• Funk

    Baby, What’s Your Phone Number?

    Back in the early 80’s when Prince was building his Minneapolis empire, The Time emerged as his first and ultimately most formidable side/pet project. The Time actually morphed from the popular Minneapolis band Flyte Tyme, of which Prince and Morris Day were members. Most people are familiar with the Time from ‘Purple Rain’. Prior to the movie’s release, the Time released two albums: the self-titled debut, and 1982’s ‘What Time is It’?

    The best track off the album, and their best ever, in my most esteemed opinion, is ‘777-9311’: 8 minutes of unadulterated synth and guitar-driven swaggering funk. Produced by ‘The Starr Company’, AKA Jamie Starr AKA Prince, the little purple guy puts his stamp down heavy on this tune.


  • Country

    A Toast…

    Here’s a fun, gritty, laid back ode to one of my favorite non-beer beverages (right behind the mojito): Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Sangria Wine.” My meticulous research has dated this song back to the early 70’s, when it first appeared on the 1973 album ‘Viva Terlingua.’ I’m gonna have to check out this album, as I read on All Music, it was

    “recorded live in Luckenbach, TX, on a hot August night in 1973…among the most legendary of “live” singer/songwriter albums ever released. It’s the ‘Live at the Fillmore East’ of redneck Texas folk-rock.”

    Check it out on Amazon

  • Reggae,  Ska

    Ohhhh Carolina

    Well the beauty of music is there’s always something new to hear, regardless of how long the music has been around. I was perusing one of my regular blog spots, The Suburbs are Killing Us, early this morning, and came across the energizing, booty shakin’, get the day/month/year started right type o’ tune: “Oh Carolina” by Shaggy.

    Most folks know Shaggy by his huge hit “Boombastic” from 1995, or 2000’s “It Wasn’t Me”. But his 1993 debut album, ‘Pure Pleasure’, yielded “Oh Carolina”, a tune originally done by the Folkes Brothers in 1961. The first few seconds of the track is sampled directly from the original, then yer off on a wild Shaggy ride. Enjoy….

    Explore & Buy Shaggy’s Music

  • Indie

    Camping with Mr. B.D.Boy

    A few years ago I came across a great album from one Badly Drawn Boy. Turns out BDB is comprised of one English bloke named Damon Gough. It was his debut album, Hour of the Bewilderbeest. He’s since put out a few more albums, including the soundtrack to ‘About a Boy’, a really good romantic comedy starring Hugh Grant. But no BDB song has quite captured me like “Camping Next to Water”. It’s a melancholy tune with downright strange lyrics . But it’s the instrumentation that does it for me. The simplicity of the opening drums and guitar, building into the moment at 1:07 where there’s a cool little drum part (I know there’s probably a name for it) and the bass kicks in, and the song goes to another level.

    Buy Badly Drawn Boy

  • World

    Bata Ketu

    Bata Ketu by Michael Spiro and Mark Lamson (Guest post by Ty H.)

    A beautiful CD and a great introduction to Orisha music from Cuba and Brazil. Another CD that is probably not for everyone, but it’s very well produced, very interesting, beautiful percussion and singing. The songs jump back and forth between Cuban Orisha rhythms and Brazilian Orixa rhythms (you don’t have to know anything about either one to be able to tell where this happens). Orixa songs are from the Yoruban religions that came over from Nigeria to the new world (Santeria, Candomble,etc), and the songs are very powerful and seductive. The Brazilian batucada in the last track is slamming, track 4 is my favorite when the full samba-reggae groove comes in towards the end of the song. That one gets me every time. Check it out.

    Buy on Amazon.

  • World

    New Ancient Strings

    New Ancient Strings by Toumani Diabate (Guest post by Ty H.)

    This is a CD that you may not be familiar with, but is a favorite of mine. It’s one of those CD’s that when it reaches the end, most often, I want to hit play again. Highly recommended for relaxing, something mellow. Diabate comes from a long line of Griots who are highly respected in Mali culture not only for their music but also because their songs pass along their spoken history. The kora, a 21-string instrument, is incredible to hear and to watch being played.

    Listening to this CD I can imagine the arid Saharan landscape and many of the songs seem like journeys where you lose sense of time and place. If you want to check out something from Africa, this is a great place to start. It’s a CD that you’ll find yourself listening to often.

    Check it out on Amazon

  • R&B

    It’s Rainin’ on my Window Pane

    Here’s a heart-wrenching tune from Toussaint McCall. I first heard this as a 15 or 16 year old on a Chicago radio station that played old blues and R&B on Sunday nights. I pressed Record on my tape deck, and listened to it over the years. It wasn’t until the magic of the internet that I was able to track down the artist. Yep, Toussaint McCall. This song helped me through many episodes of teen angst and heartbreak. Well, I’m not sure helped is the word, but it certainly helped my wallow in my sorrows over the years. Now that I’m happily married, I’ll never truly be able to play the role of the singer as he laments “I moved your pictures from my wall, and I replaced them, both large and small…” Damn, this is good stuff. One of my favorites of all time.

    From All Music:

    A classic from the winter of 1967 and possibly the most popular pure deep soul single of all time. Written by McCall, the slow love homage checked in at number five R&B and a solid number 22 pop. The production adheres to the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) and is not much more than McCall’s passionate vocal riding on top of a sheet of minor organ chords.

    Lower the lights, make it rain, and listen to this:

    Buy Mr. McCall’s Music here.

  • Roots Rock

    From the Swamps of N’awlins

    Our next quality tune comes to you from Chris Whitley’s debut album, “Living with the Law”, released back in 1991 (where the $^#& does the time go?! crap, I’m getting old). This tune is one of the shining moments on the album. This album was produced by Malcolm Burn in Daniel Lanois’ New Orleans mansion.

    Mr. Burn has put his stamp on several projects through the years: the Neville Brothers’ “Yellow Moon” album, Midnight Oil, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris’ “Red Dirt Girl”, John Mellencamp’s “Human Wheels”, not to mention a photography credit on Bruce Cockburn’s “Charity of Night” album. So for some swampy, dirty, rootsy blues-rock, here’s a killer tune from Mr. Whitley:

    Buy “Living With the Law”

  • Christmas,  Indie

    Happy Merry Christmas Funtime

    For a light-hearted approach to Christmas music, we have to return to Grandaddy, with their Christmas classic, “Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland.” Here’s an excerpt:

    in the meadow we can build a snowman
    and pretend that he is Alan Parsons
    he’ll say have you listened to my new band
    we’ll say no but we really like that one song
    it goes ‘time keeps flowing like a river’

    This song was part of a 2000 Christmas compilation released only in the UK: It’s a Cool Cool Christmas. Man, I love these guys.

    Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc. to everybody!