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The folks at Cultures of Soul have a new CD/LP out – World’s Funkiest Covers – and obviously, this is of interest to moi! There’s some of my personal favorites on here, including Nostalgia 77′s wicked remake of “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes and, of course, Ray Barretto’s epic “Pastime Paradise” cover.
You can peep some samples off the album below:
World’s Funkiest Covers Preview by Culturesofsoul
(Purchase the comp here).
Two things:
1) COS was nice enough to sponsor a CD giveaway for this new album. To enter, send us an email, subject [...]
Continue reading “WORLD’S FUNKIEST COVERS” CD GIVEAWAY + UPCOMING GIG
I met Charlie Bethel aka Chuck Wild aka Captain Planet through his brother Wil (aka DJ Murphy’s Law), my old DJing partner at the Short Stop. At the time, Chuck was living out in Brooklyn, but last fall, he picked up and moved West, landing out here in L.A.
As Captain Planet, he’s been responsible for three Afro-Latin flavored EPs on Bastard Jazz thus far: Gumbo Funk (2005), Speakin’ Nuyorican (2009) and the just-released Ningané. He’s also at work on his first full-length, Cookin’ Gumbo, due out later this fall, also on Bastard Jazz.
Chuck also [...]
Continue reading SIDEBAR #10: DJ CAPTAIN PLANET
The last four weeks have been…awesome. Every day, I wake up and I get to write and write and write, usually pausing to get my noodle soup on. I’m trying to hammer my way through revising enough of this project to get it off to my publisher (the beginning of the end…but nowhere near “the end”). It’s great for my academic career, not so great for doing other stuff (hence why I’m writing this post at 11:36pm).
I love the Summer Songs series but this year, I just had to take a [...]
Continue reading MY SUMMER SOUNDTRACK (SO FAR)
The Blue Notes: Fever
Quando Quando
Can I Change My Mind
From Moving Up With (Proctor and Blue, 196?)
Picked this one up from Good Records in NYC when I was out East the other week. Given that one style of West Indies music – steel drum – can be real hit and miss, I wasn’t sure if the Blue Notes were going to deliver on the promise of their tracklisting but the moment I threw it on and started listening, I realized – whoa, real deal!
Though the instrumentation [...]
Continue reading THE BLUE NOTES: AFRO-CARIBBEAN SOUL
St. Peter and Paul Catholic High School Shooting Stars Steel Band: N.T.
What’s Going On
Percussion intro snippet
From St. Thomas, V.I. (Shooting Stars, 197?)
On paper, you’d think this LP couldn’t possibly flop. I mean, it’s both a high school band and steel drum group that has two Kool and the Gang covers, plus “What’s Going On” and a few more covers. It’s got both a drummer (who does the arrangements) and two guys on percussion besides the actual steel band. And somewhere, within that magical mix, something [...]
Continue reading DEEP COVERS: 2 OF 4, SHOOTING STARS
Peret: Chaví
Si Fulano
From S/T (Pronto, 1972). Also on Achilifunk Vo1. 1
In my last post on rumba catalan, I mentioned this excellent comp, Achilifunk which is now in its second volume. I was reminded of this via an email, touting a new set of remixes of rumba catalan tracks by Txarly Brown. Well worth a listen!
It was also a reminder to get back to writing about a pair of songs I discovered from the first volume by one of the kings of rumba catalan, guitarist and singer [...]
Continue reading PERET: THE KING OF RUMBA CATALAN
There are other songs that could have made this list but I really went with those songs that, at the end of the year, I still enjoyed as much as when I first heard ‘em. Interesting trends I noticed in my listening taste as a result of putting this playlist together: gospel was obviously big for me this year, reggae was not, and despite a wealth of Latin, only a few songs really stayed with me. As always, soul was huge but not so much funk. Jazz was totally shut out. We’ll have to see what 2011 [...]
Continue reading 2010 REVIEW (FROM THE BINS)
I sat in for Michael Barnes on KPFK’s Melting Pot today. Included a few tracks I’ve had up here of late but a lot you haven’t heard from me yet. Enjoy!
The Melting Pot, 11-14-10
Quantic: Cumbia De Dilla
The East St. Louis Gospelettes: Have Mercy On Me
Kanye West: Devil in a New Dress
The Whatnauts: I’ll Erase the Pain
Golden Harmonettes: I Do Love You
Syl Johnson: Try Me (LP Version)
Syl Johnson: All I Need Is Someone Like You
Syl Johnson: Soul Heaven (All from The Complete Mythology)
Continue reading GUEST SET: MELTING POT 11/14/10
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