Burl Veneer’s Music Blog

Sharon Jones again

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:59:19 -0700

I forgot to mention that I got my Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings tickets in the mail--front row, baby! So let's watch Sharon show Janet Jackson how it's done*:

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings "...Lately" 1.17.08

But where do you get your retro funky soul if you live in England, now that Amy Winehouse can't string two syllables together before throwing a feeble punch at a fan and collapsing in a drunken stupor (or worse)? Well that's what Baby Charles is for, apparently:

Baby Charles - "This Time" -- Live

Think they've heard of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings? Do ya think? I'm not complaining, personally I think it's great when bands I like beget copycats, that just means more good music! Dionne Charles is no Sharon Jones yet, but then Sharon has at least twenty years' more experience (I'm guessing); I expect Dionne to blossom in time, and I'll be listening.

* And the Dap-Kings show Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis how it's done, too: Jam, Lewis, and their quickly-dated backing tracks are now officially a footnote.

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I Spy for the FBI

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:55:39 -0700

In the midst of my Bill Murray spy-movie high I dug out one of my old favorite spy songs, "I Spy for the FBI." I first heard it sung by John Hiatt on his album Two-Bit Monsters, but I can't find that version. The second one I heard was a radical reworking by the early-80s British postpunk-swing band Blue Rondo a la Turk. They combined the edgy funk and jazz of bands like Pigbag with retro swing sounds for a style that was truly unique, and which unfortunately only lasted for one album, 1982's Chewing the Fat. (Their second album, Bees Knees and Chickens Elbows, omitted the swing elements for a smooth funk-soul sound more like, say, Level 42.) But that first album is a bag of treats, of which "I Spy" is the only cover:

02 I Spy for the FBI

Blue Rondo a la Turk

If you listen to all the lyrics, the song reveals itself as more about stalking than spying, but that's by the bye.
Later in the 80s, L.A. ska band The Untouchables recorded their own version, more in keeping with the original:

The Untouchables "I Spy (For The FBI)" - on Project Placebo

Who did do the original version, anyway? By some accounts it was Jamo Thomas, who had a big hit with it in 1966:

Jamo THOMAS - I SPY FOR THE F.B.I. (1966)

But it was actually written and first recorded by Luther Ingram in 1965:

I SPY FOR THE F.B.I. - LUTHER INGRAM

So there.

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Dap-dippin'!

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:19:18 -0700

The State Theatre of Ithaca has just announced its 2008-09 season schedule, and the big news is, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are coming to Ithaca! Yahoo!!! Not until November, though; sigh. But I'm going!

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings "100 Days, 100 Nights"

04_The Dap Dip

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

And I bought tickets today to see Nine Inch Nails in Philly! On Mrs. Veneer's birthday...oops.

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New funk from Jamie Lidell

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:26:17 -0800

Starting with the premise that it's not healthy to live in the past all the time, I scan the zip blogs once in a while to get a taste of what's new, to hear if anyone is making good music today. Answer: for the most part, no. Same as always. But it's the ones that cut through the noise, that shine through the murk of mediocrity like a halogen laser, that reward the hunt. "Little Bit of Feel Good" from German soulster Jamie Lidell is one of those, and it's jazzed me up enough to further derail my whole trumpet theme. Oh well, it has trumpets in it too. And hey, I just found a tool that lets me embed a MySpace player right here on the blog, so here is Jamie Lidell's:

Wouldn't it be awesome to see a Jamie Lidell and Dap Kings double bill?

(Here is the MySpace Music Player Embed Tool.)

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The Rozatones

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:30:32 -0800

Walking around listening to Speedometer in my earphones months ago, I really wished I could see them live, or at least see a band playing their type of music. I must not have been playing close enough attention to the local music scene, because there is a band here in Ithaca, the Rozatones, who venture into Speedometer territory. They opened for Freekbass at the Haunt on Thursday night; if the show had ended after the Rozatones I would already have gotten my money's worth. The Rozatones are a seven-piece band of Ithaca College students, led by singer/guitarist Revi Roza. I had high hopes for the set given that the lineup includes a two-man horn section, a keyboardist, and an extra percussionist, and my hopes were fulfilled. They played a mix of rock, funk, soul, and blues that reminds me of great bands of the 70s (Rufus and Chaka Khan come to mind), the band was tight, the soloing was adept, and the keyboard had all the classic funk sounds in it--Rhodes, Hammond, Clavinet, Moog--what more could you want? And they were all so into it! It was an impressive set from a band who are all half my age! Arrgh! My preference is for the faster numbers, when everybody really gets down and lets rip, but the slower songs move along quite well too and give Revi room to showcase her powerful voice. Here's one of the latter:

Rozatones: Forbidden pt.2

You can hear more Rozatones songs on their MySpace page, and there is an article about them from November 2006 here.

I scored some cool records at a record show today, I'll have some prime cuts coming up from them in the next week or so. Tonight, there's Afrobeat right here in River City! Finally! I'm heading out to Castaways to catch The Afromotive.

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Drums

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:39:51 -0700

About a year ago I finally got back around to making music, something I hadn't done for about 10-12 years. And this time I went a step further than I ever had, which was to compose all the tracks (in Noteworthy as MIDI) and arrange them in a real "studio" application, ACID Pro. I soon grew frustrated with the limitations of scoring drums in MIDI, so I tried out some drum apps and settled on Hotstepper for its flexibility, ease of arrangment, controls, and ability to accept any .wav file as a "drum." Even with the increased facility that Hotstepper gave me, my drum tracks still lacked a certain something. So I started reading about drumming techniques, and above all, listening to real live drummers. Pierre Moerlen of Gong was the first drummer to catch my ear; most recently I've been admiring Alphonse Mouzon's work on Eugene McDaniels's 1971 album Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse: not just the beats, but the fills, trills, embellishments, accents, and whatever else you call all the things he does with the drums so that no two measures are quite the same. Here's the leadoff track, "The Lord is Back":

01 The Lord is Back

Eugene McDaniels

Apart from Mouzon's drumming, the album contrasts a message of Christian love with some bitter anger against racism, warmongering, and societal inequties; in other words, problems that are still with us, for pity's sake. In that respect Horsemen is timeless. Deeper insights than mine are available at Uppity Music and Stylus Magazine.

As is always the case, my mission to "see how it's done" took on a life of its own, and I found myself listening to more and more music, collecting and cataloguing (figuratively) and not getting back to my original project. But I am embracing the fact that collecting and cataloguing is my project; I've always done it, it brings me joy, why fight it? But a side effect of getting so attuned to drummers is that now it's hard for me to listen to any music built around drum loops. They sound so sterile and lifeless. Too bad for me, most of electronica is built around drum loops. A genre I used to enjoy has become less fun than it was, with one notable exception. Tom Jenkinson, a.k.a. Squarepusher, creates amazing drum tracks (using nothing more than Roland drum machines, I understand). He must use some looping, but he manages to do something different in most measures (well, not in all his songs, but a lot of them). And if one measure of an artist's success is his employment of techniques that are specific to the medium, Jenkinson succeeds by including bits in his drum tracks that are impossible for a human drummer to play. It could be too many drums at once, or incredibly fast snare rolls, or different reverb patterns on the drums that make them sound like they're being played in different rooms, but at the same time. His drum programming skills are right up front on "Squarepusher Theme" from 1996:

01 Squarepusher Theme

Squarepusher

Jenkinson is also a wicked bassist, as you can see on the front page of the official Squarepusher website. Take that, Ivan the slap-bass-hating bear!

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Speedometer: the gold standard of deep funk

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 20:03:21 -0700

One of the more interesting genre revivals to spring up in England over the last decade or so is "deep funk," which seeks to recreate the sound of American local and regional funk bands of the 70s. At the forefront of the style is Speedometer, driven by the close-miked hot snare drum of Professor Chris Starmer. A three-piece horn section, guitar, bass, organ, extra percussionist, and occasional vocals by the Speedettes fill out their sound for good-time danceability. While many deep funk bands concentrate on loping, laid-back grooves a la the Meters, Speedometer often revs up the tempo, as their name implies. I like it fast! Here's "Wait Up," from their 2003 album This Is Speedometer (Vol. 1):

Speedometer - Wait Up

Speedometer

I detect a little "Jungle Boogie" in there. Speedometer also show off their moves on YouTube, performing "No Man Worries:"

And "You Know You Can:"

Now if only they'd do a US tour!

Speedometer website
Speedometer on MySpace

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