True Story/ Dub Rock (Will Sessions vinyl)

It's very difficult to appreciate the sincerity and breadth of Detroit 'funk' band Will Sessions recent voluminous vinyl output unless you're as versed as they are in both Funk and Detroit Hip Hop.

As their name suggests they're a backing band for hire for fellow Detroit hip hop artists like Elzhi, Guilty Simpson and Black Milk.  They're also fully capable of backing actual Detroit soul heavyweights like Dennis Coffey who was one of Motown's original Funk Brothers studio band as well as having a substantial soulo career.

They're output of late (available on their bandcamp) represents intricate efforts to replicate live the productions of various hip hop producers; as they did on both Elzhi's recapitulation of Nas' Ilmatic as Elmatic with note perfect re-workings of beats by Pete Rock, Large Professor and L.E.S, or their Mix Takes One and Mix Takes Two which crams musical cues like a DJ set from the pillar of Detroit hip hop and neo-soul legend J Dilla, to his protege Black Milk, Guilty Simpson as well as rare funk cuts (and epochal hip hop samples) like Bob James Nautilus.



Here though on True Story they've truly out done themself.  True Story (moreso True Story Part 2 from Phat Kat's Carte Blanche)  is one of the most beautiful hip hop songs ever created with lyrics and vocals by Phat Kat (Ronnie Cash) and production by the notoriously underlooked and gifted producer Young RJ who with Black Milk were briefly BR Gunna .

In referencing the history of their contemporaries so flawlessly and with such reverence they are both doing something truly unique and making interesting statements about live music culture and sample based music culture.  Will Sessions are winking at the DJ, winking at the bedroom purist, the music writer and the crate digger.  More importantly they're winking.

Passion Pit - Take A Walk at Reading Festival

"I'm just too much a coward to admit when I'm in need."
- Michael Angelakos

 

The career arc of Michael Angelakos has been exhilirating and more recently harrowing to watch.  Reaching international prominence with a self produced EP Chunk of Change (originally created as a Valentine gift to his then girlfriend) yielding the timeless love song Sleepyhead.   While attending Berklee College of Music the band Passion Pit was formed from other graduates surrounding Angelakos symbolist lyrics and gaseous falsetto voice.  Their formula of electronic flourishes rendered live dangling on the heart string of a genius- a very troubled one we would later learn- endeared them to millions.  Their first proper album Manners (which was recorded by just Angelakos, Nate Donmoyer and Ian Hultquist on guitar on two tracks) somewhat questionably reduxed Sleepyhead to lesser effect but surrounded it with a whole new crop of songs that seemed at first like a slight deflation from the loftiest heights of Chunk of Change.  As these songs grew into the collective consciousness- influencing other musicians or simply becoming the soundtracks to people's lives- songs such as Moth's Wings, The Reeling, Swimming In The Flood- they started to trace out some sort of vaguely cogent philosophy of a Universe connected by threads of gossamer, les fils conducteur, spinnerette, silk reeling energies passing back and forth, swimming in the flood of the hardcom wave.  There was also in hindsight always a sort of dense molecular sadness that permeated his supposedly mawkishly happy voice and rambunctious stage persona.

 

It of course came as a complete surprise when they recently cancelled the bulk of their summer tour save for a handful of dates being very open about the fact that it was in order for Michael to get some mental health care which he very much needed.   A long feature with Pitchfork made clear how far things had gone. 

 

"I was drinking heavily," says the frontman, recalling the SXSW gig. "I mentioned how I shaved for this girl I was involved with. The band was drunk, but they still were like, 'What the fuck is going on?' I started standing on my vintage keyboards and freaking the fuck out. It got to the point where I was just rolling around on the grass, going crazy. When I got off the stage, all the Columbia people there were very excited. I was on the side, and I was crying. I couldn't control it."

Far from your typical post-show euphoria, Angelakos was experiencing what he refers to as a dissociative psychotic reaction-- his stress reached a biological level that induced a breakdown. "Everything was a blur. We were doing promo appearances, and I didn't even know who I was talking to. No one knew me well enough to say, 'There's something wrong.' They just thought I was drunk."

When SXSW concluded, the frontman went directly from Austin to Houston, where he was admitted to a clinic for issues related to his mental health. He was there for roughly five weeks, where he shared a room with a "wonderful" former firefighter who had been convicted of arson. The band visited him during his stay, and attempted to sneak in positive reviews of Manners, since Angelakos wasn't allowed to even verbally acknowledge what was going on with his career while at the clinic.
 

 

 

Take A Walk is the lead track of Gossamer, taken in the light of his recent gripping struggle it's easy to take the song at its face - as courageous cautious steps forward.  "Like many Passion Pit songs, it's also more complicated than it initially seems, telling the story of a father trying-- and failing-- to make ends meet in recession-era America." It's jubilant bounce in this live clip from Reading Festival is evident, although in this clip you can see also too that a beleagured Angelakos prowls the stage a touch less spritely then in the past.



Passion Pit - Take A Walk

All these kinds of places
Make it seem like it's been ages
And tomorrow's sun and buildings scrape the sky.
I love this country dearly
I can feel the latter clearly
But I never thought I'd be alone to try.
Once I was outside Penn station
Selling red and white carnations
We were still alone, my wife and I.
Before we married, saved my money
Brought my dear wife over.
Now I work to bring my family stateside.
Got off the boat, they stayed a while
then scattered 'cross the coast.
Once I'll year I'll see them for a week or so at most.
I took a walk
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh
I took a walk
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh
Practice isn't perfect
but the market cuts a loss.
I remind myself that times could be much worse.
My wife won't ask me questions-
there's not so much to ask.
And she'll never flaunt around an empty purse.
What's my mother lacking
Just to stay a couple nights
And decided she would stay the rest of her life.
And watch my little children
Play some boardgame in the kitchen

And I sit and pray they never feel my strife.
But then my partner called to say the pension funds were gone
He made some bad investments, now the accounts are overdrawn
I took a walk.
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh
I took a walk
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh
Honey, it's your son, I think I borrowed just too much.
We had taxes, we had bills, we had a lifestyle to front.
And tonight I swear I'll come home and we'll make love like we're young.
But tomorrow , you'll cook dinner for the neighbors and their kids.
We can rip apart the socialists and all their damn taxes.
You'll see I am no criminal, I'm down on both bad knees.
I'm just too much a coward to admit when I'm in need.
I took a walk.
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh
I took a walk
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh
I took a walk
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh
I took a walk
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
(take a walk, take a walk, take a walk)
Ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh-ohh

Dave Chappelle Toronto Review (Winter Garden Theatre, 08/22/12)

"I'm Ripped Bitch"

 

Update: I'm not sure how Dave Chappelle (famous for his crack smoking character Tyrone Biggums) got Rob Ford's number but at the time of his surprise performance in Toronto he had two requests for his handlers; to get in a workout (part of his evident health kick) and to meet the mayor Rob Ford.  Now this was well before anyone in Toronto caught any inkling that Ford himself smoked crack, would lie about it and then later admit to it unabashedly making him the constant fodder of American late night comedians for months on end.  Ford recently dropped out of the mayor's race due to Cancer treatment but was re-elected shockingly as a city councillor.

(With a very strong hyper-local opening set by Gilson Lubin, DJ Future The Prince ceded the stage to his employer Drake for a low key 40 minute barely proficient DJ set. Both stayed for the remainder of his set onstage facing the audience.  Dave's material was strong with more formed Obama Ohio material hitting well early on.   Longer themes of fidelity, celebrity, ludicrousy prevailed throughout the poignant set laced with moments of thoughtful joy.  Other material skewed heavily cerebral and analytical and didn't play as well in the Poughkeepsies.  With the two previous nights sets clocking in around 75 and 82 minutes Dave blew the high water mark clocking a full two and a half hours of stage time.  Albeit the last half hour of his time, having blown well past any contractual or audience expectations, Dave decided to take a question and answer 'press conference' from the audience who peppered him with a cavalcade of groan worthy celebrity boot licking, awkward Canadian cultural masturbation, countless questions about 'The Chappelle Show' and the experience of filming it and does he miss it and basically time machine type bullshit that visibly wore both Chappelle and the audience down to a fine little black nub.)

(l to r: Dave Chappelle, Hon. Mayor Rob Ford)

Sun Glitters - Das Kuma Mixtape

 

 



Sun Glitters - How To Be Dressed In Blue (Vice Mixtape)

 

 

Luxembourg's Victor Ferreira (Sun Glitters) is known for a certain spectral style of both sound and album cover images reminiscent at points of artists like Burial or the young pup Balam Acab.  Sun Glitters  is the result of many years of sound research through different genres under the moniker Sug(r)cane since 1998.

 

Ferreira, who is a graphic designer by trade, "designs his album covers to match the organic, early morning light aura of his largely instrumental music".  This 54 minute mix is a good entry point for his calm, brooding meditative style.



Balam Acab - Now Time



Madlib and J Dilla in Brazil, 2005 (photos by B+)

“The photos B+ captured of Dilla have become the some of the most definitive images of the producer. In another, he got Madlib & Dilla together on a short trip to Brazil in 2005. We planned to get pictures for Donuts, but Dilla’s unstable health during that time caused him to cut the trip short.” - Jeff Jank / Stones Throw

Flying Lotus - See Thru To You feat. Erykah Badu

 

This tasteful collab (although shy on the full frontal nudity, sparkles, and mysterious goop highlighted in the Flaming Lips/ Erykah Badu sister clone collaboration) teases the full length release of Flying Lotus' 'Until The Quiet Comes' (out October 1/2) 



 

Killer Mike - Don't Die (lyrics)

Don't Die

Real bad guy shit, living like a villain never chilling
Heavy influence on your chilling

I woke up this morning to a cop with a gun
Who told me that he looking for a nigga on the run
I thought for a second and I screwed my face
And asked the dirty pig why the fuck you in my place
He said he alone... this as a warning
Then I told him fuck you where is the warrant
Then they got the ... and kicked in .. Mason
Then the whole situation went Larry Davis
Thinking bout my lady and thinking bout my baby
Thinking these 2 motherfucking pigs going crazy
They wanna kill a nigga cause a nigga own this rap shit
Wanna leave me dead on mattress, Hampton
I'm a public enemy because I cold rapping
And I don't give a fuck about a party in the Hampton's
And I don't give a fuck about a motherfucker Forbes list
Far as I'm concerned, that's a motherfucking ... list
Motherfucker, my dad was a cop
You don't think I know a dirty ass cop when I see one?
Shake down, take down, disrespecting the badge ass, bitch!

Back to the scene going wild in the bedroom
Grab the cop's gun left from ... with a head wound
Second cop shot, but the bullet hit his partner
Shot him in the leg and he hit him in the artery
... then the dirty cop's looking at me
Talking bout he kill a nigga if I try to flee
Shit, I'm about to loose it, so he gonna have to prove it
All cause the government hate the rap music
Had to label outlaw really gave villain
So it's Martin King so the system had to kill him
A nigga with an attitude, the world gotta feel him
Educated villain, ... on living
If I gotta kill a cop just to get out the building
That motherfucker didn't left dead, no feelings
Yeah, ... as I buck a 45 at his feelings
Trying to knock his brains through the motherfucking ceiling

When I surface on the streets I can hear the crowd yelling
And see the neighborhood snitches pointing and telling
I'm feeling like a felon or ...
Before the law leave me sneaking like a bag of manure
Like Jericho 1 in the movie strange days
They want a nigga dead cause the thangs that I say
Mike make the youth go and pick up in they ...
Tell the government fuck you, no way
Like John Connor mama I be running everyday
Cause if I get caught it's my life to terminate
Or stick me in the cell..
All because a nigga want some ...no pay
I’ll be an outlaw before I ever behave and die a free man before I live like a slave
Enough to change ...if they catch me today
Fuck the police is still all I gotta say, say, say, say.

Dukes of September - Toronto (review)

The Dukes Of September's second of two Canadian whistlestops blew through the Big Smoke last night without too many airs, nor fanfare, about it.   Toronto is a musical town, increasingly asserting itself as one of the major cosmopolitan cultural centres of North America.  You can't see every artist touring North America every summer in Toronto but you'd be hard pressed to find a more affordable and diverse, minor and major league musical offerings anywhere.

The Molson Canadian Ampitheatre sits on the site of what was once a slightly historic shed of it's own the Ontario Place Forum which gave way many years ago to the classic arena (covered floor, open lawn).  Up until this summer Ontario Place was an amusement park dotted with Buckey balls of a dated optimistic style roughly coinciding with when the headliners were in vogue.  The Buckey balls remain but the water slides sit dormant, Lake Ontario perched just beyond them.   So there's something sort of ghost townish about the place having been quickly mothballed while the province debates turning it into a casino amongst other things.  The complex has most recently been used as a venue for a massive electronic music event, what would have once been called a rave and subjugated to industrial warehouses.

Times have changed.

Nostalgia is close to mind given the plot and tenure of the assembled musicians.   At 36 this writer will admit to having skewed heavily on the young side of this boomerish mass.  A few years ago someone from my thick-rimmed pinhead generation decided that - McDonald, Steely Dan, Hall and Oates, Loggins and Messina- the whole mock 'genre' is best deemed as Yacht Rock. It was the sort of appraisal that leaned heavily on irony but the backhanded compliment wasn't without an uptick in interest amongst a younger generation for the dulcid sounds of the era.  In an era when pop-cultural arcs and lifespans are ever diminishing, with genres and sub-genres cascading against one another like ricocheting squash balls, perhaps what is needed is a matriculation, an education, a back to basics in one genre: Rhythm, more properly Rythm and Blues.

The maestro and chief musicologist of this affair was always going to be Donald Fagen.  His pedigree as one half of the musical institution Steely Dan made him the perfect man for the bill.  Steely Dan- who perhaps created the idea of a true 'session musician' or 'double session' as those that could swim in their waters could in theory demand that sort of coin- have graced the cosmic jukebox with so many hits, so many true moments of musical grandeur it seems silly to explain their legacy here.  Of the three, Fagen, McDonald, Scaggs, only Fagen is a songwriter and a bandleader proper- it seems plain that the role would fall to him.

So what the assembled throng was treated to then was a sort of Rhythm and Soul Revue with the three Dukes contributing chestnuts from their repertoire and a handful of cuts from the common canon that suited all three styles.  By virtue of Fagen's touring fairly heavily of late with Steely Dan the backing band was accordingly various alumnus of his band, the 9-piece ensemble are:

Jon Herington (guitar)

Freddie Washington (bass)

Shannon Forrest (drums)

Jim Beard (organ, piano)

Jay Collins (horns)

Michael Leonhart ( sax, flutes)

Walt Weiskopf (sax, flutes)

Carolyn Escoffery (vocals)

Catherine Russell (vocals)

The three principals had played in an earlier version of the group, the New York Rock and Soul Revue (which also included Phoebe Snow, Eddie and David Brigati, Mindy Jostyn, Cornelius Bumpus, Charles Brown and the other 'Dan' Walter Becker).   That short lived group surely didn't build up much chemistry but here the setlist was hatched out in advance by the Dukes then Fagen worked up arrangements for his band to play.  Scaggs has said of the experience of playing with the ensemble "what we gained from it was a sense of confidence that we can kind of go where we want to go with these guys — it’s like a Ferrari”.   Likewise McDonald has said “I think if we learned anything, it’s really only that maybe this time we can push the envelope a little bit more with some of the material.”  Scaggs acknowledges (even with a stock setlist and arrangements in tow) “It’s kind of new waters for me.”

“I’m not a particularly collaborative personality or player or musician. So it comes, of course, to me as a great honour to be included in this trio and with this band. And it also gives me a chance to work with, on a high level, cats who are... who I admire immensely. But when we can find this common ground and when it clicks, it’s satisfying in a way that nothing else is.”

The concert itself unravelled something like a casino set out of doors with the best intentions of being a barn burner.  The backing Dukes played Drive Your Funky Soul by James Brown as their intro music bringing the trio to the stage and Boz taking a silky lead on the Isley Brothers Who's That Lady?  The mutt obvious question 'Do you like good music?' punctuated Arthur Conley's Sweet Soul Music with McDonald now at the helm.

The audience's collective gaze shifted stage left where Michael McDonald's shock of white hair huddled above his cherry brown organ cabinet.   His rendition of his own song I Keep Forgettin', likely a lodestone for many in the audience, was one of the first goosebumps moments of the night.  Then Fagen took the helm and led the band through it's paces on a big vamp of Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man.  Seven songs in he dropped the first of the Steely Dan: Kid Charlemagne. Lyrically it's an opus to a San Fran type figure (Owsley) who created LSD by candlelight ('just by chance you crossed a diamond with a pearl, you turned it on the world, that's when it turned your world around'), a perfect choice as McDonald sings the definitive backing vocal lines on the original.   I don't know that too many 'Day Glo freaks who used to paint their face' were in attendance, in any case they'd 'joined the human race' and the rendition was well worth the price of entry.

Having whipped up an early show peak a shift to stage right for Boz to run the band through a big version of Muddy's Same Thing.  I can't say in all fairness that all of these collaborative moments, despite the ensemble touring for a bit this summer really shone.  Fair when Boz did (part) of what Boz does, play the blues, the group seemed to rally behind.   But some of the arrangements were a bit shmaltzy and song selections middling at times as everyone tried to find their bearings.  Part of the challenge here is that while the members of the current Steely Dan may be used to playing Kid Charlemagne it's obviously a jazz rock opus of sorts and it was during in particular the Dan material that it seemed Scaggs guitar was way down in the mix and he was faintly straining rhythm chord progressions not seeming quite to know where to fit in.

Now when it came to his own material the opposite not surprisingly was true.  When he brought the disco breeze (and sleaze) with Miss Sun it definitely helped having 'Ready' Freddie Washington backing him on bass.  The whole ensemble just popped into place and the audience was right out of their seats.

Dukes of September - Concert Medley (Toronto)

Taking things back a bit Fagen did a bit of musical storytelling explaining that they'd be playing Heard It Through The Grapevine but not the first version everyone's familiar with (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles) but rather the (third version) made famous by Gladys Knight and the Pips.  This number really gave Carolyn Escoffery a chance to shine and centre stage she worked it for all it was worth.  They took Chuck Berry's Never Can Tell through it's paces.  Things picked up a bit visually and musically with McDonald donning an accordion and Catherine a steelcut washboard for a slightly zydeco take on Buck Owens Love's Gonna Live Here.

McDonald broke hearts and took names with If You Don't Know Me By Now (Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes).   Then the second Steely bomb dropped with Hey 19 which seemed fitting on so many levels: 'Hey 19, 67'.   Scaggs then found another side of his range with a so-silk-it's-suede rendition of Teddy Pendergrass Philly Soul anthem Love TKO.

Keeping pace as master of ceremonies Fagen brought it back to his spot centre stage soliciting a groan worthy 'Do you know the song Another Piece Of My Heart?' (elicits churlish, overaged schoolgirl type responses from audience).  'Well we're going to play the original version by Aretha Franklyn's very talented sister Erma'.   Backup vocalist Catherine Russell got her centre stage moment and did a note perfect rendition that the audience ate up, her interplay with Boz was exquisite.  Perhaps this portion of the show and the version of Ray Charles To Tell The Truth which followed was not 'hit heavy' enough for one member of  the audience who apparently expressed his loud disapproval and left. 'Fuck you! You've got no taste, I'm glad you left', Fagen recalled sharply later.

This may be a generational thing because outside of the era Fagen and McDonald seem like slightly brighter lights on the marquee.  But every time Boz Scaggs stepped to the mic or layed into a succulent guitar riff he proved the exact opposite.  Maybe it was because Steely Dan played the previous summer and fans have had more chances to see them live but it seemed decidedly that all of the most raucous standing ovations were for one man only: Boz Scaggs.   It seems safe to say that quite a lot of the crowd have a copy of the Silk Degrees LP and when he cut into Lowdown, taking the perfectly suited band through the disco funk paces, the whole ensemble truly shone.

  Scaggs humble and gracious way about himself, his throaty midwestern voice, his phrasing, the style of the originals all seemed to suit this group of musicians to a tee and he seemed genuinely chuffed at the outpouring of love from both audience and band alike. 

McDonald took it to church for an ambling organ solo that floated past passages of Georgia On My Mind, perhaps a nod to Ray on the way out, bringing it right into a righteous Taking It To The Streets.  They ate it up with spoons.  The contractually obligated Reelin' In The Years rounded out the set with guitarist Jon Herington and Scaggs trading the dualing guitar lines Becker would normally handle.  They exited stage right red velvet curtains drawn with a black backdrop dotted with blue lights.

Knowing on the way in that they'd been playing from a fairly stock setlist it didn't seem as if there was much chance for variation at all from night to night.  They're was some variety though and on their 2010 tour they'd worked up a mini-set of slightly more obscure songs by The Band: Rag Mama Rag, The Shape I'm In and Caledonia Mission.  Frankly nobody needs to hear The Weight again especially Canadians (although it would have gone over like gravy with this crowd) but it was more than a little surprising they didn't play a cut by The Band.   Levon Helm's passing is one of the more significant historical musical moments of recent memory.  And Fagen, who shares a wife (his second Libby Titus, Levon's first) and a stepdaughter (musician Amy Helm) with Levon, was very active in his life right up to his death.  He was a frequent guest at the famous Ramble's on Levon's farm in Woodstock playing in the weeks before his death.  The omission was for that reason noteworthy though it may be that Fagen more associates Levon with their Hudson River Valley then with their origins in Toronto and around Ontario.  It may also have simply beeen that the band didn't have the material worked up.

Nonetheless presuming the encore would be the chunk of Steely Dan dynamos the audience had been holding out for and they'd been playing in pretty regular order all tour, this listener certainly didn't expect what came out of the gates next: Lido Shuffle.  I want to attribute this choice of a lead encore to the really palpable outpouring of love for The Boz earlier in the show.  And Boz Scaggs ripped into this staple like a man reborn with the entire group gusting behind him with a ragged and proud strength hitherto unseen.  A little shared ancestry probably didn't hurt as this blustery number has a famous drum part by Dan alumnus Jeff Porcaro that Shannon Forrest brought to life here (although Porcaro played with everyone including notably Toto).  The entire audience was rightly on it's feet singing along to every 'whoa oh oh oh'.  One last time gonna get it.

Then they played Peg.  Jon Herington - who'd been an ace all night (if not a little too-slick) did seem at times to leave little room for Boz to do little but step aside - played the solo made famous by Jay Graydon.  In the same vein you could say 'Ready' Freddy Washington played Chuck Rainey's bass solo note for note (likewise Shannon Forrest played Rick Marotta's distinctive drum part).   There's no room for improvisation really in a Steely Dan song although it's been known to happen in their live show of late.   Thankfully Pretzel Logic is basically a blues tune and 'I would love to tour the Southland in a travelling minstrel show' just suited the whole theme of the tour.   Fagen, McDonald and Scaggs traded verses with Boz seeming very sure footed delivering: 'I have never met Napoleon but I plan to find the time'.

Sly and The Family Stone's Thank You Falletin Me Be Mice Elf took the crowd a bit higher and then McDonald did a brilliant turn on Buddy Miles (from Jimi's Band of Gypsies) staple Them Changes.  The girls from New York City and the boys in the band struck up the J.B.'s outro Drive Your Funky Soul and The Dukes Of September took their curtain call.  The cold lake air kept up it's pretense of summer.



The Dukes Of September - Toronto (setlist)



The Dukes Of September (Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs)

Molson Canadian Ampitheatre

Toronto, ON

08/12/12

Drive Your Funky Soul (James Brown) - intro

Who's That Lady? (The Isley Brothers)

Sweet Soul Music (Arthur Conley)

I Keep Forgettin' (Michael McDonald)

Trouble Man (Marvin Gaye)

Kid Charlemagne (Steely Dan)

Same Thing (Muddy Waters)

Miss Sun (Boz Scaggs)

Heard It Through The Grapevine (Gladys Knight and the Pips arrangement)

You Never Can Tell (Chuck Berry)

Love's Gonna Live Here (Buck Owens)

If You Don't Know Me By Now (Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes)

Hey 19 (Steely Dan)

Love TKO (Teddy Pendergrass)

Piece of My Heart (Erma Franklin)

Tell The Truth (Ray Charles)

Lowdown (Boz Scaggs)

Takin' It To The Streets (Doobie Brothers)

Reelin' In The Years (Steely Dan)

E:

Lido Shuffle (Boz Scaggs)

Peg (Steely Dan)

Pretzel Logic (Steely Dan)

Thank You Falletin' Me Be Mice Elf (Sly and The Family Stone)

Them Changes (Buddy Miles)

Drive Your Funky Soul (James Brown) - outro



Cat Power - Ruin (Download)

Chan Marshall (Cat Power) plays every instrument here on the first single from her forthcoming SUN out Sept. 4.

Cat Power - Ruin (download link)

Cat Power – Ruin

I’ve seen gypsies who made it all the way
And kept going, kept rolling with nowhere to go
Nowhere to go.

As far as I’ve seen from the bush
In the wilderness, to every known city
I’ve been to Saudi Arabia, Dhaka, Calcutta
Soweto, Mozambique, Istanbul, Rio, Rome
Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Taiwan, Great Britain
Belfast, to the desert, Spain, Tokio
Some little bitty island in the middle of the Pacific
All the way back home, to my town
To my town
Bitching, complaining when some ṗeople who ain’t got shit to eat
Bitching, moaning, so many people you know they got
What are we doing?
We’re sitting on a ruin
What are we doing?
We’re sitting on a ruin
As far as I’ve seen, from the bush
The wilderness, to every known city
I’ve been to Saudi Arabia, Dhaka, Calcutta
Soweto, Mozambique, Istanbul, Rio, Rome
Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Taiwan, Great Britain
Belfast, to the desert, Spain, Tokyo
Some little bitty island in the middle of the Ṗacific
All the way back home, to my town
To my town
Bitching, complaining when some people who ain’t got shit to eat
Bitching, moaning, so many people you know that they got
What are we doing?
We’re sitting on a ruin
What are we doing?
We’re sitting on a ruin
What are we doing?
We’re sitting on a ruin
What are we doing?
We’re sitting on a ruin

Flying Lotus - Between Friends/ Instrumental (feat. Earl Sweatshirt and Captain Murphy)

The Antlers - Drift Dive

Drift Dive is the first single off The Antlers Undersea EP (released July 24).   Initially a solo project of vocalist Peter Silberman as a group The Antlers haunting sound has cemented for them a unique untapped niche nonetheless unweildy.   Silberman self-penned Uprooted (2006) and In the Attic of the Universe (2007), as well as the EP's Cold War (2007) and New York Hospitals (2008) but it was with Hospice (initially self-released in March of 2009 to huge critical acclaim and then remastered and re-released in August) that they came to prominence.  2011's Burst Apart further delivered on their sonically lush tapestries and gaunt lyrics. The Undersea EP has been described as having the sound of coming up for air.   Like a great sea turtle The Antlers are surfacing.

The Antlers are also from Brooklyn.

The Antlers:

Peter Silberman – vocals, guitar, harmonica, harp, accordion, keyboard

Michael Lerner – drums, percussion

Darby Cicci –  keyboards, synthesizers, organ, bass, vocals, trumpet, bowed banjo

Kendrick Lamar - Swimming Pools (Drank) [prod. by T-Minus] - Dirty (lyrics)

[Bridge]
Pour up, drank, head shot, drank
Sit down, drank, stand up, drank
Pass out, drank, wake up, drank
Faded, drank, faded, drank

[Verse 1]
Now I done grew up
Round some people living their life in bottles
Granddaddy had the golden flask
Back stroke every day in
Chicago
Some people like the way it feels
Some people wanna kill their sorrows
Some people wanna fit in with the popular
That was my problem I was in the dark room
Loud tunes, looking to make a vow soon
That I'mma get fucked up, fillin' up my cup
I see the crowd move
Changing by the minute and the record on repeat
Took a sip, then another sip, then somebody said to me:

 [Hook]
Nigga why you babysittin only 2 or 3 shots?
I'm a show you how to turn it up a notch
First you get a swimming pool full of liquor, then you dive in it
Pool full of liquor, then you dive in it
I wave a few bottles, then I watch em all flock
All the girls wanna play Baywatch
I got a swimming pool full of liquor and they dive in it
Pool full of liquor I'm a dive in it

[Bridge]
[Verse 2]
Okay, now open your mind up and listen to me, Kendrick
I'm your conscience, if you do not hear me
Then you will be history, Kendrick I know that you're nauseous right now
And I'm hopin' to lead you to victory, Kendrick
If I take another one down I'm a drown in some poison abusin' my limit
I think that I'm feelin' the vibe I see the love in her eyes, I see the feelin'
The freedom is granted as soon as the damage of vodka arrive
This how you capitalize
This is parental advice
Then apparently, I'm over influenced by what you are doin'
I thought I was doin' the most then someone said to me

[Hook] + [Bridge]

I ride, you ride, bang
One chopper, one hundred shots, bang
Hop out. Do you; bang?
Two chopper, two hundred shots, bang
I ride, you ride, bang
One chopper, one hundred shots, bang
Hop out, do you, bang
Two chopper, two hundred shots, bang
[Hook] + [Bridge]

Move Me Brightly setlist (Jerry Garcia 70th Birthday, TRI Studios, 08/03/2012)

(l to r: Neal Casal, Donna Jean Godchaux, Bob Weir, Mike Gordon)

"I'm into performing cause there's a certain part of my life in which that's essential. I've lived a performer's life in a certain way so a certain amount of that is there.  I love what I'm doing." - Jerry Garcia

Move Me Brightly (Jerry Garcia 70th Birthday Celebration)

Tri Studios, San Rafael, CA

08/03/2012

The Wheel >
Cumberland Blues
Loser
Mississippi Half Step
Dire Wolf
Dupree’s Diamond Blues
Tennessee Jed
Ship Of Fools
They Love Each Other
Bird Song >
New Speedway Boogie
Loose Lucy
Friend of the Devil
Mission In The Rain
Ramble On Rose
Catfish John
Shakedown Street
Terrapin Station
He’s Gone >
Eyes Of The World
Scarlet Begonias
Don’t Let Go
Days Between >
Franklin’s Tower

Encore:
U.S. Blues >
Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad
Ripple

(*all song titles below are youtube links)



The Wheel > Cumberland Blues (Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Donna Jean Godchaux, Neal Casal, Jon Graboff, Jason Roberts, Joe Russo, Jeff Chimenti)

Loser (Casal, Russo, Weir, Mike Gordon, Chimenti, Godchaux, Jim Lauderdale, Roberts, Graboff, Adam McDougall)

Mississippi Half Step (Weir, Gordon, Jim Lauderdale, Godchaux, Graboff, Casal, Chimenti, Russo)

Dire Wolf (Weir, Harper Simon, Gordon, Russo, Godchaux, Graboff, Chimenti, Josh Kaufman, Sam Cohen)

Dupree’s Diamond Blues (Chimenti, Casal, Russo, Gordon, Cass McCombs, Sam Cohen, Josh Kaufman)

Tennessee Jed (Chimenti, Casal, Godchaux, Russo, Gordon, Weir, Roberts, Graboff)

Ship Of Fools (Chimenti, Casal, Godchaux, Russo, Gordon, Weir, Graboff)

They Love Each Other (Chimenti, Casal, Godchaux, Russo, Weir, Gordon, Jonathan Wilson, Graboff)

Bird Song (Chimenti, Casal, Godchaux, Russo, Weir, Gordon, Graboff) > New Speedway Boogie (Chimenti, McDougall, Casal, Godchaux, Russo, Weir, Gordon, Roberts, Graboff)

Loose Lucy (Weir Solo Acoustic)

Friend of the Devil (Lauderdale, Simon, McCombs)

Mission In The Rain (Chimenti, Casal, Godchaux, Russo, Gordon, Wilson)

Ramble On Rose (Chimenti, Casal, Russo, Weir, Gordon, Wilson)

Catfish John (McDougall, Chimenti, Casal, Russo, Godchaux, Gordon, Weir, Wilson, Graboff)

Shakedown Street (McDougall, Chimenti, Simon, Godchaux, Chris Tomson, Godchaux, Gordon, Weir, Kaufman, Cohen)

Terrapin Station (Chimenti, Godchaux, Russo, Gordon, McCombs, Weir, Kaufman, Cohen, Graboff)

He’s Gone (Chimenti, Russo, Godchaux, Weir, Gordon, Kaufman, Cohen, Graboff) > Eyes Of The World (McDougall, Chimenti, Simon, Godchaux, Russo, Weir, Gordon, Lauderdale, Kaufman, Cohen, Graboff)

Scarlet Begonias (Chimenti, Craig Finn, Tad Kubler, Russo, Godchaux, Weir, Gordon, Kaufman, Cohen, Graboff)

Don’t Let Go (Chimenti, Finn, Godchaux, Graboff, Russo, Weir, Gordon, Wilson, Simon)

Days Between (Chimenti, Casal, Russo, Weir, Gordon, Kaufman, Wilson, Cohen) > Franklin’s Tower (Chimenti, McDougall, Casal, Russo, Simon, Weir, Wilson, Godchaux, Gordon, Kaufman, Cohen, Graboff, Tomson, Lauderdale)

U.S. Blues (Chimenti, McDougall, Casal, Russo, Simon, Weir, Wilson, Godchaux, Gordon, Kaufman, Cohen, Graboff, Lauderdale, Finn)

Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad (Chimenti, McDougall, Casal, Russo, Simon, Weir, Wilson, Godchaux, Gordon, Kaufman, Cohen, Graboff, McCombs, Lauderdale, Finn)

Ripple (Chimenti, McDougall, Godchaux, Simon, Wilson, Tomson, Casal, Roberts, Kaufman, Weir, Gordon, Russo, Wilson, Lauderdale, Graboff)

Rotisserie - Child of Lov (download)

Rotisserie - Child of Lov (download)

The Child of Lov are an obscure project emerging rumoured to be fleshing out a mixtape with DOOM (formerly MF Doom) and Blur/ Gorillaz Damon Albarn.  If you're missing Ween since they announced they're end of the road this is about as close as you get with it's robocorded wheezy refrains about love on a hot rotating spit.

Child of Lov describe themself in an artist statement as such:

This is a really long trip we're on here, sugars and sugarettes. But it's not about the destination. No need to get an ironic tattoo, wear lavender oil or a Stepford smile if that ain't you. Just be your bad self. Don't worry 'bout your birthday. You only have one anyway. And as a wise man once said, time is no linear thing. You, me, us, we love our bodies, and that's a good thing, but let's not forget that Father Time's hourglass figure makes him a sexy mug too. Let's give him some lov. And while we're at it, let's feed that fine ass Mother Nature some honey as well. Remember, we're all Children of Lov. So let's make our parents proud. Let's sing ourselves back to the Mother's hip. Let's turn back to the cosmic cantaloupes and draw deep. Let's travel through the deep south, pass through the lov canal, and immerse ourselves in the voluptuous body of water ahead. As the Scripture hath said, the ocean is our catwalk. The time is ripe for music made of lov n' haight. Let's jump off this money tree. Together.

Hot Chip - Look At Where We Are (Major Lazer remix)

A nice wistful downtempo reggae revisiting of this showpiece off Hot Chip's latest and by their account at least greatest In Our Heads.

Hot Chip - Look At Where We Are (Four Tet remix)



Grizzly Bear - Ute and Yet Again (from forthcoming Shields album)

From Grizzly Bear's forthcoming Shields album the melifluous ones have released now two lead singles: Sleeping Ute and Yet Again.  It's unclear whether the album is being produced as typically by Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist and social glue Chris Taylor as with their previous outings.

A$AP Rocky & Danny Brown on Sex, Drugs and the Music Industry (Part 1)

The People At Vice (TPAV) had another brilliant idea, having humped so many fruitlessly into the ground, to do a Q&A poolside in Barcelona between A$AP Rocky and our man Danny Brown.  In this the first of five parts of their probing dialogue Rocky and Brown debate the relative merits of 'twitter bitches' versus 'facebook bitches', what it takes to make your facebook really 'popping' as well as Danny's fondness for pure crystal Molly (MDMA) which he took the previous evening to hilarious effect.

Kilo Kish - Watergun (prod. The Internet)

Brooklyn based rapper Kilo Kish has released a sultry storm of a track called Watergun in anticipation of hers and The Internet's forthcoming August tour.  The Internet are the production duo Matt Martian and Syd The Kid.

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Future Shuttle - Astro Curio

This is the first release off NYC ambient trio Future Shuttle's forthcoming 2nd LP In To It due in september on New Images.  Future Shuttle have previously put out an EP Waters Edge (you can download Fog Spelunk  from that 2010 release for comparison).