Darondo – Didn't I

I've always wanted to be one of those bearded guys that wear fedoras and have encyclopedic knowledge of soul and funk. You know, the guys that can name everyone who recorded for Stax in 1962 and have a room devoted to the thousands of long-lost soul LPs they've found after spending countless hours in dank record stores searching through those dusty stacks that pile up underneath the nicely organized vinyl.

That's what I want to be when I grow up. Fuck astronauts. Reality is, though, that I'm a long, long way from being that guy and as much as I love the soul, funk, and Motown genres, I've never been good at finding lost gems unless someone gives them to me.

Today is different. I discovered Darondo all by my myself (well after Gilles Peterson discovered him a few years ago). His story is the stuff of legend: allegedly a San Francisco pimp who recorded 3 singles and played 4 shows (including one with James Brown) in the 1970's before becoming an artifact collector, local cable star, and physical therapist. No man with that great of a story can make anything but great music. And he does. Groove this one.

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Kids These Days is a Chicago based 8 piece that blends hip hop, funk, and soul music to create a sound of their own. The thing I am enjoying most about this group this morning is their potential. The members of this band are all within the ages of 17-21 and quite frankly, the kids are alright. It's remarkable that this group of young, like-minded musicians has found each other, and that their output has been nothing short of prodigious. You can find the Kids on twitter, facebook, youtube, and their EP Hard Times for sale on itunes. Furthermore, Kids These Days can been seen in this years August 5th line up at Lollapalooza in Chicago IL. 

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One of the most satisfying parts of being a music blogger is when a post on an artist you love or are truly excited about grows underneath your typing fingertips to become something entirely different than you originally intended. Great artists like soulful singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka tend to do that to me.

Michael Kiwanuka – I Need Your Company

Michael Kiwanuka – Worry Walks Beside Me

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Boston-based band You Won't brought me two revelations recently. First, they are quite possibly the least Google-able band ever. Second, their album Skeptic Goodbye is quickly becoming one of my favorite releases of the year.

 

You Won't – Three Car Garage

You Won't – Who Knew

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The Well-Informed – New York (We Love Her)

I'm going to go ahead and use The Well-Informed's own words to describe their music, because it's basically more clever than anything I can come up with: "Cuban Missile make-out music". Alright, maybe it doesn't exactly conjure up a specific sound in your mind but it's a hell of a line isn't it?

The Well-Informed are a three-piece from NYC that make a theatrical brand of Prohibition-era, dixieland tinged pop. Their single "New York (We Love Her)" makes me picture all those scenes in a fancy bar in Boardwalk Empire where there booze is flowing, the ladies are dancing, and the band is playing. It's a modern ode to the women of the city, but it transports you to a period and a time.

I also really like that fact that The Well-Informed embraced the streets of New York with a busking tour. In a time where many small bands are rethinking the classic touring tradition, taking your music to the streets and connecting to people intimately is a great idea. I'm sure it didn't make them millionares, but they got to travel around the city, doing what they love, and meeting people, so fuck it right?

All The Well-Informed's songs are currently available for free on their Bandcamp page, so head on over and get your download on.

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Mr. Lewis and the Funeral 5 is  the self-proclaimed offspring of "...New Orleans jazz funerals, [and] jubilant melodies with discordant no-wave dirges about love, sex, death, and whiskey." Their recording debut was in 2007 with the release of Murder and the Art of the Dance, and their second album, Delirium Tremendous is set to drop July 26th of this year. Their cover of the Kinks tune Alcohol is featured on this project and is tasty enough to stop the room.

Mr. Lewis and the Funeral 5: Alcohol

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J. Irvin Dally – Teething

J. Irvin Dally – Sun Room

I love growers. You know what I mean. Those songs that so lightly tap you on the shoulder on the first listen that you almost don't even notice. But you can't shake that feeling that someone's trying to get your attention so you listen again and hear someone calling your name. Then on the third or fourth listen you're being beat over the head with a baseball bat while someone screams in your ear. 

J. Irving Dally is kind of like that.

Dally's brand of wispy indie folk features a beautiful mix of various instruments (is that a theremin?) and pulls just enough influence from other genres to sound wholly original yet somehow familiar. He also has a voice like honey that flows sweetly over the tempo-changing tunes. 

Dally's 7" featuring "Sun Room" and "Teething" is available tomorrow via his Bandcamp page. It's highly recommended.

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Fitz & The Tantrums – Breakin' The Chains Of Love

Fitz & The Tantrums – We Don't Gotta Work It Out

There are very few things in this world that get me crazy excited. A really good sandwich or finding the first Bill Withers album on vinyl – sure I'll be hopping up and down freaking out. Music-wise, there's not much that can get me going more than a new Motown/Stax influenced band. I'm really just a huge sucker for soul (a fact that is well documented). Fitz and the Tantrums masterfully mesh together the influences I hold so dear with a modern, fresh poppiness.

The mark of any good Motown band (original or otherwise) for me is always the rhythym section. If the drummer is holding it down and the bass player is making my loins groove the song is bound to be classic. It's the first thing that hooked me on "Breakin' The Chains of Love" off Pickin' Up The Pieces, and it's the last thing you notice on the last track, "Tighter". Interestingly, the album is composed entirely without guitars which makes the loud, dense tracks even more impressive.

All my overanalyzing doesn't really do justice to the fact that Fitz and the Tantrums are just straight up addictive. Pickin' Up The Pieces is ten tracks of a damn good time and if you can't get down with this, you need to lighten up, Debbie Downer.

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Kenton Dunson – Rolling Stone (Ft. Garrett Anderson)

Kenton Dunson – Firestarter (Ft. Ryan Kellie)

I love stories like this. Guys giving up the job they've been successful at for years but never had their heart in, in order to pursue a true passion in life. I can get behind that. Life's too short to be forcing yourself to do a job you dislike while you're true calling lies dormant, ammirite?

These stories are all made even better when the person is seriously talented at the thing they left to pursue. Kenton Dunson worked at an investment firm before coming to his senses last year and deciding to pursue his love of music. Lucky for us he did, because in a relatively short span of time, he's developed a unique sound and put out some great tunes.

It's always impressive to see guys write, produce, and MC and Dunson's definitely the triple threat. He has a Lupe-meets-John Legend sound that can be silky smooth or hard hitting, often in the same song. 

Kenton Dunson just realeased his new album Creative Destruction 2  and you can pick it up over at his website for nothing more than an e-mail address.

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Blake Mills – Hey Lover

Blake Mills – Winter Song

On a total whim (inspired by my friend Matt Dyson), I recently bought Blake Mills' "Winter Song/Hey Lover" 7" without having previously heard more than 30 seconds of Mills' music. I had totally and unfortunately missed his debut, Break Mirrors, last year and after devouring the single I picked up the full-length and have been in love with his brand of smooth, low-key, sometimes tongue-in-cheek indie rock.

Mills started his career with the boys of Dawes and went on to play guitar for everyone from Cass McCombs to Kid Rock. He also has the greatest/worst retro website you could imagine. He's a serious young talent and I hope his name continues to grow.

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