Party Time!

The Heptones have to be one of my favorite Reggae vocal groups. Ting a Ling is probably the best example of their vocal work, but their performance on this record is great as well. I recently aquired the album Party Time produced by Lee Perry (I've been trying to get all of the Lee Perry records produced at Black Ark). This album is great, and despite the title, most of the songs are overtly political as oppossed to the love songs on Ting a Ling. To me the standout songs are Sufferers Time, Now Generation and the Bob Dylan classic I Shall be Released. Posted below is I Shall be Released.
The Heptones – I Shall be Released

Modern Jazz Quartet

I picked these two Modern Jazz Quartet records up at a local antique shop that has about 2000 records in a back room. I actually discovered MJQ my freshman year of college when my dad started giving some of his records. I took “The Last Concert” from his collection, which is a live recording of the last show in 1974 before Milt Jackson left the band. Since taking that record, I usually buy whatever MJQ record I find if the price is right (these were 3 bucks each).
What I like about MJQ and any other jazz band with a vibraphonist, is how much more relaxed a quartet sounds with a vibraphonist instead of a sax or any other horn. A quartet sounds much more brash with a horn blazing through scales compared to the smooth, chilled out sounds of a vibraphone.
These records are both pretty decent. I don’t think either one of them compares to the album on Prestige, but they are good in their own right. I’ve posted the song “Dancing” off of plastic dreams for you to check out. Make sure listen through to the end because there’s a nice little breakdown.
MJQ - Dancing

Got To Give It Up

This song is the jam! I bought this 45 today at an antique shop down the road. Jenny (my girlfriend) and I were talking, and it is not possible to hear this song and not at least want to tap your toes. Aside from the lip synching, this video is pretty awesome. Check it out and enjoy one of the best party songs ever recorded.

Bob James

Aside from James Brown, Bob James is probably one of the most sampled artists in hip hop. Before his career went from fusion to entirely smooth jazz, James recorded, produced and arranged several albums for CTI. Bob James One, and Four are probably the two most well known to hip hop producers and fans of hip hop because of two of his most sampled songs, “Take me to Mardi Gras” and “Nautilus”. Steve Gadd plays drums on “Take me to Mardi Gras” (aka “Rock the Bells”) which is most famously used in Run DMC’s “Peter Piper”, LL Cool J’s “Rock the Bells”, and most recently Missy Elliott’s “Work It”. Idris Muhammed (aka the Funky Drummer), plays drums on Nautilus which has been used in Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story”, Ghostface Killah’s “Daytona 500”, Jeru the Damaja’s “My mind Spray” and chopped and cut into dozens of other jams. These two breaks are as essential to hip hop as Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache”, James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” and the Winstons’ “Amen, Brother”. Bob James deserves all the props he can get.
Bob James - Take me to Mardi Gras
Bob James - Nautilus

Otis Redding

Otis Redding is the man. I can only imagine how much more good music he would have given to us if he hadn't died. This is a great video of him singing "I've been Loving you too long...". I love when he has the band "hit him", James Brown style in the middle of the song, and the build up before he says "You were tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiied". Check it.

Bonnie Prince Billy

This is a pretty awesome cover of Bill Withers. Check it out.

Bonnie Prince Billy

I was reading the best “50 Best Albums of 2006” on PitchforkMedia.com the other day and I noticed that I hadn’t heard of half of the bands on the list. I think the biggest problem with that website is that the people that write for it only know about one type of music and that is Indie Rock/Rock. I rarely see write-ups on hip hop, neo-soul, latin music, jazz or anything else but Indie Rock. They have a very narrow scope when it comes to music and I think they intentionally praise albums that are terrible, in some kind of backwards attempt to be elitist. For example, albums like the Justin Timberlake’s album or other popular releases they constantly reference or name drop like they are the greatest things ever recorded; with the kind of sentiment like, ‘You just don’t know enough about music to get it’. It also bothers me how people treat their reviews like they are the bible, I feel like sometimes it makes people second guess their tastes because they feel embarrassed to like an album that Pitchfork only gave 4 stars, or whatever.
As I was reading the list of greatest albums of 2006, other than noticing that most of them were Indie Rock, or mediocre hip hop (such as Clipse’s “Hell Hath no Fury”), I noticed they left off Bonnie Prince Billy’s last album, “The Letting Go”. I’ve fallen out of touch with most music being made today, but Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy) is definitely someone that I still follow religiously. He pulls off what so many other people fail miserably at as far as singer songwriters go, and that is incorporating folk and country tastefully without it being too hokey. I also love the lyrics which are usually very earthy, dark, and sometimes romantic. What I like about his ‘love songs’ is that they are never cheesy or predicable, the lyrics don’t all rhyme, and they keep his sort of southern gothic touch.
“The Letting Go” isn’t his best album, but it is definitely better than at least 49 of the albums on Pitchfork's list. The downfall of his last album is the female backing vocals, they just overpower his soft cooing style. If you want to hear Will Oldham’s best work, check out the albums “Master and Everyone”, “Superwolf” or “Ease on Down the Road”, and if you’d like to hear his stuff at it’s twangiest, check out his old band Palace. I wanted to post two songs by him, Untitled off of “The Letting Go”, and Daniel which is off of the collaborative album with Tortoise, “The Brave and the Bold”. I can’t find Untitled streaming anywhere on the internet to post, but it is definitely the best track on the new album. It’s a beautiful song with minimal instrumentation and ambient guitar work. Daniel is actually an Elton John cover. It’s probably one of the best covers of any song that I’ve heard. I hope you like it.
Tortoise and Bonnie Prince Billy - Daniel