September 13th, 2009 | No Comments »
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Follow The Leader
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Follow The Leader (Dub)
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Released in 1988
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OK, I’m trying out a new feature, 12″ Gems. Since I spent many years as a quasi-professional DJ, I’ve got fat stacks of phat tracks!
Take this one: Eric B. & Rakim’s 5-star classic single “Follow The Leader.” It killed in the later, hazy hours of house parties in San Francisco during the late 90s — nearly a decade after its 1988 release. It continues to be an invigorating dancefloor choice for certain kinds of parties.
I have an MP3 of this track that I got from one of the online music services. It completely neuters the bass, and sounds hollow. To me, Eric B.’s complex, moody beat is what drives the track and keeps it relevant. I spent some extra time on my encoding to try and capture it, but digital music can’t quite match the big thumping rhythm that only vinyl can deliver. Pump it through some good speakers and turn it up, and you’ll get a taste.
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Published in 12" Gems, Music |
January 31st, 2009 | No Comments »
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Summer In The City
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Manteca
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“Sanford & Son” Theme
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Chump Change
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Album: You’ve Got It Bad Girl (1973)
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To mark the one month anniversary of gBlog, I’ve got a new feature that I hope you will enjoy: LP Classics, a tribute to the best records in my collection. The rules: each selection must have a few 4- and 5-star classics, and it can’t be a compilation or live album.
I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a more auspicious debut for this feature than the LP I selected: Quincy Jones’s You’ve Got It Bad Girl. Released in 1973, it’s rarely mentioned among Q’s triumphs, but I’ve played and enjoyed this record countless times. I found it at a San Francisco sidewalk sale for $2, a deal that still makes me smile some 15 years later.
As you can see from the tags I assigned to this post, Quincy showcases his eclectic tastes on this LP. A few tracks originate from movies or TV shows, others are creative interpretations of other artists’ songs, and the liner notes detail several legendary session players providing support throughout the album.
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Published in LP Classics, Music |
January 31st, 2009 | No Comments »
The iTunes rating system can be a huge help in organizing your iTunes library. I guess you can go the traditional route of rating your tracks from 1-5, but it’s tough to articulate the difference between, say, a 2-star track and a 3-star track. I also feel there’s pressure to rank all your songs when you’ve got a 5-star scale, and that takes a great deal of effort to maintain.
Here’s what makes the iTunes rating system an untapped resource: a track’s rating is one of the few attributes that can be edited directly in iTunes or on your iPod/iPhone, then synched seamlessly between both. This allows you to categorize songs at home or on the go.
What I like to do is use the 5-star system for purposes other than rating the relative quality of a track. Though my system is no less subjective, it’s become an essential tool to help keep my library organized and make my playlists better. Let me break it down for you star-by-star:
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Published in Music, Tech Tips, Technology |
January 13th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
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Wu-Tang Clan
Hollow Bones
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Album: The W (2000)
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Syl Johnson
Is It Because I’m Black
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Album: Is It Because I’m Black (1969)
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Introducing Musical Cousins, where I take two or more tracks that relate to each other in some way. The most obvious application — including this one — will be to pair a modern-ish song with the original beat it samples. But I may latch on to other, more esoteric pairings as well.
For the inaugural edition, I’ve chosen a joint from the uneven Wu-Tang Clan record, The W. Verses from Raekwon, Inspectah Deck and Ghostface flow beautifully in a track that is made for headphones (but not for the dancefloor).
Contrast it to Syl Johnson’s original and witness RZA’s minimal, yet effective, sampling methodologies. He doesn’t utilize any sounds that aren’t part of the original song. He just increased the tempo, looped a few bits, and sprinkled on a few effects.
Though lyrically, the two tracks are markedly different — Johnson is wailing on the dehumanizing effects of racism while the Wu deliver intricate, crime-themed wordplay — they share an underlying despair and a driving force to persevere regardless of the bleak circumstances.
Published in Music, Musical Cousins |
January 11th, 2009 | No Comments »
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Bus Stop
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Laid Back
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Album: Bus Stop (1974)
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Introducing Crate Diggin’, where I’ll digitize some tracks from my neglected record collection. I’ll try to focus on music that is still unavailable on CD and artists you may not be familiar with. This feature will be heavy on soul/funk/jazz from 1970-1975, since that’s what I was into when I was on the vinyl tip.
To kick things off, I’ve unearthed a record I picked up when I lived in New Orleans, Oliver Sain’s Bus Stop. Oliver was a big name in the St. Louis R&B scene, not just as a sax player, but also as a songwriter and producer. Each year, he organized an annual Soul Reunion, which just celebrated its 45th anniversary (even though Sain died in 2003).
Bus Stop was his second LP as a solo artist and focused on Oliver’s songwriting and sax skills. The record is a mixture of funk, blues, and the unfortunately-titled track, “Blowing For Love.”
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Published in Crate Diggin', Music |
