The Counts – What’s Up Front That Counts
The Counts – Thinking Single
The Counts – Why Not Start All Over Again
The wife & I spent time up in the Bay Area for our 7th wedding anniversary. We met in the Bay area while at Berkeley and the area holds a special charm for us both. For me, above all the other major charms of the Bay Area are the great records and record stores. There’s a new addition that y’all should know about, tucked away on a quiet street out by Lake Merritt in Oakland, Vamp Records. One of the minds behind this spot is Sean Sullivan aka Sean Boogie. Me and Sean go back some ten years. I remember the first time I saw him DJ, at Kitty’s Soulvation Wednesdays at the Ruby Room. I remember thinking, “who is this dude, and why does he keep stepping out from behind the booth to dance to all the songs???” I’ve had the pleasure of spinning with him on some of those Wednesdays and at his former weekly Sound Boutique, now the name of his very fine blog, he’s got great taste and it’s great to see him involved with a fine upstart of a record store in Vamp. That’s where I recently got reaquainted with one of my all-time favorite funky records, this LP from Detroit’s The Counts.
It’s actually taken me quite some time to track this down again, after parting ways with it during my great sell-off of 2004. I’d found my first copy at the Atlanta Record Show WAAAY back in the day, probably on one of my first trips. It was a prized possession when I hosted the monthly “Soul Kitchen” on Album 88. I’d been looking for another copy for some time but strangely it’s not a record I run across too often. The Counts were basically the third tier group at Westbound behind Funkadelic and the Ohio Players. They have a stellar sound, but it also is stylistically very similar to the players so you can perhaps understand why post-“Funky Worm” the label would have invested more in that group.
Thankfully they did release this album, the finest I’ve heard from the group (which also recorded as “The Fabulous Counts,” later moved to my hometown of Atlanta and released a couple more LPs). The introduction to “What’s Up Front,” is an all-time fave with the proto-beatbox opening blending into the drums & percussion before the full rhythm comes in. The descendning and ascending organ lines in that track also stand out as a great left-field sample worthy break. I’d forgotten how solid this record is until tracking it down last week, virtually every track is a winner, even though they all have rhythmic similarities. Big thanks again to Sean Boogie for the hook-up! Y’all make sure to check out Vamp if you’re ever in the Bay Area.
Cheers,
Michael