Monthly ArchiveDecember 2006
Uncategorized 26 Dec 2006 12:45 pm
SUPERBAD.
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James Brown passed away yesterday. After having battled pneumonia last week, he died from congestive heart failure in an Atlanta hospital early Christmas morning.
I can’t even put into words how much of an impact his influence has made on me personally. Most of the musical *genres* I’ve been following over the past 10+ years wouldn’t even exist if James Brown hadn’t been born. Hip-Hop. Funk. Breakbeat. Jungle. Baltimore Club. They’ve all been built up from a framework designed by James Brown.
For example, a 20-second drum solo near the end of the song ‘Funky Drummer’ is perhaps the single most sampled piece of music in history.
My favorite music producers of all time (The Bomb Squad) really implanted the JB bug into my brain at an early age. Just listening to old Public Enemy, it’s amazing how much of the production incorporates snippets/horns/breaks from original JB material.
“To explain the fever pitch that James Brown records set … it would take using words still not invented…Today, hip-hop seems a far distance from the mighty funk the man set upon all of us.” – Chuck D
Once I got a little older, I started getting more and more into the original JB material. After a decade of being a club/radio DJ, I’ve been exposed to alot of different music. Certain things stick with me forever, and horn riffs or breaks hold a special spot in the back of my brain. Going through James Brown’s discography, I’m bombarded with samples I’ve heard over the years in other peoples’ music. It’s overwhelming at times. It really is amazing to me how little he complained about the constant sampling of his copyrighted material – when you’ve got bands like Metallica holding news conferences to address kids downloading their music online. It just goes to show what a selfless performer/artist/entertainer James Brown always has been.
I’m still in shock that he’s actually gone – and although his music and his legacy will live on eternally, it will still take me some time to personally come to grips with the magnitude of this situation. So I won’t blabber on too long about it. Just want to express my gratitude and to lend some perspective on how enormous an impact James Brown’s life and music has made on our universe….
First , though – big up to NPR for supplying a quality mp3 download of James Brown live at DC’s own 930 Club. This was recorded nearly a year ago today.
James Brown – Live at 930 Club// Washington DC [Dec. 2005]:
http://anon.npr-mp3.speedera.net/anon.npr-mp3/asc/live/20051228_asc_jbrownfull.mp3
referring url: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5070028
JB Facts/Timeline (c/o www.funky-stuff.com):
Facts :
Date of Birth: May 3, 1933
Place of Birth: Macon, GA, USA
Sign: Sun in Taurus, Moon in Leo
Education: Alto Reform School
Relations: Wife: Adrienne Brown (deceased); companion: Rolonda Watts; kids: Deanna, Terry, Daryl, Venisha,Yamma
James Brown dies : Dec 25, 2006
James Brown is #2 of all time with hit records behind Elvis Presley. He is number 1 in R&B hits with
over 116 charted hits during his career :
James Brown has 96 top 100 hits, Aretha Franklin 86
James Brown has 116 R&B hits, Aretha Franklin 90+
Related topic : Hit list, Singles List
Timeline
May 3, 1933
James Brown is born in Barnwell, South Carolina. He is raised in poverty in Augusta, Georgia, 40 miles away.
1953
James Brown joins the Gospel Starlighters, a vocal quartet led by Bobby Byrd, after completing a four-year stint in prison for robbery. The group will change its focus from gospel to R&B and its name to the Famous Flames, as Brown becomes the focal point of the act.
November 1, 1955
The Famous Flames record “Please Please Please” at the studio of WIBB in Macon, Georgia.
January 23, 1956
Producer and talent scout Ralph Bass travels to Macon to sign James Brown to the King/Federal label, beating Leonard Chess (of Chess Records) to the punch.
February 4, 1956
James Brown and the Famous Flames cut “Please Please Please” at King/Federal studios in Cincinnati, backed by the label’s crack house band. James Brown’s recording debut rises to #5 on the R&B chart.
October 1, 1957
After Little Richard abruptly quits rock and roll for religion, James Brown honors pending tour dates in the South in his place. Several members of Little Richard’s backup band, the Upsetters, become Famous Flames.
October 1, 1958
James Brown’s first #1 hit, “Try Me,” is released. It is the best-selling R&B single of 1958�and the first of 17 chart-topping R&B singles by Brown over the next two decades.
October 24, 1962
The midnight show on this particular evening of James Brown’s seven-night stand at the Apollo Theatre in New York City is taped and released as Live at the Apollo.
OCTOBER 28-29, 1964
The concert film The TAMI Show is recorded in Santa Monica, CA, featuring James Brown, the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones and the Supremes.
February 1, 1965
James Brown records “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” a revolutionary single that ushers in a whole new era of soul music. Released that summer, it tops the R&B chart for eight weeks and even cracks the pop Top Ten.
July 1, 1971
James Brown signs with Polydor Records, for which he’ll record extensively throughout the decade.
September 1, 1972
“Get On the Good Foot” tops the R&B chart for a month and peaks at #18 in the pop Top Forty. A gold-certified million seller, it establishes James Brown as a potent influence on black music in the Seventies�or, as he takes to calling himself, “the Godfather of Soul.”
January 5, 1974
The Payback, the most successful of James Brown’s Seventies albums�many of which were double-LPs with lengthy, extended tracks�makes its debut on Billboard’s album chart. It is the only gold-certified (500,000 copies sold) album of his career.
September 1, 1974
Price stages a music festival in Zaire, Africa, with boxing promoter Don King. The event attracts 120,000 people and offers James Brown, B.B. King, Etta James, Bill Withers, the Spinners and others.
September 1, 1979
James Brown, who has watched his sales figures slip in the disco era, attempts to move in on that market with The Original Disco Man, which only reaches #152 in the album chart.
June 1, 1980
James Brown contributes an unforgettable cameo as a manic preacher in the John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd film The Blues Brothers.
September 1, 1984
Bronx rapper Afrika Bambaataa teams up with James Brown to record the anthemic single “Unity.”
January 11, 1986
“Living in America,” the theme song from Rocky IV, reaches #4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, becoming James Brown’s biggest pop hit since “I Got You (I Feel Good)” went to #3 in 1965.
January 23, 1986
James Brown is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the first induction dinner, held in New York City.
December 15, 1988
James Brown is sentenced to a six-year prison term after a year’s worth of arrests on various assault, drug possession and vehicular charges. He leaves prison on parole on February 27, 1991.
February 25, 1992
James Brown receives a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards.
February 25, 1993
James Brown receives a Lifetime Achievement Award at the fourth annual Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards. MC Hammer is his presenter.
May 3, 1998
James Brown turns 65 years old.
Dec 25, 2006
James Brown die after being hospitalized with pneumonia
*James Brown’s discography is huge. Too huge to list here. But check it out here: http://www.funky-stuff.com/jamesbrown/disco.htm and here: http://www.discogs.com/artist/James+Brown.
Thanks for a lifetime of funk, Mr. James Brown. Hopefully you’ll be the one to meet me at the ‘pearly gates’ when my time finally comes.
Uncategorized 17 Dec 2006 06:10 pm
Music Review: Mojo Jones – Acid House EP
This 6-track EP by DC native Mojo Jones shows the dude has an ear for rocking dancefloors. Generally staying within a 4/4 house framework, Mojo utilizes funky horns and analog bleeps to create a balanced flow. The first track ‘Chimichanga’ has a definite latin vibe, but he flips the script by introducing strange flangey vocal snippets and a great use of stereo separation in the mix. He takes a bit of a detour into vocoded acid funk with ‘Om the Floor rmx’ – sorta reminds me of some classic Cut’n'Paste or Bassbin Twins material. Another one of my favorites on the EP is ‘Paging Bass (Acid Rmx)’. More acid lovelies and orchestrated bleep sequences carry you along a foundation of grimey bassline and disembodied vocoded vocals. Again, he introduces some classic 303 squelch to build up a synthline that carries you through the spacescape. If you know your techno/rave history, this should harken back to the classics – LFO and early Warp Records releases (and tastefully done, at that). All in all, this EP was surprisingly refreshing. I’m always syked when I hear DC-area producers who keep the oldskool vibe alive with an updated twist, and Mr. Mojo Jones definitely pulled that off.
Hit up Mojo’s myspace spot to contact & check out his tunes: http://www.myspace.com/digital4lifemusic
Download Mojo Jones mixes here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=64889016
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Uncategorized 17 Dec 2006 12:59 pm
NYC 11.30.06
Part of 88’s mission is to take time to highlight what’s happening ‘outside the DC Met’. Below is 88 blogger Leigh Dailey’s ruminations on her ‘techno’ trip to NYC.
11.30.06
Matthew Dear’s last release was with Ellen Allien, under his pseudo name Audion (released on Spectral out of Ann Arbor), was appropriately called, Just a Man/Woman. I do see it as fine battle of the sexiest (music wise) techno sexes but I have to say that the man comes out on…um…top, pretty hot and heavy this time. Oh and there’s a recently released 12” with the delicious track, Mouth to Mouth, mmm. But anyway, I’m still an avid listener of his full-length Ghostly releases Backstroke and Leave Luck to Heaven. As well as the other Audion released album, Suckfish. How can you not love a heavy dirty techno hitting album that has tracks named “Your Place or Mine,” “Just Fucking,” and “Vegetables.” I mean, I do. So, now you know that I fucking love Matthew Dear and all the other names he goes by.
Ryan Elliot. While he hasn’t released any of his own produced music, he IS the golden boy DJ of Spectral Records, releasing such albums as Spectral Sound Vol. 1 which is obviously decent. It’s Spectral artists, completing various mixes like this 30-minute Ghostlycast #5 (http://www.ghostly.com/ghostlycasts/) and also a mix on the Percussion Lab site (http://www.percussionlab.com/Sets/RyanElliottShow.shtml). There are some other highly recommended mixes on this site as well. You should take some time and listen, to what I consider to be some of the more obscure music producers that have sets from either the Percussion Lab parties in Brooklyn or just sets sent in. (Love PercussionLab!)
Matthew Dear and Ryan Elliot seem to be on the same page musically and play together more often than not, it seems. So I couldn’t help but jump at the chance to go to Ceilo in NYC with some good friends of mine that were driving up from DC to see them play as well.
So I make it to Alexandria just in time to get in the rented SUV with four other friends and it’s a lovely party of five. We leave promptly at four to sit in traffic for two hours just getting to Baltimore. We do actually arrive in NY, by 9:30, just in time to get proper and ready to shake-shake some sweet ass.
A friend, J , and I meet up and leave to go to Bar On A/BOA for some cocktails. The bar is a small place in the East Village where J Djs once a month. We’re of course thinking that Matthew Dear won’t properly come on until about one or so. Makes sense in NYC, right? We sit and chat with the bartender, sipping up our drinks rather quickly in the warm, dimly lit non-smoking environment. After a few proper gin and tonics, we take a cab over to the meatpacking district for the event.
Walking in, I check in my jacket and we give our tickets to the ladies at the door. We turn the corner and find a room not yet fully crowded but definitely alive with enough bodies dancing to know that some good sound is being thrown down. Over to the right I look and see that it’s Dear and Elliot, they had already started. We get a couple of $12 cocktails and stand to the side and listen to get a feel of what’s really going on. Five minutes into being there, it’s time for a cigarette. I was somehow not yet thoroughly enthralled enough to 1.) Dance and 2.) Not smoke. There’s a nice courtyard with heated lamps and a somewhat nice vibe of a bunch of people not totally fucked up. One wall of the courtyard is actually a giant window so you could still see what’s going on in on the dance floor and see the Djs themselves as well.
Back inside we run into my friends I rode up with, Jen, with fiery pink hair and Randy, tall and sweaty already. They ask, “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!” And I’m thinking, “Aw fuck.” Learning that I’ve already missed a solid hour of Matthew Dear and what I have determined to be the best set of the night, Trent Moeller. I heard he fucking rocked.
We join them in front of the DJ booth, where the proper amount of sound was coming from, with Rick and Torrey. Something about getting with the right amount of friends and starting to feel the music, making us all dance like somewhat maniacs with the entire front of the room staring at us.
Dear and Elliot are of course doing a tag team set. Noticing that Matthew Dear would throw down a nice either heavy hitting techno or minimal bass dumping track then Elliot would come back with something a little light and airy. Then right when I’m seriously getting down, hair being thrown back and forth, hips out of control, one of them would mix in a fucking house track. Fucking house? You don’t know me so you don’t know my serious hatred of house (trance too to be honest from the start-or anything sounds like it.) So of course, it’s not the most ridiculous out of the ridiculous of house tracks that I’ve heard, I mean, it has to flow and it did. But the sound nearly wanted to make me vomit. Ok it wasn’t THAT bad but it was fairly disappointing. Maybe if they had been playing at the warehouse party we went to two nights later, the set would have been different and more what I was expecting, but I’ll get to that in a few minutes.
I continue to dance, feel the track being brought in, shake it for a few, listen to the next track, ass slows until I’m just completely standing there, watching the rest of the room still busting some moves. Going to smoke, talking with the people outside, getting stared at, being spoken to in Russian because I have to be Russian, of course! Go back inside and head to the bar to get another round of cocktails. This brings us to the highlight of the night (yes it’s kind of sad.) J and I see Randy at the bar ordering drinks. He gets seven rounds of Patron Silver for $98 and we all carry them to the front of the DJ booth. We pass them out amongst our friends and he hands two to the house/techno playing Djs. We all cheers and tip our glass. I laugh hysterically at the cringed look on the Djs faces after they realize it was a nice glass of chilled tequila.
There were only a couple tracks that I recognized. Something off the Suckfish album and a new single that was released, Mouth to Mouth (referenced earlier.) I heard him play it on a radio show out of Detroit, that is sadly no longer online, right before the last DEMF. Ahh to live in Detroit for this shit…
Then I left. EARLY! Overall, two stars. I hope that this was due to the space and the people that were there. Not necessarily the Ghostly and Spectral lovers that were out that evening. I did pick up on that. Not sure if it was the promoting, I really don’t know what it was. I’m thrilled that I went and am finally able to say that I saw one of my favorite producers, but I will in no way say that I was impressed with the set but who’s to say I won’t be impressed with the next. I’m a hard-ass when it comes to the music.
12.1.06
After a full night of partying into the next day, Friday is left for sleep. Matthew Dear was playing at the Apple store in Manhattan this night but I was too incredibly tired to get up, though it was planned on being a part of the trip. My friend De Rigueur (Citrona/Bastard Jazz/ESL) went and said after 20 minutes he left, I’ll quote him verbatim as he said he was leaving the “Apple bore.” Go figure.
12.2.06
So Saturday, J and I meet Jen Lasher and her good friend Dan. Dan is the manager of the electro pop band, Shiny Toy Guns and Jen is currently doing a remix of one of their tracks. We meet in the East Village and have sushi at a small restaurant and a couple of drinks. Next we all head over to BOA and delight in conversation with all us music heads. Mike (De Rigueur) takes a train over from Brooklyn and the lovely cocktails keep flowing. After about five gin and tonics and two shots of Patron, Mike, J and I head to Brooklyn for the once a month Wolf + Lamb warehouse party that was limited to 300 people, where Dan Bell and Derek Plaslaiko are to play. I’m not as familiar with Bell, a “minimal techno pioneer” but here’s a dope set of his that you can get an idea of his sound (http://www.pacotek.com/mp3/telaviv2db.mp3). And of course, Plaslaiko is another Spectral DJ, the other Golden Boy.
Despite being a little drunk, this party was by far the best party that I’ve been to in quite a while. These warehouse parties are set up out here, generally in someone’s home, which is in fact, the warehouse, and where it’s not fully promoted. The benefits of this are numerous. There’s smoking (usually) permitted or overlooked, the amount of people is generally regulated as to not have the party busted as quickly and it’s for the people who love music without all the bullshit generally received at the clubs.
What can I say about this event? The entire room was busting up the floor, seriously, every single person. Plaslaiko started the evening with a tech-house set that was generally good, who can complain, except for me (and I did but I take it all back!) Dan Bell followed up with the most amazing minimal techno set that in no way could keep anyone from at least bobbing their head and that’s taking it lightly. If he is to be around, I will not miss it. I danced myself all over the place, rarely sitting down to talk with friends. I saw Matthew Dear in the corner next to the DJ booth, staying sly and away from any mass with his crew. Dan and Derek finished up with a tag team set. The music selection from both was obvious. Kind of the same when Dear and Ryan Elliot were tag teaming together. I knew when Bell had just thrown down his selection and right when Derek followed up. There was an obvious “better” of the two. Both situations, one was just more solid to the sound that I went to NYC for.
From burying my face in corners, watching people piss on the roof, seeing smiling faces when the bass line kicked in to dancing like fool non-stop, this party was fucking great.
Check out the Wolf + Lamb website (http://wolflambmusic.com/) for mixes from previous parties. I would imagine that the mixes from this party will be up any day now. Keep checking, you will wish you were there. Fuck, I wish I was back there now.
Listen to this Dj Camea mix too: http://www.clinkrecordings.com/sounds/no_sleep_until_brooklyn.mp3.
.end transmission.
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Uncategorized 02 Dec 2006 02:38 pm
88 Music + PMX Radio present Dub Foundation III
88 + PMX have been doing this weekly collab for quite awhile now – every Wednesday night from 8-10pm EST. Each month we choose a musical theme to follow, and for November we took the theme of DUB to task. I think Dub music in general has gained a lot of fans over the years, but there aren’t many folks who really understand the ‘big picture’. I was fortunate enough to grow up with an older brother who really picked up on Punk and Dub culture at an early age, and therefore exposed me to it at an even earlier age. From my experience, many people I’ve met who appreciate Reggae and Dub music started off with the standard Bob Marley material. Sure, Bob was an enormously important missionary for Reggae music worldwide. But (with all due respects to Bob) I believe his celebrity status has unfortunately eclipsed the importance of the studio/live musicians and engineers who created the backdrop for his lyrics.
I’d heard Bob Marley as a kid, and his music is something that I’ll always remember. But what *really* flipped the Dub switch for me was Bad Brains.
I can see from the tape cover that I dubbed this off my brother Lee’s Bad Brains tapes in 1990 (day after Christmas – weird), which puts me at 13/14 years of age. This must have been my 8th Grade year, and between 8th + 9th Grades I clearly remember my interest in ‘underground’ music becoming turbo-charged. I had already been more-or-less obsessive about heavy metal music for a couple of years, and I had stumbled upon the renegade transmissions of 89.7fm WCVT/Towson around the same time. Also around this time, I distinctly remember a conversation with my brother’s best friend Sam about the strangest, most disturbing music he’s ever heard. He told me it was a group called Coil, and specifically referred to their Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser**. He said they made “Industrial Music.” That conversation pretty much sealed the deal.
All these random situations helped make a big impression on me, and since then I’ve always used this short time period as a reference point for my musical interests/tastes. Jane’s Addiction, Danzig, Samhain, Minor Threat and Public Enemy got heavy rotation in my JVC boombox back in the day, but those Bad Brains tapes (specifically their self-titled debut) definitely made the biggest impact on me. Within the first 6 seconds of the first song on the album, I was hooked. I remember physically losing my breath and feeling dizzy when I first heard this album – the way they took aggressive whiteboy punk/hardcore to another level, and then they blindside you with blissful/heavenly dub excursions. And they were from DC, so I’ve always felt a strange connection.
Those few dub tunes I heard on the Bad Brains albums set the wheels in motion for me. My brother has since acquired a massive collection of Dub on CD, and along with his collection comes a vast knowledge of the subject. I’m slowly still figuring everything out piece by piece, but I know what I like and when I like something I want more of it. Thanks to my brother, the stream of fresh Dub never seems to end; coincidentally, nearly all the material included in the Dub Foundation shows came directly from his enormous personal collection. Props to 88 Music for reflecting similar love for all things Dub, and for providing a venue to share it and expose it to new listeners. Big props to my brother Lee for providing the Dub guidance and sourcing all this material so that it could travel throughout the interwebs freely. Without a doubt, the Dub Foundation situation is pretty much dedicated to you.
Without further ramblings, here’s the bizness. 88 Music + PMX Radio presents Dub Foundation part III: 70s Style…
**********************
Dub Foundation III [a]
http://www.eightyeightdc.com/download/dub_foundation_III_a.mp3
1. Cedric Im Brooks/Light Of Saba – Words of Wisdom (3:34)
2. Cedric Im Brooks/Light Of Saba – Song for My Father (5:04)
3. Cedric Im Brooks/Light Of Saba – Sabayindah (3:22)
4. Cedric Im Brooks/Light Of Saba – Sound (2:03)
5. Lee Perry & The Upsetters – Licky-Licky (3:05)
6. Lee Perry & The Upsetters – Voodoo Man (3:39)
7. Lee Perry & The Upsetters – Wise Dub (2:55)
8. Lee “Scratch” Perry/I-Roy – Upsetting Dub (3:56)
9. Lee “Scratch” Perry/I-Roy – Lee Perry Special Dub (3:54)
10. Lee “Scratch” Perry/I-Roy – Rough Already (3:14)
11. Skin Flesh & Bones; Lloyd Campbell – Scotch Dub (3:26)
12. King Tubby/Prince Jammy/The Aggrovators – A Living Version (3:10)
13. Burning Spear – Natural [Version] (5:15)
14. Burning Spear – Jomo [Version] (3:09)
15. Philip Fullwood – Word [Version] (4:19)
16. Burning Spear – Walking [Version] (3:13)
17. Burning Spear – In Those Days (3:25)
Dub Foundation III [b]
http://www.eightyeightdc.com/download/dub_foundation_III_b.mp3
18. Burning Spear – Help Us (3:42)
19. Burning Spear – Musiya (3:12)
20. Burning Spear – All Over (2:05)
21. Burning Spear – Associate (3:51)
22. Ricky Storm (I Kong) – The Way It Is Version (3:20)
23. The Hardy Boys – Chucky Dub (2:52)
24. Tafari Syndicate – All For Free (3:44)
25. The Village Bunch – Diverse Doctrine Version (3:39)
26. Prince Far I – Throw Away Yor Gun (Dub) (4:31)
27. Creation Rebel – Starship Africa: Section 2 (5:15)
28. Creation Rebel – Space Movement: Section 1 (8:51)
29. Creation Rebel – Space Movement: Section 2 (4:08)
30. Creation Rebel – Space Movement: Section 3 (4:14)
31. Creation Rebel – Space Movement: Section 4 (4:34)
** sidenote: “Clive Barker and Coil were friends during the early 1980s and it’s been frequently noted that he was inspired to write “Hellraiser” from some of the literature and art Coil used to collect. Naturally he wanted Coil to do the score but while initial reports claim their music was “too scary” for the film, the reality is closer to that of the Hollywood studio wanting their own chums to do the work.”