Win an iPod Shuffle with The Bridges

Exactly one month ago today I wrote about family band The Bridges. Their album Limits of the Sky came out today, and was produced by longtime rocker Matthew Sweet. To celebrate the occasion, I have a fab-tacular contest to share with you. I've got a specially engraved iPod Shuffle to give away with the album already loaded on it to give away to one lucky reader. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment (or e-mail me) with you name and e-mail address and you'll be in the running. Next Tuesdayish I'll choose a winner at random and notify them via e-mail. In the meantime, enjoy the following:

Watch this video of them covering The Mamas & the Papas' California Dreaming live

The Bridges - All the Words : Limits of the Sky

The Bridges - Echo : Limits of the Sky


Matthew Sweet - This Moment : Sweet Relief

Visit their label Verve Forecast and become their friend on MySpace.

The Renaissance Musician

You want to talk about a Renaissance Musician? Elvis Costello is your man. During his 30+ years on the scene, he's spanned the genres of punk, rock, pop and new wave, and dabbled in blues, jazz, country, soul, classical, and ballet. And out of the blue, he's back with a new album.

The story behind the album is an interesting one. Costello was invited to help Jenny Lewis out with the creation of Rabbit Fur Coat, and upon finding a good portion of the members of his band in the studio helping her out, decided to cut some tracks of his own. Over a short span of a couple of weeks, the twelve tracks of Momofuku were hammered out, and an album was born. You can even hear Jenny's voice on the album if you listen closely (try Go Away below). The album's not a conceptual one like much of his later albums are. It's simply good, old-fashioned, Elvis Costello music.

Elvis Costello - American Gangster Time : Momofuku

Elvis Costello - Go Away : Momofuku

Visit his website, his label Lost Highway Records, and become his friend on MySpace.

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Elvis Costello & The Attractions - High Fidelity (Live at Geleen, June-4-1979) : Get Happy!! (Bonus Disc)

Elvis Costello - All This Useless Beauty : Live from 6A

Elvis Costello With Burt Bacharach - God Give Me Strength : Live On Letterman: Music From The Late Show

Time Travelling with Plantlife

Plantlife's new album Time Traveller opens up with the title track (which you can hear below). The first time I spun the album, I listened to the track three times in a row before continuing on with the other eighteen tracks. Yeah, it's that good. In it, lead singer Jack Splash runs through a virtual litany of who's who of old skool rap and funk, and sets up the listener (in this case, me) for a trip back through some good times. Listen to the song, and watch the video at least once for some classic flashbacks.

And now for those other eighteen tracks. To be fair, they deliver well on half of what's promised. You'll be get a healthy does (over an hour) of some electron-funk sounds a la Funkadelic and Sly & The Family Stone, although the hip-hop connection just isn't so plain, especially if you're thinking mid 80's, turn of the 90's. You'll find glimpses of it here and there (try Don't Go Around Looking For A Broken Heart) that will remind a discerning listener of hip-hop in its infancy and tunes like Afrika Bambaataa use to drop.

If you're not all that familiar with Splash, his voice is a falsetto that will instantly remind you of another funk-product: Prince (or whatever symbol or name he's going by now a days). Love Toy is a perfect example to show the parallels. Depending on your mood, the voice might get to you after an hour, but if 70's funk is your thing, give the album a try.

Plantlife - Time Traveller : Time Traveller
(watch the video)

Plantlife - Don't Go Around Looking For A Broken Heart : Time Traveller

Visit their website and become their friend on MySpace.

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Funkadelic - Freak of the Week : Uncle Jam Wants You

Sly & The Family Stone - Luv N' Haight : Family Affair 7" B-side

Prince - Uptown : The Hits/The B-Sides (Disc 1)

Sunday Soul - James Hunter

Today's bit of soul-lovin' is actually a brand new album that's coming out this week by Brit James Hunter (yea, that's him above). The album is titled The Hard Way, and it's Hunter's second release. Where as Sharon Jones takes you back to the late 60's Stax sound, Hunter takes you back a little further, with a texture that will remind you of late 50's and early 60's music. It's got that feeling from when the soul genre was starting to define itself and was pulling on a handful of influences in an attempt to spread its wings.

Check out the title track below (which also is the opening track), and you'll hear what I'm talking about. It's got that early R&B / R&R feel to it with a beat you could sock-hop to and a sax pushing through here and there. The next track, Tell Her, slows things down a bit and adds some backing vocalists a la The Coasters. In the third track, Don't Do Me No Favors (also below), James really hits his stride, and from there on out, his vocals really remind me of Ray Charles.

Not only is his sound tailored to recreate the 50's, the way his sound sounds on the album even has a retro recorded value to it. Enjoy this present day blast from the past, and check out Hunter's upcoming tour dates below.

James Hunter - The Hard Way : The Hard Way

James Hunter - Don't Do Me No Favors : The Hard Way
(watch the video of a live performance)

Visit his website, his label Hear Music, and become his friend on MySpace.

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the Harlem Experiment House Band - A Rose In Spanish Harlem (feat. James Hunter) : The Harlem Experiment

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Upcoming Tour Dates

Jun-10 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania World Café Live
Jun-11 New York, New York Blender Theatre
Jun-14 St Louis, MO Fox Theatre
Jun-17 Kettering, OH Fraze Pavilion
Jun-19 Ann Arbor, MI Ann Arbor Summer Festival
Jun-20 Highland Park, IL Ravinia
Jun-24 Toronto, ON Toronto Jazz Festival
Jun-26 Minneapolis, MN Minnesota Zoo
Jun-27 Council Bluffs, Iowa Stir Summer Concert Series
Jun-28 Milwaukee, WI Summerfest
Jul-01 Los Angeles, California Troubadour
Jul-04 Quincy, California High Sierra Music Festival
Jul-05 Quincy, CA High Sierra Music Festival
Jul-06 Portland, Oregon Waterfront Blues Festival
Jul-08 Seattle, WA Triple Door
Jul-11 San Francisco, CA Bimbo' 365 Club
Jul-12 Santa Barbara Lobero Theater
Jul-16 Austin, TX Antone's

Violator

White Williams - Violator : Smoke

Visit his label Domino Records and become his friend on MySpace.

Verve Remixed

Imagine you're a world renowned record label. You've been around for over 50 years and most of the great jazz musicians have come through your doors to record with you at some point in their career. But since your heyday in the late 50's and 60's, you've been passed from company to company, and it seems that you're destined for the old folks home and to fade into obscurity in relation to the newest generation of music listeners. The problem is posed: how to rejuvenate yourself and find some relevancy with today's culture, to convince new ears to listen to old music. The answer: open your musical vaults to contemporary electronic music producers and DJs (folks like Diplo, the Cinematic Orchestra, Antibalas, and others) to breathe new life into classic tracks and make them new again. And it works.

That's what Verve Records has done with their Remixed series which they started in 2002. The latest volume, volume 4, continues with twelve tracks from names possibly still familiar with newer ears (James Brown, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald) as well as some from artists who undeservedly time has not been so kind to (Dinah Washington, Marlena Shaw, Astrud Gilberto, Roy Ayers, Willie Bobo - whose original version of Evil Ways, the song that helped launch Santana's career, you'll find here). There is some incredible music here. Timeless music. Music that really deserves not to be lost. In fact, the tracks that I most enjoy on the album are the ones that are from the artists I'm least familiar with.

I'll be honest with you, this album has been in my car for the last two weeks, and it rarely has left my CD player (and if it has, it's promptly gone back in). Check out the following two tracks from the album along with the original versions to get a feel for how these tracks are getting updated without losing their original flavor. Consequently, Verve also offers an Unmixed companion series that offers the original versions of the songs that appear on the Remixed discs.


Marlena Shaw - California Soul (Diplo/Mad Decent Remix) : Verve Remixed 4

Marlena Shaw - California Soul : The Spice of Life


Astrud Gilberto - Bim Bom (Psapp Remix) : Verve Remixed 4

Joao Y Astrud Gilberto With Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stan Getz - Bim Bom (live) : Samba E Bossa Nova

Visit the Verve Website.

Ingrid Michaelson Contest

Ingrid Michaelson's debut album Girls and Boys has been out for a while now (since September of last year), but it seems that her star is still ascending. The folks over at Music Nation have put together a contest in which you could win either an autographed guitar or copy of the album. Of course it's not as simple as leaving your name and e-mail address though, you've got to do your best American Idol performance of her hit song The Way I Am. Click on the pic above or here and you can check it out for yourself. If that song is all you've heard from the album, do yourself a favor and listen to more of her music (and you can start with Masochist below). Personally, I think what's so compelling about her music is the dichotomy between the gentle and light tone of the music and her voice compared to the subtle darkness in the words and underlying messages embedded in the songs.

Ingrid Michaelson - Masochist : Girls and Boys

Visit her website and become her friend on MySpace.

Blind (but not deaf)

Quick track for you. Lead single for debut album from Hercules And Love Affair. The album's coming out at the end of the month, but the single is out now. It's got a flamboyant, hedonistic, Studio 54 feel about it that's nearly impossible not to move to. I can't tell you what the rest of the album sounds like, but I'm loving the single.

Hercules And Love Affair - Blind (Serge Santiago Version) : Blind Single
(watch the video for the original version)

Visit their website, their label Mute Records, and become their friend on MySpace.

The Herbaliser

I’ve been listening to Same As It Never Was for the last month or so and have really been diggin’ it. One of the reasons I think that I’ve been enjoying The Herbaliser's latest so much is the group’s continually developing skills at mixing of jazz, hip-hop, and funk, all styles that my musical meanderings have been tending towards as of late, and this album sates my thirst for all three.

The album opens up with the title track, and a horn section proudly proclaiming some Latinized Stax sounding horn riffs laid over some scratching and rhymes being dropped in the background – essentially bringing together all of the group’s influences together to get the album off on the right foot. Check it out below.

From there the album shifts towards the funk with its second track On Your Knees, which features Jessica Darling’s vocals (she appears in five of the album’s tracks - check out You're Not All That below). Again though, even though it kicks out a heavy 70’s funk vibe, you still have other elements interlaced throughout. In this case the occasional scratch cutting in between the grooved guitar and synth parts.

Up next, a little hip-hip courtesy of rhymes dropped by UK rapper Yungun (aka Essa) on Just Won’t Stop. Then, the album’s first instrumental cut (you’ll find three and a half in all – the half being the album’s closer, whose first half is instrumental with Jessica Darling making her final appearance at the very end) titled The Next Spot. The Herbaliser is known for peppering their albums with instrumentals, so it’s not surprising to see them here. What might be surprising to many listeners not familiar with their music is how fulfilling the tracks feel. At five minutes and thirty three seconds, you’d expect the track to be one you’d either skip over entirely or listen to impatiently, but that’s not the case. Even the instrumentals here sport some soul and spirit that offer audio enjoyment.

After the instrumental interlude, the album returns to Jessica with another funkified track that will remind you a lot of what Sharon Jones does with her music. You’ll then shift to another instrumental, and then back onto the hip-hop tip with South African artist Jean Grae (who the band has worked with before on Take London) on Street Karma (A Cautionary Tale).

The rest of the album rolls through the same shifts, going from funk, to jazzy instrumentals, to hip-hop, and then closing with two more tracks featuring Jessica Darling.

The Herbaliser - You're Not All That (Featuring Jessica Darling) : Same As It Never Was

and a couple from their last album:

The Herbalizer - Gadget Funk : Take London

The Herbaliser - I Am (Featuring Wildflower) : Take London (Bonus Disc)

Visit their website, their label !k7 Records, and become their friend on MySpace.

Christa Couture

Much of how people order their world is around dualities. Right or wrong. Us or them. Star Wars or Star Trek. Inability to grasp the interconnectedness of the entire picture leads to most of the world's conflicts in my opinion. Thinking about the title of Christa Couture's album could make you question simple black or white. The Wedding Singer and the Undertaker. As Christa points out, "You can't have one without the other." If anyone should know, it's Christa. The album is her response to dealing with falling in love and the heartbreaking death of her infant son.

Two sets of powerful emotions intermeshed in one powerful album. The instrumentation is pleasing, but the overwhelming beauty here lies in Christa's lyrics. From the opening track Sad Story Over, which you can hear below:

and it seems her sad story could be over on this page
if she takes this painter for a lover then her story will change
she puts the brush in his hands, leans in to him
says "paint me a kiss, then paint me a kiss again"
she was cold lying on his bedroom floor
the autumn window was open, the air marching to frozen

Christa's vocals, and the artistic feel of the album as a whole very much reminds me of Ani DiFranco, whose fans will most likely enjoy this album as well. It's quite a strong collection whose lyrics read very poetical in the liner notes and deserve to be heard as well.

Christa Couture - Sad Story Over : The Wedding Singer And The Undertaker

and one from her first album:

Christa Couture - Day 4 : Fell Out of Oz

Visit her website, her label One Foot Tapping Records, and become her friend on MySpace.

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Ani DiFranco - Both Hands : Ani DiFranco

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Upcoming Tour Dates

June 4 - Thunder Bay, ON - The Apollo
June 5 - Sault Ste-Marie, ON - Lop Lop’s
June 6 - Toronto, ON - Tranzac Club
June 8 - Oakville, ON - Moonshine Café
June 9 - Toronto, ON - Mitzi’s Sister
June 10 - Sarnia, ON - Coffee Lodge
June 11 - Peterborough, ON - The Spill
June 12 - Wakefield, QC - Black Sheep Inn
June 13 - Ottawa, ON - Café Nostalgica
June 14 - St-Hyacinthe, QC - Zaricot Café
June 21 - Hamilton, ON - House concert
June 24 - Wabigoon, ON - Green Archers
June 25 - Winnipeg, MB - Candor Shop
June 26 - Onanole, MB - Home Routes house concert
June 28 - Red Deer, AB - The Velvet Olive
June 29 - Edmonton, AB - The Empress

Audible Party - V. 20

I think that the true measure of a mixtape put together by a professional' DJ (or in this case, two DJ's - LA Riots) is does it take you for a smooth trip from A to Z without any jarring transitions, all the while keeping the energy level high enough to keep you moving. Well, this latest sampler put together from our friends over at Scion does all that and a bag of chips. They've recruited Jo’B and Daniel Ledisko (a.k.a. LA Riots) to mix up a tasty electronic club cocktail of remixes seamlessly stitched together to create a fifty minute dance party. You can listen to it all at the Scion website, and you can pick up a copy for yourself at any one of the number of events Scion will be at.


Kid Sister - Control (LA Riots Remix) : Scion CD Sampler V. 20

Become LA Riots' friend on MySpace.

Sunday Soul - Superfly

The aim of his role
Was to move a lot of blow
Ask him his dream
What does it mean?
He woudn't know
"Can't be like the rest"
Is the most he'll confess
But the time's running out
And there's no happiness
Oooh, Superfly

Curtis Mayfield - Superfly : Superfly 7"

Curtis Mayfield - Love To Keep You In My Mind : Superfly 7" B-side

Get the Superfly Soundtrack and the movie.