Soothe the Soul with Ikebe Shakedown

Just showing some love . . .

Because it's official, my good friends in Ikebe Shakedown just got signed to Ubiquity, and will be joining the likes of Orgone in brining the heat. "The Prisoner" is the B-side of Ikebe Shakedown's first single, and is one of my personal favorites. My friend wrote this song when he was obsessively watching the classic television show of the same name, which was gifted to him by his mom for christmas. True story.

Watch out for Ikebe Shakedown. Big love and congratulations, gentlemen.

X- Your Phone's Off the Hook, but You're Not

X makes my top ten. This is quite possibly one of the best punk songs ever recorded. 

Smith- Baby It's You

This song was written by semi-obscure people (Burt Bacharach, Luther Dixon, and Mack David), was recored by the Beatles, then covered by Smith and many others. I personally like this version the best. Bow down to the superior vocal abilities of Gayle McCormick! 

Also, isn't the audio quality ridiculously good for a youtube video? Hats off to the guy who recorded it.

Chris Clark- Love's Gone Bad

White girl got pipes!

Another Pretty Face- All The Boys Love Carrie

A little morsel of new wave for you all. 

The Heavy- How You Like Me Now?

Obviously this is right up my alley. Garage-punk-soul. How detroit. Based in Bath, England, The Heavy released The House that Dirt Built in 2009 on Counter Records. This song has apparently been featured in the opening montage of the The Fighter, so these guys are getting some well deserved attention. The Heavy is classified as "neo-soul" by the folks at allmusic.com. I don't know about you, but that is a label that makes me sit up and take notice. Check it out!

The Roots- Right On

Oh hey, Joanna Newsom actually recorded something listenable. Who would have thought?

The Dap-Kings- Nervous Like Me

This is an instrumental by The Dap-Kings, sans Sharon. Apparently this is a relatively obscure single, because it was somewhat difficult for me to track down. For anyone who's interested, it was a 7" release on Kay Dee from 2004. Anyway, this is the shit. Enjoy!

Wes Montgomery- Four on Six

Wes Montgomery is easily one of the greatest jazz guitarists to have ever lived. And he couldn't even read music. It just goes to show, you don't need a good camera to take good pictures, you don't need to study art to be a great artist, and you don't need a perfect diamond knife to cut good serial sections for electron microscopy. 

Teenage Head- Picture My Face

Two words: Canadian punk.

J Dilla- E=MC²

J Dilla has touched my soul, and the soul of many others. On this, the eve of 2011, I bring you another classic of his. Please, do yourself a favor, and run out and buy The Shining by J Dilla, if you haven't already. It will drastically improve the quality of your life, assuredly. 

Merry Christamas Y'all!

Cannonball Adderley- Autumn Leaves

Check out this blue note classic. Alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley played on some of the greatest recordings of the hard bop era, including Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. This is my favorite track on his solo album Somethin' Else.

7L & Esoteric- Think Back

For the longest time I couldn't remember the names of these guys. I heard them, immediately started to dig their sound, but then couldn't find them again. Thankfully youtube recommended one of their music videos to me. 

Anyway, these guys are from Boston. From what I've heard, the whole album Soul Purpose is worth checking out in depth.

The Black Keys- Tighten Up

A Black Key is something a little off, or not quite right. I've been a big fan of the Black keys since the early 2000s. Their album Thickfreakness was an integral part of my college soundtrack, and I always know it's them when a song I'm unfamiliar with comes on the radio. This single is off their newest album Brothers, and is the most successful to date. Normally I don't watch music videos, because I'd so rather have my own associations with music, but this one is too cute. Enjoy!

Edit: check out this funny interview with Patrick Carney. It won't disappoint.

Menahan Street Band- Karina

What the hey, here's the B side.

Menahan Street Band- Make the Road by Walking

I bought this 45 hot off the press in 2007. Duhnam was founded with much anticipation on my part. I knew this first single would be good, but I was blown away by actually how good. The first time I listened to this song on my turntable, I actually melted. No joke. One day I was browsing in the Salvation Army in chelsea. And I started to hear this very familiar and creamy riff. Then it came to me! Make the Road by Walking! But it was right smack in the middle of a hip hop song. I came to find out it was Jay-Z that sampled white boys from Brooklyn. 

As an aside, my good friends in Ikebe Shakedown are recording at Duhnam studios as we speak. 

Amy Winehouse- Love is a Losing Game

This song actually reminds me of a roommate I had a few years ago. He listened to Amy Winehouse on repeat, totally sucked, and ultimately ripped me off for a couple months' rent. With all that, this song still breaks my heart. 

The Daktaris- Quiet Man is Dead Man

Let's see. The Daktaris released Soul Explosion on the Desco label in 1998. I think it's somewhat safe to say that all this business going down in the mid the late nineties marked the start of the Brooklyn Afrobeat revival. For those of you not obsessed with all these increasingly less obscure Brooklyn labels, Desco predated and eventually melded into Daptone, once Gabriel Roth and Philip Lehman went their separate ways. 

Anyway, this was billed as being an authentic 1970s recording from Nigeria, but these dudes is white. As white  as a sheet. Which is hilarious. 

Enjoy!

The Gories- There but for the Grace of God

So uh, everything is better when it's from detroit. Obviously. 

Lady drummers represent.