If you love music, but don't have the time to keep up with what's new, you should listen to Tuesday Reviewsday.
Every week our critics join our hosts in the studio to talk about what you should be listening to in one short segment. This week A Martinez is joined by Oliver Wang - music writer, scholar, and DJ.
Here are his picks:
Prince
Album: Purple Rain (Deluxe Version)
Let the gates of unreleased Prince songs be unleashed upon the public! The story behind “Electric Intercourse” is that it was supposedly meant to be on the Purple Rain soundtrack but was eventually left off and replaced by this song, “The Beautiful Ones." Electric Intercourse very much sounds like a Purple Era song, especially the drum machine!
We the People
Album: Function Underground:The Black And Brown American Rock Sound 1969-1974
L.A.’s Now-Again puts together a compilation of early ‘70s black psychedelic rock. This comes out 15 years after Chains and Black Exhaust, which was one of the first compilations to explore how black artists were dabbling in the same kinds of psychedelic rock experiments that we typically associate with white artists, almost exclusively (even if Jimi Hendrix was a clear influence in that whole movement). Now-Again dug deep in turning up a lot of these gems, including the title track from a little known group out of Phoenix AZ.
Gift of Gab, R.A. the Rugged Man, A-F-R-O
Album: Rejoice! Rappers are Rapping Again EP
The fact that the song is entitled “freedom form flowing” (I originally thought it said “freedom FROM flowing” and was confused) and more importantly, from a forthcoming EP with the trollicious title of “Rappers are Rapping Again,” suggests that there’s a little bit of generational warfare going on between these ‘90s cats and the current crop of artists.