Το 2005 οι Sharon Jones και οι Dap Kings επέστρεψαν με νέα δουλειά, προς τέρψιν όλων των οπαδών τους. Το “Naturally” βγαίνει από τα μαύρα εσώψυχα της Γηραιάς Ηπείρου και αφού κάνει μια γυροβολιά στη Νέα Ορλεάνη, σφυρίζοντας κλέφτικα σε cajun ρυθμούς, πέφτει σαν ρουκέτα στο στέρνο μας. Εκεί συνεχίζει να ζει και να πάλλεται σαν δεύτερη καρδιά. Απολαυστικός δεύτερος δίσκος. Cause we got soul, baby!! 4/5…

myspace.com/sharonjonesandthedapkings

Είναι δύσκολο να πιστέψεις ότι η πρώτη δουλειά της Sharon Jones και των Dap Kings κυκλοφόρησε μόλις το 2002. Κοιτώντας το layout νομίζεις ότι έχει πέσει στα χέρια σου 45αρι σπάνιο της δεκαετίας του 50. Και όμως, το funk και η soul  ακούγονται πιο φρέσκα από ποτέ μέσα από την υπέροχη φωνή της Sharon και από τους groovy κιθαρισμούς των Dap Kings. Το σχήμα που  έδωσε νέα πνοή στο revival funk, από το album “Dap Dippin”, έδειξε τα δόντια του και μας προετοίμασε για μια ανεπανάληπτη συνέχεια, για ένα μουσικό ταξίδι γεμάτο αναμνήσεις, φτηνά τσιγάρα και καπνισμένο ουίσκι… 4/5!

myspace.com/sharonjonesandthedapkings

One of my all-time heroes, Dylan Moran, made an excellent point about musical conventions in this day and age versus how things used to be. The very best music in the 60’s and 70’s came from ugly people. Nowadays, with our exiguous little blonde waifs cluttering up the airwaves with pop du jour songs that they neither wrote nor really even sang, with canned beats, vocoders, instruments that can be switched out and replaced with even worse instruments for the “remix”, it’s really hard to actually find music nowadays in anything. It’s really no wonder iPods come packaged with the cheapest, most terrible headphones imaginable and nobody cares, it’s because what have we got to listen to that we would need to hear it well?

Enter Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings:

Now, in my previous statement, I don’t mean to imply that Sharon Jones is ugly. If anything, she’s one of the most beautiful women out there performing. She was about 49 years old when this album came out, and had no compunctions about working up a sweat on stage crooning these perfect little danceable funk/soul/awesome numbers, written by a guy called Bosco who plays an amazing bass, and the reason I say she’s beautiful is because she’s real. There is not one trace of vocoder, awkward cuts, or disingenuous lyrics based around some kind of pre-cut, manufactured hook. This is just amazing music, recorded in analogue for those keeping score, and it floors me to listen to such heart in a recording made in my life-time, much less within the past 5 years.

Of course, I don’t mean to say that there aren’t hooks on this album, man the whole first half of the album is full of them. Of course, as I mentioned when I last spoke of the Dap-Kings, these are the guys responsible for Amy Winehouse having a killer soul-based sound, even if she herself is a self-destructive vacuous marketing ploy to try and raise the sales of sailor tattoos. Sharon Jones doesn’t play the pop star game, and as such, we’ll probably never see the group chart a single or her picture on the cover of some damnable magazine made up of 80% ads and 19% garbage and 1% the credits page.

From the first hits of the dry, raspy drums and squishy guitars untouched by amp modeling or post-processing with some wicked bass-lines to the last slow jam, each song on Naturally sounds just that: natural. It’s like the songs were grown in some kind of funk garden or some equally bad simile. I should also mention, as a bassist, how impressed I am with some of these bass-lines, especially in the album’s stand-out funky track “Natural Born Lover”, which contains this really catchy and kind of weird line “He’s a NBL and he TCB”, but really with the shuffly, trippy drumming, one can’t complain. The song has an interesting theme behind the lyrics, as it’s about an imperfect man who I suppose she’s with because he’s a “natural born lover”, because apparently “taking care of business” is better than being faithful or anything. Hey, at least she’s being honest about it, most pop/R&B songs don’t admit that side of the smooth talkers out there.

There’s an entertaining little duet with a guy called Lee Fields in the song “Stranded In Your Love”, about an ex-lover of hers that seems to have had his car stolen, and thus is forced to have to stay with her for the night, even though it seems he was just desperate enough to get his woman back to either lie about it or stage the theft. Either way, it totally works, which is just great.

Another odd number is “My Man Is A Mean Man”, which has a very James Brown-esque staccato to the instrumentation, but with this wonderful rolling bass-line, the kind that inspired me to play the instrument in the first place. The lyrics are spoken from the viewpoint of a lover done wrong, but they’re done with this intriguing vibe of introspection and total awareness of the situation. I would reprint said lyrics, but yeah of course they wouldn’t be online. Still, the song goes into double-time at the end, which is awesome, makes me wish the song would hang around a little longer.

The drumming intro to “How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?” makes this song one of my favorites on the whole album, and the song gets even better from there. I guess there’s a reason Homer Steiweiss, the Dap-Kings’ drummer, has the nickname “Funky-Feet”. In fact, I have yet to figure out what this song is about other than the title because I just can’t get my ears off the instrumentation on this particular track, plus the protracted notes by Sharon make her voice blend with the instruments moreso than accentuating the lyrical content. No complaints here, this song is beautiful.

The album’s centerpiece is something that everyone who has talked about Naturally tends to mention, and I’m no exception. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings apparently saw it fit to do a funk/soul/blues cover of one of America’s best-loved folk songs: Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”, done in a slow, minor-keyed and sultry way that might make you scratch your head while moving your feet. Either way, the song retains its original political lyrics in this version, and I really appreciate that, no matter who it’s coming from. Why yes, if you didn’t know, the song originally had the following lines:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “Private Property”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing, so it must be
That side was made for you and me

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple
By the relief office, I’d seen my people
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Sharon was kind enough to include them (changing “relief office” to “welfare office” you know, since that’s what exists now). This cover alone makes this album better than its predecessor, Dap-Dippin’ With…, since I did get a slight whiff of contrivance from that album. Indeed, Naturally I feel was a huge step forward, offering up funky hit after funky hit, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to listen to the new album, and I’ll be talking about that one too, I’m sure!

Indeed, music like this needs to be cherished and enabled, before the robots who are creating our music take over our lives. Do it for the good of humanity!

Wax Poetics is a bi-monthly music magazine dedicated to vintage and contemporary jazz, funk, soul, Latin, hip-hop, reggae, blues, and R&B… It’s also a record label, apparel store, download site, book publisher, and a weekly radio show on New York City’s East Village Radio hosted by the magazine’s staff. There’s even a Japanese version of the site.

You may wonder why I’m telling you all this…

Well it was through my weekly trawl that I found this free soul mix from one of my favourite artists of the last couple of years, Lanu.

As Tru Thoughts Records celebrates it’s 10th Anniversary in 2009 head to www.waxpoetics.com to check an exclusive Lanu selection of mellow soul cuts culled from the Tru Thoughts catalogue. Featuring music from Alice Russell, Nostalgia 77, The Bamboos, Kylie Auldist, The Quantic Soul Orchestra & more!

Click here to stream / Right click save as to download

Lanu is a New Zealand born, Melbourne-based producer, signed to Tru Thoughts, whose 2007 album ‘This Is My Home‘ I still play regularly, and who has worked with the likes of Jazzanova, Masters At Work, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Bembe Segue, Guru, Alice Russell, Opolopo and Quantic… All of whom, you may have noticed, are also favourites of mine. More recently, he produced Kylie Auldist’s album ‘Made Of Stone‘, which was released in August, and is currently touring with Kylie and his ‘Cookin’ On 3 Burners’ project in the UK and Europe.

Check out the mix, and bookmark these links to keep up to date…

http://www.lanu.com.au/
http://www.myspace.com/lanumusic
http://www.kylieauldist.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kylieauldistmusic
http://www.tru-thoughts.co.uk/

Hey musicheads, did you know that celebrity blogger Perez Hilton has a record label?  Did you know that it actually has signed artists semi-musical groups?  Did you know that Hilton’s taking these groups on a tour this fall?  If the answer to all of these questions is no, join the other 6.7 billion of us.   I can recall reading about this “tour” in the music blogs back in August and having roughly the same reaction that I do when I discover fresh navel lint.  Actually, I’m more excited about navel lint than I am about anything related to Perez Hilton, but I digress.

Hilton announced in August that his Perezlicious record label would host a traveling freakshow of various groups, only one of whom (French export Sliimy) is actually signed to the label.  The other musical acts really have nothing to do with Hilton other than they’re starving for attention.  Bands like Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head and singer Ladyhawke (not to be confused with Canadian band Ladyhawk, who is actually good) are part of this nightmare, along with arguably the biggest name in the group, Norwegian songstress Ida Maria, who has put out a decent album in the last year and is signed by a real record label, Sony/BMG.

I know you’re wondering why this is newsworthy.  Well it’s not, except for what happened at the House of Blues in Boston last week.  As chronicled by Prefix, Maria simply walked off the stage during the second song of her set, leaving her backing band to finish the song and then close the show.  The video on Prefix’s site shows the band learning about Maria’s defection at the end of the song while the crowd catcalls and generally wonders what the blazes is going on.  Maria returns to the stage later, issues a weak apology and then mails in a few more songs.  Soon thereafter she is dumped from the tour altogether.

Reports after the fact are that Maria was bummed out due to the tour’s generally low ticket sales and the lackluster response from the crowd.  I’m sorry but I have to ask the obvious: WHAT DID SHE EXPECT?  You’re touring for a guy whose only claim to fame is that he can doodle on pictures and put them on the internet while getting the crap beat out of him by the Black Eyed Peas.  Did you expect this was somehow going to help your career?  Further, it’s the height of arrogance on Hilton’s part to even think he could pull this thing off.  Concert promotion and execution is something that professionals do for a living, not itinerant bloggers who hire their moms as their maids.  Anyway, if you’re a talentless whelp who wants to hit it big, I suggest you hit up Mr. Hilton, it looks like he’s got a co-headlining gig spot to fill.  Just don’t expect more than about 50 people to show up at any one show, okay?

Harlem Shakes Shaken Up

Just this last Saturday, I regaled you with the awesomeness that is the Harlem Shakes’ tune “Strictly Game” off their 2009 release Technicolor Health.  Then today I check out the interwebs and find out via TBTS fave You Ain’t No Picasso that the Shakes have broken up.   I hope it wasn’t something I said.  The Shakes had a promising career ahead of them with Technicolor Health being one of the top albums of the year and sites like Rawkblog considering it one of the best of the decade.  This is a band that hung it up way too soon, which usually means they’ll become a cult favorite and re-unite in about ten years to great fanfare.  Expect to see fake testimonials from bands that never listened to the Shakes but who now consider them “influential” and extol them as “one of our favorite bands”.  Then figure on complete internet music blog saturation so that wherever you go, you’ll see the “Harlem Shakes Reunion” headlines.  So hold on to your records, folks, they might be worth a mint once the boys decide to get back together.  Then you can join the faux-renaissance with the assurance that unlike almost everyone else, you really did “know them when.”

Dinner With the Band

I’ll leave you with a little nugget about a pretty awesome show coming to your TV in November, called “Dinner With the Band”.  The show was previously internet-only, but recently got picked up by the Independent Film Channel.  It features Brooklyn chef Sam Mason, who invites a current indie-rock band to visit his loft for cooking tips.   The band then repays Mason by totally rocking out after eating his food.  This beautifully simple concept has my musical taste buds salivating, especially when the fine folks over at Brooklyn Vegan told me that the guest list will include the soulful Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.  Future artists include Flosstradamus and YACHT, so if you’re an indie rock + food lover (really, who isn’t?), I suggest you check this one out.

I close with a link to a wonderful, intimate Paris loft concert from two of the most interesting and talented artists the world has to offer, Andrew Bird and St. Vincent.  Take about 30 minutes and give yourself over to this amazing music, if you’re a fan of either of these artists I swear you won’t regret it.  If you’re not a fan, check this out and become one.

This is not some cruel cosmic joke.  This is, in fact, the final mp3 Smörgåsbord.  While we certainly enjoy putting up remixes and other various forgotten gems week after week, we’re aiming to provide some more substance along with the music, so starting next week, we’re going to up the ante.

We haven’t hammered out the details of how exactly we’re going to fill the Wednesday space, but we think you’ll probably like it.  At least we hope that you do.  And, if we can’t figure out something else, maybe we’ll fall back to this.  So, think of this as your last meal – except that you don’t get to choose the menu, and you might be granted a stay.  We think we’ve picked out something you’ll enjoy anyway.

Jay-Z – A Star Is Born (feat. J. Cole) (mp3) from The Blueprint 3

Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings – How Long Do I Have To Wait For You? (mp3) from Naturally

Death Cab For Cutie – Meet Me On The Equinox (mp3) from some upcoming movie soundtrack millions of teen girls may be excited about.

This edition of Sunday Jazz is focusing on a few ladies of jazz. First up is a local singer here in Atlanta, Amy Pike. The band she is singing with is The Bonaventure Quartet, whose main focus is swing jazz. This is “Blue Rendezvous”:

Continuing with Madeleine Peyroux and “Don’t Cry Baby”:

Norah Jones with The Band’s “Bessie Smith”:

Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings with “Let Them Knock”:

And check out Katherine Whalen of The Squirrel Nut Zippers singing on this track, “Prince Nez”:

How serendipitous!  I was just making a point about Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings’ live performances versus the album tracks, and lo and behold, there they are on Ferguson’s show last night.  They absolutely do not disappoint in the fantastic performance below.  Enjoy!

100 Days, 100 Nights – 2007

Sharon Jones is an old-school bluesy, gospel-tinged soul singer with a huge, magnificent voice and more character than you can shake a stick at.  She’s been singing since the 1970s, but only as recently as 2002 cut her first solo album with her backing band, The Dap-Kings.  The Dap-Kings are a group of ultra-talented musicians who provide everything from guitars to horns, and while they’re probably most recognizable now for work they’ve done with Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson, they’ve been around the soul scene for years.  100 Days, 100 Nights, released in 2007, is the third album for Jones and The Dap-Kings, and it’s timing was perfect for capitalizing on the resurgence of retro funk and neo-soul acts.  As a result, 100 Days, 100 Nights was their breakthrough album, thanks mainly to the success of the enamoring first single “100 Days, 100 Nights” and also to Jones’ electrifying live performances.

More than most other singers you’re likely to hear, Jones infuses each and every word of the lyrics with real heart and soul.  She’s a true storyteller who enunciates everything through her big, brassy voice so that you can’t possibly miss her message.  And 100 Days, 100 Nights is filled with lessons on life and love, in which she dabbles with equal parts vulnerability, fortitude, and strength.  The music has to be just as robust to keep up with her, and The Dap-Kings match up to that in spades, with plenty of brass, strings, and drum work throughout the album.

“100 Days…” is the first track on the album and it begins with The Dap-Kings disintegrating horn intro before Jones chimes in with her soulful vocals.  The Kings lay in doo-wop style backing vocals all the way through and Jones ends the track on an impressively emotive glory note.  Another major track is the second song, “Nobody’s Baby”, which is thoroughly funk-filled and finds Jones in a defiant state of mind.  The music is tight and the horn work is inspired.  “Be Easy” is a contender for the best on 100 Days… as The Dap-Kings work a slow, blues-inspired funk groove and Jones doles out some valuable advice for over-eager men: “Don’t you know a woman don’t wanna/Don’t wanna man down on his knees/Runnin’ her down like a mouse at the cheese/You got to be metal if you want her affection/You get too excited and she’s off in another direction”.

“Let Them Knock” is also excellent.  Jones is sultry as she croons her devotion to her man and the music gets down and deep right along side her.   “Something’s Changed” turns a bit from that confidence and Jones changes her key to match the wind-knocked-out-of-you feeling the song tries to get across, displaying vulnerability and an indefinable impending quality that only a true pro could handle.  “Humble Me” takes that vulnerability to the next level in a slow and plodding musical track, while Jones invokes her delicate falsetto, practically begging: “Don’t be afraid to/Humble me, humble me/Don’t let me forget who I am” and the song hits definite gospel notes near the last third.

As good as 100 Days, 100 Nights is as an album, my thoughts are that it is slightly overproduced, and as result, you lose some of the unique sparkle that makes Sharon Jones so special.  I saw her live at the ACL festival last year and she commands the stage with presence, attitude, and fire that is extremely rare.  Maybe that’s impossible to capture on an album, but allowing the songs to be a little more raw would probably help.  As much life as she breaths into the lyrics on record, her live performances blow that out of the water.  Pick up 100 Days, 100 Nights to familiarize yourself with her work; then go check out her and the incredibly suave Dap-Kings live and in the flesh as soon as you can.

Mo 8/3: Edie Falco, Les Stroud, Lisa Landry
Tu 8/4: Tony Shalhoub, Minka Kelly
We 8/5: Wolf Blitzer
Th 8/6: Sigourney Weaver, Glasvegas
Fr 8/7: Don Rickles, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

as promised, here is your July podcast. this one’s pretty groovy, if I do say so myself. I ended up having to rework the whole thing at the last minute but oh well.

also, the whopping one vote in the poll was for “109,” so it ended up on the mix. thank you, one voter.

download here.

tracklist/commentary after the jump

JULY:

I Wanted Everything – Kurt Vile

Walkabout (ft. Noah Lennox) – Atlas Sound

The Pica Beats Theme – the Pica Beats

Say Please – Monsters of Folk

How Long Do I Have to Wait for You? – Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Tell Me, What Will It Be – Javelin

109 – Toro Y Moi

Black Country – Tonstartssbandht

Mickey Mouse – Wavves

I’ll admit that if you even casually follow any decent music blog, you’ve probably got a lot of these songs, but hopefully one or two will be new to you and you can enjoy the mix anyway.

now for my description (worthy of the back of a wine bottle):

we start with Kurt Vile for your daily infusion of psych-folk, then skip to much happier thoughts with the ultra-bloggable “Walkabout,” which I really didn’t want to include but is just too good not to. I am a Panda Bear girl through and through. then the Pica Beats hit you with some sitar and Monsters of Folk are awesome and folksy. then Sharon Jones starts the funk and Javelin slows it back down just in time for some Toro Y Moi. Tonsstartsbandht’s epic “Black Country” and that new Panda Bear-I mean, Wavves demo finishes the whole thing off.

I really really wanted to end with “Terminally Chill” by Neon Indian but for some reason the mp3 was importing into audacity in mono and it sounded horrible. I also had a very nice track by Washed Out (from Columbia like Toro Y Moi) in the mix but once you took the Neon Indian out, it just sounded off. maybe I’ll do a chill/dream/blog-wave mix soon and get it on.

as always, comments are welcome and if you would like to have a song removed, please email me at ksglasscock@yahoo.com.

I can’t recall exactly how I first heard about this project but I kept checking  the bookstore for the July issue of Spin Magazine as soon as I heard. Strange that the only bookstore that carried it was Borders. But luckily I ran across a copy while passing the magazine rack at the Giant Foods Store while grocery shopping. Ironically the bag boy had no clue who the face on the magazine was when he bagged it. It told him it was Prince and he said — “oh he is like Michael Jakcson, right?” (This was before MJJ passed)

I got home, put the groceries away and immediately read  the entire magazine — saving the article about Purple Rain for last.  It was a great read. Members of the Revolution and principals in the making of the film were interviewed and the photos brought back great memories.

I had to be one of the biggest Prince fans. I loved him even BEFORE he put out a single note of music. I had only read about him the the teen magazine “Right On!”  The editor, Cynthia Horner, would have some Prince tidbits and photos in every issue and of course I plastered my bedroom walls with those pics. And I repeat, this was all even before I ever heard a note.

When Mr. Nelson finally appeared on American Bandstand I was thrilled and hooked. I  went to the first “Dirty Mind Tour” and attended every single tour that followed. I also have an extensive boot tape collection (yes cassettes) of every tour as well as ownership of every release made on Vinyl, Casette and CD. So yes I was a true fan and today I have nothing but respect for Mr. Nelson’s musical talents.

This free 25th Anniversary Special set, entitled “Purplish Rain” is a hoot and I highly recommend that you get it and give it a listen on two.  Most of the artists were unknown to me but the tracks are awesome. What I like is that none of them are performed as they were originally. I mean come — on there is a Mariachi version of one of the cuts (ROTFL) and I like it!

Here are the tracks and the artists along with  a sample cut for to you to listen to and wet your appetite for more.

Enjoy.

Track list and arists:

1. Let’s Go Crazy – Riverboat Gamblers

2. Take Me With You – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

3. The Beautiful Ones – Fol Chen

4. Computer Blue – Of Montreal

5. Darling Nikki – Chairlift

6. When Doves Cry – The Twilight Singers

7. I Would Die 4 U – Mariachi E! Bronx

8. Baby I’m A Star – Craig Wedren

9. Purple Rain – Lavender Diamond

Great job “Spin” And providing a pdf of the  credits was awesome. Why can’t all music companies do this?  That is why I would still rather buy a CD rather than download music — because there are never any credits in the download.  Record companies please take note!

Musically Yours,

Mo 7/13: Selma Blair, Connie Schultz
Tu 7/14: John Larroquette, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
We 7/15: Rosie Perez, Alan Furst
Th 7/16: Isaac Mizrahi, Shohreh Aghdashloo
Fr 7/17: Mike Massimino, Ray LaMontagne

For this summer’s 25th anniversary of Prince’s classic movie and album Purple Rain, SPIN is excited to announce the release of Purplish Rain, a tribute album made up of nine tracks commissioned by the editors of SPIN.

The entire album will be available as a free download for SPIN magazine readers and subscribers via SPIN.com starting June 23. (Return to the site on that date for instructions about how to get your free download.)

Purplish Rain was produced to accompany the July cover story, an oral history of Purple Rain, for which contributing writer Brian Raftery spoke to most of the key people involved in the creation of the movie and album.

Full tracklist for Purplish Rain
1. “Let’s Go Crazy” RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS
2. “Take Me With U” SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS
3. “The Beautiful Ones” FOL CHEN
4. “Computer Blue” OF MONTREAL
5. “Darling Nikki” CHAIRLIFT
6. “When Doves Cry” THE TWILIGHT SINGERS
7. “I Would Die 4 U” MARIACHI EL BRONX
8. “Baby I’m a Star” CRAIG WEDREN
9. “Purple Rain” LAVENDER DIAMOND

When it comes to hearing new music nowadays, that is, music I’ve never heard before, it’s pretty darn easy to do so. For one, there isn’t a lot of music, in the grand scheme of things, that I’ve actually heard. I’m notorious for missing out on the kinds of sounds that a lot of people in my age group grew up with, and even now I listen to new music rather frequently, but I’m still not that hip to the trends, mostly because the type of new music I listen to is stuff like Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, which I just picked up the other day:

But, you may well ask, this album looks old as hell, why is it listed as being from 2002? Surely that’s some kind of reissue?

Ah ha, gentle fictional reader, it’s all a clever ruse, this album is actually only 7 years old, and yes, it’s the band’s album debut. Crazy stuff, eh? It’s all part of a soul/funk revival that apparently this group is spear-heading that, combined with the advent of acts like Amy Winehouse, could possibly be responsible for that whole new “British Invasion” people have been roaring about in the press lately. In fact, the Dap-Kings were, for the most part, Amy Winehouse’s backup band for her Back To Black album, and the group is surely not English.

What they are is a really amazing R&B/Soul/Funk/whatever group that have that oh-so rare knack for mixing the old-school sensibility of the afore-mentioned genres with some modern eclectic flair. With Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, you’ve got a lady who not only can sing amazingly, but also shares that sensibility with the rest of the group about bringing some modern attitude to some of the best music to come out of that hazy time before I was born.

What I love about this group is that they so thoroughly had me fooled, and if I hadn’t read that they were a recent group, I would have thought I’d stumbled upon some of the best apparently unpopular funk and soul I’d ever heard. The other thing I love is that this best funk and soul group I’d ever heard is fronted by a woman old enough to be my mom. Talk about getting a late start in your musical career!

What I love about the sound is the same thing, interestingly enough, that I loved about the instrumentation in Amy Winehouse’s recordings. It’s funky, it’s old-school, but everyone’s contributing a little something modern to the whole thing that makes it seem a little wiser and more knowledgable about the sound from which it was born. It’s a little something like why I like Jarvis Humby so much (remember them?) It’s a throw-back sound, for sure, but there’s enough going here to be relevant today.

My particular favorite songs are the opening (after a spoken live introduction) track, “Got A Thing On My Mind”, “Cut That Line”, and “Got To Be The Way It Is”. Really though, there’s a little something in every song for me, mostly because the rhythm section is amazing. It’s kind of subtle, but the drums and bass are so tight and yet both are doing some interesting things with the beat, and of course there’s a generous portion of singing against nothing but the beat, which is one of my secret weaknesses.

The other instruments are no slouches either, you’ve got guitar that sounds like it came straight from James Brown’s band, and a horn section that, while not as over-the-top as some funk acts like Tower Of Power, are right on top of the sound. The whole thing was recorded analog, which is just about the only true way to get that sound that they’re going for. You can practically hear the static on the record, even if it’s being played in well-ripped .mp3 on a Zune with studio headphones.

Still, at least in this particular recording, the real star of the show is the lady singing the songs. Sharon Jones has an impeccable tone and character to her voice that one should expect from a good soul singer. She’s not a diva-singer by any stretch, nor is she singing with some goofy inflection, she’s just singing, and the singing is good enough to rise over the top of the musical giants that are backing her up. Other ladies working right now could learn a thing or two from her singing on songs like “Make It Good To Me”, that’s for sure, even if her music career has been roughly the same length as Britney Spears. Before that, apparently she was working in an armored car for a bank and as a correctional officer.

So how does a guy like me find out about these kinds of bands? Actually, that’s kind of fibbing, as I’m rather a fan of soul and funk, it just doesn’t show up on this blog as often as I would like it to. However, I utilized a new process for discovering music with this band, and I’ve got some time to waste, so I’ll talk about it. I had seen this CD at work, and on my lunch break, I went across the street to a restaurant that has free wi-fi. I then used a cool feature available on Zunes if you are subscribed to their Marketplace thing, I hopped online and streamed 30 second demos of the music straight to the Zune. Upon hearing all the samples, I went back to work and purchased this CD and the newest disc from the band, 100 Days And 100 Nights, which I’m sure I will be talking about later. That’s what I mean when I say that new music is getting easier and easier to get into. It kind of makes me feel sorry for people who tend to dismiss genres or types of music based on personal bias, when it’s so easy to actually listen to the music and make an opinion based on that. Nevermind that I regularly pan Indie rock on this blog, I have no choice but to listen to that garbage, and there’s some of it I like.

Either way, if you’ve a means to check it out, I recommend Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings to anyone jonesin’ for some good old-fashioned music that doesn’t smell of moth-balls. As Sharon Jones herself says, “Pick It Up, Lay It In The Cut”.

Damn, this is a good album. With their first release in decades, Ardent Music, the newly reactivated Memphis label that launched Big Star has definitely got back on the good foot. On their debut cd, retro funky soul band Jump Back Jake will win fans from the camp that discovered soul music from people like Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Eli “Paperboy” Reed or Robert Cray as well as anybody lucky (or old) enough to have discovered this stuff the first time around. Fans of the Bar-Kays, Howard Tate, James Brown and Isaac Hayes’  Hot Buttered Soul album are in for a treat here. These guys really know their stuff, moving effortlessly from slinky Booker T organ groove to jangly Curtis Mayfield balladry to straight-up 60s funk, with a more aggressive, early 70s style blues guitar edge. The horn arrangements are gorgeously, sparingly retro, bringing out every bit of longing or bravado in a sax or trombone line. Frontman/guitarist Jake Rabinbach (who also mystifyingly moonlights as a sideman in one of the suckiest bands on the planet, 80s top 40 imitators Francis & the Lights) plays with soul and swing, unafraid to light up a song with a big incisive crescendo but never sinking into whiteboy wankiness.

The cd’s first track works a vintage Steve Cropper style guitar vamp with a nasty blues touch, setting the tone for the rest of the cd. The single best cut on the album is the second cut, The Flood, a slow, slinky organ groove that jumps to doublespeed and then brings it down to a sweetly dark horn chart, adding voices at the end before gracefully taking it down to just the trombone. Attempts at a beautiful, jangly, midtempo Curtis Mayfield soul ballad and a late 60s Charlie Rich country shuffle are rousingly successful. The big 6/8 kiss-off ballad teleports Blonde on Blonde to 1974 with more aggressive blues guitar: “You can be queen of the ice and snow,” Rabinach snarls. With its rapidfire, aphoristic vocal line and clever lyrics, the upbeat Pay Out on the Front End beautifully mines a late 60s vein. There’s also a ballad that builds to a big gospel vamp, another one that sounds like a rewrite of She Caught the Katy and a big, rousing number wherein Rabinach mysteriously goes on and on how he wants to be like Samson, “And I would give everything to the ladies like Delilah downtown.” The album ends on a radically different note, proving the band equally adept at early 70s Badfinger-style powerpop, right down to a neat George Harrison-esque guitar solo. The only miss here is aptly titled Terrible Mistakes, proof positive – as if you really need it – that vintage soul and the Jonas Bros. don’t mix.

It seems there are two Jakes in the band, Rabinbach recently off on the road with the other band, although all indications are that this will be a brief hiatus. In the meantime, the band continues to tour as a trio. They have all sorts of goodies available including free live mp3s from a recent Minglewood Hall show. Watch for this on our Best Albums of 2009 list at the end of the year.

Leslie Feist holds it down solo acoustic

Dark Was the Night at Radio City Music Hall last night (5/3) was probably the best $38 I’ve spent.  In honor of the excellent compilation they put together, several of the artists that contributed to Red Hot’s AIDS awareness project, Dark Was the Night, came to Radio City Music Hall to put on a benefit concert that was not to be missed.  The Dirty Projectors, My Brightest Diamond, The National, David Byrne, Dave Sitek, Bon Iver, Feist and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings.  The Dirty Projectors kicked things off with a 4-song set that got better as it went along.  David Byrne came out to join the band on the final numbers which they had written together: “Ambulance” which did not appear on the comp, and “Knotty Pine” which did.  

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They were followed by My Brightest Diamond who performed their version of “Feelin’ Good” (which also appeared on the compilation).  Shara Worden from MBD would guest on vocals several more times during the night, each time complementing songs beautifully.  

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The National, the group largely responsible for curating the album and the show, were next and featured Justin Vernon from Bon Iver as part of their band that at times grew as large as 16 pieces.  They opened their set with “Slow Show” from their critically acclaimed ‘07 release “Boxer.”  Next was “England”, a new, stunningly beautiful song which was one of the highlights of the entire night.  They followed with “So Far Around the Bend” from Dark Was the Night and ended with Shara Worden guesting on vocals for another new song called “Vanderlow Crybaby” (?), a strong tune with that has me eagerly anticipating their next album.

Dave Sitek was next with a 14-piece band plus a 10-piece handclap chorus performing “With a Girl Like You” from Dark Was the Night.

David Byrne then returned to the stage led by a 5-piece marching drum section playing the Cole Porter tune “Don’t Fence Me In” that he recorded for the first ever Red Hot compilation Red Hot + Blue.  It would be the first of three songs that he had never before performed live…and it was excellent.  His mini-set got even better with a Caetono Veloso song, “É Preciso Perdoar” from a later Red Hot compilation called Red Hot + Rio.  He closed the first set by inviting Leslie Feist to join him on vocals for the song he recorded for Red Hot + Rio called “Waters of March.”  Their voices played together perfectly and I felt like a Plant/Krauss type album should be in order.

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Intermission…the review and more video continues after the jump…

Bon Iver opened the second set with “Brackett, WI”, their contribution to the compilation and followed with one of my favorite songs from last year, “Blood Bank” from their latest EP release of the same title.  This was a huge rock number, heavier than the album version, that filled the giant room with booming drums and a wailing guitar solo from band leader Justin Vernon.  It was my first time seeing the band and with this song, my expectations were blown away…definitely my favorite song of the night.  The National then joined Vernon for “Big Red Machine” a song they collaborated on for the compilation.  To close their set, Shara Worden appeared to guest on vocals for “Flume”, a song from Bon Iver’s debut LP For Emma, Fovever Ago.  It amounted to another classic duet, with both Vernon and Worden shining.

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Leslie Feist stripped things down for her solo set with the strongest song being “Someday Baby” a song made famous by Muddy Waters, The Allman Brothers Band and Bob Dylan.  

Roaring with energy, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings took the stage to close the set.  The Dap-Kings showed that they are the tightest band in the biz backing Jones one one showstopper after another.  Jones, the Riker’s Island correction officer turned vintage soul singer wailed on the mic and strutted her signature moves all over the stage.  She stopped the band after they started their second song and proclaimed, “I need something faster, something that will get my blood pumpin’.”  The band obliged with a new song, “When I Come Home.”  She then tipped her cap to the man with she she shares Augusta, GA as a hometown, James Brown.  In honor of his birthday she demonstrated four of his classic struts, the Boogaloo, the Camel Walk, Tighten Up and the Pony.  The crowd rose to their feet for the first time all night as they closed with “100 Days, 100 Nights” from their album of the same name.

All of the artists, save Jones, returned to the stage to tip their cap to another legendary birthday boy, Pete Seeger, who’s 90th birthday was being celebrated around the corner at Madison Square Garden.  They began singing “This Land is Your Land” en masse until Jones swaggered back across the stage and put a stop to it.  She wanted to do it with soul and cued up the Dap-Kings to lead the way.  She handled vocals and worked the crowd while the rest of the cast sang backup and took notes on how to steal a show.

I truly do, there is something so beautiful about hearing sad things coming from such a delicate source. Anyway, here’s a few mp3 selections, and a making of youtube video featuring Neko Case taken from the A.V. Club.

Patsy Cline- Walkin’ After Midnight

You know it was a bitch picking just one Patsy Cline song, but this mid tempo number always wins out. Fun little fact it was her first hit when it went number 2 on the country charts in 1957, and has been featured in three episodes of “Lost”.

Dolly Parton- Jolene

Next month will be my two year anniversary of owning my El Camino, and I remember the very first day I got it very clearly, I couldn’t start it the first time I tried to crank the engine, I flooded the engine twice in an hour, and “Jolene” was the first song to come on the radio when I flipped it on. The name stuck and I listen to the White Stripes version of this song constantly.

Emmylou Harris- Little bird

Aretha Frankiln- I’ve Never Loved a Man, the Way that I Love You

Patti Smith- Gloria

Heart- Crazy on you

I remember driving through Houston once high out of my mind with the classic rock station on the radio, and someone had to be taking a smoke break because they played the entire side a from Dreamboat Annie.

Janis Joplin- Me and Bobby McGee

Man, Kris Kristofferson was a Rhodes Scholar, College football player, Army Captain, Helicopter pilot, Army Ranger, acted in a Sam Peckinpah film and wrote this song. The rest of us have done nothing in comparison.

Madonna- Lucky Star

This song is responsible for running Snatch for me. Well Guy Ritchie had a hand in it as well.

The Pixies- Gigantic

Bjork – Earth Intruders (Extended Mark Spike Stent Mix)

Lauryn Hill- Everything is Everything

Wait, are The Fugees still together?

Sharon Jones &  The Dap Kings- Got a  thing on my mind

These guys put on one the best shows I’ve ever seen, just tons of energy radiating from the stage.

Saturday Looks Good to Me- Meet me by the water

The Mendoza Line- Mysterious in Black

It’s a shame this band didn’t get bigger then they did.

Rilo Kiley- Portions for Foxes

I’m told by various girls that this is their go to break-up song. Listen darling you’re not anywhere near as hot as Jenny Lewis.

Stars- Celebration Guns

Man the Bush years sucked, but we did get some good music out of it.

Au Revoir Simone-The Lucky One

I chose to see Au Revior Simone on my last night living in Houston, and sometimes I’m at a loss for why. But, when I listen to the band I let the simplity of it all float over me, and it becomes clear that, while they were not nesscarliy the perfect band to blow out of town to they were adpt for the moment.

The Chromatics- Running up that hill

Headlights- Cherry Tulips

St. Vincent- Save me from what I want

There’s really no album coming out this year, that I’m looking forward to as much as this one. I remember first stumbling across Annie Clarke’s music, and dragging a bunch of people to a poorly attended show, because I just had a feeling that she was going to be something huge. It’s nice to be right some times.

Oh, and here’s that Neko Case thing.

Make It Good To Me
Fish In My Dish
My Man Is A Mean Man/Little Bit Of My Love
Tell Me
Settling In
100 Days, 100 Nights

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