Jaded, My Tummy

Since I've been working on some overdue reviews (sorry OKP lol), I'm laying back on blog posts with original writing, so check out this folk album I reviewed for Okayplayer. I am not at all well versed in roots music, though I'd like to be. So, this was a challenge. I relied a lot on what the music made me feel in order to critique it, so I thought it came out pretty good, though not necessarily my best writing.

The Spinning Leaves and Hezekiah Jones - Hezekiah Leaves and the Spinning Joneses (2011)



















Founders of the Philadelphia Folk Parade, flagship folk acts The Spinning Leaves (Michael Baker and Barbara Gettes) and Hezekiah Jones (aka Raphael Cutrufello) have done a great deal to establish the City of Brotherly Love as a sustainable scene for roots music. Here on Hezekiah Leaves and the Spinning Joneses, they merge their progressive minds to weave together stories of the everyman, sorrow, nostalgia, whimsy, and deep reflection. Their poetic songs evoke the intended emotions best when they stick to bare-bones arrangements and colorful, acoustic instruments....

Duck Dunn's passing earlier this week was really sad news to me. During the '60s and '70s, he was the in-house bassist for Stax Records which, in my opinion, was the greatest soul/R&B label that ever existed. Their in-house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, are arguably the best in soul music as well, and so you can guess Dunn played a big part in developing that signature Stax sound. Some of his classic contributions are for the songs "Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding, "In the Midnight Hour" by Wilson Pickett, and "Hold On, I'm Comin'" by Sam & Dave.

He originally was pretty bad at playing guitar. His schoolboy friend who lived down the street from him in Memphis, Steve Cropper (another very important name/musician to know in the Stax lexicon), formed a local band called the Royal Spades. Duck didn't want to be left out, so he decided to buy a bass and learn how to play. He did leave the Royal Spades, which turned into the Mar-Keys when initially recording for Stax, but then morphed into Booker T. & the M.G.'s. The band also released instrumental records, most notably their "Green Onions" (1962) single which reached Top 5 of the Billboard pop chart. Duck came back to work with Booker T. Jones and Cropper after that hit around 1964, replacing bassist Lewie Steinberg. Hip Hug-Her (1967) and Melting Pot (1971) are two of the band's classic instrumental LPs which feature Duck.

Anyway, I could go on and on about Stax and find more tidbits on Duck himself, but basically everyone should know the music of this label: Otis Redding (my favorite vocalist, period), Sam and Dave, Isaac Hayes, Mavis Staples, Albert King, Johnnie Taylor, and many others. Once you discover the greatness of their music and become obsessed like me, I recommend these two books, Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom by Peter Guralnick and Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records by Rob Bowman. I actually wrote a mini-review of the latter over at Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/114774756) a while back, if you're interested.

Rest in Peace, Duck.

This is one of my more interesting bios. I'm extremely proud of this one though, because the writing came together so well, especially considering I wasn't too familiar with that underground, folktronic music scene. Yeah, that sounds a hot mess, but just read the bio. In the picture below, Bunny Rabbit is on the left, and her producer Black Cracker is on the right.

Bunny Rabbit
Adopting the surrealist imagery of the avant-garde folktronic scene, Bunny Rabbit's devilishly erotic art-raps sent New York hipsters and critics reeling when she debuted Lovers and Crypts in 2007. The contrast of Bunny Rabbit's innocent-sounding, light voice and her actual lyrics was already a little disturbing, but her producer (and lover) Black Cracker, the dynamic drive behind this 2 Live Crew-meets-Goldfrapp project, provided the eerie soundscapes of dusty electro-crunk and trip-hop that clinched the album together....

Fuck Yo Blog (think Dave Chappelle haha)! A new, new leak from Childish Gambino (aka actor/writer Donald Glover from NBC's Community). I haven't taken the time to check him out yet, though it must be because I just considered him an "actor wannabe rapper." But, each song I hear from him gets me rolling, plus his flow is actually kinda bananas. So nimble. He's an awkward, nerdy, sarcastic black dude. He uses obscure references (you see that Louis Armstrong shout out right?). I mean that's me hahaha. I should be all over this. I was listening to the streaming playlist at ThisIsRealMusic and this just popped on. His verse is last. I could've done it without the anti-gay/sexist remarks though. Listen.

This collaboration between indie rapper/producer El-P and Dungeon Fam member Killer Mike has Hip-Hop Album of the Year written all over it. But, it also has just as much potential to be a hot mess. Either way, this is really worth checking out (I am hearing it's closer to the former though). For many, this collaboration seems so unseemly, because the two exist in very separate realms of hip-hop music. However, the exact opposite is just as true too. El-P's cacophonic melting pot of electronica, hip-hop, and prog-rock has been described as being like the Bomb Squad of the 21st century, while Killer Mike blends an early '90s Ice Cube/pro-black style with that dirty Dungeon Family funk-rap. The Bomb Squad, if you don't already know, was the production squad behind Public Enemy's classic albums, but more importantly, they also produced Ice Cube's classic solo debut, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990). See where I'm going with this?

I'm waiting to grab the CD, but you can listen to a stream of the entire album, plus read a detailed explanation for each track by Killer Mike himself, over at the Spin website: "Hear Killer Mike's Fiery 'R.A.P. Music': The MC Runs Us Through His New LP." Haha, cheers. Album will be released May 15.

Rock & roll is dying because people became ok with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world. So they became ok with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit—therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world. Fuck that! Rock & roll is the music I feel the most passionately about, and I don't like to see it fucking ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous shit.

Here's some quotables from the Irish Film and Television Network (IFTN) source:

The feature film will be written and directed by John Ridley, who is best known as the writer of ‘Three Kings’ and ‘U-Turn’. The project is currently in pre-production in Wicklow, with principal photography set to begin in three weeks time in Dublin and Wicklow. The shoot will last six weeks in total.

The film will be set in 1966 and 1967 and cover the period in which Hendrix was discovered in a New York club by Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richard’s then girlfriend Linda Keith. She subsequently introduced Hendrix to manager Chas Chandler who brought Hendrix to London in 1966, where he recorded his debut album ‘Are You Experienced’ and had his first taste of success. Over that period – 1966 to 67 – Hendrix went on to formulate some of the greatest guitar-driven records ever made.

Well, 3 Stacks is my man, and this is probably a near-perfect casting job, assuming that he nails this. I'm not sure if this is the same set of people who were doing the earlier project that got canned—the one where they were deciding between him and Lenny Kravitz to play Hendrix. I'm hoping the fact that it is being made in Ireland with some Irish filmmakers/producers there lends more credibility to the biopic. It might be a bit more interesting and not overly romanticized, since the Experience's recording career started in Britain.

Adam Yauch, aka MCA from the Beastie Boys, passed away yesterday from cancer complications. My heart goes out to his family and the group. I was never a huge fan of the Beastie Boys—well, at least from the '90s onwards—but I know that their importance to hip-hop is monumental. Licensed to Ill (1986) and, my personal favorite, Paul's Boutique (1989), are G.O.A.T. rap albums hands down. I was playing two of my favorite Beasties tracks today and thought I'd share.

"Brass Monkey"


"Paul Revere"

From Billboard news article, "D'Angelo To Give First U.S. Performance in Ten Years at Essence Music Fest":

D'Angelo is making his comeback: The reclusive singer will give his first U.S. performance in 10 years at the 2012 Essence Music Festival. [He] will perform during the festival's opening night. It runs from July 6 to July 8 in New Orleans and also features Trey Songz, Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige and many others.

Surprisingly, I didn't think I'd be excited at the prospect of D'Angelo returning to the music scene. 10 years without any product or effort to produce one can put a real damper on your fandom, even if said artist has an immense talent. But, I'm secretly (I guess no more) geeked to see what D'Angelo might produce for us. I'm more likely to go see him live in concert though than buy his next, supposedly Jimi Hendrix-influence LP. But, either way I'll be paying attention.

I'm a little late with this posting, though mainly because I didn't have a blog yet. Anyways, this biography of James Brown, The One: The Life and Music of James Brown by RJ Smith (a senior editor for Los Angeles magazine and staff writer for Spin), was issued last month in March and has been on my wishlist since a month before it came out. I recently read a few critics' quotes, and they've got me excited:

"R.J. Smith, a Los Angeles-based music journalist and author of the new book The One: The Life and Music of James Brown, may have come closer than anyone to understanding how James Brown became James Brown."

"The imperatives of biography are to record, to correct and to carve out historical significance, and Smith’s lively account succeeds on all three fronts."

This New York Times review, "Say It Loud: Soul King Explained," is the best one I've read so far. It's the one that got me hyped to buy this in the first place. Janet Maslin, the author, talks about why The One was chosen for the title:

"For starters Mr. Brown’s theatrics will explain why 'The One' is this book’s title. It describes but doesn’t come from Mr. Brown’s stature. Instead it denotes his signature emphasis on the first beat in a four-beat measure. 'The upbeat is rich, the downbeat is poor,' Mr. Brown said, explaining that tactic in typically cryptic but catchy fashion."

So, this is the same "Goodie Mob" (yes I had to use quotations... I took it there) that made "Dirty South" and "Black Ice"??!! I know I'm a little late on this, but I'm heartbroken, as are many other classic Dirty South hip-hop fans who saw them perform their new track, "Fight to Win," on NBC's The Voice. To be honest, as a pop track, this is cool and listenable with Cee-Lo on the hook, but this type of track shouldn't ever find the light of day from a group like Goodie MoB (Remember? The Good Die Mostly Over Bullshit). They mixed spirituality with street tales, crunk with boom-bap, southern bounce with dirty soul-funk.... not this. No, the MoB didn't get the mainstream props that their Dungeon Family brethren OutKast did, but their legacy and influence in developing the Southern hip-hop music is also monumental. Oh well....smh HARD.