About SUPER TOUGH! Bruce Benjamin and Wally Sound both grew up in the 50's in Claremont Ca.- A sleepy southern Ca. college town east of Pasadena and west of San Bernadino - both of their dad's were artists and teachers in the Claremont colleges - They hung out together in the backyards and alleys of this said town playing running drinking and carrying on until the 70's. During the mid 70's Bruce relocated to Santa Cruz where Wally was already sporting a fresh new punk rock band JJ180. After a fashion they got together to play music, it wasn't much back then - just some drums and a guitar- but it was a seed. Fast forward to the year 2005. Bruce is still in Santa Cruz playing drums in all sorts of Reggae bands, touring and supporting major Jamaican acts. Wally has since moved to the San Francisco bay area- Oakland to be exact- he has been running a recording studio for the last 15 years. Bruce has worked with Wally on his own work-the band"Congregation" the following year, and has brought in sessions he recorded in South Africa with a group of young musicians dubbed the"Kwanzaamo Roots Rockers" to"sweeten" and embellish .- Wally and Bruce work hard to keep the original vibe of the music while adding other parts that only add to the vibe and make it whole. It is picked by Reggae Beat as one of the top 10 releases in 2006. OK- so in 2006 Bruce and Wally decide to start their own reggae recording project called"SUPER TOUGH" - They lay down all the riddum tracks- Wally overdubs guitars- pianos-synths- fx- vocals and such then they bring in the BIG GUNS. Oakland is teeming with Jamaican and American musicians of amazing talent, and as Bruce and Wally are not credentialed to sing (they are going to school for that) They bring in Rankin Scroo- Tony Moses -Ras Kiddus -Al Poncho- Tom and Greg Moore- Chris Rene- Gina Nivens- to do the vocal work- and a host of others to add more musical bits. The result is SUPER TOUGH-"DANCE WORM" a collection of non traditional reggae songs done inna reggae style with some traditional and dub music thrown in. We sincerely hope you enjoy it. THE BEAT MAGAZINE REVIEW: Super Tough takes dub and reggae into an alternate universe where anything goes on Dance Worm! Adventures in Dub (Super Tough). Bruce Benjamin and Wally Sound, the drummer and mix-down engineer for one of my favorite projects from 2006, the debut release of Kwanzamo Roots debut cd, gather around them a veritable Justice League of guest djs, singers and players and take it where no reggae band has gone before. Hard to imagine a reggae verson of “Fly Me to the Moon? Tony Moses handles the vocal and dj part in fine style and they’re just warming up. Before they’re through they jam cool originals like “Pie High,” “Rear Naked Choke,” “Rocks to Riches,” “Worl of Luv” and “United” and turn in believable takes on Sons of the Pioneers’ “Cool Water,” Tammy Wynette’s “Divorce,” Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play” and O Brother (and others’) “Man of Constant Sorrow.”Rock steady rooted guitar picking, hardcore riddims, sweet horns ( Celebrity Horns- Balboa Becker and Garrett Kobsef) and guests including Al Poncho, Vince Black, Rankin Scroo, Tom and Greg Moore, Gina Mooshian Nivens and Hux Brown. Thoroughly enjoyable, brain stretching and unbound by convention from the freestyle Dixieland break in the Syd Barrett cover to the punk/fuzz guitar dropped into the otherwise dub-rooted opener. Best of all are the four dub/remixes near the end where the musician/mixers really let themselves go in a dadaistic swirl of sound and fury. The strong feel for the necessary traditional elements makes the challenging scope of the material work partly because everybody seems to be having such a good time. Take a chance on this one and you won’t be disappointed. I dare you! [supertoughreggae.com] Chuck Foster The Beat Magazine Volume 26 No.3 , Aug 2007Hey Wally,I once read a review by the great music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, RalphGleason of seeing the Jefferson Airplane for the first time:He said something like (and this is from 40 years of memory and a LOT of LSD 25 so don't print it, lol)"I saw the Jefferson Airplane play on Thursday night and then hadtickets to see Miles Davis on Friday, took in some bands Saturday Afternoon and sawDuke Ellington that evening and after seeing Ravi Shankar on Sunday afternoonI couldn't get the song"Come Up the Years" out of my head.It was then that I realized that the Jefferson Airplane were destined for greatness."Well, I had a very similar experience, recently: I've seen the Police, a couple of great jazz shows, this new monster up and cominggroup called the Klaxons and several industrial live shows lately and I can't get your amazing versionof"See Emily Play" out of my head.It's just a perfect melding of pop, reggae with incredible pathos in it. It's as good as anything I"ve heard recorded inany genre and I'm not just laying it on. Simply put, It's beautiful. I'm incredibly impressed.Nice work and thanks for brightening up my world, musically.yours, Rick