DAPTONE @ 10 YEARS


On my Sidebar wishlist would be a chat with Gabe Roth of Daptone about the label’s 10 years. I suspect that may not happen, if only because they’re hella busy and they’ve already done a lot of that commemoration on their own.1

To wit, there’s a feature on them in The Atlantic (which I haven’t had a chance to read yet) and then there’s this self-produced video as well:

Congrats to Daptone on their 10 years; here’s to another 10 and beyond.

To be sure, Gabe, Neal and all those guys have been very [...]

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THE GREATEST SIN…

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Amen.

Had an incredible time at Subsuelo tonight. Every 3rd Wed. at Eastside Luv in Boyle Heights. Easily one of the best parties I’ve been to since I moved back to L.A.

Big up to Canyon Cody, Gozar, Ethos, Farah, Kid Gusto and Todd Simon.

“WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A DUO”

I saw this footage the past weekend at the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, where I had a gig (which I forgot to list, oops) as part of a Tribute Night for Aretha Franklin.

I love this so many different ways, especially the obvious chemistry between Smokey and Aretha. And Don Cornelius is at his deep voiced best too.

BTW, I had a really incredible time. Not only did I get to DJ with MC Lyte(!) but I met some incredible staff at the HOF. To boot: I was on the same flight as Chaka Khan back [...]

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BREAKING DOWN: SING A SIMPLE SONG


In the latest edition of our Soul Sides / Sliced side project, Joseph Schloss breaks down one of the all-time funk (and sampling) classics, “Sing a Simple Song” by Sly and the Family Stone. Schloss focuses on Stone’s innovative use of stereo panning effects that later hip-hop producers learned to use to their own advantage.

Other updates: part 2 of our podcast with Thes One coming very soon (later this week). Meanwhile, PUTS’s newest album, Highlighter is out. For digital heads, peep out the 24-bit HD version! If you don’t know what that means…Thes breaks it down [...]

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GRAB BAG

A brief contribution from me was included in NPR’s round-up of “the sounds of summer.” I picked one of my favorite, end-of-summer jams: “Be Thankful For What You Got.” My dude Dino Rivera of Spintronix sent me some new business card scans from the mobile DJ era.
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This sheet is especially cool for all the record and music stores on there. Aloha is legendary amongst dance DJs of the 1980s and I remember going to Star Records when it was still around. Manor Music, in Pacifica, perseveres but most of [...]

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SAMUEL JACKSON READS “GO THE F___ TO SLEEP”

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Adam Mansbach has been a friend for years now – we still rap about records every time we link up – so it’s been with a mixture of happiness, pride and complete incredulity that I’ve witnessed the phenom that is his “children’s” book, Go The F— To Sleep which managed to become a best-seller with no formal marketing at all.

I’ll have more to say about all this in a couple of weeks when Adam joins me, in studio, to tape an episode of The Sidebar but this was just too good [...]

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CHECK THE TECH(NIQUE)

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A few housekeeping things for my readers.

First, I’m testing out a new way for people to stream audio off the site so that the songs play more like a radio playlist: Streampad. No disrespect to the Yahoo Media Player, which I had been using for years, but what annoyed me about it is whenever I wanted to check my own site via iPad or iPhone, it would load up the player which – being in Flash – wouldn’t work. I could, of course, blame Apple for not supporting Flash but I’m not about [...]

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LIVE FROM NOLA

Busy in New Orleans right now so forgive the slow posting pace. Heard this on NOLA’s 90.7 FM; great blues tune from the late Johnnie Taylor. Have a snack on this – I’ll be back by early next week