I want to be Dan Boeckner, making rock records with my wife, having not one (Wolf Parade) but two (Handsome Furs) great bands, making videos where house shows turn into zombie romance epics.
I love the new Handsome Furs record Face Control. Much more than the latest Wolf Parade even. Some of Boeckner's songs take a sec to find their power and it's got me back into longer forms, taking my time, the value of a slow hand.
In November I did a post on the Numero Group's Eccentric Soul reissue series. I keep digging into these vaults and keep finding gold. Here are some of my latest favorites as well as a repost of my earlier blog.
"Don't Be Surprised" - Lynn Williams [Eccentric Soul: The Outskirts Of Deep City]
"Never Walk Out On You" - Mitchell Mitchell, Gene King [Eccentric Soul Vol. 7: The Prix Label]
"Yesterday's Mistakes" - Jimmy Jones [Eccentric Soul Vol. 6: Twilight's Lunar Rotation (Disc 2)]
"Without Love"- Ronnie Taylor - [Eccentric Soul Vol. 1: The Capsoul Label]
Old Post:
No archival music project that I know of has unearthed more quality forgotten music than Buda Music's Ethiopiques series, which restored and re-presented a wealth of Ethiopian jazz from the '60s and '70s. I spent a good year picking through those audio mines - for every gold nugget there are mounds of granite - and it was worth it to get ahold of something that sounded so harmonically and rhythmically bizarre, but with a recognizable soulfulness.
Now I've got a new obsession to rival my Ethiopiques craze: Numero Group's Eccentric Soul series. It's a similar concept, collect works of unrecognized genius, the kind of music that might have had a fighting chance at a legacy in the electronic age - in this case a whole bunch of American soul labels that never rose to the status of Motown, Stax or Hi Records - and package them together for new consideration.
I first became aware of the series during the release of Volume 3, which featured Miami's Deep City Label. I'm still wading through it all, but so far that volume seems the best place to start because it has some of the series' strongest work.
It takes some digging and sifting to get past the mediocre stuff, but the same could be said of the recently reissued Complete Motown series. And besides, in my experience having to do a little work for your music only brings it closer.
Check out some of my favorites so far:
"Am I a Good Man" - Them Two [Eccentric Soul Vol. 3: The Deep City Label]
"Someone to Fulfill My Needs" - Moovers [Eccentric Soul Vol. 3: The Deep City Label]
"One Night Affair" - The Rising Sun [Eccentric Soul: The Outskirts of Deep City]
"What Can the Matter Be" - Tokay Lewis [Eccentric Soul: The Tragar & Note Labels]
"Heavenly Father" - Eula Cooper [Eccentric Soul: The Tragar & Note Labels]
The same man that wrote "Single Ladies" for Beyonce wrote "Umbrella" for Rihanna. He calls himself The Dream and with hits like that, who's going to argue. I tend to love the work of producers and writers who step out from behind the curtain to make their own records (Timbaland, Keri Hilson, Ryan Leslie) and it's good to see The Dream doing that with Love Vs. Money.
Listening yesterday for the first time, I thought, "That's funny. This reminds me so much of Kardinal Offishall, particularly my jam "Gimme Some." Three and a half seconds on Google taught me that my ears were on point: The Dream made that track with Offishall. That's always a good thing in slicked-over Top 40 when an artist can keep that strong of an identity in tact.
Here's what I think about "Gimme Some." It's, like, the only piece of music, maybe ever, that makes me horny. How many songs about fucking have ever made you even an ounce turned on? I count them at zero. But "Gimme Some" turns some kind of switch in my head. The chorus hook is some ridiculous, synthed-out eroticism. If you must, just ignore Offishall's rap and get to the hook.
"Love vs. Money," the title track is a stylistic cousin to "Gimme Some," only it's sad instead of sexed up. "He took my shorty, he took my girl/He took the any and everything out my world/He took my heart, he took my soul/I should have known money couldn't match love." This is so twisted and cool, because he's flipping the cliche and playing the part of the guy who tried to buy the girl's love and he lost out to someone who just treated her right. "I can't even hate the homey..."
Cale Parks has a new song called "Places We've Created" available for download at RCRDLBL.com today. It's totally worth the click.
Cale is an old friend of mine who I mostly knew through his band Aloha. Friend, yes. But I've always considered myself a fan of his consummate musicianship (Don't let his slender, debonair appearance fool you - the man is an absolute savage on the kit). Years ago, in between Aloha tours, Cale started making records by his lonesome and it's been a pleasure to watch him come into his own as a solo artist. Cale's most recent album Sparklace is a beautiful, subtle work of abstract cool. I particularly like the song "This Morning," which I fittingly first heard on an early morning drive. Cale and I have talked about our mutual love of Durufle's requiem, which has a plodding, modal majesty. "This Morning" has the same effect on me.
I had the immense pleasure of seeing Raphel Saadiq and his bad band of bad badasses last night in Detroit. I almost never get out to see national acts anymore (thanks Ticketmaster), let alone the people whose records I've gone deep with (Al Green didn't come by on this tour, Radiohead hasn't hit Detroit in over a decade, etc.) so this was a little bit of Christmas. And the venue couldn't have been better, a very intimate room with great acoustics, sold out and seated with fervent, mostly black, fans ready to get down.
The live Saadiq experience is the perfect compliment to his new record The Way I See It - minimal yet produced to the hilt. It translated Saadiq's spare take on the Motown sound with matching tailored skinny tie suits, choreographed Temptations-style dance moves, and a soulful band arrangement that featured horns and backup singers but was always anchored by the vintage pulse of a fender jazz bass, a small drum trap and two musicians with the taste and feel to really wield them.
Blogger nixed my post from the fall on Saadiq (brilliantly titled "Saadiq and You Shall Find" - what a waste of great word play!) because I had some mp3s up. This was before my road-to-Damascus moment, when I saw the light of streaming audio, and free music still shot out from this site like candy from a burst pinata.
I'm going to stream those tracks now and urge anybody who hasn't bought The Way I See It to quit messing around and do it. Even if you don't like the somewhat heavy-handed nostalgia of the singles "Sure Hope You Mean It" and "Love That Girl," you should look past it for the subtely modern heart of the rest of the record. And make sure to seek out the b-sides "Seven" and "Kelly Ray."
Earlier this year I posted on a Solange track that used music from a Boards of Canada track (the gorgeous and somewhat obscure "Slow This Bird Down"). I liked the way that top 40 artists were looking into experimental electronica acts for inspiration, and not even those groups' most popular tracks. It's happened again on Jazmine Sullivan's "Dream Big," which is sung over a bed of Daft Punk's "Veridis Quo," one of my favorite tracks off their album Discovery. This track was produced by Missy Elliott and it's interesting the way her influence comes through.
I've been telling everybody who'll listen about Jazmine Sullivan. Her album is no joke. Find it.
