Break My Soul

Welcome to the Europop portion of the show. I came across this group purely by accident. I was looking for something and this group popped up and I fell in love with what I heard. Anyone who knows me knows I love my music drenched in the low end. In other words, the more bass the better. Those that know me also know that I have a thing for dark grooves, great melody, and strings (my mom used to play the violin, don’t blame me). The music offered up by the group Hybrid pleases me on every last one of those fronts, hence the name “Hybrid” I guess. Their song entitled “Break My Soul” encompasses all of that. The melodies are beautiful, the strings are prominent, and this song isn’t meant to be heard through your little headphone buds but on real speakers because only real speakers can capture the low end properly. Add to that the fact that it's an anthem for women and you have a great song.

I fell in love with their album “I Choose Noise” and couldn’t wait for their next release which dropped earlier this year called “Disappear Here”. Now just because you hear vocals doesn’t mean that all of their previous music has this sound. The group comprised of Mike Truman and Chris Healings didn’t start really trying to write structured songs until Charlotte James rounded out the group. “Noise” and “Disappear” couldn’t sound more different and in some ways that’s a good thing and a bad one but I won’t criticize. If you choose to look into the group you can make that determination for yourself. All I know is that I love this song and one of the most beautiful things about this song is those are actual strings you’re hearing courtesy of The City of Prague Orchestra and not some synthesizer. It adds a more dramatic touch to the song in my opinion.

Just when you don’t think this song can get any better the break comes in with an acoustic guitar, strings, and Charlotte that’s just really pretty. It’s a nice reprieve from the darkness of the song, like a refreshing drink of water before the action resumes, and it does resume with a vengeance. There have been just a few songs where I wish I could have been in the studio at the time of their recording. Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy, Mercy Me”, Stevie Wonders “Love’s in Need of Love Today”, Prince’s “Purple Rain”, Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry” and “Redemption Song” and this song. Strange I know but what can I tell you? Those that know me know what I mean.

Downtime

I have to thank my friend Art for hipping to this man. Robert Glasper is an amazing piano player and his song “Downtime” is the perfect soundtrack for those “lazy Sundays”. Off of his third album “Double Booked”, “Downtime” is the kind of track you cue up on your stereo while you’re in the kitchen making pancakes or reading the paper in your robe. It’s the perfect compliment to a day where the last thing on your mind is putting clothes on and going out. And if it’s raining or snowing then all the better.

If you haven’t been able to tell, I am always looking for new music and new doesn’t have to be fresh out the wrapper. New for me could be something that was released fifteen years ago but I just never heard it and my friends know this and Art had ever asked me if I’ve ever heard of Robert Glasper and I said no. He suggested I look into him (and his drummer, the amazing Chris Dave) and take a listen to “Double Booked”. The album was definitely impressive and one of the best cuts on the album in my opinion is “Downtime”. To me there’s nothing better than jazz on a Sunday morning and this song is the embodiment of that casual feeling.

Chris Dave is amazing and even on such a cool out, mellow tune his drumming is like an animal contained. His high hat work throughout the song from beginning to the end seems out of place at first but you slowly realize it’s just not random, that he’s playing his own little melody along with Roberts piano playing. For the majority of the song it’s just Robert and Chris but seemingly smack dab in the middle comes the cool upright bass played by Vincente Archer.

Do not, I repeat do NOT play this song while you’re in a rush to get somewhere. It will not put any pep in your step and in fact it may just slow you down and make you late. Hey, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

'Round Midnight

I figured since I mentioned him in an earlier post that I would post one of his most influential and one of my all time favorite jazz tunes by him. The him I refer too is Thelonious Monk and the song is called “’Round Midnight”. Quite simply one of the greatest pieces of music ever recorded in my opinion, composed and played by the mad genius of jazz. This song altered not only Monks life but so many others as well, most for the better, a few for the worse. This song has been done over by everyone from Dexter Gordon to Bobby McFerrin, it became a jazz standard. If you called yourself a jazz musician then you had to play this song, it was as simple as that. It’s melancholy in its melody and breathtaking in its simplicity. Monk has been called the man who plays those notes that fall in-between the cracks and this song I think clearly demonstrates that.

When I first came across Monk I wasn’t a fan. I didn’t like his music but then what the hell did I know, I was a jazz novice. I thought I knew what there was to know about music and I thought jazz fell into that category. I was a fool. Jazz is a completely different beast, a land all it’s own with Kings and Queens and not just anyone was allowed on the property. You had to know what you were talking about and now I realize back then I really had no clue. I thought Monks music was discordant and strange. I thought his piano playing took away from the overall beauty of what the other players were doing. As I grew as an appreciator of jazz and my appetite for the music grew I gave another listen to Thelonious Sphere Monk and he blew me away.

Instead of taking away from the other musicians playing with him, he enhanced them. Instead of ruining the melody, he made it unique. There was no one sounding like Monk and no one ever would or could and he became an icon to me. The coolest cat amongst the coolest of cats, Pannonica and I agreed on that. He’s had other pieces that have moved me but none like ‘Round Midnight. It’s crazy but the more you listen to it the more it grabs you and won’t let you go. If you disagree with me then I dare you to put it on repeat and see what happens.

Dark Water feat. John Boutte

How to even begin with this one? Let me start off when I first heard about this group. I was sitting at home and watching a show called “Treme” on HBO about post Katrina New Orleans. I tuned in because the creators of that show were the people responsible for the amazing series “The Wire” of which I was a HUGE fan. Again if that show were a woman there would have been a restraining order out on me but I digress. If you haven’t checked out “Treme” yet by the way, you really should but anyway, this one episode starred Elvis Costello playing himself and he was at a recording session. Session ends and the musicians invite Elvis to come check out this “funky group of white boys” known as Galactic. I thought to myself “I wonder if that’s even a real group” and after a little bit of digging I found out they sure were real and like they said in the show they damn sure were funky. I got the chance to see them in concert when they visited The Brooklyn Bowl earlier this year and they blew the roof off the place.

This song, “Dark Water” off of their second release “Ya-Ka-May” is by far my favorite off this album. First time I heard it the bassline reached out and grabbed me by the neck. My brain said “holy SH*T, turn that UP!” and since then I was hooked. The bassline dominates and the drums compliment it to perfection. It’s got a gangsta lean type feel to it, full of swagger and bravado and maybe that’s why I love it so much. Anything this bad ass is hard not to love and admire. The lyrics seem like an after thought but if you listen to them carefully they bring the song together. It would have been fine as an instrumental but the lyrics sung by the award winning John Boutte (whose song "Treme" is the opening theme to the same named HBO show) are profound and the vocals are another instrument the fits in along side the bass, drums, guitar, and cello (yeah I said cello, listen close).

If this is the kind of music they are rocking to down in Nawlens then I need to get my ass down there and QUICK because apparently there’s more down there than crawfish, The Saints, and mardi gras. Check it out and see if I’m wrong. Maybe you'll want to come with :-)

Paris Groove

I have been a fan of this group ever since I walked in a record store (yeah I know keep bringing up this thing called a record store but I swear they really did exist) at least twenty years ago and I heard them playing over the sound system. I bought the album right on the spot. I didn’t need to hear anymore of the album because the song I heard was enough to sell me right there on the spot. Ever since then I’ve been following The Rippingtons w/Russ Freeman with crazed enthusiasm. If they were a woman I’m sure there would have been a restraining order out against me. That’s how big of a fan I am of their brand of music. Now those that know me know I am a jazz lover and a purist. Trane, Monk, Bird, Dizzy and the rest of the masters are the ones I love the most but there’s just something about The Rippingtons and their sound that I can’t deny loving, it almost represents a certain lifestyle or way of living, especially this song.

“Paris Groove” is catchy, easy, breezy and the perfect antidote for whatever is ailing you. I’ve offered up songs I thought were day starters, well this song and almost anything else The Rippingtons do are after work songs. Throw this tune on and you’ll get caught up in it and I’m confident your shoulders will relax and whatever was stressing you about your day will fade away and you may not even need to imbibe in the spirits. “Paris” starts off with that classic guitar sound, very mellow, very relaxing, the kind of music you can bop around the house to. It’s great background music or driving music (not that I drive but you know what I mean). Then comes the accordion (or the accordion sound) that cooks and plays well with the guitar work.

There are so many other Rippington songs I can recommend but I’ll let you dig into their vast collection for yourself. That’s only if you like their sound and if you don’t I’d ask you the cake question. Not liking this sound is like not liking cake and how could ANYONE not like cake?

Alive and Kicking

This is for all you 80’s heads. This is one of my all time favorite bands and this song is one of their bests in my humble opinion. The band is Simple Minds and the song is “Alive and Kicking”. You may already know this song and hate it or like me you may love it and unlike me just forgotten about it. I’m here to introduce it to you or re-introduce you to it. This song is one of those early morning get up and go songs that propels you into your day with a smile on your face as you sing along with Jim Kerr on your way to work or in the shower perhaps. Off of their amazing album Once Upon A Time, “Alive” harkens back to the days of the 80’s and John Hughes films when Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson were icons to the misfits and disenfranchised youth we used to be. I know I played this album more than any other when I first got it. I never left the house without this tape (yeah, I said tape dammit).

Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland Simple Minds has been a phenomenally successful band and in fact “Alive” went to number 3 worldwide (Don’t You (Forget about me) went to number 1). Released in November of 1985 “Once” reached number one in the UK and number ten here in the States and became their most successful full length album of the bands career and that was done without the song “Don’t You” from “The Breakfast Club”. The thing I love most about this song is how it builds. It simmers at first with the drums and keyboards intro and then Jim’s voice comes in with “You turn me on / you lift me up / like the sweetest cup / I share with you / you lift me up / don’t you ever stop / I’m here with you” and that leads into the soulful chant which leads into the catchy chorus and we’re off and running.

After the second verse, soulful chant and catchy chorus there’s a piano break that comes in all alone and settles the song down only for the drums to come back in and bring the song back up to a simmer along with some soulful vocals very reminiscent of “Tears For Fears”. Guess that was the recipe for success back in the day and that credit should really go to Pink Floyd but I’m again getting off track here. Jim comes back in with the catchy chorus and his adlibbing at the end elevates this song to another level.

Quite simply this song cooks and it brings to mind Ferris and Bender, bananas in tailpipes, the moonwalk and everything else the 80’s gave birth too. Take a listen and enjoy the trip down memory lane.

Where is My Mind?

If you haven't heard this wacky, groovy, addictive song then allow me to bring it to you. It's by The Pixies and it's called "Where is My Mind?". Right away it starts off wierd with someone humming and someone else saying "Stop". Then the groove comes in starting with an acoustic guitar and then the drums, lead guitar, and funky bassline all join in. And behind it all is that humming that someone told someone to stop doing in the beginning. Wierd, right? Or is it just me?

Well wierd or not this song rocks even if it doesn't blaze and if it's not as tight as "lazy eye" by Silversun. But in fact it's the sloppiness that adds to the charm of the song in my opinion. It sounds like a stoner anthem actually and it probably is somewhere to someone. From the title of the song and with lyrics like "With your feet in the air / and your head on the ground / try this trick and spin it, yeah / your head will collapse / but there's nothing in it / and you'll ask yourself / where is my mind?", I ask you how could this song NOT be a stoner anthem?

The band is originially from Boston but never really found any serious success here in the States like they did in England which is why most mistake them from being from there. The Pixies are homegrown and while their record sales have never broken any records, they've been far more successful touring over the years and "Mind" sounds like it would be incredible to hear live. What do you think?