Funk Addicts: "Doing Our Thing" Video
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Fishbone lives up to their legend as "THE" group to bridge the gap between the funk of George Clinton and the blare of Rush; a hybrid fusion where Led Zeppelin and Sly Stone dance to a frenetic ska beat that fuel's the alternative thrust of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction and the cast of Lollapalooza. From their childhood together in the hardcore South Central Los Angeles wasteland to years of forced school-bused integration, Fishbone's influences were kaleidoscopic and never-ending. The band was formed in 1979 in the ghettos of South Central Los Angeles. The group came from the same Los Angeles scene that spawned the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction. Fishbone first gained attention with their unique live concerts, earning a reputation as one of the most original bands in the alternative genre. Their unique stew of different styles, mixed with hectic energy and pounding rhythms, were a huge influence on the funk/rock/metal/rap genre that would become popular in the 1990s. Live audiences around the world have been surrendering to the band's stage flash and magical rhythms with uninterrupted regularity. Such passionate devotion is not lost on Fishbone, who refer to their friends on the road as "The Familyhood."
Their first full-length CD, Datarock Datarock (Nettwerk Music Group June 12, ), takes the feel-good vibe of "Computer Camp Love," turns it up to 11, and blasts a power chord of throwback nostalgia that'll knock you straight out of your Reebok Pumps. Love letters to Laurie Anderson ("Laurie") and references to Close Encounters of the Third Kind ("Princess") are just the tip of the iceberg. The album's infectious first single, "Fa Fa Fa," pairs up dance-rock drums with funk-strummed guitars and a chorus that'll have you jonesing for the nearest copy of Talking Heads' 77. "Ugly Primadonna," meanwhile, is pure four/four Groovebox robotics and space age Casiotone melodies.†† On "I Will Always Remember You" (featuring Annie), Fredrik does his best Wayne Newton, verbally undressing you with his velvety pipes over a bed of freeze-dried strings before formally "sexing you down" on "Sex Me Up." But more so than any other track on the album, the opening "Bulldozer" perhaps best encapsulates the band's true modus operandi. Whereas Kraftwerk glorified the Trans-Europe Express and the Tour de France, Datarock prefer to sing the praises of a more proletarian method of transportation: the BMX. Which, according to the Fredrik and Ket-Ill, "is better than sex."
Mood Ruff featuring Lisa Bell: "Blow the Bins"
Mood Ruff's new studio album called "I Do My Own Stunts," a classy collection of Hip-Hop filled with fine malt lyrics, butter beats and off the wall tactics. Singles include Rocketship, a cool breezy blend of funk and jazz that makes it the feel good song of the year; and Blow The Bins, the essential throw-back tune geared to keep the attention span of any age with an 80's style and today's flare. The entire album is ram packed with personality and an abundance of musical flavors.
A music video from ska and funk band Perfect Thyroid
Tom Waits: "God's Away on Business"
"Real Gone" is the unpredictable follow-up to the atmospheric and conceptual "Alice "and "Blood Money," two albums that TOM WAITS released simultaneously in the spring of 2002.
In an exciting departure from the critically acclaimed Alice and Blood Money, Waits? fevered imagination has spawned a new musical hybrid, grafting together worlds both sonic and ethnic from musical traditions both old and new. The 15 track CD features: primal blues, Jamaican rock-steady grooves, rhythms and melodies both African and Latin, what Waits calls ?cubist funk.?
In that sonic cubism, Waits ingeniously finds common ground with hip hop?s cut and paste aesthetic and incorporates some of its elements into his approach. Many of the tracks on Real Gone were built on Waits? ?human beatboxing? on a cassette recorder in his bathroom and bringing those tapes into the studio to have the band play over them. As a result, there are no drums on many of the most driving tracks as his voice provides all of the necessary propulsions. And for the first time, there is no piano.
Sharon Jones: "100 days, 100 nights"
Sharon Jones was born Sheron Lafaye Jones in Augusta, Georgia on May 4th 1956. Her mother moved to Brooklyn soon thereafter, however Jones was sent down south for a few months every year to stay with her family. As a child, she and her brothers would imitate the songs and dances of James Brown, who shared their hometown. Like many rhythm and blues entertainers, she began performing in church at a very young age where her voice would find a lifelong home and inspiration. As a teenager in the early nineteen seventies, she began singing outside of the church in talent shows and with local funk groups. Later she would make her living with a combination of sporadic session work as a mostly anonymous voice on various dance records (sometimes credited as Lafaye Jones), singing with wedding bands, and a handful of day jobs which included stints as both a prison guard at New York’s notorious Riker’s Island, and an armored car guard for Wells Fargo Bank. In 1996 she was called in to sing back-up at a Desco Records studio session for 70’s soul legend Lee Fields.
Substance Abuse: "Night On The Town"
As opposed to groups who either force change or resist it, the hip-hop group Substance Abuse embraces a natural progression. The trio creates earnest hip-hop music, combining equal measures of intelligence, clarity, innovation, and polish to evoke the unpretentious consciousness of the Golden Age era, while avoiding corny retro posturing. After gaining much acclaim for their collaboration with MF Doom on the infectious "Profitless Thoughts," Substance Abuse is ready to drop their long awaited full length, "Overproof," a term signifying "more than ample evidence" of S.A.'s eminent dopeness. Group members Eso Tre and Subz grew up together in Los Angeles, where they became hip-hop fans at an early age. In high school, the duo could often be found in the audience at the legendary Unity events that have since come to define the progressive LA hip-hop scene of the early 90?s. Inspired by those shows emphasis on positive expression through creative art, the friends began working on their own music. Substance Abuse's first release was a 1998 EP with Santa Barbara's mic.edu called Brand New Crime on Rocketship Records. The project received extensive college radio airplay and critical praise, and led to the filming of a video for the track ?Spontaneous Egos?, directed by independent filmmaker Jesse Felsot. The clip became a favorite of underground West Coast video shows and is currently available for viewing online at Sputnik7 (www.sputnik7.com). This was followed by the filming of the video for ?Night on the Town? featuring Kool Keith, which can be viewed at www.threshrecs.com Throughout the next year, Eso Tre and Subz bolstered their reputations as crowd movers with a series of performances sharing the stage with mic legends such as Souls of Mischief and Aceyalone. In turn, the group's lyrical prowess earned them a slot on Sway and Tech's Wake-Up Show, where they premiered the lead track from their debut single, "What the Fuck You Rhymin' For?" Finally, S.A. was named in URB magazine's Next 100 last year as a new group to watch. The name doesn?t have anything to do with getting faded,? explains MC Eso, who adds that their name is commonly misunderstood. ?Abuse is a word which correlates with excess, and we are excessively concerned with interjecting substance in the music.? Overproof includes contributions from Saafir, Kool Keith, Motion Man, Kutmasta Kurt, P.E.A.C.E., Rasco, Thes-One, and MF Doom.
The Juan Maclean: "Give Me Every Little Thing"
"It's been a bit of a sore spot," laughs Juan Maclean, "sitting on this album and seeing this robot stuff pop up all over the place. I have serious robot credentials that go back years and years. Like, a decade! But Daft Punk beat me to the punch." He may be joking, but the man's right. If anyone's earned the right to call their debut album "Less Than Human" and imagine a love triangle consisting of a man, a woman and the man's gay robot friend (as in "Shining Skinned Friend"), it's Maclean. He was guitarist and synth player with acclaimed but obscure, gonzo electro-punk band Six Finger Satellite, who began formulating their blend of rigidly mechanised disco beats, oddly sumptuous synth melodies and razor-shredded guitar work in the early 90s. The brutish but groovy result suggested a cross between Devo, Kraftwerk and Big Black. Then, America was mired in grunge, the famous French robots were still in short pants and the "punk-funk revival" was in the unimaginable future. Six Finger Satellite were just too far ahead of their time and perished accordingly. With "Less Than Human" Maclean has created a precision-tuned rekindling of his love affair with everything from Kraftwerk to Juan Atkins and Derrick May, Funkadelic to Giorgio Moroder and Lipps Inc, DAF to Talking Heads and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. It's full of tics (sin drums, cow bells, Bootsy Collins bass lines, Moog Liberation motifs) borrowed from dance music history, but refuses to engage with retroism, nostalgia or any notion of "the classic." Opener "AD2003" tracks back to Kraftwerk via Orbital, buoyed up by bubbles of percolating glitch. "Give Me Every Little Thing" rewinds through Underworld and Talking Heads en route to Studio 54. "Tito's Way" contrasts acid-house synth squelches and rave whistles with clattering, tribal percussion. There's a constant, though. Even the LP's euphoric epic "Dance With Me," is poignantly subdued, touched by a melancholy that reflects Maclean's own world view. "It doesn't seem incongruous to me to have a lot of that stuff in there," he says of the album's sadness, "because I made a big effort to make an album, rather than a collection of tunes with just one good track that everybody knows. So I never really set out to say, "this is a song that will played for the dance floor," or whatever. "When I started on it, I don't think I had any pre-conceived notions at all, except that I knew I'd always be operating under the same aesthetic principles that I'd held in making music my whole life."
DJ Jazzy Jeff and Peedi Peedi: "Brand New Funk 2K7"
“Brand New Funk 2K7” is taken from the much acclaimed The Return Of The Magnificent album by DJ Jazzy Jeff. A celebratory summer vibe is the focus as Jeff and Roc-A-Fella signing Peedi Peedi (reprising Will Smith’s role on the 1988 original) bounce though the streets of Philadelphia in a borrowed ice cream truck on their way to get busy in front of a sold out crowd. The video features clever references to the original version and “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” along with a plethora of cameo appearances from hip-hop mainstays such as DJ Premier, J-Live, Young Leek, DJ Excel, Megan Rochelle, Young Gunz, Jay Ski, Touch Tone and Young Steff. Featured vocalist Peedi Peedi is a member of Roc-A-Fella’s State Property crew. He also recently contributed a verse to the Roots’ latest album Game Theory. Peedi’s appearance on “Brand New Funk 2K7” gives the track a sing-song bounce, adding youthful energy to the well loved beat. “Brand New Funk 2K7” has been receiving early support on top commercial radio from 103.3 The Beat in Philadelphia to 97.9 The Box in Houston, as well as nationally syndicated hip-hop stations on XM, Sirius and Music Choice. Diverse, soulful, edgy and warm, The Return Of The Magnificent is everything flavor-of-the-month rap music isn’t in 2007. Easily as substantial as its prequel, it reminds us that Jeff is as capable a producer as he is a DJ; equally proficient in playing other people’s records as he is making his own.
Crossfade TV: Orgone, Foals, Gutter Twins
On the latest Crossfade TV, the Download Music crew checks out soul-funk group Orgone (as Mike Tao says, it's a no-brainer for fans of Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse), and a pair of new Sub Pop bands: Oxford dance-pop group Foals and the dark, moody new Gutter Twins project featuring Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan.
