Featuring members of Tame Impala, Stereolab, Acid Mothers Temple and Melody’s Echo Chamber, the French act Aquaserge formed back in 2005 as way for its members to explore and experiment with Kraut rock, prog rock, free jazz and French pop in a similar fashion to Serge Gainsbourg, Frank Zappa, The Beach Boys and others. And as you’ll hear on “Tour du Monde,” the latest single off the act’s recently released full-length debut, Laisse ça être, the act specializes in a mischievously weird, kaleidoscopic, genre-blurring sound that draws from jazz, Afropop, psych rock, free jazz, jazz fusion and pop — and they do so with a swaggering, strutting funkiness that would make Fela Kuti and George Clinton very proud.
Produced by filmmakers Amanda Robles and Matthieu Salabara, dear friends of the band, the video consists of the band’s personal collection of postcards being shot in a single take with the intention being a good luck message — or in other words, being a wishful hope that the song may get them to travel around the world to play their music. And interestingly enough, the song’s lyric manages to nod at a similar theme, as they roughly say “If you’re walking in your own footprints, you must’ve walked around the earth.”
Back in 1986, the City Parks Foundation created SummerStage in the spirt of Central Park’s original purpose — to serve as a free, public resource to help culturally enrich the lives of New Yorkers through live concerts, dance performances, and other cultural events. And the festival’s first few years revealed relatively humble beginnings as its first few years of live programming were at Central Park’s Naumberg Bandshell; however, with artists such as Sun Ra Arkestra and legendary South African vocal act Ladysmith Black Mambazo and an impressive list of others playing those first few years, Summerstage, SummerStage quickly developed a reputation for presenting one of the most diverse array of artists across a variety of cultures, genres and styles — and they’ve continued to do so throughout its 30 plus year history. Over the past handful of years, SummerStage’s organizers have expanded the festival beyond Manhattan with shows hosted in parks, bandshells and and makeshift stages across the city’s other five boroughs, and from covering the festival throughout most of the history of site, it’s a wonderful afternoon or evening with your friends and neighbors; plus, there’s nothing like catching acts that keep you in touch with your inner child.
2017’s SummerStage season will begin in earnest on June 3rd with the legendary and imitable Mavis Staples, a national fucking treasure if you ask me, with contemporary blues artist Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely Good Music to round out a night of soul, gospel and blues at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield. And the rest of the lineup for his year continues an incredible run of must-see acts. Some other highlights will include:
Brasil Summerfest, featuring current and up-and-coming Brazilian artists at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield featuring iconic samba vocalist Elza Soares and up-and-coming artist Liniker e os Carmelos on August 5th
And of course, there are a handful of benefit shows presented by The Bowery Presents at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield to help support City Parks Foundation’s continuing efforts to present free arts programming to New Yorkers and that lineup is equally impressive.
SummerStage will also be expanding its family-friendly pre-show workshop offerings this year to include dance classes, beatboxing lessons and introductions to DJing and Latin percussion. These interactive workshops will take place prior to elect SummerStage shows throughout the summer and all ages are encouraged to come out to your local park to participate. This year, the pre-show workshops will being with a DJ lesson from Scratch DJ Academy and a beatboxing tutorial with beatboxer Exacto before Digable Planets’ Coffey Park show — and other workshops will include salsa dance lessons in St. Mary’s Park and a poetry class in Marcus Garvey Park.
The Detroit, MI-based proto-punk/punk rock band Death can trace their origins back to when The Hackney Brothers — Bobby (bass, vocals), David (guitar) and Dannis (drums) formed the band back in 1971. Initially, they started out as a R&B and funk-based band — that is until The Hackneys caught The Who and Alice Cooper live. After those concerts, David, the youngest of the siblings pushed his two older brothers towards a much more hard rock-leaning sound, which interestingly enough presaged punk and post-punk and a name change — Death. And as Bobby Hackney explained in 2010, David’s concept was spinning death from the negative to the positive. “It was a hard sell.”
In 1975, the Hackney Brothers with engineer Jim Vitti recorded a handful of songs written by David and Bobby at Detroit’s United Sound Studios. And according to the Hackney family, Clive Davis funded the recording sessions but while doing so, had repeatedly implored that the band change their name to something more commercially palatable. When the Hackney’s refused, Davis pulled out, leaving the band with seven recorded songs instead of the planned for 12. By 1976, the band self released in an extremely limited run of just 500 copies, the “Politicians In My Eyes”/”Keep Obn Knocking” single, recorded from those sessions, followed by their full-length debut with very little fanfare.
By 1977, the Hackneys ended the band, and then relocated to Burlington, VT where they released two alums of gospel rock as The 4 Movement in the late 70s and early 80s. However, by 1982 David had returned to Detroit while Bobby and Dannis remained and eventually formed the reggae band Lambsbread. In 2000, David Hackney tragically died of lung cancer but reportedly before he had died David Hackney told his older siblings that although they were misunderstood and forgotten in their day, history would prove them and their work as Death as being truly revolutionary — even if it was after his own death. In a wild spin of serendipitous fortune that seems written by a screenwriter, several years after David’s death, Bobby’s sons had stumbled upon the original Death masters hidden away in their parents’ attic. And Bobby’s sons were so impressed by what they heard, that they began covering Death’s material during their own sets as a loving homage that began to receive attention both to them and their father’s and uncles’ work together.
Drag City Records, re-released Death’s original recordings in 2009, 35 years after its initial recording and release, and from those recordings the material managed to not just up hold up, but to reveal an important historical place both for American music history and for Black music history, as their sound, which effortlessly meshed reggae, proto-punk, metal and punk rock managed to presage the punk movement by 3 years while serving as a convincing bridge between Parliament Funkadelic and Bob Marley and Bad Brains, Fishbone, Living Colour,Lenny Kravitz, TV on the Radio, Prince and a growing list of contemporary acts that include Unlocking the Truth.
Since the re-release of their demos and full-length debut, the current lineup of Death featuring surviving brothers Bobby (bass, vocals) and Dannis Hackney (drums) with Bobbie Duncan (guitar) have had a documentary about their story, released some new material and spent a lot of time touring and playing some of the country’s largest festivals, including Afropunk Festival, introducing their sound and aesthetic to new audiences.
Death’s latest single “Cease Fire” will continue to cement the band’s growing reputations for pioneering sound that meshes punk, metal, funk and soul while being politically charged and urgent as the song features buzzing and crunching guitar chords and some impressive soloing, soaring synths and propulsive drumming and a sinuous bass line while being politically charged — and in particular, their sound and thematic concerns clearly presages the likes of Living Colour and Fishbone, some 10-15 years before they began playing. As the members of the band explain, their newest single “is a continuation of the social conscious voice that Rock ‘N’ Roll music states to all people. If John Lennon were alive in this world today, we are sure he would echo the same sentiments, because we first have to put the guns down and stop the senseless shooting so we can ‘Give Peace A Chance.'”
Comprised of Michael Ellis, Ryan Ellis, Lewis McGuinness, Lloyd Shearer, and Benjamin Robinson, the members of Liverpool-based shoegaze quintet The Vryll Society have received attention both here and elsewhere across the blogosphere for a sound that draws from a diverse array of influences including Funkadelic, Aphrodite’s Child, krautrock and classic shoegaze.
The Liverpool shoegazers’ latest single “Sacred Flight” will further cement their growing reputation for crafting shoegaze with rousingly anthemic hooks, an enveloping sound and slick yet subtly modern production techniques as the song possesses a shimmering, cosmic glow, some trippy pedal effected guitar work , a propulsive, motorik groove and a soaring, rousingly anthemic hook. And while being a bit of an expansion of the sound that first captured the attention of this site and elsewhere across the blogosphere, the song evokes the sense of freedom, possibility and discovery that can only come from traveling someplace new and far from home. Certainly, as I’ve listened to this song a number of times before writing, I couldn’t help but think of my own recent travels to The Netherlands — and how being more than 3,600 miles from home or from anyone who knows you is a both a liberating and profoundly strange feeling.
As Vinegar Mother, the band has developed a reputation locally as they’ve played a number of shows across this fair city — including The Knitting Factory and The Studio at Webster Hall — and along with a CMJ appearance last year, the band has opened for the likes of The Lonely Biscuits, Kat Wright and The Indomitable Soul Band, Joanna Teters and Mad Satta, thanks in part to an easygoing and jazzy take on neo-soul that sounds indebted to 90s Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and others, while possessing an expansive, prog-leaning song structure, as you’ll hear on the band’s latest single “Sunny Seat.”
As Vinegar Mother’s Julia Zivic explained to the folks at Impose, “Sunny Seat,” was inspired by personal experience and a journal entry she had been writing while committing to work. “I was writing on the subway after a bad falling out with one of my longest best friends,” Zivic explained. And as the story goes, as the G train she was on crossed the Gowanus Canal Bridge, the morning sun had hit her directly in the face. While being comforted but the sun’s warmth, Zivic wouldn’t shake the unbearable feeling of loss — and she begun to write portions of the song while on the train. “I remember writing about how desperate I was to get home to Itamar and Jay and make a song out of these emotions I had. This song and its natural coming about means a whole lot to me. It cuts me deep every time we perform it.” So it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that the song while being somewhat upbeat, possesses both a morning commuter’s weariness and a deep, bitter ache.
For the recently released video, Zivic’s vocals narrate and serve as the innermost thoughts and feelings of the video’s protagonist, also played by Zivic. Throughout the video, its protagonist is reminded of the fact that not only do ghosts linger, they are inescapable and find eerie ways to haunt you. And of course, we see Zivic rush back to her bandmates in Brooklyn to ostensibly write the song with an easygoing, cool-self assuredness.
Comprised of Michael Ellis, Ryan Ellis, Lewis McGuinness, Lloyd Shearer, and Benjamin Robinson, the members of Liverpool-based shoegaze quintet The Vryll Society have quickly become JOVM favorites over the better part of the past year for crafting material that initially had been largely inspired by Funkadelic, Aphrodite’s Child, krautrock and classic shoegaze.
While “Coshh,” the second single off the band’s debut EP Pangea consisted of a tight, motorik-like groove, propulsive, four-on-the-floor drumming, shimmering guitar chords played through layers of reverb and other effects pedals, atmospheric electronics that helped evoke a cosmic sheen and an anthemic hook, Self-Realization,” Pangea‘s third nodded at The Verve, as the song structurally twisted, turned and bent at weird and unpredictable angles — with guitar work that also subtly nodded at Nick McCabe’s expansive and expressive sound. The Liverpool-based shoegazers followed those singles with “La Jette,” an ethereal and dreamy single that nodded at contemporary, 6os inspired shoegazers such as Elephant Stone, Sleepy Sun, Cool Ghouls and others.
The band’s latest single “A Perfect Rhythm” manages to simultaneously be a refinement of their sound and a return to form (of sorts) as the band retains the shimmering guitar chords played through a bit of reverb and effects pedals, a tight, motorik-like groove, a rousingly anthemic hook with a complex, rolling drum pattern, plaintive, falsetto vocals and an expansive song structure fittingly held together by the rhythm section. Interestingly enough while the song reminds me quite a bit of A Storm in Heaven-era The Verve, the song also reminds me of A Perfect Circle as it it possesses a broodingly Romantic undercurrent.
Comprised of founding member and frontman Jon Wirtz (keys), Eric Imbrosciano (drums), Taylor Scott (guitar) and Todd Edmunds (bass), both of whom have worked with Otis Taylor, Gabriel Mervine (trumpet) and The Motet‘s Matt Pitts (tenor sax), the Denver, CO-based psychedelic funk sextet Space Orphan can trace their origins to early 2015 the act’s founding member had been hitting creative roadblocks with various solo projects when he was reminded of what made him excited about music and creating music — deep funky grooves. After writing a few compositions, he rushed into the studio with the aforementioned group of collaborators and dear friends to finish the songs and record them before Wirtz could overanalyze them.
As a result of the Denver-based sextet’s growing profile, they’ve opened for the likes of legendary bassist George Porter, Jr. and Jans Ingber’s Funk Fellowship — and adding to that, the band will be releasing their full-length debut Shut Up About The Sun is slated for September 30, 2016 release. “Free Swag,” the album’s first single is a strutting and swaggering bit of futuristic funk that owes a sonic debt to Mothership Connection-era Parliament, Expensive Shit/He Miss Road-era Fela and contemporary acts such as Lettuce and Soulive as the song possesses a trippy yet funky groove — but with a drum ‘n’ bass-leaning bridge. It’s the beloved old school funk sound but with a modern take.
The fifth anniversary of my father’s death is tomorrow and as you can imagine, I had thought of him when I was sitting in a Starbucks on Hudson Street between Charlton Street and Vandam Street, […]
More than enough ink has been spilled over the course Parliament Funkadelic’s incredibly lengthy and influential 50+ year run together so delving into their backstory is both largely unnecessary and beyond the scope of this […]
Zak Waters is a Los Angeles, CA-based singer/songwriter, DJ and producer, who has started to grab the attention of the blogosphere with his solo recording project Pretty Sister, a project that specializes in what Waters had dubbed Z Funk, a sound that is equally indebted to Parliament Funkadelic and 90s G-funk hip-hop; but with modern production techniques and a shamelessly frank lyrical sensibility that focuses on things like booty-call texting, long distance love and sexual frustration and so on. And with Waters’ latest single, the sensual come on “Come to L.A.,” you’ll quickly see why the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, producer and DJ has received praise from the likes of Vice Noisey, HillyDilly and others as the song consists of a sinuous bass line, silky and cascading organ and keyboard chords paired with Waters’ sultry and effortlessly soulful vocals. Sonically speaking, the song strikes me as being the oversexed lovechild of Rick James and Parliament Funkadelic while fitting in comfortably with the contemporary neo-soul and funk movements that have won over the blogosphere lately.
Lyrically, the song and its narrator is focusing on sexual frustration of his long-distance love not being near — and it’s full of naughty sexual innuendo, double entendres and outright sexual come-ons that will make the listener both blush and get incredibly horny, while being a two-step worthy, slickly produced jam.
Late last year, I wrote about Liverpool-based shoegaze quintet The Vryll Society. The quintet, comprised of Michael Ellis, Ryan Ellis, Lewis McGuinness, Lloyd Shearer, and Benjamin Robinson, were discovered Alan Willis, the late founder of Deltasonic Records, who noticed potential in the band and guided the quintet through their development as a band and as songwriters. Over the course of the following year, the British shoegaze quintet locked themselves away in their rehearsal space, where they jammed and began writing material that was inspired by Funkadelic, Aphrodite’s Child, krautrock and classic shoegaze.
Now if you had been frequenting JOVM around then, you’d recall that I wrote about “Coshh,” the second single off the band’s debut EP Pangea. That particular single had the quintet pairing a tight, motorik groove consisting of wobbling bass lines and propulsive four-on-the-floor-like drumming, shimmering guitar chords played through layers of reverb and delay effect pedals, atmospheric electronics and anthemic hooks with ethereal, falsetto vocals to craft a song that possessed a mesmerizing cosmic sheen.
Sonically, the Liverpool-based quintet’s latest single “Self-Realization” will further cement their reputation for shimmering and anthemic shoegaze as the band pairs the prerequisite shimmering guitar chords, a driving motorik groove, wobbling and undulating electronics, twinkling keys and anthemic hooks with ethereal vocals to craft a sprawling song that structurally twists, bends and turns — while sounding as though it subtly nods at The Verve; in fact, the guitar work bears an uncanny resemblance to Nick McCabe’s expansive and expressive sound, all while bearing the cosmic glow that initially caught my attention.
