([-_-])

2009-05-31T09:42:00.000-04:00

Indie Soundz - tUnE-yArDs

2009-05-04T16:48:00.001-04:00

An amazing record.

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"In and around 2007 Merrill Garbus creates tUnE-yArDs. She thought the exasperating capitalization will buy her some time.

Merrill came from parents who sewed their lives together with music, and at age seven she proceeded to hum her way through days. She hummed her way through the family record collection: Old Timey fiddling, Revolver, Django. She hummed her way through mid-’80’s pop radio and an obsession with Christmas music. She hummed her way through folk music camp, through Smith College and a theater degree, through anarchist puppet training, through brazen, all-women a cappella singing, through heat rash in Kenya, through deeply scrutinized puppet performances in Europe, through her lonely, swirling 20’s. The hum seems to have become a yell.

In 2008 she released BiRd-BrAiNs, which she had recorded over a span of 2.5 years on a hand-held voice recorder. Sampling snippets of her life as a nanny on Martha’s Vineyard and later as a young musician in noisy urban settings, she weaved sounds together to make substantial rhythms and then layered her ukulele and vocals over top. The album came out on recycled cassette tape to the chagrin of many, but was also offered by donation as an online digital download." -forcefield

2009-04-30T21:08:00.000-04:00

Sing higher damn it!

2009-04-28T14:55:00.004-04:00

I can just hear the producer in the booth saying "why don't we try this falsetto?"

Woods - Rain On

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Rock - White Williams

2009-04-20T11:04:00.004-04:00

A strong debut with echos of Brian Eno, Smoke has lots of ideas but is so simple and clean. The production is easy to listen to, but not underdeveloped. Williams wrote produced and engineered this record.

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Headlines

The Shadow

New Violence

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re: mailer

2009-04-18T08:39:00.002-04:00

In all seriousness though: we pray wickedness DEcrease. And cease. "Let righteousness cover the earth."

JAHlove everytime

Thanks Jeremy

Eric

Rock - Chad VanGaalen

2009-04-16T14:40:00.006-04:00

Much like his first incredible record, this one just made me shake my head when I heard it. Every song is fresh and new with the freedom and drive of indie-rock and enough 'classic rock' in there to keep the peeps in the stadium happy. Wow, I'm so totally impressed. His voice is not for everyone, but it's singer-songwriter man, Neil Young has a weird voice too...

Wilco, Neil Young, Beck, Guided By Voices.

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2009-03-31T20:59:00.000-04:00

New from D.M.S.T./Broken Social Scene's Charles Spearin

2009-03-17T21:04:00.002-04:00

http://www.happiness-project.ca/

2009-02-28T11:46:00.000-05:00

Reggae - Jamaica Funk (Soul Jazz)

2009-02-08T13:14:00.003-05:00

I'm on a Soul Jazz Records odyssey, trying to get as many as I can of the ones I'm missing. A sweet new addition to my collection is Jamaica Funk which pretty much sums up two of my favourite things.

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You Can't Hide Love

R&B - Raphael Saadiq

2009-02-06T11:16:00.003-05:00

This is up there for my record of the year and I've only heard it once. A classic R&B album in a Motown style, you get smooth vocals and vintage rhythms. Sounds of Smokey Robinson and Cornell Campbell, wow can this guy sing. Sounds best with the bass turned down a little. It actually sounds pretty good on a laptop.

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100 Yard Dash

Big Easy

Buy on iTunes

2009-01-31T05:06:00.000-05:00

Stone-cold 1980 Funk - Jackson Jones

2009-01-01T15:09:00.004-05:00

I first heard part of this jem on the James Murphy Fabriclive CD but I had to hunt down the original. Put your pants on? This track will have your pants off in about 5 seconds and I doubt you'll ever wear them again.

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Jackson Jones - I Feel Good, Put Your Pants On

zip

2008-12-31T09:46:00.001-05:00

Fes, Morocco: Gnawa Music

2008-12-31T09:14:00.003-05:00

I first heard something that sounded like Gnawa music when Ed Kent loaned me and then gave me a bunch of cassettes that he had brought back from Morocco years earlier. One really stuck out, and as Andrew Whiteman will remember, it not only stuck out, it rocked our collective world.

I was walking here in the medina in Fes last week and suddenly heard something that sounded almost exactly like that old tape of Ed's. I stopped and asked what it was. 'Gnawa' replied Mohammad, who was bombing the music really loud in his tiny fabric shop. The next day was my birthday, so when asked what I wanted to do, there was no question that it was high time to hunt down some serious Gnawa (guh-nawa). We went back to Mohammad's shop and I ripped a bunch of cd's. He then told me that he knows some Gnawa musicians and asked if we'd like to arrange a concert. No-brainer. The next day we were in Mohammad's house with his family, being served mint tea and snacks, and rocking out to some serious Fessi Gnawa. What an experience!

That's what I love about Fes... it has the most friendly people I have ever met, and a great local tradition of music.

Gnawa is essentially Sufi music, since all of the lyrics are referencing God or about serving God. The band (and traditionally the audience) tends to get really high smoking Kef and drinking Berber whiskey as the music builds intensity. I personally love the call and response style the best.

Unfortunately none of the cd's had track listings...

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Gnawa of Fes 01

Gnawa music from Morocco

2008-12-26T14:11:00.004-05:00

Stay tuned for a few posts from Morocco. I'm here now and have collected a bunch of great music to share with you...

Funk

2008-12-17T19:39:00.001-05:00

Great track:

George McCrea - I Get Lifted

from the Soul Jazz 'Miami Sound' LP

Unfortunately you can't buy any of the Soul Jazz LPs on iTunes... Check out the whole series though...

http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/

Soul

2008-12-17T18:54:00.003-05:00

So amazing and so short

Bob & Fred - I'll Be On My Way

NeoSoul - Musiq

2008-12-17T17:36:00.002-05:00

Some will say, this is a travesty. All I know is that when I play this for a crowd, the girls get sexy, the crowd starts moving. As a DJ, I would say that this is a ten out of ten.

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Miss You

NeoSoul - The Foreign Exchange

2008-12-17T17:20:00.007-05:00

If you don't love D'Angelo then stop reading.

If you can't handle crazy weird shuffle beats, and the snare sounds off, I dig.

But otherwise, this is great great shit.

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All Or Nothing/Coming Home To You

Thanks Steven Mann

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M.I.A. Remix

2008-12-17T16:44:00.002-05:00

I must have listened to this 20 times today...

Inna dancehall style... no slackness...

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Galang (Dave Kelley Remix)

Soul

2008-12-01T22:04:00.004-05:00

Classic early soul - complete with talking section... Beautiful vocal performance...

All These Things - Art Neville

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My Wife Has A Blackbelt In Crazy...

2008-12-01T11:01:00.002-05:00

In honour of getting her Blackbelt last weekend, here is a fitting tribute from the great Bo Diddley.

Mona

I Love This Song...

2008-12-01T09:52:00.009-05:00

Dripping with phase, haunted with Lee Perry-esque animal sounds and heavy reverb and delay, this is a classic Wackies Rhythm cut. Wackies is a Brooklyn label that was in it's prime in the mid to late 70's and still puts out re-issues through our friends in Berlin at basic channel (Rhythm & Sound).

http://basicchannel.com/label/Wackies

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Addis Ababa Dub

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