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I saw this footage the past weekend at the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, where I had a gig (which I forgot to list, oops) as part of a Tribute Night for Aretha Franklin.
I love this so many different ways, especially the obvious chemistry between Smokey and Aretha. And Don Cornelius is at his deep voiced best too.
BTW, I had a really incredible time. Not only did I get to DJ with MC Lyte(!) but I met some incredible staff at the HOF. To boot: I was on the same flight as Chaka Khan back [...]
Continue reading “WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A DUO”
In the latest edition of our Soul Sides / Sliced side project, Joseph Schloss breaks down one of the all-time funk (and sampling) classics, “Sing a Simple Song” by Sly and the Family Stone. Schloss focuses on Stone’s innovative use of stereo panning effects that later hip-hop producers learned to use to their own advantage.
Other updates: part 2 of our podcast with Thes One coming very soon (later this week). Meanwhile, PUTS’s newest album, Highlighter is out. For digital heads, peep out the 24-bit HD version! If you don’t know what that means…Thes breaks it down [...]
Continue reading BREAKING DOWN: SING A SIMPLE SONG
A brief contribution from me was included in NPR’s round-up of “the sounds of summer.” I picked one of my favorite, end-of-summer jams: “Be Thankful For What You Got.” My dude Dino Rivera of Spintronix sent me some new business card scans from the mobile DJ era.
This sheet is especially cool for all the record and music stores on there. Aloha is legendary amongst dance DJs of the 1980s and I remember going to Star Records when it was still around. Manor Music, in Pacifica, perseveres but most of [...]
Continue reading GRAB BAG
Adam Mansbach has been a friend for years now – we still rap about records every time we link up – so it’s been with a mixture of happiness, pride and complete incredulity that I’ve witnessed the phenom that is his “children’s” book, Go The F— To Sleep which managed to become a best-seller with no formal marketing at all.
I’ll have more to say about all this in a couple of weeks when Adam joins me, in studio, to tape an episode of The Sidebar but this was just too good [...]
Continue reading SAMUEL JACKSON READS “GO THE F___ TO SLEEP”
A few housekeeping things for my readers.
First, I’m testing out a new way for people to stream audio off the site so that the songs play more like a radio playlist: Streampad. No disrespect to the Yahoo Media Player, which I had been using for years, but what annoyed me about it is whenever I wanted to check my own site via iPad or iPhone, it would load up the player which – being in Flash – wouldn’t work. I could, of course, blame Apple for not supporting Flash but I’m not about [...]
Continue reading CHECK THE TECH(NIQUE)
Busy in New Orleans right now so forgive the slow posting pace. Heard this on NOLA’s 90.7 FM; great blues tune from the late Johnnie Taylor. Have a snack on this – I’ll be back by early next week
I will always have a love affair with the radio; as a medium, the power of the voice, broadcasting into the ether, is one that will likely stay with me until my end of days. Even though I’m glad I don’t have to do a weekly radio show anymore, I do feel so honored and fortunate to still be able to record for radio, especially for NPR. All Things Considered turns 40 today and I’ve been listening for at least the last 10 years and as it is, I’ve been contributing for exactly [...]
Continue reading FOUR YEARS WITH ATC
The EMP Pop Conference just finished up in L.A. this past weekend. For those unfamiliar (and really, my readers should be familiar), over its 10 years, the Pop Conference has become the most interesting and important annual convalcade of scholars, journalists, musicians and related folk. This was the first year it was not held in Seattle (next year, it will rotate to NYU) and as I’ve done in a few previous years, I wanted to provide a short write-up of the proceedings and more importantly, what I learned along the way.
Before [...]
Continue reading EMP 2011 IN REVIEW
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