The One & Nines – Make It Easy

Pretty rare that I get packages that I haven’t asked for at KPFK, even rarer that those packages include vinyl. So when I got a few 7″‘s from Brooklyn’s Cotter Records, I was pretty gassed. The One & Nines are a big group (11 peeps!) from the New Jersey area who play a nice mix of roadhouse Rock’n'Roll and Soul. They get firmly in the pocket on “Make It Easy” a nice gritty bit of modern soul showcasing Vera Sousa’s sultry singing and a super dirty (musically speaking) breakdown with the guitar and background voices that gets even dirtier late in the song when everybody joins in. That sound is so good it really makes me wish they had released an instrumental of this too. Judging from the band’s website it looks like they are working on a full-length LP for release sometime in 2012. If even half of it is as good as “Make It Easy” you’re gonna be hearing a lot of The One & Nines this year on Melting Pot.

Adrian Younge & Venice Dawn – Two Hearts Combine

Adrian Younge is the mastermind behind the retro soul masterpiece soundtrack to the retro-blaxploitation masterpiece Black Dynamite! Recently he’s been revisiting earlier work and blending it together with the his more recent material to create the sound you hear on Something About April. The album plays like a concept record focused on the ups and downs of an interracial couple in the late 1960s (for more on the real thing and the couple that made it possible for interracial couples to marry legally in the US, definitely check for the documentary “The Loving Story” premiering on Valentine’s Day on HBO!).  One of things that’s interesting is that in some ways the record itself is a mix of retro 1960s style with post-1990s production, a kind of post-modern retro soul record, if that’s possible.  “Two Hearts Combine” shows a bit of this, like a fantasy collaboration between the Brand New Heavies  and Rotary Connection with production work from Geoff Barrows of Portishead.  One of my favorite records of this brand new year and something, even at this early stage, I can almost 100% guarantee will be on my year-end best of list.

Shawn Lee’s Incredible Tabla Band – Let There Be Drums

I guess it’s not too surprising that one of our first releases in 2012 comes from Shawn Lee. Dude is incredibly prolific and will likely release 3 or 4 records this year. Tabla Rock is a pretty faithful tribute to one of the greatest breakbeat records of all time from the Incredible Bongo Band. A few Record Store Days ago, Shawn Lee gave us a take of this project, with his tabla inflected version of “Apache,” now we have a track for track recreation of Bongo Rock complete with tabla and sitar on the majority of the tracks. There are no stunning reimaginings here, just a solid homage with a twist to some great music from a great musician with great taste.

Shimmering Stars – No One

I’m neither sure exactly how I missed this release or even how I eventually found my way to the Shimmering Stars, but I was in full-on manic music crush mode when I finally did get a chance to hear this Vancouver based trio’s blend of 1950s Rock & Pop + Indie Rock. Seems I’m genetically predisposed to fall hard for great sing-a-long melodies and mountains of beautiful reverb. Shimmering Stars (which really is just about as perfect a band name for this sound as is possible) capped off a really fantastic year for Hardly Art, along with Hunx & his Punx and La Sera, that might just place them at the top of Indie-rockdom.

…An an added treat, here’s also the video to “Nervous Breakdown,” starring the drummer for the band going on what appears to be an alchohol induced “breakdown”:

Sea Lions – I Loved Her So Much

This one almost slipped through the cracks because of the insane semester I’ve had this Fall. Thankfully I took note of a recent post from KCRW’s Chuck P. about this outfit from Oxnard, and since Oxnard is known much more for it’s boxing tradition than it’s twee pop, I was mighty intrigued. Sea Lions just recently released this LP, their debut full-length, on venerable indie label Slumberland and it’s packed with super sweet garagey-pop goodness with a slight touch of twangy guitar, perhaps no where better represented than on “I Loved Her So Much”.

Shin Joong Hyun – “J” Blues 72

I first came into contact with the music of Shin Joong Hyun recently when Stones Throw/Now-Again included his song “Twilight” on their psychedelic compilation Forge Your Own Chains. Light In The Attic has taken the initiative to release a full collection of material from Hyun recorded from 1958-1974.  Hyun’s story is a fascinating one, teaching himself to play guitar and leading bands at an early age, he became such a force in Asia that he has the honor of having Fender actually make a tribute series guitar for him, a honor only shared by other recognized masters such as Clapton, Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughan.  Most of this compilation focuses on his more psychedelic and rocking 1960s & 1970s output (including “Twilight” that here is translated as “Sunset”, but inexplicably missing his cover of Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida“).  The instrumental “J Blues ’72″ is the longest track on the compilation but it’s a nice representative of Hyun’s guitar prowess.  Like many of the tracks collected here it has a slow build until about halfway through when things get considerably funkier especially with the earsplitting organ solo before closing out with a nice crashing breaktastic drum solo that gives you the impression this song lasted 25 minutes or more…Heavy.

The Lijadu Sisters – Lord Have Mercy

First heard of the Lijadu Sisters from a collection that Oliver Wang of Soul-Sides.com put together to celebrate his 5th Anniversary. Their song “Life’s Gone Down Low” has this incredible slow burning funky sound to it that I fell in love instantly. Given my current budgetary constraints I knew it would likely be a long long long time before I was able to get a copy of the original, but then this year Knitting Factory had the good sense to reissue the full-length of their 1976 album Danger and I think I’m even more in love with the special, funky and psychedelic sound of Nigeria’s the Lijadu Sisters especially on the positively heartstopping “Love Have Mercy.” The song just has such a great mood, sort of “Maggot Brain” meets Isaac Hayes’ “Walk On By” with a touch of Axelrod in the out of site guitar playing from Biddy Wright. I wonder how long before it ends up being used in the soundtrack for a War movie or TV show on Vietnam…

M.E.D. – Where I’m From feat. Aloe Blacc

M.E.D.’s album Classic has been out for a minute, but I’d been so busy that I hadn’t taken full account of it until recently. It’s one of several very sharp Hip-Hop releases to have come out here in the fall, after a long summer without many quality releases. Classic is M.E.D.’s long awaited second full length record, coming after his long awaited debut Push Comes To Shove came out in 2005. Featuring guest work from Talib Kweli, Aloe Blacc, Planet Asia & Kurupt and production from Madlib, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Karriem Riggins, Classic is at it’s best when M.E.D. and Co. showcase great talent and maturity on “War & Love,” “Too Late,” the title track (with Kweli) and my chosen track, “Where I’m From,” a new anthem for California love.

Even more impressive is “Blaxican” M.E.D.’s call to action and an ode to Black & Brown unity with stellar production from Madlib (with an assist from Joe Bataan’s Mestizo). As much as I dig the song itself, the video is even better. Put together by Mochilla’s Coleman and B+ the video expands on the themes of the song by presenting Los Angeles as a place of great beauty and pride, just through the simple representations of its Black, Brown and Mixed inhabitants. Videos and songs like this need to be recognized for what they are…true art.

The Srange Boys – Me And You

On their third LP in exactly three years, Austin, Texas’ The Strange Boys seem to have really hit their stride. That’s not to say that their prior two albums weren’t fantastic. I’ve already declared my love for 2010′s Be Brave and included my favorite track from that album,”Between Us,” on my round-up of the best music of 2010. The band has also gotten a bit of much deserved attention after having “Be Brave” featured in an episode of the UK series Skins. “Live Music” (not “Live” as in Live & Direct, but “Live” as in you live for music) is the bands most assured recording yet. I’m not sure if it’s because of the work of producers Jim Eno of Spoon or Costa Mesa’s Mike McHugh, but the band’s sound is bigger and fuller for this album. Additionally, there seems to be a subtle change with Ryan Sambol. He still sounds like the love child of Wanda Jackson & Bob Dylan, but his vocals here seem a bit smoother. It seems he’s learned that he’s got a powerful instrument in that distinctive voice and is finally getting comfortable at employing it in a much more varied way, as evidenced here on “Me & You” and other standout tracks like the rockin’ stompers “Punk’s Pajamas” and “Omnia Boa,” the downright tender “You and Me” or my favorite track and one that will definitely be in my year end show on Melting Pot, “Doueh.”

The Southland Singers – Save Me Jesus

After thoroughly enjoying Tompkins Square’s collection Fire In My Bones, I was very excited to receive this companion volume. I was surprised at how little Gospel Funk ended up on this collection, especially given the fact that all the music was culled from 45s. But what the compilation lacks in funk it more than makes up in body moving, shoulder shaking, finger popping, soul clappin’, foot stomping and rockin’ gospel music (though still nothing nearly as rocking as the indefatigable classic “Rock’n’Roll Sermon” from Fire In My Bones, but then again NOTHING else rocks like this either!). My chosen track by the Southland Singers, “Save Me Jesus” gives you a good example of the more upbeat offerings from this collection. As with the prior volume, I personally wish things had been condensed into a single CD/LP, but with 72 total tracks there are certainly plenty of gems. Other personal faves include Sound of Soul’s “Perfect Like The Angels” with it’s synthesized drum beat sounds feeling strangely like a devotional version of Alan Vega’s music with Suicide. Another highlight is “Jesus on The Mainline” where the lead singer of the Whirlwinds extols the listener to call up Jesus on the “111” line and tell him what you want. I’m gonna call him and hope that he answers my prayers for even more collections in this fine series.