Results tagged “funk”

"What the Devil wants, believe the Devil's going to get. He's going to stretch her out, like the tape in a cassette," Swaby croons menacingly on The Heavy's latest single "Sixteen." A lyric that is both incredibly dirty and radio appropriate. You've got to appreciate that. Big, bad, jungle blues is coming your way from across the pond, people. Prepare, yourselves. The kind that slowly crawls down your spine into your hips and makes you feel evil. You know, the good kind.

The deaths of James Brown or the Wicked Wilson Pickett left a huge gaping hole in the soul universe, but all is not lost Black Joe Lewis is picking up where they left off. Bursting out of Austin with a eight piece set up, Black Joe Lewis and his Honeybears have been drawing fans like flies to a honey jar with their saucy dirty, blues. The songs of their debut album,Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! get to the meat of what life is all about when you're young: being broke ("I'm Broke"), one night stands ("Sugarfoot"), amour ("Bitch, I Love You") and getting down ("Boogie"). Black Joe Lewis was kind enough to talk with us before his show at the Troubadour. Here is some of what was said.

              

It was an old school funk showdown at the Echo on Thursday night. The age old west coast vs. east coast rivalry was in full effect. Not in any sort of negative way, but in a purely competitive spirit. What I wanted to know was which band could out groove the other. Would it be the hometown Boogaloo Assassins with their Latin boogaloo or the funky newcomers from New York supporting their second album with the legendary Daptone Records, Budos Band?

              

Four words I never thought I would hear uttered at Club Nokia issued from young woman from the crowd. "I love your accordion!" she screamed. Next to me a drunken man in a plaid fedora raised his hands in double devil horns while stomping his feet. Really I thought that sort of thing was reserved for polka festivals and street fairs, but I guess I was wrong. You might well ask, who was inducing such fervor from the crowd? Ivan Milev and his band (and by band I mean buddy. He was accompanied by the violinist, Entcho Todorov) opened for Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings on Sunday night. Two middle aged men in button down shirts announced that they were going to play "Bulgarian soul music," and proceeded to melt the crowd's face off with just an accordion and a violin.

In marches Chin Chin, changing the dynamic of Def Jux records with this its first non-hiphop release. They are touring the west coast in late May/ June, and come through LA on Friday, June 6th @ Mint, and in Fullerton on Saturday, June 7th @ The Continental Room.

Sitting aside DJ Jeremy Sole spin records at last Thursday's weekly Afro Funke at Zanzibar in Santa Monica, I asked how he chooses what he plays next or if he has a set playlist. "Nah, it's all about reading the people dancing -- their body movements. See, I'm going to put this salsa on next and I bet the people hanging at the bar will all come out and dance. What I'm playing now is just the kindling. The salsa will be the fire." He did just that and the bartender slaving away had a break to catch her breath.

Photo by coffeextv via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr.

Every January, organ trio, Soulive heads out to Southern California for The NAMM Show. While the trio of Eric Krasno, Neal Evans and Alan Evans take part in the gathering of music industry professionals, they also book themselves a few concerts in Anaheim and Los Angeles to give the SoCal Soulive heads a taste of their trademark jazzy funk sound.

Due to apathy, a meager attempt to save money, and the rain (seriously! it rained!! I just wanted to say that again), I spent most of this past weekend doing fuck all at home. However, somewhere around 3 o'clock on Sunday, I got dragged out to get a few drinks at Crane's Tavern, a small bar I've only recently discovered, lurking around the corner from The Henry Fonda Theater. It's very cozy inside, like...

Quannum Projects has done their homework to discover and unveil this previously unreleased 60s recording from legendary Chicago funk and soul band Pieces of Peace. The story goes that in 1971 they recorded their only LP, and got offered a Southeast Asia tour. It was on this trip, in Singapore, that Pieces of Peace disbanded and went crawling back home. Some say it was homesickness, others claim it was stress dealing with agents, but...