Record store day

So, did any of you make it out to your local record store on Sat (16th April), to support Record store day?
I have to admit to a no show this year, due in full to a carry on from Friday night into Sat morning, i just didn't have the stomach for it and decided that staying at home with a can of Red stripe would be best.
I will say that i am an avid supporter of many record stores, although most of my record shopping is done online nowadays - record shopping worldwide is a beautiful thing - i still do love the buzz of walking through the doors of my favourite stores and trying to surpress the excited squeals as i root through the racks of vinyl, pulling out gems that i have wanted to get my hands on for an age.
There is no better smell than that of dusty, musky record sleeves. The sight of original, sometimes breathtaking artwork and then the unveiling of their prize inside.
I am a vinyl collector and always have been, cd's annoy me, i appreciate that the format is a lot easier to deal with in many respects, but the whole notion that these soulless nondescript pieces of plastic were ever going to replace vinyl was quite frankly, laughable. I have managed to scratch cd's taking them out of their case and rendered them unplayable!
I digress, although i do have a massive argument to support vinyl over any other format and i'm sure lots of people have an argument for the other, it is for another day.
Today's blog is about supporting the wonderful institution that is independent record shops. Whether you visited your record store and bought vinyl or cd's, you have contributed your little bit to the phenomenen of record store day.
The idea was conceived in 2007 by Chris Brown, who worked for an indy record shop in the US. the UK quickly followed suit, the co-ordinator being Spencer Hickman of Rough trade records in London, every year the event has grown. As well as the 1000's of established shops taking part, there are also dozens of pop up shops that will open for the day.
A multitude of artists release exclusive records that can only be bought by going into a shop on record store day. Many also do one off gigs at a particular store.
It has been reported that there was a doubling in the figures of physical single sales over Record store day 2010. Eight of the top ten selling physical singles for the week were exclusives released for the event and nine of the top ten selling albums.

If you are not one for buying physical units then please do a little research and maybe consider combining your purchases with pysical and download. Your record shop need you!!

I had a conversation with some no mark in a pub a year or so ago and i was lovingly ranting about buying and collecting vinyl and generally enthusing about music. Said no mark then snarled and called me a mug for spending money on records, before proudly announcing that he downloads all of his music for free and rips whenever he can. Trying to explain to no mark that artists, record shop owners and everyone else involved in the production and sale of music rely on the paying general public to survive, yielded nothing more than arrogant sneering, so I decided to part company, shaking my head in disappointment. Sadly there are an increasing number of no marks doing exactly the same.

There are many cracking quotes on the Record store day website (link above), but one that sums it up in a sentence for me is that of Tom Waits.
“Folks who work here are professors. Don't replace all the knowers with guessors keep'em open they're the ears of the town”

Mile wide smile club March 2011 charts

Maaaaaan! It's been a massive month for music, so much vinyl!! The year itself is shaping up to be huge!
There's so much UK talent turning out killer productions, time after time. Of course, there is still a ton of good stuff coming stateside. First track from new band The Stepkids is amazing. As ever, Theo Parrish is on the money and there's a monster album from Rick Wilhite. Amongst many others.
Nevertheless, the UK contingent is represented massively in the charts for this month. See if you agree;

1/ Julio Bashmore - Batty knee dance - 3024 12''
2/ Stepkids - Shadows on behalf - Stones Throw download
3/ Maurice Donovan - Babeh - SSSSS 12''
4/ Rick Wilhite - Analogue aquarium - Still music LP
5/ Four tet/Daphni - Pinnacles/Ye Ye - Text records 12"
6/ Burial/Four tet/Thom Yorke - Ego/Mirror - Text records 12"
7/ Pearson sound - Working with - Night slugs 12"
8/ Floating points and Fatima - Redlight - AYK promo
9/ SBTRKT and Sampha - Living like i do - AYK promo
10/ Falty Dl - Mean streets - Swamp 81 12"
11/ Addison groove - Sexual - Swamp 81 12"
12/ Photek - 101 - Photek productions 12"
13/ Natural yoghurt band - Tuck in with - Now again/Jazzman 10" LP
14/ Actress - Harrier ATK/Gershwin - Non plus records 12"
15/ Daphni - Daphni edits Vol 1 - Resista 12"
16/ John Talabot/Aster - Nit D'Hivern - Hivern discs 7"
17/ Royalty - Royalty ep - Five easy pieces 12"
18/ J Rocc - Some cold Rock stuff - Stones Throw LP
19/ Submotion orchestra - All yours (Jack sparrow remix) - AYK promo
20/ Dorian concept - Her tears taste like pears ep - AYK promo

Nice one
Mickey

God bless Loleatta

What can you say, other than we have lost another shining star of the Disco and Soul world. Loleatta Holloway has passed away of heart failure at the age of 64
Loleatta Holloway joined her Mom to sing with the Holloway gospel choir in Chicago when she was a child. She left school and undertook various meaningless jobs, whilst still singing Gospel.
She joined a Gospel group called the Caravans and whilst on tour with them she met Aretha Franklin, who toured with them for a while.
Hir first, self titled album was recorded in 1973 and her second two years later.
It wasn't until a few years later that Loleatta really started to make a big noise on the Disco and Soul scene. In 1977 she recorded arguably her biggest hits 'Runaway' and 'Hit and Run'. These were followed a couple of years later by 'Love Sensation'.
Daniel Davoli's Black Box sampled this track in 1989, and without getting clearance, he found himself successfully sued by Loleatta for copyright infringement. The record still remained the biggest selling track of the year and opened up Loleatta's music to a larger audience. The same record was legally sampled by Marky Mark and the Funky bunch in 1991. She has also been sampled by Alicia Keys for Whitney Houston's track 'Million dollar bill', as well as various dance music artists.
Loleatta continued to perform throughout the 80's and 90's up until taking a year out following a triple heart bypass in 1996.
I have recently heard warm tributes from some of dance musics biggest names including Norman Jay and Little Loius Vega, both of whom had the pleasure of meeting and working with her.
For me, there are 3 stand out tracks of Loleatta's and i'm sure that they are the pick of most of her fans. God bless you Loleatta Holloway, you will be sorely missed!

1/ Hit and run
2/Love Sensation
3/ Runaway

Stepkids you will love.

I've been hearing an amazing record for about two months now on Gilles' worldwide show, called 'Shadows on behalf', i dug but could not find. But for a live you tube recording, there was nothing about these kids, or The Stepkids as the band are called.
Since then all has become clear and more album snippets - also check 'La La' -have been released from this amazing band signed to Stones Throw records. The Stepkids are a 3 piece from Connecticut, an experienced band of session musicians who have toured with the likes of Lauryn Hill, 50 cent and Alicia Keys. They have now decided to pack up supporting and start their own band, and oh lordy! Am i glad they did.
You can hear the influences of all of the above mentioned artists, but their sound is a real mixbag from Soul and hip-hop to funk and pyschadelic rock. Whatever it is, it personally makes me feel good, with not a care in the world, the birds sing along with me as i bop down the street in glorious sunshine, people happy and life just dandy. Aaaah, bliss!
And for all of you vinyl lovers out there, there is a special limited press of a 1000 units of new tunes 'Shadows on behalf and 'La La', with coloured vinyl and embossed sleeve to boot.
Check 'em yourself.

http://thestepkidsband.com/

It aint about kitchenware, i promise!

Been hearing these soulful blissed out beats from a NYC group called Homebase recently; annoyingly, when you google them, the search yields little aside from a well known store trying to flog you kitchen, garden and houseware!
Luckily the lovely band have put their ep up for a free download, recorded live at NYC's Clubhouse.
I can't tell you a lot about the band themselves, but i have a little knowledge of the guests on a couple of their tracks.
Track 2 features the slick, slow drawled lyrics of NYC rapper Homeboy Sandman. Last year i managed to dig a copy of his sundrenched, lazy, feelgood track, Parallel Perpendicular. Big tune!
Track 5 - and the standout for me - Sleep, features the lush soulful vocals of Coco o from shockingly little known Danish band Quadron; check their self titled album from last year. More beautiful feelgood, hair stand up on the back of your neck bizniz! Top drawer. Check the free download here - http://homebasenyc.bandcamp.com

FELA! The musical.

I had heard it said many times that the closest you will get to seeing a Fela Kuti show is by watching his son, Seun Kuti. I took the opportunity when he toured with members of Fela's original band, The Egypt 80 earlier in the year. The show was a visual and aural feast, mindblowing and probably one of the most memorable gigs ever for me.
Now is the turn for Fela!
This broadway show has been playing at the National theatre since Nov and runs until Feb. It charts the life and death of one of musics's most important ambassadors.
Fela Ransome Kuti took further education in England, later, inspired by the black radical movement in America he changed his slave name to Fela Anikulapo Kuti and returned to Nigeria as a musical aggitator, to take on the might of a corrupt government. Afrobeat was invented by Fela Kuti and he took on James Brown inspired funk rhythms and merged them with Jazz and African highlife, to give us music, which i feel is as equally as important as any of James Brown's productions.
I am off to catch the show on Fri night, i have been told it is pretty special.
As well as listening to amazing and inspired tunes, you really should give yourself the opportunity of learning a very important musical history lesson.

Get tickets and info here *

Theo Parrish on Benji B show

Howdy folks.
For those of you that may have missed this, you have until Sunday night to check it out (check the 1Xtra website or click on the link below)
On Sunday night, The Tour de Force that is Theo Parrish took over the decks on Benji's Radio BBC 1Xtra show. The whole 3 hours was dedicated to the big man, with an hour of chat and tunes before Theo took over to play a two hour set.
He talks about his influences, how he came to be and gives his views on DJ's and what skills he thinks makes them stand out from the crowd, interesting stuff indeed.
Expect his usual array of styles from tripped out psychedelic funk rock to Soul, Disco and throbbing deep Detroit bizniz, delivered as always without dropping a beat.
For those of you that are familier, you know that he is unmissable. For those who havn't had the pleasure, indulge yourselves and prepare to be educated. Word!
Check this link;

Theo Parrish_Benji B mixtape