The Friday Five: March 27, 2009
For those who have not joined in the Friday Five here is all you need to know; each Friday I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five and drop a little knowledge and insight for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes we have guest, but most of the time it’s just me.
The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments. The more the merrier!
The Five:
“Contact” by Phish (from Junta)
It’s samba time! I love this side of Phish, the kitschy lyrics and overt melodies (“Hula Hana of Kamana Whala Hula Bay” is clearly quoted during one of Page‘s solos) and a funky twist in the middle and the sing a long. Hopefully you all got in on the free offer of the first three nights of their reunion tour!
“TV Mama” (mp3) by Shuggie Otis (from In Session: Great Rhythm & Blues)
Ickmusic favorite Shuggie Otis delivers a solid 12 bar blues with some tasty slide work.
“Better Than Heaven” by Bloc Party (from Intimacy)
This record never really connected with me. There are a couple of really good songs (this being one of them) but most of the tracks seem very disjointed and cold. The exceptions really being this track and “Biko”.
“Baby’s Coming Back” (mp3) by Jellyfish (from Bellybutton)
… Excuse me, time to do the Peanuts dance, care to join me?
“Rainy April Day” (mp3) by Fury in the Slaughterhouse (from The Hearing and the Sense of Balance)
This track is a sober condemnation of Kurt Cobain‘s suicide. It’s not a great selection to close out an otherwise upbeat Friday Five, but you can’t end them all with rainbows, unicorns and trombones!
What’s shuffling you down to the weekend?
The Mellowness of the Shug
Like Michael mentioned in his 100 Words post today, when your music library gets too big, the challenge is to figure out what to even listen to. A lot of great artists and songs seem to go underground for a while, and pop up in a shuffle a few months down the road. One that plopped back on to my radar today was Shuggie Otis and his psychedelifunky 1974 album Inspiration Information.
It’s a mellow Monday, so a couple of laid back joints here. “Island Letter” sounds like a cousin of Prince’s “Crazy You”, if you ask me. And I know you did. I heard you.
Shuggie Otis – Island Letter (mp3)
“Freedom Flight” is thirteen minutes of dream-inducing lite funky jazz and sweet sax & guitar effects. Close your eyes and drift off. But not if you’re at work. NSFW. Definitely NSFW.
Freedom Flight (mp3)
Check out Inspiration Information
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Shuggie Otis – a psyche-funky-soulful classic
One of the categories I forgot to include on my Year in Music post was “Best Aged Album Discovered This Year”. Undoubtedly, it was 1974’s Inspiration Information
by Shuggie Otis. Some buddies on my defunct Prince forum recommended Shuggie as sort of a “Prince 1.0”; or Prince, rather, as Shuggie 2.0.
- He released his first album in his teens.
- He played all of the instruments and sang.
- He wrote his own music.
- His music is a combination of funk, R&B, pop, and psychedelic soul…
One of the standout tracks on this record, “Strawberry Letter 23”, was later covered by the Brothers Johnson, who turned it into one of the top R&B tracks of 1977. Almost thirty-four years after its original release, the album sounds fresh and ahead of its time.
David Byrne reissued it in 2001 on his Luaka Bop label. Stylistically, the songs are all over the map. The two I give you here are a short blast of Innervisions-era funk (“Ice Cold Daydream”) and an electronic instrumental slow jam (“Pling!”). But you need to hear the whole thing, especially the finale, the 12 minute plus trippy soul/funk suite “Freedom Flight”.
BUY Inspiration Information on
