Ick’s Pick (Week XI): Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
This week’s new releases were a pretty blah bunch as far as I was concerned. I lost my focus listening to Old Californio’s new album over and over. But alas, I committed to listening to one new album every week…
The Temps’ Silent Night – Merry Christmas
I was searching around for some info about when the Temptations version of “Silent Night” was recorded, and stumbled across a very heartfelt 2004 piece from the Washington Post. Writer Neely Tucker describes his relationship with the song – one…
Real Soul Food: The Way I See It
Raphael Saadiq is Neo Soul plain and simple. His latest The Way I See It is the record that he’s been leading up to since his days in Tony! Toni! Toné!. The opening rave up “Sure Hope You Mean It”…
Back to Soul / Back to School – An Ickmusic Giveaway
This may be the first and last time you will ever see the words “Avril Lavigne” or “Hayden Panetierre” ever mentioned here (at least by me). But today, these words will be uttered, and they’ll be uttered in the same…
R.I.P. Isaac Hayes
Performing “Theme from Shaft” at 1972’s Wattstax festival (introduced by the Rev. Jesse Jackson). Across the blogs (with mp3’s)…make sure you hit that Soul Sides link… Issac Hayes: 1942-2008 (Soul Sides) TVD remembers Issac Hayes (The Vinyl District) Isaac Hayes:…
Northern Exposure: The Duhks
Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, The Duhks (pronounced like “ducks”) blend the unlikely bedfellows of traditional Celtic, Zydeco, Bluegrass, Soul and some Brazilian Samba into what they classify as “Roots, Worldbeat, Soul.” I sat down with their forthcoming release Fast Paced…
One for Barack Obama
Tonight, an African American man is the Democratic nominee for the President of the United States. This is truly an historic day – one of the brightest in our nation’s 231 year history. And how does Hillary Clinton handle the…
Bringing Quirky Back: Alan Wilkis
Falling on the right side of fine line between contrived and convincing, Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Alan Wilkis brings an indie sensibility to the electro-pop sound of the 80’s with a huge dollop of soul on his solo debut Babies Dream Big.…
A Weekend with Ye Olde Style Council
We’re just over a month away from Paul Weller’s new album 22 Dreams (on Yep Roc), which I really look forward to hearing. I thought I’d take a trip back to his great blue-eyed British soul band of the 80’s,…
