I know, I know, the Beatles were better at the music, the Beach Boys were better at major sevenths, Chuck Berry was better at the lyrics, and Little Richard was better at falsetto. Carl Perkins was better at being down-home, Billy Lee Riley was better at crazed-cat rockabilly, Buddy Holly was better at bringing pop into […]
Category: Soul Music
Milk and Sylvester and Neil Young!
I just saw Gus Van Sant’s Milk last night. Of course it was great and moving and sad and informative. And of course Sean Penn wowed us with his performance, even though we already knew it was going to be good. But amidst all the drama and sadness and history, I got a little nugget […]
Levi Stubbs RIP
The singer of the Four Tops died Friday at the age of 72. I think for years, I eshewed the music of the Four Tops because of this man’s voice. I preferred the refreshing sweetness of Curtis Mayfield in the Impressions, and the horny bleating of Smokey Robinson with the Miracles, to Stubbs’s rough, manly […]
don’t forget the Bar-Kays!
While we’re all very sad at the death of Isaac Hayes, I feel like there’s a band that’s lived in his shadow for far too long, and that’s the Bar-Kays. In one incarnation or another, they played great soul and funk for nearly twenty years, doing everything from instrumental soul classics such as “Soul Finger,” to covers […]
The Jimmy Castor Bunch – Troglodyte
I think we’ve posted about this guy before, but I have to stress that this man is a secret weapon of funk. Here he is, layin’ out the caveman rock better than the Warlocks or Fuzztones ever could.
I am going to miss the T.A.M.I. show tonight! But Riot on Sunset Strip is alright.
I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’ve had a sore throat now for seven days or so and it has been one bad trip all the way through, especially now that I’ve run out of Naproxen. I wish someone would bash my brains out and put an end to the shreeeking, […]
Betty Harris
Q: What’s funkier than the Meters? A: The Meters when they back up Betty Harris on “There’s a Break in the Road!” Oh, that’s funky, that’s funky! Like nine cans of shaving powder, that’s funky! Goddam, I don’t really think there was a better era of soul music than the late sixties-early seventies transition […]
Abaco Dream – Sly and the Family Stone’s electronic secret
My gal got me an iPod for Christmas, and sometimes when I try to play my songs randomly, it starts playing bands in alphabetical order instead. That means Abaco Dream is the first band to play. And this band is so fucking awesome, I just have to sit and listen each time until it’s done. […]
The Impressions – This Is My Country
With Martin Luther King, Jr. Day coming up in a week and a half, I’ve been bustin’ out one of my favorite Black Power albums. This one came out just a couple months after King’s assassination, and is full of songs that give ease and comfort to folks going through troubled times. Though this is largely an […]