For a few months now I’ve been participating in a monthly music club at a friend’s company. Every month, a small group of us get together and each brings a CD of anything they want for the rest. The people in the club are all avid music fans and you never know what they’re going to bring. So far, it’s been a blast.
Just for posterity, I’m going to start putting my mixes here on the old blog, so consider this a short break from the normal technical content.
This month I decided to focus on funk and groove and I pulled out some tasty stuff.
UPDATE: You can also listen to the first part of this mix (for now at least) at MuxTape.
| Song | Artist | Album | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| What You Need | Galactic w/Lyrics Born | From the Corner to the Block | One of my favorite albums of 2007 – Galactic smokes and the addition of different MCs to every track was a stroke of genius.</tr> |
| Get It Up | Vallejo | Steamboat Live ’97 | One of my favorite Austin bands brings the funk on this live track from the venerable Steamboat, where I saw my first Vallejo show years ago. I have never ever seen a band hit the stage with as much energy as that night. |
| Gotta Let Me Know | Breakestra | Hit The Floor | I got into Breakestra a couple years ago and they continue to hit my rotation frequently – great funk tunes played over breaks. |
| Daktari Walk | Daktaris | Soul Explosion | Afro beat goodness – a great blend of influences from the Fela Kuti to James Brown. Been listening to this a lot lately. |
| I Don’t Know Where I’m Going | Lee Fields | Problems | I found Lee Fields by way of Sharon Jones and he’s an old school r&b guy making it happen today, just like her. |
| Tell Me | Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings | 100 Days, 100 Nights | Got a chance to see Sharon in concert earlier this year and she was pretty amazing. |
| Scorpio | Kashmere Stage Band | Cold Heat: Heavy Funk Rarities, Vol. 1 | From a nice funk compilation – always reminds me of the music from The Incredibles |
| Get On The Good Foot | James Brown | 40th Anniversary Collection | He’s the Godfather for a reason. |
| Mr. Big Stuff | Jean Knight | Stax Gold | Surprisingly, this song hasn’t yet been ruined for me by getting rewritten and maimed in a commercial. Yeah you’ve heard it before, and yeah it’s still good. |
| Where’s the Music? | Medeski, Martin, and Wood | Let’s Go Everywhere | MMW are well known for their acid-jazz funk groove. Last year they put out this fun kid’s album that even adults with taste can enjoy. |
| Blow Your Brains Out | Brooklyn Funk Essentials | Cool & Steady & Easy | A great band with a groove that put out several really strong albums. |
| Where I’m From | Digable Planets | Reachin’ (A New Refutation Of Time And Space) | Great album, great song |
| Loungin’ | Guru | Jazzmatazz Vol. 1 | The first in a series of interesting jazz/hip-hop/funk hybrid collaborations |
| Homo Lingo | Deep Banana Blackout | Live Apr 1st, 2004 | These guys groove and the singer is just great. |
| Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) | Marvin Gaye | What’s Going On | I’m too young and pale to have been present when this song was important, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t feel it. Not to mention one of the best bass lines ever laid down (from the under-appreciated Funk Brothers). |