The Story
Easy Star Records was founded in New York City in 1996 by Michael Goldwasser, Eric Smith, Lem Oppenheimer and Remy Gerstein; the All-Stars performing and recording collective grew out of the label a year later, built around a rotating cast of reggae vocalists and musicians.
The group's 2003 debut, Dub Side of the Moon, reimagines Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in full as reggae — the physical release even included printed instructions for syncing it to The Wizard of Oz, a nod to the 'Dark Side of the Rainbow' urban legend about the original album.
Radiodread (2006) gave the same treatment to Radiohead's OK Computer, and Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band (2009) reworked the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band — reportedly the first reggae album in over two years to reach the Billboard 200.
The collective returned to David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars for 2023's Ziggy Stardub, continuing its run of full-album reggae reinterpretations alongside its own original material.
