Just so’s you know, I’ve got a new platform for all my webby things.  I can now be cyber-stalked at djmattydread.com.  There you will find my latest blog entries, info about my radio show and WOMR, as well as info about my mobile sound business.  Nothing against wordpress, they were great to use while I was here.  I just found an engine that could do more to help me spread my funk throughout the world.  I also still have an account at Last.fm where you can find me as username mattycdread, and a fan page on Facebook for The Soul Funky Train.  I look forward to meeting everyone down the dusty digital trail.

Before the internet became so prevalent, many of my greatest finds came from simply going to record stores (remember them?) and digging through the crates.  I used various heuristics in judging what I might want to buy.  First and foremost was looking for artists I recognized and following the thread of their work through solo projects, collaborations and compilations.  It may go without saying, but compilations involving artists you already like are a great way to find new music.  Comps can be organized around record labels, genres or charitable causes, among other things, and they can help to put music in a context that leads to further discoveries.  Brick and mortar record stores were useful because they often specialized in particular genres themselves.  One store might be stocked be someone who liked punk, or jam bands, or jazz, and so you knew that when you went digging in that store you were likely to find leads of a certain kind.  This kind of specificity is often lost on the internet, where retailers like amazon.com don’t have to restrict themselves in any such way.  One major exception that I have found is dustygroove.com, which specializes in funk, rare groove, and jazz of just the sort I find interesting.  I know that when I go aimlessly browsing on that site that I am going to find stuff with a certain bent.  Also, Dusty Groove has great little editorial reviews on most of their titles which help pin down the sound even though they do not offer listening samples the way many sites do these days.  The general feel of the site is very similar to what it used to be like to physically browse in a store, probably due in part to the fact that they still run an actual brick and mortar retail outlet in Chicago.

I mentioned Amazon, and they are an easy first step into the world of automated recommendation systems.  Most people are already familiar with the site, so using it will not involve a very steep learning curve.  First of all, use the recommendations list that the site generates.  When appropriate, use the “fix this” button to fine tune your recommendations.  You can tell them when you aren’t interested in an item, or that you already own it.  These features, combined with the rating system, will help the site create suggestions that have a better chance of being useful.  In general, all of the sites with automated lead generating devices require a fair bit of input from the user before they can really hone in on the good stuff.

Another site that is a lot of fun and that a lot of people have heard of is Pandora.  Pandora is a radio station that you tailor to your own taste.  Tell it a few artists that you like and the site will play those artists plus others that it deems to be similar.  Every time it picks a song, you can tell the site whether you like the song or not.  That feedback further influences the choices the site makes for you.  The up side of this is that you can create a radio station that only plays songs you like.  You can skip any song you don’t like.  Genius.  Also, you will get to hear songs that you have never heard that are in the same musical family as songs that you like.  The downside is that it is not a very efficient way to get new tips.  After all, you can only listen to one song at a time, and the site doesn’t give you advance notice of the things it is likely to pick out for you.  One of the ways that Pandora has been allowed to exist by the powers that hold copyright is that the user has no direct control over the playlist.  For a time, it looked as if the major labels and their henchmen were going to try to extract an inordinately large rights fee for playing music on the internet, but thankfully that dispute was resolved in a way that allowed Pandora to rock on.  One more instance where the rights holders thought that the best way to promote their product was to make it inaccessible to potential consumers, but that is a rant for another day.

A site that allows much more user control over the play list along with a bunch of social networking features is last.fm.  I found this site a couple of years ago and I have become absolutely addicted to it.  By downloading a piece of their software, the site tracks what you play on any of a variety of music players.  It automatically generates a history of your listening and calculates charts of your top plays.  You can see how often you listen to a given artist or song.  That’s nifty, but it also comes up with recommendations based on your history that you can scroll through and stream off of the site itself.  The streaming capabilities of the site are also useful if you just want to listen to a tune that you don’t have in your own library.  The online library is not as complete as you might want, but there is definitely enough there to keep you entertained for quite a while.  Furthermore, the site will build a radio station based on your library or one based on the site’s recommendations for you.  Because the site knows what you have been playing off of your own sources, it can use that information to play things from that list that also exist in the cloud.  You don’t need to have your hard drive with you to listen to the stuff that you have already logged on last.fm.  Very cool.  Unlike Pandora, you do have the ability to directly control the song being played.  Like Pandora, you can always skip any song you don’t want to hear.  Last.fm is often the first place I go when trying to fill a request on WOMR that I don’t have on my hard drive.  You can find me on last.fm as username mattycdread.

The other main resource that I use for finding new music these days is emusic.com.  This is a music retailer of mp3′s based on a subscription model.  For a variety of reasons, I avoid iTunes as much as possible (although my new iPhone has broken that resistance a bit).  emusic has a recommendation generator very similar to amazon’s, but their catalog is much more limited.  In some ways this limitation is a positive, because the site started out with strictly independent, non-major label releases.  This suits the majority of my musical taste just fine, although I have to go elsewhere if I’m looking for a specific title likely to be on a so-called major label.  As with other online retailers, you can listen to a sample before deciding to download.  One bonus of the subscription model is that I end up paying less than 50 cents per song.

So that’s how I use the web for research these days.  Last.fm, emusic, amazon, pandora and blogs.  I also subscribe to many of the artist and label newsletters that I find appealing.  In the end, there is really no substitute for spending time on one’s hobby and simply following the links where they will take you.  It’s relatively easy to find out what others are listening to and to see if it fits your taste.  If you have any tips for me, I am always open to suggestions.  Happy hunting!

First, let’s enumerate the options.  There may be others of which I am unaware, but the basic possibilities are vinyl, CD and mp3 or other digital recording.  For the time being, I will use “mp3″ to refer to any of a variety of types of files for digital storage.  In fact, there are many different ways of putting music on your hard drive which are importantly different from one another, but we’ll save that discussion for later.  I am not giving too much away to say that I am of an age such that my first collecting was done on vinyl.  In the 70′s, there were other choices, but none was close to being able to provide the fidelity and flexibility of pressed wax.  Some real audiophiles that I knew at the time were committed to reel-to-reel for their high-end listening experience, but this was far too delicate and complicated for the average use.  Eight tracks were a novelty in that they allowed us to listen to music of our choosing in the car, which had never been possible to that point, but the interface was clumsy and playback  was like listening in a mud puddle with a head cold.  Unless you were actually in the car, there was no good reason to put up with that nonsense.   Not too much later, we saw the emergence of the cassette.  For a great good while, cassettes were my format of choice.  They provided the portability of eight-tracks (and then some), with much better sound quality (when treated properly) and the added benefit of being able record and re-record at will.  Much of my collecting in the 80′s consisted of making copies of my friend’s libraries and looking for bootlegs of live shows by bands that tickled my fancy.  Somewhere in cold storage I still have several crates of cassettes that are slowly degenerating into uselessness.  There are more than a few that are irreplaceable, and I should really get around to transcribing them to digital, but what are the chances of that?  (A little confession – my first DJ job in public was hard-wired in cassette format.  I was prepared to do a live mix, but I couldn’t figure out how to get the CD players plugged in to the PA, so I just let my back-up tapes roll.)  There was never any doubt in my mind that well-cared for vinyl provided a much purer quality of sound, but cassettes did some things that vinyl just couldn’t do.

It was roughly 1984 when my parents first got a CD player.  They were new, rare and expensive at the time.  As I recall, they didn’t work all that well at first either.  The laser would often have trouble focusing on the disc, and the sound quality on the first discs to come out was frankly atrocious.  Furthermore, I was personally offended by the manipulations of the industry to make obsolete the stacks and stacks of vinyl I had collected.  By the time I got to college in the late 80′s, I saw the first retail outlet devoted strictly to CD’s, and I wanted to burn it down.  Having invested thousands of dollars and as many hours into my record collection, I wanted no part of having to start at zero with a new format.  It was clear to me from early days that the capitalistic momentum was to force me to replace all of the titles in my library.  Had the original product been slightly more affordable and of a slightly higher quality, it might just have put the other formats down decisively.  Luckily for all of us, that did not happen, because despite the fact that the digital realm has improved greatly in the last 30 years, the analog still has some advantages that computers just can’t match.

Fast forward to 2000.  Vinyl has nearly died entirely and Napster is in full effect.  My DJ career has become well-established and I am regularly working in clubs and private parties.  Although mp3′s are a fascinating way to discover and share music, there is no realistic way to obtain them legally, and they were not useful for public use.  Sound quality was sketchy at best, and tracks were often mislabeled, but the novelty of being to search and find virtually any tune was enchanting.  Vinyl is still the standard for professional DJ’s and hip-hoppers deserve all credit for keeping the format alive for the rest of us.  The only place a collector can find vinyl for sale is at small independent retailers who specialize in used merchandise and garage sales.  There are a very few bands and labels releasing new vinyl, but it is widely viewed as a gimmick to appeal to a highly specialized geek crowd.  It would be a few years yet before the format would start to make a significant comeback in the retail market.  CD’s are the dominant player, but digital storage is not yet practical enough to rip one’s entire collection to hard drive.  It doesn’t get a lot of attention, but the vast increases in storage capacity over the last ten years have had as much to do with the shift from CD’s to mp3 as almost any other factor.  That, and the powers that be actually making the product legally available.  What a concept.

All of which brings us to the present day.  I still have a pile of vinyl in my office with a turntable ready to rip them to my hard drive.  I love vinyl.  I use my hard drive as my primary library.  The convenience of having the entire collection at my fingertips at all times generally trumps any advantages that vinyl may have over the digital.  Records are heavy.  CD’s are heavy, too, when compared with a little old external hard drive.  I used to carry a couple of hundred CD’s to any given DJ job.  Many of these CD’s have several tracks that would never be of any use to me.  As the computer became more functional to me, I would burn mix CD’s that helped me consolidate the collection.  This was a tremendous advantage compared to actually lugging all the LP’s that had tracks that I might want, but still a time consuming and somewhat clumsy process.  About 5 years ago I made the commitment to going fully digital with my DJing.  Initially, I just ripped all of my CD’s to the hard drive, and used the computer as a  way of increasing the convenience of my pre-existing  recordings.  I was very much not into using iTunes for a variety of reasons.  Without going into the full scale anti-iTunes rant, the DRM copy-protection made the files useless to me.  The way I was working, I would move tracks from one storage medium to another and burn copies all the time.  Since iTunes made this impossible, I had no use for it.  The exclusive nature of the marketing deals that Apple made with the artists was also repulsive to me, antithetical to the independent nature of the art and artists I was trying to support.  Some time later, iTunes and other industry giants have backed off on their use of DRM, and there are more and more legitimate competitors in the mp3 retail marketplace.  I now have a subscription to emusic.com and regularly use Amazon for major label acquisitions unavailable on the primarily indie-label emusic.  I still buy CD’s, but at an extremely reduced rate.  Mostly, I buy CD’s for rare and out-of-print titles that I can’t find through any of my standard digital retail outlets.  I also buy a CD occasionally when I find myself in an independent retail outlet that I want to throw some money at.  There are a couple of local stores that are fighting the good fight to stay in the retail music business such as Instant Karma in Orleans and Spinnakers in Hyannis, and I want to do what I can to maintain their viability, such as it is.

A lot of the music I play is from an era when there was really only one way to record and playback music.  A lot of the music I play has been produced in a way that harkens back to that era.  Many of the musicians and DJ’s that I look up to are seriously committed to the analog format in all that they do.  Tube amps and turntables are quite common at some of my favorite shows.  In many ways this is not a mere affectation or glamorization of a time gone by, but a genuine preference for the kind of sound that these tools create.  If I had all of the time and money I needed, I would also convert entirely back to vinyl for my work.  As it is, when I get in the thick of a DJ set, I do prefer to work with CD’s as opposed to mp3′s because I have more control over the interface and I think they sound better when pumped over a loud system.  While it is true that vinyl is a bit more fragile than CD’s, making proper care and maintenance very important, I think that pristine vinyl sounds that much better again than CD’s.  Given the practical limitations of carrying tons of vinyl around, switching to vinyl would require me to do a level of set-planning to which I am unaccustomed.  If we forget about the practical world, maybe I would hire a roadie to lug around thousands of records so I could go on playing by the seat of my pants.  I have always enjoyed making my sets up as I go along, and this is how I have done it from early days.  In the end, I am willing to sacrifice a little fidelity in the name of convenience.  I don’t think that the vast majority of listeners can actually hear the difference, and it allows me to share an incredibly wide variety of titles with anyone who cares to listen.

Let’s start out with a few cuts that were released as singles or EPs.  I very much like this trend in music in some ways.  While we can all mourn the disappearance of the full-length album that hangs together as a contiguous piece of art due to the dominance in the digital marketplace of the individual track, one positive outcome of this trend is that bands don’t need to come up with 10 or 15 decent numbers before they get released to the public.  I hope that some of these releases portend forthcoming LPs from the artists in question, but either way I am happy to have things as they become ready for consumption.

Lefties Soul Connection are one of my absolute favorite contemporary funk bands out there.  The sound is totally raw and stripped down, borrowing heavily from the vibe cast by The Meters.  The band brings this vibe into the modern era by juicing it up with an aggression and attitude that seems to come by way of hip-hop and hard rock.  I always hesitate to compare things to hip-hop, because it is bound to give some people the wrong impression, but I trust that those with a suitably subtle and sophisticated ear will hear what I mean. “Have Love Will Travel” is an old R&B tune that many may know from its incarnation on The Black Keys record “thickfreakness”.  The association with The Black Keys will help to give an idea of what I mean by the aggressive nature of Lefties Soul Connection.  The B-side is another revival of an old tune, in this case “Here Come The Girls”.  I believe that this cut has been picked up by somebody’s marketing campaign, which will help get it wiser notoriety.  I am less antagonistic to the proverbial “sell-out” when it is done by an emerging talent just looking to get paid.  Make a living where you can, my brothers.  Lefties also released another single in 2009, “You Don’t Know” is fronted by singer Corrina Grayson.  Both of these releases are a departure from the full-length albums in their prominently featured vocals.  The band is a mostly instrumental enterprise, so it is interesting to hear them venture into more pop-oriented territory.

Paolo “Apollo” Negri is simply one of the most prolific players on the scene today.  In addition to producing loads of work under his own name, he performs with The Link Quartet, Modulo5, The Futuro Seven, Fred Leslie’s Missing Link, Low Fidelity Jet-Set Orchestra and many more.  All of these acts have produced multiple releases in the last few years.  It is actually impossible to count how many projects this man is involved with.  The various entities do have a general similarity of sound that allows one to dependably find quality work, whatever the title.  That sound is variously described as funk, soul, jazz, lounge or retro-cool.  I think of it as 60′s mod bachelor pad astro-lounge.  You can almost picture the shag carpet and beaded doorways and smell the incense as you listen to these records.  I first learned about this family of performers from the Hammondbeat website, which is a great record label and aggregator of talent from a wide variety of sources.  Paolo is an Italian fellow almost all of whose records are instrumental.  You wouldn’t want anything too interruptive of the party you surely have going on while you’re listening to such music.  The work sounds like it’s from a movie that doesn’t exist.  There is a metaphysical and existential uncertainty introduced as one wonders whether the life we are leading is actually the fictional plot line  for which this music is the soundtrack.  Groovy man.

The Sweet Vandals are a retro-funk band from Madrid.  They have two full-length records out, including one released in 2009, but I have to admit that I have only checked out the singles.  On their website, it says that they have been around for ten years, but the first recordings available seem to be from 2007.  On the one hand, I want to say what took you so long to get discovered, but on the other I say ggod for you for keeping the funk alive whether or not anyone was listening.  I have a feeling they were busy ripping up the European club scene before they finally got around to committing the sound to proverbial wax. Whatever the case, I am glad that we can all now access the warm and wonderful sound that is The Sweet Vandals.  They rely on the analog aesthetic that is so prevalent these days.  They have a gospel-infused sound that is reminiscent of the best work from the Daptone posse.  The videos of the live performances invoke a revival spirit that makes me hope for a chance to see them in person.

As I get deeper and deeper into the DJ biz, I have come to really appreciate the value of a good compilation.  All of these fit that bill.  The Soulshaker series has quite a few volumes at this point, and they are nearly all worth at least a cursory examination.  Put out by the folks at Record Kicks, it contains cuts by a whole bunch of folks I love to keep my ear on, including some previously mentioned in this venue.  In addition to The Link Quartet and Dojo Cuts, this volume contains must hear entries from Baby Charles and Trio Valore.  Baby Charles is a band I have been onto for a while now, although Trio Valore I know virtually nothing about aside from this tasty single.  Listening to the tracks on their myspace makes me want to dig in further, though.  Baby Charles is a gritty funk band with a very strong female vocal lead.  The Tru Thoughts compilation is collection of covers in a more jazzy vein.  My personal favorite is the Alice Russell version of The White Stripes tune “Seven Nation Army”.  Just can’t get enough of that melody.  Also pleasing off of that records is Quantic’s cover of the Portishead track “Wandering Star”.  When Portishead first came out, I thought it was the best thing happening in music at the time, and it still stands up relatively well, especially when given a latin makeover by an excellent producer.  Speaking of latin, the Groovadelia album is almost all along those lines.  I’m not sure if all of the talent represented there is actually from the Spanish speaking world, but it sure seems like it.  There is just something about a latin beat that is dangerously contagious.  My favorites on this album are the reworking of the Willie Bob classic “Fried Neckbones” by 3000 Hombres and “Be A Looser” by The Afro Soul Toasting All Stars.

It’s back to New York City for the next two entries from the good people at Truth and Soul.  In this case, we have another album of cover tunes, this time from The El Michels Affair.  Leon Michels is the founder of the label, and quite a formidable musician in his own right.  He started out playing with the Daptone crew, many of whom had also been associated with Desco records in the early to mid 90′s.  The family tree of contemporary funk in NYC is complicated and quite fertile.  At any rate, what we have here is a wonderful tribute to one of their heroes by a band that is not afraid to strike out on their own.  While tackling some riffs that have become almost cliche in funk circles, the band makes them fresh again in a way that cultivates appreciation for old and new alike.  The version of “Walk On By” is absolutely stunning in how it takes the themes introduced in the original and turns them into something I, for one, did not see was there.  It is an instrumental which nevertheless manages to express all of the emotional complexity found in Isaac Hayes lyric version.  The Fabulous Three record is a bit of an enigma.  Not only is the music itself a spacy, dubby exploration of atmospheric rhythms, but I get the impression that the picture on the cover is an exercise in the art of deception.  While the sound definitely invokes a kind of seventies afrobeat vibe, I am pretty sure it is produced by the same group of kids from the city responsible for the rest of the stuff on the label and its predecessors.  Some of these cats had a definite penchant for subterfuge if not outright fraud in the way they represented themselves.  Several of the records purposefully neglect to mention a date of production in addition to being somewhat hazy on the personnel involved.  Now that several of them have gone on to greater success, I think that the habit is being broken, but the tracks here come from the early days of the enterprise when there may have been more of a “succeed at any cost” mentality.  In the end, what is important is that the music itself is worth hearing, and that it has managed to get itself heard.  One result of the resurgence of the old-school sound is that there is a pretty big scene of deep funk collectors now, many of whom have gone out of their way to find and recognize some artists who might otherwise have been lost to posterity.  A little hucksterism along the way doesn’t really hurt.  Given the way the hustler ethos is evident throughout the music itself, we should not be too surprised that it is made by actual hustlers.

Before I leave you, I have to make a nod to the reggae releases which caught my attention from 2009.  In general, I don’t pay as much attention to reggae as  I once did, but I do still love me some reggae, and I thought these items deserved some comment.  First off, we have the collective that has John Brown’s Body at its core and includes 10ft. Ganja Plant and Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad as ancillary members.  The JBB release is a collection of remixes from a 2008 album, while the 10ft. Ganja Plant record is the one that really caught my attention.  In general, these folks produce rootsy reggae that at times explores the more dubby regions of musical space.  John Brown’s Body is and has been extremely popular for over ten years, dominating the east coast market for original reggae, making annual pilgrimages to the Wellfleet Beachcomber.  This is no mere tribute act or people just trying to exploit the genre’s popularity to make a buck off of frat parties.  These guys seem to believe what they sing about and genuinely enjoy what they do.  A little more on the novelty act side of things, we have The Easy Star All Stars.  The band made a fairly big splash with their reggae interpretation of the Dark Side of the Moon  a few years ago, and followed it up with Radiodread, a run through of OK Computer by Radiohead.  This past year saw the band continue the theme with the release of The Lonely Hearts Dub Band.  While there may be some diminishing returns as they wring as much out of the concept as they can, the starting point was fertile enough that we have not yet reached a completely barren point yet.  Some of the songs work remarkably well, while others seem a little forced, but overall the record is definitely worth a listen.  I am sure these guys are monster players, and I would love to see them live where they are not so tied to any one particular veneer.

More honorable mentions:

So these are some of the things that I picked up from last year.  You ought to have enough here to keep you busy for a while.  Follow your nose and you can find even more good stuff out there.  Please share some of your discoveries with me in the comments.  Ciao for now!

I present these discoveries in an order which is not meant to indicate a hierarchy of value or importance.  At any given point, any one of these records may be the “best” one for present purposes.  There was a number of interesting compilations and samplers released in 2009, but I will start with the full-length LP’s.

I present this record at the top of the list because, without a doubt, it is the one that has had the biggest splash on mass-media consciousness.  The single, “How You Like Me Now”, formed the soundtrack for a Super Bowl commercial that went viral in my world.  You may remember the one: it was an ad for a car company that featured a sock monkey and other children’s toys rocking out while enjoying the ride.  When I first saw the ad my jaw just about hit the floor because I had discovered the record just a few weeks earlier and featured it on my radio show.  You can check the records on that.  The album itself was released in October of 2009 as the second full length outing from The Heavy.  The first record came out in 2007 and completely escaped my notice, but the band is fully on my radar now.  The sound is a wonderful amalgamation of a variety of styles that I love.  Overall, one might describe it as grungy, garage band soul, although that doesn’t really do it justice.  They are an English outfit from a town called Noid, which is fun, and you can hear the cross pollination of rootsy American styles with those more commonly associated with our friends from across the pond.  This is in-your-face music which is best listened to at top volume.  It is real music produced by real people with real instruments.  There are a few samples and other production tricks, but these do not detract from the very organic sound.  I can also say that they absolutely kill it in live performance.  I saw them open up for Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, and although it would be going a bit too far to say they stole the show, they certainly did their damnedest.  If you’ve had the good fortune to see SJDK, you know that NO ONE steals the stage from Sharon, but I have to say that it was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen by an opening act.  The band had the crowd chanting and waving their arms to all of the songs, not just the single with which they were already familiar.  The album is similarly solid from start to finish, mixing up tempos and styles to keep one’s interest throughout.

This, my friends, is real-deal, old-school, heart-crunching soul music.  This is a man who has paid his dues and is singing songs with a depth of experience and feeling that others can only try to emulate.  Although the band is full of chops monsters, the emphasis here is not on technical virtuosity but on emotional veracity.  You cannot listen to these songs without feeling as though you have entered into one man’s world of pain and triumph.  Lee Fields is Brooklyn-based performer on the Truth & Soul label.  He runs with a crowd that includes a number artists on the Daptone record label.  In particular, the drummer and guitarist for Lee’s band are in Sharon Jones’ Dap-Kings.  Lee and Sharon have been working together for years, long before they both found the degree of success that they currently enjoy.  Apparently the song “Ladies” has been featured in several television shows, including “Entourage”.  I don’t know anything about that show, but if it helps this artist bring super heavy-duty soul to a wider audience, then I am all for it.  I can also vouch for the fact that Lee puts on one hell of a live show.  If you get the chance, I can personally recommend seeing him at Southpaw in Brooklyn.  Southpaw is one of  Brooklyn’s premier music venues, a place where you can see top quality talent in a modest sized room for less than an arm and a leg.  Lee puts so much energy into his performance that I was actually concerned for the man’s health by the time it was over.  Luckily for all of us, he survives to deliver the goods for another audience on another day.  There is an added level of respect for an artist who can create a beautiful live experience in addition to recording work that I want to listen to over and over again.

Here I present to you the first of several instrumental albums that I fell in love with this year.  Let me just say that I am completely in the bag for The New Mastersounds.  I have loved them from the moment that I first heard them, and I have rarely been disappointed by anything they have done.  A quick check of my Last.fm profile will confirm this.  With the pair of releases documented here, the band demonstrates the maturity of their growing years.  As the title of the studio album suggests, The New Mastersounds have been playing together for quite a while now.  There have been a few personnel changes over the years, most notably the departure of keyboard player Bob Birch.  I was concerned for the future of the sound without Bob, given the organ-centric nature of many of the compositions.   It turns out that those fears were unfounded.  Without a doubt, the band continues to evolve as any long standing project must, but they have not lost a bit of their entertainment value.  If you aren’t already familiar with The NMS sound, you really have to hear it to understand its appeal.  Are they a funk band? Check. Are they a jazz band? Check.  Are they a groove-based jam band? Check.  They cross genres in a way that broadens their draw to a number of different stereotypical listeners.  Most often, they are slotted into the summer festival circuit with the jam band world.  While this may make the most sense from a promotional stand point, it doesn’t really fit with their musical and social roots.  Given the tremendously limited market for jazz in this country, it is understandable that they would not want to be limited by that categorization.  They are from Leeds, England, and there isn’t the same sort of hippie vibe there as we have here in the States.  If anything, they come from the dance club DJ scene.  Over the years they have performed with a variety of guest vocalists, including Corinne Bailey Rae and Dionne Charles, but for the most part I prefer the straight forward instrumental tracks, and the recent releases are in that vein.  Between the two records, I like the live one better, but this probably reflects my overall preference for live music as opposed to studio work.  There is just something about knowing that the musicians are talented enough to make the sound work without the benefit of repeated edits and retakes.  I also think that the music can be taken to a higher level with the help and feedback of a live audience.  I know that there are people that prefer that clean, controlled environment of a studio recording, and as a DJ I can sympathize with that view.  If that’s how you feel then you go ahead and listen to the studio album.  For myself, I am going to the show if I can.

This is the first record on this list by a band that I have not personally seen live.  This is a situation that I plan on remedying as soon as possible.  They have been to my extended neighborhood before, and they will be at The Narrows in Fall River in September.  To my great disappointment, the date is one for which I am already booked for a wedding.  Maybe someone will get cold feet.  I can only hope, because I am sure these guys rip it up in concert.  The Dynamites are a Tennessee- based big band with a grizzled soul singer out front.  In this respect, they are similar to Lee Fields and The Expressions, but the Dynamites have a greater dynamic range to their songs.  By this I mean that they have some absolutely up-tempo rippers, which Lee Fields doesn’t really.  Whereas Lee is pretty consistently sweet soul, and these guys can do that too, with Charles Walker on vocals, The Dynamites are more funky syncopation with a social message.  The horn arrangements are right out front, although the musicians are clearly very talented, there is not an emphasis on solos.  With all of the nouveau-retro soul and funk on the market today, it is refreshing to see a band that hails from the region where the genre got its start representing the form.  I am also happy to report that this is not some sort of revival tribute that belongs in a museum, but a vibrant exercise that demonstrates a vitality that suggests a bright future.  All I can say is what were these people doing in the ’80′s and ’90′s when contemporary music seemed so empty to me?

Here is another mostly instrumental record by a band that I can’t get enough of.  They are an Austin, Texas based band that combines elements of their Mexican heritage with good old American soul and funk.  There are also extensive references to Afro-beat and New Orleans style jazz.  You can also hear the result of having grown up on the streets with b-boy culture.  Low riders, break dancing and tag bombing are not unfamiliar to these folks, I’m pretty sure.  More or less the same people who form Brownout perform more traditional Mexican music under the name Grupo Fantasma.  Both acts are phenomenal, and I recommend them both.  I was lucky enough to see Brownout in Boston, and Grupo Fantasma is on tour and coming to the area this summer.  Unfortunately, the Brownout show that I dragged my friends to was not in the best venue.  Brownout is a ten (or so) piece outfit with multiple horns and percussionists, but on this night they were stuck in a 20′ x 20′ back room of a yuppy martini bar in Jamaica Plain.  Those of us there to see the show got a real treat, but we were surrounded by posers who more or less deserved a punch in the nose.  Oh well.  Grupo Fantasma are coming to The Middle East downstairs, so that should be a much better place to see a show.  After completely digging the first full length record, Homanaje, the sophomore effort is just as good.  Let’s hope there are many more to come.

There is apparently a burgeoning funk scene down under, and this record is a fine representative of the group.  Australia is just about  as far away as one can get from where I sit, so it seems a long shot that I could ever see any of these bands live, but I will maintain that hope anyway.  These folks have absolutely nailed the sound that I love so much.  They have horns, they have an amazing break-beat drummer and they have a singer out front who brings a wonderful jazz inflection to the heavy funk being laid down behind her.  As if you couldn’t decipher their influences on your own, there is a nod to the pantheon with the inclusion of a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight”.  The singer brings her own inflection to the classic despite the fact that there is not a major rearrangement of the original.  If you know and like Alice Russell, I am sure you can find room in your heart for Dojo Cuts featuring Roxie Ray.

Another band from Australia that is absolutely killing it is Deepstreet Soul.  Again, you can tell a lot about a band by the covers they choose to include in their repertoire.  In this case that means an fiery rendition of “Kick Out The Jams” by The MC5.  A band had better not try to tackle this number unless they plan to live up to the title.  Mission accomplished.  There is just enough difference from the original to make it interesting while maintaining the pure venom of the MC5 version.   The woman on the cover is the keyboard player, and not the singer, but they have a couple of tracks with guest vocals, including Tia Hunter on “Kick Out The Jams”.  For the most part, the band sticks to a Meters-inspired instrumentalism.  It reminds me how interesting it can be when an American form is shipped overseas, digested, amalgamated by a foreign audience with their own experiences, and shipped back to us with a slightly different spin on sounds with which we are intimately familiar.  The way funk and soul are being adopted by a global community today is similar to the way blues and R&B were gobbled up by the Brits in the ’60′s and shipped back to America with stunning results.  One main difference is that modern technology makes the world a much smaller place, and we no longer need so many middle men and record labels to limit our access to the goods.  The industry is dead, long live the industry.  But that’s a post for another day.

Let me start by saying that I love this album.  It’s another entry from the Australian crew, and it’s super heavy duty funk.  I first became aware of Kylie Auldist through her work with The Bamboos, who have a record which is an early entry for my best of 2010 list.  If this is the sort of thing that happens on a regular basis down under, then I need to start saving for my ticket.  The talent here is undeniable.  This woman demonstrates no fear with the vocal feats that she attempts and pulls off with aplomb.  Although firmly rooted in the funk and soul traditions that I love so much, there is less reverence for the traditional sound here than in some of the other records I have reviewed.  It is as much contemporary jazz-pop as it is a paean to the classics.  “Contemporary jazz-pop” is a genre that I thought would make me vomit, but there is an energy and creativity here which is immensely absorbing.  It gets better every time I listen to it, and that is the mark of very deep and textured quality.  Try it, you’ll like it.

With Laura Vane and The Vipertones, we continue to establish two different trends evident in the selections here.  That is, we have a strong female lead from the international community.  Back to England this time,  for some very heady funk.  Laura Vane exudes a powerful sexiness that lets you know that she is in complete control and that you will hang on her every word.  The band up the internationalist ante by including members from Holland as well as the UK who have an outstanding pedigree with other projects including Soul Snatchers, Diesler and AIFF, all of which I can strongly recommend.  This record is more traditionalist than the Kylie Auldist entry, with tinges of Motown and Stax.  Not as socio-politically conscious as The Dynamites’ album, these are personal songs of love and life as lived.

With this record, we move a little further away from sounds that are conveniently pigeonholed into one genre or another.  Lack of Afro is more or less a one man band and DJ project.  The one man is an Englishman called Adam Gibbons, and in addition to producing his own work he has produced numerous remixes for many other artists.  Apparently he does have a band that he takes on the road, and I would love to catch that act, although I think that is a relatively rare occurrence.  Mostly the act seems to be a DJ gig, which is fine, and I would love to catch that too.  Basically the guy takes memes that will be familiar to funk aficionados and layers them and reworks them in new and fascinating ways.  Think Moby with slightly less techno.  There is a bit of hip-hop and soul mixed in with the turntable scratching ethos to create a sound that borders on mod soundtrack at times.  You’ll just have to listen to it to really understand the vibe.  A couple of the tracks feature delicious vocals by Roxie Ray of the aforementioned Dojo Cuts, confirming the Lack of Afro habit of lending his talents to other acts.

Back to America for the next release, this time it’s gritty urban funk from the left coast.  Breakestra is a fabulous party band that grows directly out of ’80′s and ’90′s hip hop.  That having been said, there is very little overt reference to rap to be found on the various Breakestra records, including this one.  Rather, this is a live band that enjoys digging up the influences of rap and delivering them to an audience that might otherwise be unaware of some of the great deep funk records of the past.  In this respect, they fit right in with other bands in their modern interpretations of ’60′s and ’70′s themes.  One of their earliest releases, The Live Mix, just has to be heard to be believed.  It’s a series of what could be DJ samples of classic old tracks, except that they are performed by a live band on the fly.  Dusk Till Dawn marks the band’s second full-length release of original material, and once again I am happy to report that there is no sophomore jinx in effect.  Serious breakbeats, as the name would imply, combined with diverse instrumentation and relatively complex arrangements lead to a stimulating mix of songs that stand up to repeated listening.

Honorable mentions go to:

Here are my favorite compilations and greatest hits records of the year:

There are several other records on my list that I should like to mention, but I have clearly given you enough to think about for now.  That ought to keep you busy for a while.  I will write again soon with more tips.  I would love to know what your favorite recent releases are.  Please feel free to share them with me in the comments.  Until we meet again, Matty Dread over and out.

To break it down in a little more detail, I was thrilled to get a call from Kim Shkapich to participate in a promotion for the ASGCC.  We took one of the Boston-P’Town ferries for a cruise around the harbor while shaking a tail feather for a good cause.  The event was spiced up with the addition of Squidda to the bill, and I was excited to work with them as I had enjoyed their shenanigans a few times in a variety of settings.  The nature of the cause easily lent it self to the Love Boat theme, and it also meshed with the theme of carnival the following week in P’Town.  Needless to say, the ’60′s and ’70′s love-child thing was not a stretch for me in the least.  Kim and I had worked together previously on an event for Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, so I knew that I was in good hands.  With the event being in the second week of August, I knew my posse from the restaurant biz was ready for a good party.  It had been an exceptionally stressful summer at the old day job, and all of us needed a reason to set aside the worries of the day-to-day and just get loose.  Well, get loose we did, and although there could and should have been more people on board, the people that were there all had a ridiculously fun time, and I think all of us are looking forward to doing it again.

The Love Boat dancers

Obviously, we are a coastal community here on old Cape Cod, but I am not by nature much of a maritime character myself.  That being said, there seems to be a bit of a nautical theme to the events on my calendar this season.  In addition to the Love Boat, I worked a cruise for a private family reunion sailing out of Marina Bay in Quincy.  We spent four hours on the water enjoying a fabulous day sailing around Boston Harbor, exploring just about every nook and cranny, from the airport to UMass-Boston to the financial district to Charlestown.

Harbor Cruisin'

Continuing the nautical theme, I worked two private events at the Pamet Harbor Yacht and Tennis Club in Truro.  Both of these were on rather unexpected referrals.  One was from Beth O’Rourke, a fellow WOMR DJ, who had double booked herself for the date.  I was grateful for the opportunity, and, as it turns out, it was another ’70′s disco themed party.  Sometimes the stars align themselves to allow us to shine among them.  Disco has not always been my favorite genre, to put it politely, but I have come to understand that it has a certain quality that promotes the shaking of the booty.  When it comes to the waving of the backside, I am entirely in favor, so if I have to endure a little cheeziness to produce the desired effect, then so be it.  Besides, I also happen to be a fan of the cheesy comestibles.  The other event at the Pamet Harbor club was a wedding I booked on relatively short notice through Rick Miller, a business associate of my wife.  Rick is known by all who have worked with him as an extremely friendly and effective networker, so I am very pleased to have made his acquaintance.  I can also report that his friends seem to share his love of life and generosity of spirit.

Looking forward, the folks at Castle Hill have booked a date for a Halloween party with yours truly, and I am thinking of booking a regular lounge date for the off season on the outer Cape.  I need to touch base with Castle Hill to make sure that it is an open party, but I would love to be able to bring some of my crew out for what is sure to be a real hoot.  I can only imagine that the denizens of an outer Cape art colony know how to dress up and freak out for All Hallows Eve.  I’ll let you know.  As far as a regular off season gig goes, I am looking for the right venue with the right feel and the right timing.  I am thinking Pig or Vixen on a Sunday night once a month.  Weekly seems too often as it takes the luster off the gem a bit, and those two rooms seem to have the most positive energy throughout the year.  It occurs to me that the Pig has been closing in the off season for a while, but the whole idea is a work in progress.  I am thinking lounge hang rather than dance party, since the whole dance floor thing is hard to maintain over time, and there is lots of music I’d love to share with people that isn’t necessarily dance-floor stuffing.  If anyone has any ideas on how to keep the vibe alive in the colder weather on the outer/lower cape, let me know.  That’s all for now, stay funky my people.

The nautical theme is further developed a couple of weeks later when I work two sunset cruises in a matter of a few days.  We will be sailing around Boston Harbor with a private family reunion on Aug. 8 and then the big event of the near future, a boat party with Squidda to help raise funds for The AIDS Spport Group of Cape Cod on Wednesday August 12.  This blowout will be held on board the Provincetown II, run by Bay State Cruises, the ferry company.  We will be sailing out of Provincetown around 5:30 to return by 9 pm.  Tickets are $30 and there will be cash bars and snacks available on the boat.  I recommend you get your tickets early, as this promises to be a wildly good time that you will not want to miss.

Looking a little further into the future, we are working on putting together a couple more dates for the Turo Center for the Arts at Castle Hill.  These folks were great to work with in the spring, and we have been looking for ways to throw another party together ever since.  Right now, it looks like we will be celebrating the full moon in the first week of September with a freaky funky fete, and we will be socializing with the spirits at a very special Halloween soiree.  I can only imagine what Halloween at an artists’ colony might be like.  Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

Castle Hill Party

Castle Hill Party

On another note, I’m looking forward to doing a regular radio show this week, after having dealt with major madness last week.  In order to celebrate WOMR’s 27th anniversary, we invited everyone into the studio to enjoy a whole lotta live music, free beer and food and tour the offices.   Well surprise, surprise we got approximately 1.25 million people to show up.  Of these, I think half of them were involved in the production in one way or another.  It was cool to see so many people excited about community radio, but it will also be nice to get back to my normal routine where I have the place to myself.  Making radio is definitely a bit strange in that it is a social experience that one engages in while sitting in a room alone.  It is not entirely unlike social networks on the computer in that way.

BTW, here are the links to recent playlists on The Soul Funky Train:

March 7, 2009

February 28, 2009

February 21, 2009

February 14, 2009

CASTLE HILL INVITES YOU TO “DANCE LIKE IT’S 1971”

ON SATURDAY, MARCH 14

In 1971, leisure suits and bell bottoms were in fashion; pet rocks, lava lamps, 8-track tapes and string art were seen as cultural innovations; and streaking was considered a revolutionary act.  Cleary, not everything is timeless.   But one thing that originated in 1971 is.  A Cape Cod treasure for 38 years, the TRURO CENTER for the ARTS at CASTLE HILL continues to remain vital and current today.

In honor of 38 Years of Influence: Celebrating the Castle Hill Community, a retrospective show on display at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum from March 6 – April 19, Castle Hill invites the Outer Cape community to “DANCE LIKE IT’S 1971” on Saturday, March 14 from 7 – 11 pm at the Castle Hill barn at 10 Meetinghouse Road in Truro.

Featuring a chili taste-off from 7 – 8 pm followed by dancing to 1971’s top hits spun by DJ Matty Dread from WOMR until 11 pm, this is going to be a great opportunity to reminisce, spend time with friends and have a wild, fun time.

Since 1971, Castle Hill has offered a signature array of workshops in writing, painting, ceramics, printmaking, sculpture and mixed media arts that have earned them the reputation as one of the premier small art schools in the country. They serve a diverse, multi-level student population ranging in age from 6 to 86 with an ever-expanding calendar of exhibitions, artists’ receptions, lectures, auctions, readings, concerts, and celebrations that works to connect artists to the community and the community to the arts.

Tickets to the event are $10, with a cash bar.  1970’s clothing is encouraged, but not required.

For more information on the exhibit and the weekend of festivities,

call (508) 349-7511 or visit www.castlehill.org.

]]> http://soulfunky.wordpress.com/2009/03/08/matty-dread-castle-hill-314/feed/ 0 matty dread http://soulfunky.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/best-funky-soul-of-2008/ http://soulfunky.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/best-funky-soul-of-2008/#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:06:07 +0000 mattycdread http://soulfunky.wordpress.com/?p=37 ]]> Last year has been over for a while, so I thought that it was about time to share some of the golden nuggets I have found that were released during that arbitrary calendar period.  I have always been confused by those critics who feel it necessary to start releasing their “best of…” lists starting sometime around thanksgiving or earlier.  Not only is there a significant portion of the year remaining at that point, but it also seems that it might take a while for some of the best gems to be discovered after their release.  On the other hand, one does want to be somewhat topically current with such a list, and if we let much more time pass the exercise might seem like a trip down memory lane, not that there is anything wrong with that either.  Perhaps the main point that I want to make with my list is that the retro sound is back with a vengeance, and while I have been accused at times of running an “oldies” show, I would take issue with the perjorative sense of that term and emphasize that some of the hippest hipsters are down with the analog sound.  Of course, if you are already one of these hipsters, you need no convincing of that point.  Anyway, here it is (in no particular order):

1. Al Green – “Lay It Down”

What can I say?  The master of the genre has not lost his touch.  In fact, with the help of many members of the younger generation, the sound has been updated with production values that may help introduce many new fans to the genius that is The Reverend.  Co-produced by ?uestlove of The Roots with cameos by John Legend and Corrine Bailey Rae, among others, and backed up by my beloved Dap-Kings horns, this album absolutely drips with the emotion for which Mr. Green is rightfully so famous.  Just go buy it.  Incidentally, Al Green’s 2003 release “I Can’t Stop”, produced by Willie Mitchell is also fabulously worth your time.

2.  The Diplomats of Solid Sound featuring The Diplomettes - “The Diplomats of Solid Sound featuring The Diplomettes”

While the title may be a bit clunky and long winded, the album itself is tight and to the point.  It has a great old girl-group sound with fantastic harmonies and hard-hitting rhythms.  Great emotional content and relatively sophisticated melodies are conveyed through a traditional 3 minute pop song format.  While there is nothing tremendously experimental or ground-breaking about this sound or this record, these folks hit the nail squarely on the head in bringing that classic Shirelles-meets-Supremes sound to a new generation.  The Diplomats themselves had released several records of Booker T. style instrumentals before this, and those albums were quite entertaining, but the addition of the vocalists takes the whole enterprise to a new level.  Right now the Iowa-based outfit is still a regional phenomenon in terms of their touring schedule, but I can’t wait for them to get the wider exposure they deserve.  This is the new album I have been spinning the most since its release.

3.  Menahan Street Band – “Make The Road By Walking”

It is physically impossible for me to make up a favorites list without including something from the Daptone crew.  Luckily that obsession is rewarded once again in 2008.  While we all eagerly await a new release from Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, we have been placated by this tasty instrumental morsel from some of the same musicians.  It is slinky urban soul in a downtempo mode that is perfect for background music or contemplative personal consumption.  It has appeared on many critics “Best of” lists and has been used as a back track for some contemporary hip-hop singles, but neither of these facts is very important to me.  What is important is that it is original, creatively inspired music that doesn’t suck.  You get the distinct atmospheric feeling for the neighborhood mentioned in the name of the band while listening to these tracks, and although it is not exactly dance music, I defy you to avoid tapping your feet while this music is playing.

4.  Brownout – “Homenaje”

Bad-ass low-rider latin funk.  Primarily instrumental with some pointed vocalizations such as “Con el Brownout No se Juega”.  Think Santana meets War in a Blaxploitation flick.  These are the guys you want on your side in a dark alley late at night.  They may not actually be violent, but their mere presence is enough to scare the bad guys away.  The same band releases more traditional sounding latin music under the name “Grupo Fantasma”, but I find this variation much more rewarding.  This sound has something in common with Menahan Street Band, but these guys are much more about the dance floor and the party than the introspective hang-out.  Austin Texas once again proves why its reputation as a music town is much-deserved.

5. Clutchy Hopkins – “Walking Backwards”

While I’m on the instrumental tip, I thought I’d include this purposefully obscure record.  The name of the act is clearly a pseudonym for some contemporary hip-hoppers who want the freedom to record without the baggage of their previous reputations.  The result is a refreshingly experimental project that expands the boundaries of the genre while still maintaining an overall listenability.  There are probably a couple of tunes I could do without, but the rest of the record is intellectually challenging and creatively exciting in a way that few records are.  The cultivated fictional underground back story is a bit pretentious, but I am willing to put up with the airs if the result is of this quality.

6.  Eli “Paperboy” Reed and The True Loves – “Roll With You”

Getting back to a more straightforward soul sound, we have this little record which takes a traditional soul-meets-rock sound and injects it with a heavy dose of caffeine.  The guy’s voice is a little on the screamy side for my taste, but there is no denying his chops, and the intensity is perfectly appropriate to the material.  Think James Brown and Otis Redding crossed with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and a dash of Little Richard.  Although the guy is apparently from the Boston area, he honed his skills in the South, and it shows.  There is an authenticity to the sound that makes me feel like I know what it was like to be in a jook-joint in the late fifties.  These are original songs that have an old-school feel without being jaded or cliche.  There is an emotion in the presentation which seems to be gained through hard work and experience rather than through cultivation and affectation.  Good work.

7.  Eric Lindell – “Low On Cash, Rich In Love”

Doesn’t that title just about say it all?  This is roots music for the ages.  Stories of hard times and good feelings, hard feelings and good times.  Blues, soul, country and reggae are all represented here.  Not in any forced way, but in a way that comes natural to someone who has spent many years traveling around the gulf coast and soaking up all of the influences that can be found there.  Mix this with a pop sensibility that may come out of time spent in California and you get a catchy, soulful stew that demands listening over and over again.  I can also vouch for the fact that the guy puts on one hell of a live show, as you would expect from such a tested road-warrior.

8.   JJ Grey and Mofro – “Orange Blossoms”

I can’t believe I got this far down the list without mentioning this record.  This is blue-eyed southern soul in the same vein as Eric Lindell, but the sound is a little bigger, a little fuller.  More emphasis on arrangements and song structure and a little less on the personal magnetism of the front man.  Which is not to say that  JJ Grey is a lightweight front man.  On the contrary, this guy paints a picture of life as lived which leaves you feeling as if you grew up in the back waters of Florida with him.   This album is relentlessly hard-hitting, and continues to grow on me upon each listening.  I really can’t say enough about it, except that it is stuff like this that makes extremely happy my ears work.  These guys also put on the best show I saw last year.  Do yourself a favor and dig it.

9.  The New Mastersounds – “Plug and Play”

I have to include this album because, judging by my playlists, this is my favorite active band.  I like them for their instrumentals which sound like an updated Booker T. or a slightly harder edge Meters.  This album is half tracks like this and half vocal tracks led by Dionne Charles.  She’s fine in her own way, but not what I want to listen to out of this band.  The instrumental tracks are as strong as ever, something I was concerned about given their relatively recent personnel change.  The new keyboard player seems not to have missed a beat, however, and the band continues to maintain an active touring schedule.  Unlike The Diplomats, which I feel added to their overall concept with the addition of vocalists, The New Mastersounds have so much going on with their instrumentation and arrangements that I don’t feel like the singer really belongs in the mix.  That having been said, this is still one of my favorite albums of the year, and perhaps the only reason I am so critical of it is that I was so in love with their previous releases.

10. Lefties Soul Connection – “Code 99″

This is cheating a little bit since this is a single released in advanced of the new LP coming out in March 2009, but it was released in 2008, it rules, and you need to know about this band.  They are from Amsterdam, and Europe seems to be in the forefront of the new deep-funk movement.  Like England’s New Mastersounds, these guys hit hard with the instrumental funk.  It’s like The Meters with a punk-rock attitude.  They like the loud, in-your-face beats with top-notch musicianship.  It’s old-school music informed by almost forty years of innovation since its origination.  You can hear the suggestions of hip-hop, electronica, punk and acid rock even though there can be no doubt about the canon that they take as their main influence.  Almost every time I put this on the radio, someone is motivated to call in and ask “What the hell was that thing that just kicked my ass?”  These guys are that good.

I didn’t think this was going to work out to be a top 10 list, but this seems as good a place to leave it as any.  You’re welcome.