As part of my ongoing weekly contribution to Rhino's 'rhinofy' project, this week I put together a twenty track Fela playlist. You can hit it up, here. The playlist was (partly) inspired by Kuti's 1980 collaboration with Roy Ayers - Music of Many Colours
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Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can now be heard twice, every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.
SIRIUS 235: Jean Michel Bernard — Generique Stephane ++ Fela Kuti - My Lady Frustration ++ Julian Lynch - Just Enough ++ Atlas Sound - Recent Bedroom ++ Jim Schoenfield - Before ++ Kurt Vile - He's Alright ++ Tashaki Miyaki - I Wonder If I'd Care As Much ++ Black Fiction - Magic Hands ++ The Liminanas - I'm Dead ++ The Art Museums - Paris . . .
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Next to Buddy Miles version of "Down By The River," this is one of the stronger explorations of Neil Young's work in the vein of soul/r&b. Culled from the 1971 album Givin' It Back, the Brothers set the tone with a military drum cadence before sliding . . .
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October 1993 - La Maison de la Radio. Mazzy Star, two weeks into touring behind their second album, So Tonight That I Might See, record a Black Session at studio 105 in Paris . . .
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Sweet Heart Sweet Light is due out on Fat Possum Records April 16th, and in this instance "Huh?” may be the perfect album art. Like most Spiritualized fans, I can imagine Jason Pierce’s cold stare piercing the Internet and the legions of bedroom-pop acts that have seemingly ignored their . . .
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(Volume 10 of Clifton’s Corner. Every other week on the blog Clifton Weaver, aka DJ Soft Touch, shares some of his favorite spins, old and new, in the worlds of soul, r&b, funk, psych and beyond. — AD)
I can’t remember who said it, but I’ve always been a firm . . .
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Languid, repetitive and hypnotic, I heard this somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:30 am last week via Gilles Peterson's show on BBC Radio 1. I had just been listening to a pair of Dr. John's early Nightripper albums, back to back, and the atmospherics of "Foggy Dew" fell right in line. Not unlike Gris Gris and become a member or log in.
Last week John Gleason guested on AD touting the lesser known side of the Bee Gees, making a case for their catalog being equal to or greater than the Beatles. Brave. And while I can't say I share that sentiment, there's no denying the Gibb brothers songwriting chops. Case in point, Nina Simone's rendition . . .
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As Will Oldham prepared to embark on what would become a very busy Fall of 2006, he played two very special nights at Joe’s Pub in New York City with brothers Paul and Ned Oldham. Honoring the memory of their late father, the trio winded their way through nearly 40 covers, most of which are traditionals. Below are recordings of three of the four shows. I originally shared these is 2008 and am re-upping them here for those interested. Great stuff. Hat tip to the original taper.
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Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can now be heard twice, every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.
SIRIUS 234: Jean Michel Bernard - Generique Stephane ++ Father John Misty - Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings ++ Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I Gave You ++ Jana Hunter - New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 ++ Dr. Dog - The World May Never Know ++ Richard Swift - Broken Finger Blues ++ Damien Jurado - Nothing Is The News ++ Cotton Jones - Some Strange Rain ++ Lower . . .
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Bill Callahan's dark country & western croon takes on "So long, Marianne," the opening track off side two of Leonard Cohen's 1968 debut, Songs of Leonard Cohen. Slowing things down, Callahan and co. eschew the original's violin and backing female vocals and in their . . .
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In a era of near constant spin, hype and worse it's increasingly rare to engage with art on one's own terms sans any preconceived notions. It's for this reason I shared two tracks by Willis Earl Beal without commentary in an effort to present the music context free. Earl's story has become the toast of the Internet of . . .
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The atmospheric baritone. Next to Nick Cave and Tom Waits, Mark Lanegan possesses one of the few contemporary voices capable of a kind of subliminal storytelling that exists outside the realm of pure vocabulary. It's a vocal delivery that carries with it a certain gravitas, one that informs each vowel and every consonant. A voice that chews its words and makes a meal out of a every sentence - a voice that still exists in the worlds of soul and r&b, but one that has become conspicuously . . .
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When Frankie Rose revealed Interstellar's incredibly catchy first single, “Know Me,” she tapped in to a familiar place, and I’m not just talking about the ease in which she weaves a tapestry of colors into a fully realized dream-pop single worthy of 4AD comparisons. There’s an intimacy and expansiveness in the song that recalls Lush’s shy stepping-stones; like a cross between “Breeze”, “Sunbathing” and pretty much all of the band’s pre-Spooky material. “Know Me” only hints at what Interstellar has in store for listeners, but I wouldn’t call Rose a tease. This is a girl you take home to meet the family after at least two full-album spins and a full day of running errands for the sake of hanging out with each other, at least that’s what the dream pop kids used to do.
Rose not only treats us to a nostalgic trip, there are layers of vocals smothered across multiple tracks within one song, synths that stretch like taffy but melt like ice cream and sparkling guitar leads that are reminiscent of Will Sergeant’s brilliant picking style and sound. The entire album is magnificent to say the least. Once you come back down to Earth you’ll begin to hear love stories that are tragic and personal. Maybe you’re projecting, but you always get the sense that she already moved on once the pen left the paper’s surface, so you follow her lead. Interstellar is a record that feels so elegant, so physical and so real.
“Daylight Sky” and “Gospel/Grace” open with gorgeous guitar leads. The choruses are quick bursts of energy that give you little warning but signify a triumphant and celebratory moment, even though my gut tells me there’s travesty or a process of letting go deeply rooted within the entire album. “Had We Had It” is the sound of being disappointed but still stuck in love as Rose sings, “Could we, we had it all”, then rearranges a few of the words in a repetitive fashion during the chorus. All of a sudden she’s free again.
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An audacious choice as a single based on running time alone, the title track from Pulp's 1998 album made an equally brazen choice for video. This is Hardcore, the album, is more than worthy of a post on its own - a dark, seedy exploration of the very things documented and partly celebrated on their breakthrough Different Class. This is Hardcore is the long, dead-eyed look in the mirror late . . .
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