 months.

“Reggae is getting bigger,” said Rios and his comrades in dub are backing up his bold words.

The Black Bottom Lighters recently opened for Irish Punk gods Flogging Molly.

“It was pretty weird playing with all those alternative and rock bands, but our sound is a mix of reggae, rock and hip-hop,” said Stilwell.
The Hourglass Cats

RAC is preparing to record their third album, THC, is preparing for a late summer tour of California, and Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers are getting ready to headline their annual festival in Rocky Point Circus Mexicus June 8 to 10“Reggae music literally expands your consciousness,” said Rios.

“Reggae is oppression driven music. It’s rebel music, that’s why punk and reggae go together naturally,” Jordan Hall said. “We come from a state that has struggled so much with discrimination, but with reggae the Valley has love to give.”