Random Celebritiisms
- (MC) Hammer has a new blog. Here’s his latest entry:
This week I ‘m going to hit the weights some more and perfect a few new moves I’ve been working on. This is a good time of year to workout. The weather is warming up and summer is ninety days away. I got ahead because I danced for the last six months and now I’m lean. Still, I like my muscles hard because it helps me execute my moves with more power. I train specifically for dancing. I do full body days. Three days in a row. I work my chest and lower back and abs a lot. No heavy weight. I have to be able to explode and be quick and fast with my hands and feet. My calves and thighs are most important for the hot moves out today. Squats with no weights will do the trick. I will also do some leg presses with about three hundred pounds just to keep the thighs and hamstrings firing.
I stay about ten days from show ready, so working out and staying fit is a must plus I love it! I’ve already been performing and perfecting the live versions of at least ten of the new songs and I’m itchy!! They play great. My dancers and I love the freedom of the new music. We only lock up on the choruses, the rest of the song you have to freestyle with power. I’m off to the gym.
- Yanni arrested in Palm Beach, sans mustache.
- And as you can maybe see from the image above, Eddie Van Halen has seen better days. But lest we forget, he is the man responsible for these sounds. I will never ever tire of hearing this….
Van Halen:
Eruption > You Really Got Me(mp3) from Van Halen- (MC) Hammer has a new blog. Here’s his latest entry:
Natalie Portman Rap on SNL
Another SNL instant classic last night as the Lonely Island guys presented a digital short. Natalie Portman’s profane raps, Andy Samberg dressed as a viking… They’re on a roll!
Watch this before NBC pulls them off of You Tube like they did with Chronic – WHAT – cles of Narnia….
aaannd… that does it for the video. It’s been “removed due to copyright infringement.” But bravo to NBC for rushing it up on their site. You can view the video here.
NBC has a little side note on that page:
Now, instead of searching the web for “borrowed” NBC highlights, you can go to the source! We’ve taken your viral [sic?] favorites and gathered them into one convenient location. Watch. React. Tell a friend.
At least NBC is figuring out that they need to provide this content on the web ASAP, or a host of others will do it for them. Also, the Lonely Island guys (Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg) and Chris Parnell need fat raises from Lorne Michaels for breathing new life into SNL.
New X Clan in 06
In the early 90’s, X Clan exploded on the hip hop scene with two kick-ass Parliament / Funkadelic-laden, afrocentric, hard hitting albums: ‘To the East, Blackwards’, and ‘Xodus’. Now, after a long hiatus, in which member Brother J formed a new group, Dark Sun Riders, and another, Sugar Shaft, died of AIDS-related complications in 1995, X Clan is back.
The Brooklyn-based group is making a comeback, with a 2006 release – ‘Return from Mecca’ – in the works. They have an unreleased track up on their web site called “Weapon X”. It’s classic X Clan with the intense rolling beats and Brother J’s booming baritone controlling the flow.
They offer a few mp3’s on their web site, including the essential “Funkin’ Lesson”and “Grand Verbalizer What Time is It?” from their debut album. Here I have their unreleased track, along with the title track from ‘Xodus’.
X Clan:
Weapon X(mp3) unreleased |Xodus(mp3) from XodusStoned with Lewis Taylor
You wanna hear some funky, contemporary British soul? I just found out about Lewis Taylor. He’s a multi-instrumental artist born and raised in Barnet, North London. He’s been making music for a good while (since the 80’s), including some years under the pseudonym of Sheriff Jack.
This track caught my attention. It’s a laid back, funky soulful groove with nice lyrics (“you stoned me baby, I don’t think I’ll ever recover nowwww”). And then the powerful and fuzzy wah-wah guitar solo. Bugger this is a cool song. You Brits are probably way ahead of me on this one… what else am I missing?
Lewis Taylor:
Stoned, Pt. 1(mp3) – buy the album Stoned- Here’s the video in Quicktime. Pretty cool video; hot model and all, but enough with the collagen already! Your upper lip looks like a pink bagel.
- Update…after exhaustive research, it was found that the “model” in the video is Esthero. She’s a singer from Ontario, Canada. Her upper lip still bugs me though.
- New (to me) blog alert: One Soulful Negro has a couple more Lewis Taylor tracks up here.
Controversy Remix
Here’s a cool uncredited remix of “Controversy” that I recently came across. It makes an extremely funkalicious song even more funkalicious.
‘Controversy’ was Prince’s fourth album, released in 1981, sandwiched between ‘Dirty Mind’ and ‘1999’. The funky hook of the title track gives way to the raw power of “Sexuality”, the piano F-me ballad “Do Me, Baby”, and Prince’s first politically slanted songs, “Annie Christian” and “Ronnie Talk to Russia”. The album is 25 years old this year… ouch! Go pick it up on Amazon.
Prince:
Controversy (Purple Remix)(mp3)A Different Look at Brazil
Photographer Geoffrey Hiller has an amazing collection of photographs from a recent trip to Brazil in a web project entitled Canto de Brazil. The site is made up of about 30 minutes of Flash movies highlighting different areas of Brazil, with a very informative narrative accompanying it. I highly recommend taking some time to check it out.
My buddy Ty, founder of Denver-area Brazilian band Sambadende, hooked me up with these tunes. If you’re in the Denver / Boulder area, check their shows on their web site and go check them out.
S’ e Guarabyra:
Sorriso Aberto(mp3) – buy their music on AmazonBonus: Sergio Mendes:
Magalenha(mp3) – from BrasileiroGeoffrey Hiller’s Canto de Brazil
Jesse Johnson Extended
Here’s more in my ongoing series of Prince-related posts as my conversions from LP to mp3 continue. I posted the LP version of former Time guitar man Jesse Johnson’s “Crazay” recently. But I consider the extended 12″ version far superior, so here it is. Also included is the B side on the 12″, the extended version of “Drive Yo Cadillac”. Just some more quality classic synth-funk, Minneapolis style.
Jesse Johnson: Crazay (extended) – featuring Sly Stone (mp3) | Drive Yo Cadillac (extended) (mp3) – LP version of “Crazay” available on ‘Shockadelica’.Riding on a Tortoise down Thunder Road
This one’s been all over the mp3 blogs over the last few weeks, but as I always say, it’s my blog and i’ll post if I want to…
I’m always curious to hear new interpretations of Springsteen tunes. I posted one of my favorites, Patty Griffin’s version of “Stolen Car”, a while back. And The Mavericks do a good job on “All that Heaven Will Allow”. So I was alerted through a Glide Magazine review that “Thunder Road” was covered on a new release by Tortoise and Bonnie “Prince” Billy. When I see “Bonnie Prince Billy”, I picture a 50 or 60-something rastafarian reggae dude. Not sure where I conjure up that image from. It turns out BPB is Will Oldham, who looks more like a Civil War Union soldier than a member of the Wailers. BPB is a Louisville, Kentucky native who has also recorded under the names Palace Songs, Palace Brothers and Palace Music (as well as his own name).
Tortoise looks interesting: they “revolutionized American indie rock in the mid-’90s by playing down tried-and-true punk and rock & roll influences, emphasizing instead the incorporation of a variety of left-field music genres from the past 20 years, including Krautrock, dub, avant-garde jazz, classical minimalism, ambient and space music, film music, and British electronica.” (from All Music).
As you can tell by my thorough analysis, I’m not that plugged into the indie scene. You can get that thorough analysis at about a billion other mp3 blogs. Anyhoo, I’ll have to give these guys a more thorough listen. But I do claims dibs on all things Bruce, and as for this version of “Thunder Road”, they definitely give it a complete reworking. I like the instrumentation and the overall feel; a very unique take on the song.
Tortoise and Bonnie “Prince” Billy:
Thunder Road(mp3) – from The Brave and the Bold, an album of covers.3 for New Orleans
After checking out Home of the Groove’s latest Mardi Gras posts, and listening to Nick Spitzer’s New Orleans-based American Routes on NPR tonight, I am in the Mardi Gras mood baby! New Orleans may be a very different place after Katrina, but its spirit no doubt remains, and its rich and unique heritage will lift that city right back on its feet.
Preservation Hall Jazz Band:
Bourbon Street Parade(mp3) – from New Orleans, Vol IV
Professor Longhair:Go to the Mardi Gras(mp3) – from Anthology
Olympia Brass Band:Go to the Mardi Gras(mp3) – from New Orleans Jazz PreservationPrince at the Brits
Here’s the Man continuing his current campaign of funky butt kicking at this year’s Brit Awards, performing “Te Amo Corazon” “Fury”, “Purple Rain”, and “”Let’s Go Crazy”. Joined by Sheila E. on drums, Wendy Melvoin on guitar, Lisa Coleman on keys, and his new gaggle of girls jumping around like Vanity 6, it’s like the 80’s all over again! I am ready for this tour…
Go pre-order his latest album, 3121, coming out on March 21st.