March 31, 2007
S gave me the Bedouin Soundclash album Sounding A Mosaic on Monday.
Though it was released in 2005, I had never heard of the band or the album until he played it for me.
It’s not reggae per se, but it is reggae-inflected, along with acoustic, funk, and punk elements.
It’s a fascinating sonic journey, produced by Darryl Jenifer, the bassist from Bad Brains.
Listen:
Bedouin Soundclash, When The Night Feels My Song
Buy:
Sounding A Mosaic on Amazon or iTunes.
March 20, 2007
Check out Soul Sides for a great post about Amy Winehouse, her band, and issues of race.
I have been listening to Back to Black (or large parts of it) for months and I never realized she was backed by two of the Dap-Kings.
Of all of the music I have slept on in recent years, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings may be the most egregious. I’ve only been listening to them for months, instead of years, because I never knew they existed. (How embarrassing is that?)
Download:
Mp3: <a href=”http://www.divshare.com/download/256228-055“>Amy Winehouse, Rehab
Mp3: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?.
Buy:
Amy Winehouse, Back to Black on Amazon.
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Naturally on Amazon or eMusic.
January 6, 2007
Whenever anyone asks me what music I listen to, I always tell them “really crappy British music, with a preference for covers of crappy British music by crappy British artists.” (It’s a minor lie, but a reasonably cute one.)
Then they ask for examples and I end up telling them of my love of The Kooks and the Lily Allen cover thereof. Then they look at me like I am slightly insane . . . mostly because they’ve heard of neither. I think. Or it might be because I am.
So it’s a shock I completely slept on Amy Winehouse.
Really, I blame Perez Hilton. Like the rest of America, I do not know why I keep him in my rss reader, but I do. I feel unclean every time I glance at his stuff, but I guess I find his Paris Hilton tongue baths amusing.
I know he wasn’t first or probably even early, but his estatic embrace of Amy Winehouse meant I would absolutely skip it.
I was so very very wrong.
It’s an amazing album and she has an amazing voice. It’s very 60s Soul. (While I have been typing, I had a short playlist running in the background. I had searched something and it was playing in order. I did not even notice when it jumped from Winehouse to a Mary J Blige/Nina Simone collaboration.)
Best tracks:
Rehab is the killer track.
You Know That I’m No Good
Me and Mr. Jones
