Happy Birthday David Porter!

Celebrating the 81st birthday of singer/songwriter and frequently sampled Stax producer David Porter with a few familiar gems. 

Badge Époque preview Self Help album with video for "Unity (It's Up To You)"

"Unity (It's Up To You)" is off the Badge Époque Ensemble's forthcoming album, Self Help out Nov 20 on Telephone Explosion.

Here's the scoop...

Self Help is an exploratory record that dances across time and genre, guided by fidgety miniatures and jazz inflected collage. While constructed from the inspiration of soul, funk and film music, BÉE mediate those influences having first digested them through the productions of Madlib & the RZA. Throughout, the band pool together their instrumental chops, moving from fluid and serpentine R&B to meditative, minimalistic piano, evoking a contrast of virtuosity and self-surrender.

Self Help is out November 20. pre-order a copy directly from Telephone Explosion right here. Watch Alex Kingsmill's entertaining animated clip for "Unity (It's Up To You)" feat. James Baley below. 

 

The Sadies get a shout-out in Jim Jarmusch's zombie flick The Dead Don't Die

While trapped in a hardware store, Bobby Wiggins and Hank Thompson discuss the guitar playing skill of The Sadies' Dallas & Travis Good. 

Since Jim Jarmusch started making feature films, the part-time musician and full-time music fan has sought to sneak in cameos of his favourite artists. Beyond the starring roles frequently played by his longtime pals John Lurie and Tom Waits, Jarmusch always finds clever ways of getting some screen time for artists he loves, whether it's having underground NY rapper Rammelzee portraying "man with money" in his 1984 breakthrough Stranger Than Paradise, Screamin' Jay Hawkins serving as a hotel night clerk in 1989's Mystery Train, Butthole Surfters' frontman Gibby Haynes playing "man with a gun in alley" in 1995's Dead Man, Wu-Tang Clan's RZA and GZA discussing the finer points of alternative medicine with Bill Murray in 2003's Coffee and Cigarettes.

In Jarmusch's latest The Dead Don't Die – a cautionary tale about the hazards of fracking and consumerism run amok which opens this weekend), he's got regular collaborators Iggy Pop playing a coffee zombie, RZA appears as a WU-PS delivery man while Tom Waits has a key role as Hermit Bob, a mysterious forest-dwelling loner who provides Rod Serling-esque commentary. Alt-country star Sturgill Simpson is name-checked frequently as the singer of the film's title song whose CD of "The Dead Don't Die" serves as a prop throughout and Simpson himself later appears as a guitar-dragging zombie.

In a similar multi-level reference, there's a scene set in a zombie-surrounded hardware store where Bobby Wiggins (Caleb Landry Jones) and Hank Thompson (Danny Glover) talk about the awesome guitar skills of The Sadies' dynamic brother duo of Dallas and Travis Good after seeing a brief cameo which fans of the Toronto twangers won't soon forget. You'll need to see the film for that entertaining sequence but in the meantime, watch the trailer below followed by a video for Sturgill Simpson's title track.

Ginger St. James has invited The Sadies to play The Casbah (306 King St. West) in beautiful downtown Hamilton on Sunday (June 16) – Check the venue's page right here for more info and tickets – before they head to Saskatchewan for the Long Day's Night Festival with Reverend Horton Heat in Swift Current (June 20-23) and then continue on a Western swing through July before hitting Buffalo's Cobblestone Live Music & Arts Festival (49 Illinois St) August 2-4.
 

Watch the trailer for Jim Jarmusch's zombie flick The Dead Don't Die

RIP Clarence "Blowfly" Reid, 1939-2016

Clarence Reid aka Blowfly was the king of the Miami Sound whose beats and breaks helped build hip hop.

Raekwon, Ghostface & Rza jump on Adrian Younge's Return Of The Savage

Long before Adrian Younge fan club member DJ Premier released his PRhyme collabo with Royce da 5'9" exclusively using samples of Younge's recordings, the multi-instrumentalist composer, arranger and producer was already well-known to beatheadz for his brilliant work scoring Scott Sanders' 2009 blaxploitation salute Black Dynamite and the inspired Philly soul update Adrian Younge Presents The Delfonics. Here's a short documentary about Younge and his work that's worth checking.



Since releasing the amazing faux-giallo soundtrack Twelve Reasons To Die with Ghostface Killah and companion instrumentals set on Rza's Soul Temple label back in 2013, Younge has been hard at work building his own Linear Labs operation on the down low. To preview the four impressive albums he has slated for 2015, Younge assembled the Los Angeles label sampler now available on CD, LP and as a digital download.

Along with  Return Of The Savage (listen below) featuring Ghostface Killah, Raekwon and Rza from the upcoming Twelve Reasons To Die II album, there's the Memories Of War collabo with Stereolab chanteuse Laetitia Sadier off the forthcoming 'Something About April II and a joint called Feel Alive voiced by Karolina and Loren Oden from The Midnight Hour concept album Younge created with Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Additionally, the vinyl version of Los Angeles comes with the bonus track Sirens II (which you can hear in a stripped-down version below) from Bilal's next solo album.

For those playing catch-up, the Los Angeles sampler also includes 1969 Organ from Younge’s 2000 debut Adrian Younge Presents Venice Dawn, Panic (Ali Shaheed Muhammad Remix) from last year's Souls of Mischief / Ali Shaheed Muhammad album, There Is Only Now Remix, The Sure Shot (Parts 1 & 2) which is an instrumental lifted from the Twelve Reasons To Die sessions, To Be Your One from the aforementioned Delfonics set and finally, there's Chicago Wind featuring Toni Scruggs from the Black Dynamite soundtrack. If your local record retailer doesn't stock Linear Labs releases, you can order Los Angeles directly from the label right here.

FYI: Raekwon returns to Toronto to present the music from his new album Fly International Luxurious Art – which could've greatly benefitted from Younge's musical input – at the Phoenix on Friday.

Happy Birthday Raekwon!

(Black Keys + MCs) x Damon Dash = Blakroc

As you may have already heard, music biz mini-mogul Damon Dash of Roc-A-Fella infamy had this crazy Blakroc scheme to make an album bringing together the nasty jams of the Black Keys with the grimy rhymes of the Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, RZA and the late ODB, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, Billy Danze from MOP, Ludacris, Q-Tip, Jim Jones (ex-Diplomats) and NOE (ex-Dipset), sweetened up by soulful singer Nicole Wray.
You're probably thinking, "Oh yeah, just what we need – another lame high-concept rock/rap novelty album." But the reason why this unlikely collision between the rustbelt blues-rockers and the Big Apple's finest MCs could actually click when the self-titled Blakroc album drops November 27 (aka "Blak Friday") is because aside from whatever Dash's money-making, world-conquering ambitions may be, it's a truly creative collaboration at the core. Not your typical corny mash-up gimmick but more of a genuine musical hybrid sans samples.  
With the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney providing all the beats, there's a consistently rock-solid foundation throughout and perhaps most crucially, the Akron aces' level of creative input is matched by that of the hip-hop artists involved. At least, that appears to be what's happening from the revealing in-studio documentary footage shot by Jonah Schwartz and parceled into nine webisodes which you can watch below.  
But before going any further, you need to check out a video clip of the first Blakroc track leaked from the sessions, Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) voiced by Auerbach and Mos Def with insightful commentary rhymed by Jim Jones. It'll give you a good idea of what the 11-day studio throwdown actually produced. 

Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)




1. Coochie (with Ludacris, Ol' Dirty Bastard) – 4:10
2. On the Vista (with Mos Def) – 2:39
3. Hard Times (with NOE) – 2:38
4. Dollaz & Sense (with RZA, Pharoahe Monch) – 3:47
5. Why Can’t I Forget Him (with Nicole Wray) – 4:16
6. Stay Off the Fuckin’ Flowers (with Raekwon) – 2:31
7. Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) (with Mos Def, Jim Jones) – 3:23
8. Hope You’re Happy (with Billy Danze of M.O.P., Q-Tip, Nicole Wray)
9. Tellin’ Me Things (with RZA) – 2:39
10. What You Do to Me (with Billy Danze, Jim Jones, Nicole Wray) – 5:14
11. Done Did It (with Nicole Wray, NOE) – 3:29



Webisode 1 – Damon Dash's innovative fireworks



Webisode 2 – Mos Def's pure heart



Webisode 3 – Smokin' Jim Jones



Webisode 4 – RZA's guitar lesson



Webisode 5 – Nikki Wray gets serious


Webisode 6 – NOE's Blackberry booth breakdown


Webisode 7 – Q-Tip will sneak up on you



Webisode 8 – Billy Danze straight up



Webisode 9 – Clear is the way Pharoahe Monch goes



LINKS:
Blakroc www.blakroc.com
Blakroc Radio http://www.customchannels.net/streaming/blakroc/
Black Keys www.theblackkeys.com
Jim Jones www.jimjonesofficial.com
Billy Danze www.myspace.com/billydanzemop
Raekwon www.myspace.com/raekwon
RZA www.myspace.com/rza
Nicole Wray www.nicolewray.com
Q-Tip Qtiponline.com
ODB www.myspace.com/olddirtybastard
Ludicris www.myspace.com/ludicris
Pharoahe Monch www.myspace.com/pharoahemonch
NOE www.myspace.com/noemoney