Chicagogorillas

Reppin' the Midwest with some of the best from Chi. Man, Chicago is a beast when it comes to hogging on some good shows*. I'd liken it to 98 pound lightweight and a silverback competing for the same bunch of bananas. There's just no contest. I'm maybe gonna have to move there or something. New news out this week on stuff going on in the Animate Objects family. Actually, though I've been listening to them for a while now (that's some good underground / conscious / eclectic stuff there for you, if you didn't know) I didn't know there was an AO family. Just took a listen to some of S Squair Blaq, The Square Black Frames, Sonar Soul and Danya and the Fail, and that is some underrated hotness right there. Generally I use last.fm as a gauge on where an artist falls on the popularity-obscurity scale; these are so far towards the end that I'd have to label them "bands that don't even exist yet". So good, though. And the greater family as a whole is pretty busy in the next few weeks with shows and listening parties and all sorts of friendly goodness.

Couldn't do this right without putting some links in, aye? Start here to put some sounds in your ear. Then when it's seeped in real good and deep, jump over to look at the tour dates (both of those I'm listing below are FREE, by the by). If you don't want to get up and go, I suggest you get yourself to a doctor. You might be dead.

June 19, Chicago, IL, S Squair Blaq w/ Animate Objects, Takin It to the Streets @ Marquette Park

June 25, Chicago, IL, Animate Objects"High Notes for Low Fives" listening party @ Lokal

New Music Monday: Naked in the rain

Erykah Badu's latest album releases tomorrow. If the rest of it sounds as good as the track, I'll be quite happy to listen to it. Sister is still the Queen. While the video for the song is quite striking, before you check it out I suggest you set it up by watching the one that inspired it.





From Erykah, "[S]hot guerilla style, no crew, one take, no closed set, no warning, two minutes, in downtown Dallas, then ran like hell... I was afraid. But I was ready."

And from Questlove, "People were so stunned they forgot to break out camera phones."

New Music Monday: Talkin' all that jazz

Unintentionally - for I am not supposed to be letting myself get sidetracked by new music right now, and I promised myself I'd take a little break - I find myself with some fresh finds. Here I thought I was going to do this bi-weekly and use the word "fortnight" more often. Oh well. This week, we're gonna kick it with some new oldies.

Sarah Vaughan: In the midst of a recent Amy Winehouse kick I happen to take a look at some of the similar artists listed on her last.fm page. Randomly (or subconsciously?) I clicked over to see what Sarah Vaughan is about. (Amy does count her as an influence, after all, and drops her name in at least one of her songs.) I usually have to be in just the right mood to appreciate such mellow stuff, but her voice is so soulful and sexy that I couldn't help but fall for her.

Sarah Vaughan - In a Sentimental Mood

Marva Whitney: As mentioned in my recent post about the Ghetto Funk Power Hour there was one artist on that first listen who really grabbed hold. Mr. Griptite closed out the hour with Marva Whitney. What could have been chalked up to the excitement of the moment was proven to be more that. A quick search and listen on Hype Machine showed me that she is a standout. She may not be well-known among those of the interweb generation, but DAMN sister's got soul. And she shows that she can throw down the jazz flavor as well. I'm sold.

Marva Whitney - Sunny (with James Brown)

Either of these ladies would be worth investing in a time machine so I could go back and see them at the height of their glory. Unless of course anyone has a spare laying around that I could borrow for such a purpose. I promise I'll bring it back nice and shiny.

Ghetto Funk Power Hour

Man... soul sure is blowing up for me lately. It's takin' over my world. I like it. The other day I got a newsletter from Daptone with a blurb about the debut of the Ghetto Funk Power Hour radio show. It's hosted by Binky Griptite who rolls with one Sharon Jones, so you know he's got some soul cred. I took a little listen and, oh glory of glories, it was good. I have to admit that he doesn't strike me as the most proficient of DJs and there are some kinks there to be ironed out, but the soul was all classic. It makes me sad that I was born in the 80s, I feel like I missed out on so much. How sweet would it have been to listened to this stuff in its heyday? There was quite a lot of good and I may have to dig through again for research purposes, but there was one artist who's thoroughly grabbed my attention. More about that after I've had some time to digest her funky soul goodness and do up a proper new music post.

It's late and I'm feeling so tired

I thought naps were supposed to be a good thing. It would seem this is not always the case. First, I had this weird dream where I wanted to get dessert so I went walkin' about to find some. Only I headed into this rougher residential neighborhood, so of course I wasn't going to find anything. I wanted to turn around and head back, but had just passed some random person and was worried about them watching and judging me when I immediately went past them again. Figured I would turn at the corner, walk over a block and then head back on the next street over. It was all going beautifully, until for some reason I found myself walking uninvited into a random stranger's house. Luckily no one was home and I was about to leave, but my luck ran out when someone returned and found me standing there. He wasn't too pleased to find me, and told me so by pulling out a gun and shooting at me. And at a cat, just for good measure. It wasn't so bad though. I could understand where he was coming from. And it turned out the bullets were actually BBs. Once he calmed down and I got patched and drugged up, we watched infomercials and listened to music for a while.

More importantly, that stupid nap has whacked out my sleep schedule. I've been awake for like the last six hours (ugh), and so bored. Spent some time playing around under the hood of the blog. Finally figured out how to put icons on the sidebar, been meaning to get around to that for ages. Small victories. Oh, and I stumbled across Corinne Bailey Rae. Just read that her husband died of an accidental overdose while she was in the middle of recording her second album. How sad. I've yet to listen to it, but the first is still as good as I remember.

Let's hope I'm not so messed up that I can't get something productive done today.

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Now playing: Corinne Bailey Rae - Trouble Sleeping
via FoxyTunes

New Music Monday: Baby, you know I got soul

For my next trick, I will attempt to make New Music Monday a semi-regular occurrence. Perhaps bi-weekly, so I will not be under quite so much pressure to go through so many songs that I can come up with an opinion about someone I haven't heard before ever seven days (that's a little bit of pressure). Aiding me in this, on my left I have last.fm - for a geek about being organized, having so much information about who, what and when I've been listening to stuff is like pure heaven. On my right, I have blogger - I've just discovered the ability to post-date posts (and have them automatically published), which to me feels a little like having a time machine.

Now then. Some black folks are still mad about how Elvis Presley stole our music and made it big. I can't claim to know much about that, it was way before my time, and I've not taken the time to go back and study about that period of musical and cultural history. My appreciation for Elvis pretty much starts and stops with that remix of A Little Less Conversation; other than that, to me he just doesn't sound like someone to get excited about. I used to wonder if the reason he didn't move me was cause he's white. I mean, let's face it, there are simply some things that white folks just aren't good at, like clapping on two and four. Not that I like to perpetuate stereotypes, but this is something I've seen many a time with my own two eyes. This week I have found some white folks who clearly know what it's all about, so I'll have to lay to rest my previous theory about why Elvis ain't got no soul. Mental note: next time I see Mos Def I should ask him what he was singin' about.

Alice Russell: I can't now recall how it was I found out about this lady, but based on who she's worked with I imagine she must have found her way into my library in connection with the Quantic Soul Orchestra. I've been diggin' on those cats for a while now, and if I remember correctly I also had a solo track or to by Ms. Russell floating around. I believe I must have listened to it, but I guess I just wasn't yet in the right place to hear it. Listening to her makes me think of soul food (the slap-yo-momma kind), she's so full of life and power and emotion. She's also so incredibly vibrant she makes me think of classy sassy black ladies, or perhaps a diva who's been at this for years. Surprise! Turns out she's a white girl. Not only that, but she's from Britain. I knew they were famous for rock, but soul? Well then... shut my mouth. In light of these developments I would like to offer my profuse apologies to all the white people and specifically white girls who I ever spoke or thought ill of. In the future Iy'll even take it easy on teasing you about the clapping thing.

Alice Russell - Hurry On Now
And for further knowledge, check her out behind the scenes @ SXSW '09.

Leigh Jones: This is one currently in my brain's inbox for checking out in the immediate future, on the recommendation of one Peevee Wonder of Animate Objects. Actually, he suggested everyone google her. Me, I take that to mean I should last.fm and hypem her (I swear to Bob, if I ever hear anyone seriously use those terms as verbs I'm gonna go poke the interwebs in the eye with a big pointy stick).

New Music Mhursday

A-whoops. Maybe if I was better at posting on a regular basis, I could do a weekly thing about what I've been diggin (or not). And it'd be all alliterative and awesome. Think about how nice that would be! But I'm just me, sooo... Mhursday it is. I'm sure it's fine, because in the words of

Florence + The Machine: I have no idea where this one came from, but girl's got a big ol' voice. It's surprising to hear that much power coming from a vocalist these days, but especially so from one so young. And who knew white British people had soul? First Amy (she may be a hot mess in her private life, but she's got pipes and you know it), then Duffy, now Flo. Been listening to her take on quite a few covers and it puts quite the interesting spin on things. A lot of those have been of the rock and indie variety, but you can tell she's into history as well. Mad respect for anyone who's into Candi Staton. I just can't. Get. Enough. Wanna hear more, know more, and maybe marry her.

Florence + The Machine - You've Got the Love (Candi Staton cover)

Eternia: This one caught my attention from Bob knows where on the interwebs. It's terribly hard to find good female emcees these days, people that have a sound that says style, a sound that says class, a sound that says this is hip-hop. And if that's what you're looking for, don't stop, cause you won't find it here. I'll give her that she's got something going for her, and I'll likely give her at least a second listen before I put her away and forget about her, but after hearing what she has to say on Get Caught Up I can't say I'm all that impressed. Certainly I can't understand why anyone would go so far as to claim Eternia is "the best female rapper alive"*, as I saw someone comment on last.fm. That's the kind of bold statement that, I feel, deserves a bit of inspection. There are a lot of subjective and hard to measure variables that could qualify one as being among the best emcees alive. To list a few: 1. A firm grasp of the four elements (if you don't know what those are, go back to hip-hop kindergarten). For that, the first that controversially comes to mind would be Fergie; I know, I know she quite possibly ruined the Black Eyed Peas, and she really went off the rails with that solo shit she pulled, but for a while there BEP was one of the rare contemporary hip-hop groups that incorporated break dancing. For that, they will always have my respect. Even if it's locked away in a time capsule from the days of their first two albums. 2. The ability to tell a compelling story that draws in the listener. When it comes to this, I have to say it's hard to be better than Brother Ali, Aesop Rock, Immortal Technique (though he will get a little too into it for my tastes), or Slug (more for the early- to mid-2000s; wasn't so much diggin on that When Life Gives You Lemons...). All of them make me feel like a little kid listening to a bedtime story that I don't want to end. The skill to lay absolutely dope verses over some fresh beats. Jean Grae, Psalm One or Lauren Hill (back when she used to be about hip-hop, before she went all crazy and came out with Unplugged) can all do this in a way that'll get the crowd jumpin. I do have to give Eternia at least some credit on this aspect; her flows and beats do not suck. But on my first listen, it didn't sound like she was talking about anything. Nor did it seem she was bringing an energy that I could connect to, and the beats started to sound a little repetitive and mechanical. Give me something original and laced with fire. Maybe I'm being a little hard on the girl, but I'm particular about my hip-hop. After all, someone's gotta stand up and make sure the world isn't overrun by a bunch of crap rappers.

Eternia - Foul Child

*Technically, she said "raper", but we'll go ahead and let that potentially tragic typo slide.

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Now playing: Black Eyed Peas - They Don't Want Music [feat. James Brown]
via FoxyTunes

Does anybody like real music, sweet music, soul music?

My name is Marcus... and I like music. Is there an anon. group out there for me, I wonder? I should check that out, maybe get some help.

I don't listen to the radio much in this modern age as finding stuff on the internets is more suitable to my schedule and attention span. Between last.fm and hype machine I really, truly do not need to spend any more of my time discovering new music. (Really. Have I mentioned the addiction?) Sometimes, though, it really comes through. The other day on KDHX I caught the sound Choklate, just a taste, but enough that I wanted to look into it further. After listening to her latest album To Whom It May Concern, I am floored by how amazing this artist is who was nowhere on my radar. For the most part she's got this neo-soul flavor thing going, but mixed in at times is a bit of hip-hop and - slightly surprising - a hint of disco. My favorite track right now is "The Tea", which reminds me of Jamiroquai's style. Makes me want to get up and dance.

And because everything is degrees of separation, I was reminded to take a second listen to one of my longtime notable favorite emcees, Chali 2na (Choklate and Chali did a little something something together). Been diggin' him since back in the J5 days, of course, and also some of his collaborations (Chali + Galactic = fantabulously zawesome, that was easily one of the all-time best shows I've been to). Somehow I hadn't paid a great deal of attention when came out with his solo work Fish Outta Water. I don't know if on his own he quite brings the depth that was standard from J5, but it's definitely worth a few listens. I should slap myself for sitting on this for so long without putting it into heavier rotation.

A little closer to home...
Loyal Family isn't a... label? Production / promo company? I don't even know how to identify them, I know so little about them. I think they may have had something to do with a music festival I went to once upon a time, and maybe with a band(s) that I'm into. Not terribly sure, though. Whatever the case, they sure seem to be getting up to a lot lately. Checking back over the blog I see quite a few quality shows that I would have loved to see, had I not been so busy having my head up my bum. That's the only inexcusable reason I can think that I missed freakin' Digable Planets comin' through town. Gah. How silly of me.

Eleven magazine, formerly dedicated to expanding the musical horizons of the Wash U set, is trying to get all big for its britches. They'll now be aiming for a wider St. Louis audience, focused predominately on indie rock, rock, hip-hop, soul and funk. Yes, please, and yes, yes, yes and yes, I will take the works. I figure more exposure of the scene can't hurt, 'specially if they're going to hit pretty much all of my favorite genres without any uninteresting dead weight. Something new to keep an eye on.

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Now playing: The Roots - Good Music
via FoxyTunes