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Start Date: May 20, 2017
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RUDE GUEST “LOST CHICAGO SKA 1982-1993”  LP vinyl 
During the early 80’s a small handful of bands kept the 2-Tone ska flame alive – Chicago’s RUDE GUEST was one of them! They released 4 limited edition cassettes before the US third wave kicked into full gear, and this release compiles all 16 songs from these tapes. Songs songs range from happy-go-lucky uptempo 2-Tone ska with a strong sax lead (think Madness or Bad Manners) to progressive roots reggae with a rock guitar lead and brooding 80’s keyboard. Released for Record Store Day 2017, limited edition of 150 copies on grey marble vinyl. With download card which includes additional tracks - and cool button! 
Comes with a FREE Jump Up Records sampler CD.
Check out the article the Chicago Reader did on the release:
Cassette Store Day is a slightly ridiculous concept (ever been to a cassette store?), but its list of U.S. releases includes a substantial Chicago contingent—reflecting the healthy interest that local labels and fans have in the format. This year it falls on Saturday, October 8, and several Chicago imprints that regularly issue tapes—Girlsville, Dumpster Tapes, Grabbing Clouds Records & Tapes—have put together special releases. Among them is long-running reggae, ska, and rocksteady label Jump Up Records, which is releasing a handful of full-lengths—including a compilation from defunct local ska group Rude Guest, Lost Chicago Ska 1982-1993. Rude Guest only ever put out music on tape during their original run, so the occasion fits. "My brother used to joke that we're totally dedicated to the cassette format," says Paul Schroeder, who formed the band with brother Kurt in 1982. Tapes helped inspire the Schroeder brothers to start their band. After graduating from college in the late 70s, Paul spent a couple months backpacking through Europe, where he got to experience ska's second wave in person. "I saw Madness and UB40 at that Pinkpop festival in Holland," Paul says. "Madness came out and they just crushed it."  Paul began sending cassettes of music he dug to Kurt, who was living in Atlanta and playing in a Top 40 cover band called Pzazz. "This band had eight big-hairdo guys with flashy clothes—every one of them could sing lead vocals, and [Kurt's] talents were just underutilized," Paul says. "He was having a ball traveling around the country, but there was no artistic outlet for him." Kurt took to the ska and two-tone tracks that Paul sent him, and after he left Pzazz, he moved back to Illinois and got to work with his brother on launching what became Rude Guest. Lost Chicago Ska is largely indebted to the genre's second wave. Often the skanking guitars motor at a pace that makes original Jamaican ska seem slow as molasses, and many tunes shimmy with new-wave flair. When the keyboards bust out flamboyant melodies, they hint at the nervy third-wave sound that arrived in the mid-90s. Paul says the original members of Rude Guest each brought something different to the table, which allowed the group to bring something different to ska. Front man Kurt was the pop songwriter; lead guitarist Darrell Pennell, who also played in Pzazz, had a southern-rock style; bassist Fran Kondorf loved the blues; horn player Michael Levin, who went to Oak Park High School with the Schroeder brothers, cut his teeth on jazz; Paul, the group's drummer, grew up on a fusion of rock styles. "You get these five guys in a room with different things—you can hear a little country twang in the guitar," Paul says. "You can hear some of the jazz stuff in the sax." Jump Up founder Chuck Wren wrote a band bio for the Rude Guest release where he explains that few folks understood what the band were going for when they started in the early 80s. Paul says they struggled with bookers, and recalls a time that Rude Guest were added to the bill of a country show. "My brother would just go off on that stuff," he says. "He's like, 'These people are just total idiots—let's book it ourselves!'" As Rude Guest found their legs, a couple members would camp out at Paul's office during work hours and try to promote the band. "We would just sit there and pump the phone," Paul says. "We got a listing of every college within 500 miles, and we just sent them a cassette and bio." The band not only performed at schools throughout the midwest but also got chummy with local clubs, which helped them get gigs at Tuts, Metro, Park West, and the Vic, among others. Despite playing out regularly, Rude Guest didn't have enough money to record and distribute their music, so they needed to cut corners. Fortunately they had a connection at Chicago Recording Company—Paul was friends with engineer Tom Hanson. "We would just go in there in the middle of the night, set up stuff, try not to make a mess, and sneak out before anybody got there in the morning," Paul says. Rude Guest recorded four cassettes, all of them self-released—they never managed to get a label interested. The rejection letters weren't always so bad, though. "I think the best one—I'm trying to think of who it was—they say, 'We really like you guys, but we just signed UB40,'" Paul recalls. "We love UB40. We're like, 'OK, that's not such a bad slam.'" Rude Guest found a niche in the midwest: they once opened for ska-fusion heavies Fishbone, and in 1991 they played at the first annual Midwest Ska Fest in Milwaukee. The title of Jump Up's Cassette Store Day compilation, Lost Chicago Ska, speaks to the band's legacy, not to their visibility around town when they were active—and they've been forgotten in large part because their recordings were never released commercially and came out only on tape, the only format the band could afford. They recorded what turned out to be their last one in 1993, and within a few years Kurt was diagnosed with cancer; he died at 40 in 1996. Rude Guest broke up just as ska's third wave crashed into the mainstream.