Budos Band – Raja Haje

This week is the first of the semester at CSU-Long Beach where I teach classes, so expect the posts this week to fairly brief in length, at least until Friday…The Budos Band’s new record makes some very subtle changes to their formula. Still all instrumental, still very funky, but there’s a slight broadening of the sound, with less of a focus on the more up-front African elements of prior records, looking even further East for inspiration on “III.”

Cut Chemist – Sound of the Police: Eastside (Excerpt)

Is there any doubt that Cut Chemist is one of the most innovative and interesting turntablists working today? If there was, his new mix “Sound Of the Police” should clear things up considerably. This mix was originally put together for an opening stint on the bill for Mulatu Astatke’s concert at last year’s Timeless Composer Series (which has been documented beautifully by the folks at Mochilla). If it were just a mix of super rare African and African diasporic music from around the globe, that by itself would warrant it being one of the best mixes of the year, but what makes this one truly unique is the manner in which Cut Chemist put it together. One turntable, one mixer and a loop pedal. It’s something that needs to be seen live (I was lucky enough to see a similarly styled set at Funky Sole a couple months ago) to fully grasp how much skill is required to pull off a mix like this, but thankfully what remains most important is the music and that is also the number one reason you should pick up this stellar release.

Bra Sello & His Band – Soul Time Nzimande Go

This collection of funky stuff from South Africa was released back in May, but it just now found its way to me. With all the fantastic compilations of soulful music out of Africa in the 1960s & 1970s rolling around these days, it seems like South Africa has been out of the mix a bit. Thankfully Strut records is filling the gap with this collection of 22 tracks from 1969-1976. My favorite of the bunch, Bra Sello & his Band’s “Soul Time Nzimande Go,” reminds me of several US soul releases, “Soul Finger” and “Hip-Hug-Her” being the two that most quickly come to mind, but seems like there is another one or two mixed up in there as well. Regardless of the sources, what’s important is how it all comes together and it comes together mighty mighty fine, not just on Bra Sello’s track, but all throughout volume 2 of this series.

Betty & The Werewolves – David Cassidy

Ever since moving over to KPFK from KCRW, I feel like I’ve been playing catch up with a lot of music. Londoners Betty & the Werewolves have been making music for a couple years, releasing a few 7″’s and finally this debut about a month or so ago (though I just heard it today) on the venerable Damaged Goods. They are a lovely mix of C-86 Indie Pop/Twee, Garage and Post-Punk featuring three girls on guitars and vocals, none of which incidentally is named Betty (and no, the drummer is not Betty either…).

The lyrics are sharp and witty, the two and three part harmonies are pitch perfect, the tunes extra extra bouncy, nothing to hate and so much to love. “David Cassidy” should be a total cheese fest given the subject, but the girls have so much fun with it that even my often cynical pop heart has been warmed to the fullest, (especially when it gets to the “David Cassidy your magic’s worked its trick on me” breakdown) so will yours once you give a listen.

Babe Rainbow – I Can Try To Run

While I hope this doesn’t start a trend (I can see Heidi Montag: Slowed & Throwed already…) this is a fascinating little remix project by the folks behind Tri Angle records. It might be hard to remember but once upon a time Lindsay Lohan put out the same sort of bland pop music other former child stars got rich with (Britney Spears, Hillary Duff, currently Miley Cyrus). All her mayhem over the last few years put a dent in that, but there were a few songs that leaked more recently before trouble reared its ugly head again for Linds. Taking original material from older and newer tracks by Lohan, the Tri Angle crew reimagine and recontextualize these songs into a soundtrack worthy of a downward spiral. The mix is at its best, as it is here with Babe Rainbow’s “I Can Try To Run”, when they slow things down and get deep and murky.

Just so you can see how vast a difference there is between this and the original, here’s LiLo’s “Stuck” which is the source material for Babe Rainbow’s “I Can Try To Run”:

The Comrades – Bullwalk

Right now my mind is pretty consumed with trying to figure out what I’m going to spin during this Saturday’s Make It Funky! Music & Arts Fest in Chinatown, but I had to post up a little something about this exceptional compilation from the folks at Soundway. If you checked out Side Dishes #1 with Oliver Wang of Soul-Sides.com you’ve already heard a couple tracks on this double CD collection of obscured songs out 1970s Nigeria. Add this devastatingly funky instrumental from the Comrades and you STILL haven’t scratched the surface!  With 33 total tracks, all of them top shelf material, you could get lost in these sounds for days and days and days.

Orgone – Crazy Queen

Last year around this time I was heavily impressed with Orgone’s performance at the Funk Rumble Block Party in Chinatown (BTW, Funk Rumble part 2, “Make It Funky” is coming up soon July 31st! More info on that shortly). I loved the way they effortlessly shifted their funky focus, from an opening instrumental working of Peter King’s “African Dialects” to “Who Knows Who,” their own original material featuring sassy vocalist Fanny Franklin. Their new album “Cali Fever” builds off of the promise their debut “Killion Floor” hinted at as they dig deeper down the well of funkiness, with some afro-beat flavors on the title track and on “Mantanza,” to even some late 70s vibes, especially on “The Only One” and “Time Tonight” (though that track shows that someone is a fan of the Gossip’s post-punk sound on “For Keeps”…).

Several songs still feature the tough and rough funk of the debut, including “Crazy Queen,” where the boys take the rhythm to their previously released (On the Time Tonight 12″) instrumental “The Big Escape” and add Fanny’s vocals into the heavy funky mix, and instrumentals like “The Last Fool” and “The Cleaner.” All in all, a fine funky time and another reason to think that the center of the current Funk/Soul revival may be shifting from the east coast to Los Angeles.

The Pepper Pots – Dream Guy

With Spain winning the World Cup yesterday, I’ve certainly had Spain on my mind quite a lot this past month. It just so happened that in the mail this weekend I received this record from the Pepper Pots straight out of Girona in Catalunya. The Pepper Pots originally favored Jamaican Ska & Rock Steady sounds, but they’ve enlisted Binky Griptite of the Dap Kings to revamp themselves into a Retro Soul powerhouse. While the new sound is great, I’m still very fond of the rock steady style they used to employ exclusively, which is represented sublimely on “Dream Guy.” Below is a little behind the scenes footage of the band with Binky working through rehersals and recording “Real Tru Love,” and “Starlight” while still in Catalunya before finishing the record in New York. Really hoping someone has the good sense to release Now! in the states and that the Pepper Pots will tour the US sometime soon…

Konono No. 1 – Wumbanzanga

This one is part of the Congotronics series that has been going on for a few years now, highlighting exceptional contemporary sounds out of Congo. Konono No. 1 has been around for quite a while, but have only recently caught on to international ears. This new album is seriously fantastic, with upbeat rhythms and electro kalimba sounds. If you happen to be in the LA area, they are playing a free show on Thursday July 8th as part of the Santa Monica Pier’s Twilight music series. Not to be missed!

Charades – En Las Batallas

Charades were one of my few contemporary music finds from our trip to Spain in 2008 (my only time overseas). I was initially intrigued by the cover art for their record En Ningún Lugar but just about instantly fell in love with the fuzzy indie-pop that was on display from the group back then. Somehow this follow-up, which was released all the way back in January, slipped under my radar until now. Revolución Solar finds the band with a more polished sound, which is still mighty solid, but I do miss the slight grittiness of the prior release. It feels as if the group has traded in a more Pixies influenced sound for more of a Stereolab vibe at times, which seems clear on “En Las Batallas,” perhaps the best bridge between the older sound of Charades and the newer version.

Neverever – Young and Dumb

2010 has really been quite a year for “girls in the garage” revivalist sounds, with records already released from LA’s Dum Dum Girls and Brooklyn’s Golden Triangle, plus new records from Best Coast and a grittier Tender Trap on the way (all that’s missing is a new record from the Vivian Girls, who, given their prior pace of output, are pretty due to join the party). Neverever have perhaps the “cleanest” sound of the bunch, though it’s pieced together with equal parts garage, girl-group, Smithian indie-pop and post-punk. It’s a sound that with each play grows on me more and more, particularly lead singer Jihae Simmons Meek.

Just as a bit of an aside, in the not so distant past the group had the rather clever name Champagne Socialists, which I was very fond of, as it reminded me (positively and negatively) of my time in Berkeley. But on second thought, perhaps it was right make the change to Neverever, after all who really wants to associate with Champagne Socialists, it’s not exactly a compliment after all…

Bastien Lallemant – La Plage

I’ve been rather smitten with the sound of this one since first hearing it on Le Pop Musik’s fifth collection of contemporary French music. “La Plage” is from a full length record that was just released (and shortly on it’s way to me!) in France from Bastien Lallemant. On this track he is paired with Armelle Pioline who sings in the group Holden, and the pair sound quite lovely together even though the mood and subject matter are a bit darker than it might at first seem, as is the case with this photo montage/video for a different song from Le Verger, “Filature.”

The Black Keys – Tighten Up

I hadn’t posted anything on this album, the sixth record from one of my favorite groups, The Black Keys, because I was hoping to be able to offer a couple more tracks and do a fuller review. These boys have been busy over the last couple of years since 2008’s “Attack & Release” with solo records (Auerbach’s Keep It Hid) and side projects (Drummer for Carney, BlakRoc for both with a slew of MCs) but they’ve remained remarkably consistent. In fact I’m not sure there’s a more consistently enjoyable sound than that of the Black Keys.  Their new record “Brothers” only further proves  my case. 

“Tighten Up” the single and only approved song to post, is probably the weakest song on the record, which says nothing about it’s sparkling qualities but is just to say that the rest of the album is even stronger. Auerbach even rolls out some new tools, including a falsetto on “Everlasting Light” and “The Only One” that had me fooled into thinking it was a guest vocalist. He also sings with a bit of a lighter tone on the cover of Jerry Butler’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” though elsewhere things are suitably muddy, dark and fuzzy, especially on the standouts “I’m Not The One,” “Too Afraid To Love You,” the instrumental “Black Mud,” “The Go-Getter” and “She’s Long Gone” where the boys more directly “sample” the Howling Wolf Album’s sound that they reference with their cover art. “Brothers” is guaranteed to be on my year end best of 2010 list.

Now, even though the track is above, I had to make sure to share the video for “Tighten Up” because it’s pure comic genius. Don’t believe me? Observe for yourself…

Additionally, while tracking down the link for “Tighten Up” I found that somehow I missed this video for “Next Girl,” which shows that either someone is a fan of Craig Ferguson in the BK’s universe or that the boys (or their people if the often hilarious scroll at the bottom of the video is to be believed) have realized the excellent comic potential of randy lip-synching puppets. Whoever put this together, it’s bloody brilliant…

Total Babe – Bearbones

Just before leaving KCRW I asked to review a bunch of the CDs that were sent to the station but were just sitting in the music library waiting to be processed. Stations like KCRW literally get hundreds of CDs each day and the vast majority of them are mediocre at best and in some cases laughably bad. After all these years working in radio, I’m still amazed at how quickly it takes for you to recognize quality material. You can listen to literally hundreds of crappy musicians and as soon as you hear music with talent behind it, you immediately know it. Out of the 300+ CDs I listened to (roughly 90% self-released, which was very different from the mid-90s when I was a Music Director at Album 88 in Atlanta…I blame American Idol for that dynamic) there were only a handful of releases that I thought deserved to be “saved,” of that bunch by far the best music came from this band of teenagers called Total Babe.

When I first came upon this EP from this Minnesota quartet I was intrigued by the Raymond Pettibon-esque cover art. What continues to impress me about this band is their sound, with sugary sweet vocals from Clara Salyer, two guitars, a violin and a boss drummer. All the tracks have this rather lovely and very layered indie-pop style with some interesting and complex chord and rhythmic changes, vaguely reminiscent of a couple of my fave 1990s female led indie-poppers, Lois and Nerdy Girl. I got a feeling that as they continue to mature musically things will only get better. Not having this band slip through the cracks was the best parting gift I could have gotten from KCRW…

In addition to the track above, here’s also a dangerously cute video for another song on the EP, “(Mission Hills Country Club Wall Of) Champions”:

Broken Social Scene – Sentimental X’s

I’m fairly sure this is entirely based off of the good feelings I still have after watching a truly satisfying series finale for the TV Series LOST, but I’ve had this song “Sentimental X’s” stuck in my mind and in my ears all day long, and it’s now become my theme song of the day as I continue to grade finals from the semester. I love how lyrically it’s based on fairly simple phrases, but sometimes they are reversed or changed slightly which changes the overall meaning too (for example “Off and On is what we Want,” “What We Want Is Off and On,”). Something about the way it ends with the phrase “All Of You” becoming “I Love You” at times, admist that huge wash of sound, seems to capture the big message out of the LOST finale last night. Though these feelings might wash off in a day or two, this one is still likely to be a contender for song of the year come December.