Watch the Madvillain video for "Accordion"

Since it's MF DOOM's birthday, here's a short clip of his Madlib collaboration "Accordion" shot at chez Stones Throw back in 2004. 

Remembering MC Charizma aka Charles Hicks

Rapper MC Charizma – who died tragically in 2016 – would've been 50 today. Peanut Butter Wolf founded Stones Throw. 

Sudan Archives, Cartel Madras @ Longboat Hall, Friday

Brittney Parks aka Sudan Archives is joined by Calgary's goonda trap lordz Cartel Madras for a sold out show at Longboat Hall tonight. 

Stones Throw Tour feat. Prophet, Jerry Paper, Kiefer, Stimulator Jones @ Adelaide Hall, Sunday

Even though Jerry Paper is backed by a full band, any performance by Bay Area legend Prophet will be tough to top.

Prophet is an underground funk musician from the San Francisco Bay Area, who, until this year, had only put his name to one record: an obscure 1984 private-press LP called Right On Time (Treasure Records). Full of mind-blowing no-BS boogie, it now has a dedicated cult following, with original copies changing hands for $250. 
He is the first to point out that his journey has been longer than most artists. After Right On Time, he says, “Nobody really gave me a shot. Imagine if someone came up to you and said: ‘It’s not going to break for you for another 30 years.’ I had to stay focused and stay on the path.” 
But there were some fans who kept the flame of that first album alive. Stones Throw founder Peanut Butter Wolf came across Right On Time at San Francisco’s Groove Merchant shop in the early 2000s and was instantly intrigued. “It was just the kind of music I grew up on, with Prince and The Time vibes, but a rare, lo-fi bedroom version,” he remembers. “Having said that, it doesn’t necessarily sound like anything else from the time period.” 

Wolf played the record in DJ sets for years, knowing nothing about the enigma who created it, until Prophet introduced himself at a record fair. Wolf invited Prophet to make his return to live performance, opening for Snoop Dogg & Dam-Funk in 2013, and introduced him to Mndsgn. Together, Prophet and Mndsgn began cooking up the music that would become Wanna Be Your Man. 
Mndsgn was a big fan of Prophet’s early work. “It’s classic 80s, untapped funk,” says Mndsgn. “What he does is very much in line with the lineage of Stones Throw which is always from the left field.” 
He cuts an impressive figure, with his own style. Most of his outfits include a flash of yellow, he has a habit of eating raw lemons, and he creates his own artwork – the Wanna Be Your Man album cover, and a series of yellow memes that read like meditations from the funk world. 
“Coming from that era, that’s just me!” he says. “The wild flair. The in-your-face kinda thang. That’s always been me, man.” Now after over three decades of silence, with Wanna Be Your Man Prophet can finally take up his rightful place in musical history. 
Check out the Prophet video for "Insanity" off his comeback album Wanna Be Your Man followed by clips from Stones Throw labelmates Jerry Paper, Kiefer and Stimulator Jones also on Sunday night's bill at Adelaide Hall (250 Adelaide West). Keep in mind that the show starts at 7 pm sharp. You can get tickets right here. 






Stones Throw Tour 2018
Oct 12: Minneapolis @ Icehouse
Oct 13: Chicago @ Virgin Hotel (free with RSVP)
Oct 14: Toronto @ Adelaide Hall
Oct 16: Montreal @ Bar Le Ritz
Oct 17: Burlington @ Nectar
Oct 19: NYC @ National Sawdust
Oct 20: Philadelphia @ Everbody Hits
Oct 22: Washington DC @ Union
Oct 23: Raleigh @ Kings
Oct 24: Atlanta @ 529
Oct 26: Dallas @ RBC with Mndsgn
Oct 27: Austin @ Vulcan Gas Company with Mndsgn (venue update)
Oct 30: Tucson @ 191 Toole
Nov 1: San Diego @ Space

Edan & Homeboy Sandman's Humble Pi out October 26

Watch the video for "Never Use The Internet Again" & "Grim Seasons" off Edan & Homeboy's Humble Pi album.

Prophet claws back from the depths of 80s funk obscurity

Prophet cut the Bay Area funk gem Right On Time in '84 then vanished but He's back with a new Stones Throw LP.

UNITY Fest w/ DaM-FunK @ Yonge-Dundas Square, Saturday, 9:30pm-10:15pm

Los Angeles DJ/producer Damon "DaM-FunK" Roddick takes you on a tour of his record collection below. 

Stones Throw Records documentary premieres at LA Film Fest June 21 & 22

Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton (This Is Stones Throw Records) is a feature-length documentary about avant-garde Los Angeles-based record label Stones Throw Records. Under the direction of founder DJ Peanut Butter Wolf, Stones Throw has consistently released critically acclaimed, left-of-center albums since its founding in 1996.

Drawing on live concert footage, never-before-seen archival material, inner-circle home video and photographs and in-depth interviews with the folks who put Stones Throw on the map, Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton will delve deeper into the label's enigmatic artists, history, culture and global following. The world premiere is set for June 21 and 22 at the Los Angeles Film Festival with a launch party set for The Exchange (618 S. Spring St, Los Angeles) on June 20 (see flyer below). Watch for a brief cameo by a Canadian television chat show host in the trailer:

The Stepkids light up The Drake Sunday

After playing a short set opening for Kimbra at the Danforth Music Hall last night, Connecticut's Stepkids will get to stretch out with a headlining gig at The Drake tonight (with Slakadeliqs opening at 9 pm) where the Stones Throw signees will be better able showcase the strengths of the group's three singer/songwriters. “A lot of what excites us about this band is this band itself,” says bassist and keyboardist Dan Edinberg. “It’s not either of us; it’s about creating an entity where the entity itself is what’s important.” As a result, every song on the Stepkids self-titled debut album is written with equal input from each member. “All three of us write and all three of us sing,” says Jeff Gitelman, who resigned from touring as Alicia Keys' guitarist to concentrate full-time on recording the Stepkids self-titled debut album. Drummer Tim Walsh continues, “There's an equal split in the creative process. Any lyric, any melody, any idea could have been done by any of us.”

This approach comes from more than a decade of musical experimentation and experience. Raised on the East Coast jazz and R&B circuit, individual band members went on to share stages with 50 Cent and Lauryn Hill, tour internationally with indie punk band Zox, score movies and commercials and produce solo albums. The Stepkids groove is an amalgam of punk and jazz, West African and 1960s folk, electro-soul and old school R&B, deep funk and modern classical.

The band produce, engineer and record themselves on a reel-to-reel. There’s no singular icon, no singular sound, and no singular way of making it happen for the Stepkids. It’s psychedelia for the 21st century, where the focus is on the whole.

"Sweet Salvation" is the first single off The Stepkids forthcoming album Troubadour (due in 2013), and the title of their new 4-track 12-inch, Sweet Salvation EP. The video was directed by Jesse Mann who helped develop the Stepkids' light show and continues to tour with the band as their "fourth member." If you've seen them perform, you'll know why he's considered such an integral part of the Stepkids' concept. Jesse enlisted Big Nazo’s puppets along with friends from his early work in the puppet/prop world for Broadway, TV and Film. Think H.R Pufnstuf with three part harmonies. Have a look...

Happy Birthday Madlib

Madlib production mix
  

One For The Weekend: Quakers

Quakers is a hip-hop collective boasting 35 members which orbits around a core of three producers: Fuzzface aka Portishead's Geoff Barrow his engineer 7-Stu-7 who runs Invada Records along with Aussie studio ace Katalyst whose music first appeared in Banksy's film Exit Through The Gift Shop.

Disillusioned with most of what now passes for hip-hop, the three like-minded producers set out to create the type of rap record they’d want to listen to. Since none of them are particularly nice on the mic, that meant calling in some fiends who could flow – not necessarily the big names or the big hype but stand-out rhyme rippers open to collaboration. Positive responses to the sent out invitations came from Prince Po and The Pharcyde’s Booty Brown in addition to indie-rap stars Dead Prez and Phat Kat. Since Stones Throw is behind the project, the label's star emcees Guilty Simpson and MED were down for whatever and the recent signees Jonwayne and Dave Dub came along for the ride as did Coin Locker Kid, Lyric Jones and Estee Nack.

Of course, the Quakers project is all about the earth-shaking beats and that's what holds together the album's 40+ tracks with a stylistically diverse array of rappers all trying to take advantage of the opportunity to shine. After hearing Guilty tear it up on the lead track Fitta Happier (download it for free right here), I kinda wish they would've had him go off on 10 more joints but then again, it is a Quakers album.


Fitta Happier by Quakers feat. Guilty Simpson & MED
  

Stones Throw announces SXSW line-up

Anika @ Wrongbar tonight

Anika discusses her Geoff Barrow-tweaked debut



No One's There

Anika's Needle Exchange Mix

1. Psychic TV, “Ordeal Ov Innocence”

No introduction needed.

2. My Bloody Valentine, “Sandman Never Sleeps”

Paved the way for many others.

3. Lydia Lunch, “Atomic Bongos”

You must never forget Lunch.

4. No Bra, “Munchausen”

Are you still awake?

5. Kraftwerk, “Ruckzuck”

Earliest is always best.

6. Light Asylum, “Shallow Tears”

Bloody legends.

7. Young Marble Giants, “Wurlitzer Jukebox”

The Cardiff connection.

8. Suburban Lawns, “Janitor”

Most awkward performance ever.

9. Einsturzende Neubauten, “Für Den Untergang”

Industrial Berlin—introducing heavy duty machinery to music..

10. Patti Smith, “Flying Saucers Rock and Roll”

Listen and learn.

download

Hear the new Lazer Sword album!

The highly anticipated self-titled Lazer Sword debut album from the electro-crunk duo of Antaeus Roy (aka Lando Kal) and Bryant Rutledge (aka Low Limit) will be officially released on November 2 by Innovative Leisure, a new boutique label launched by Stones Throw employee Nate Nelson. But thanks to the FACT music and art magazine, you won't have to wait any longer to hear what future blap is all about.
FACT – who circulated Lando Kal's enjoyable Lazer Sword drank sippin' mixtape a few months back (see below) – is currently streaming the entire 15-track Lazer Sword album that Roy and Rutledge recorded in the land of the Giants, San Francisco where they both once lived before moving to Berlin and Los Angeles respectively.
Unfortunately there are no crazy cameos by any of the now infamous Bad News Beards but it does feature some stoopid wild contributions from Anti-Pop Consortium’s M. Sayyid, Freestyle Fellowship’s Myka 9, Zackey Force Funk and Bay Area hyphy holdout Turf Talk.
Check out the Lazer Sword album for yourself right here and then head over to the Stones Throw site and grab a copy of the limited-run double vinyl edition.


Lazer Sword (Innovative Leisure)

Tracklist:
1.Tar
2. Agrokrag
3. Surf News
4. I’m Gone ft. Turf Talk
5. Batman
6. Topflights ft. M Sayyid
7. 4Loko
8. Machine ft. Zackey Force Funk
9. Web Swag
10. Skybox
11. Def Work
12. FUBU
13. Owl Tats
14. Cosmic Ride ft. Myka Nyne
15. Beast’s Reprise




LINKS
Lazer Sword FACT mix
Stones Throw Records http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2010/10/lazer-sword

Nite Jewel gets her shine on

Certainly having a song placed on James Murphy's soundtrack for the Ben Stiller character-comedy Greenberg helped boost Nite Jewel's profile but the Oak-town synth diva's quick rise to notoriety really began in San Francisco. It was there in the Groove Merchant record shop that Damon "Dam-Funk" Riddick first heard Nite Jewel's Good Evening debut from 2008. He was so impressed with Nite Jewel's twerked out sound that he bought the LP on the spot and grabbed an extra copy for his fellow 80s electro-soul fanatic Peanut Butter Wolf at the Stones Throw label who was equally floored.
Soon after, a fantastic seven-inch coupling of the Good Evening album's two stand-out tracks Weak For Me b/w Suburbia appeared on the mysterious 1984 Records label which looks very much like another Stones Throw subsidiary.

While Nite Jewel continued work on what would become her new Am I Real (Gloriette) EP, Dam-Funk was busy drawing up secret plans for a Jeff Phelps-inspired collaborative recording with Nite Jewel which will follow his other studio project involving vocalist Steve Arrington who formerly fronted legendary Ohio funkateers Slave.
Judging from the appearance of Dam-Funk and Nite Jewel together in webisode 136 of XLR8R's Tune In An Afternoon series (see clips below), the proposed Nite-Funk album for Stones Throw sounds very promising. 
  



A message from Nite Jewel:

Life just gets more expansive and interesting as time goes on.  In January 2008, I began recording what became my debut LP Good Evening.  Good Evening was recorded in moments of ecstasy, emotion, and hardship—barely considering or calculating—in the privacy of my own home.  Never did I imagine, at least until the final stages of recording, that these songs would form a discrete package for listeners to ponder, critique, and love.  Since finishing Good Evening in fall 2008, I continued to record, formed a live band and toured the globe, did remixes for several artists, collaborated with some incredible musicians, and graduated from college with a degree in philosophy.
 
The recordings after Good Evening have lead in several directions: the Want You Back EP, recorded for Italians Do It Better in collaboration with The Samps, a limited tour CD of demos called You F O, and an again limited 7″ through Japanese label Big Love featuring tracks “Falling Far” and “Spiritual Nite Life.”
 
Now in the wake of this whirlwind of people, places, artists, art (and non-art), I am finally ready to make official the second independent Nite Jewel release through Gloriette Records in the U.S., and internationally through No Pain In Pop and Big Love.  This six song EP entitled Am I Real? spans the gamut of Nite Jewel’s emotional, musical, and social development since the release of Good Evening.  The EP was recorded in-house on analog and digital equipment with production, arrangement, and performing assistance from Cole M.G.N..  Title track “Am I Real?” also features performances and writing and production assistance from Daniel and Andrew Aged from Teen Inc.

 

You can get your copy of Am I Real? digitally right now through our website (see link below) and on vinyl on August 16th through Other Music, NYC.  We will also be playing a handful of dates to support the release.

Thank you for staying along for the ride.

Love,
Nite Jewel

 Artificial Intelligence by Nite Jewel



Tune In An Afternoon w/ Nite Jewel + Dam-Funk



Am I Gonna Make It? by Nite-Funk


LINKS
site http://www.nitejewel.com
myspace http://www.myspace.com/nitejewel

Master Class In Earthology

As it turns out, the first great album release of 2010 is not Vampire Weekend's Contra after all, it's the Whitefield Brothers' Earthology (Now Again), the long overdue follow-up to 2002's In The Raw (Soul Fire).
Whereas the full-tilt garage funk of Germany's mysterious Jan and Max Weissenfeldt had been putting down under their Whitefield Brothers alias – they're also known as the Poets Of Rhythm, Pan-Atlantics, Soul-Saints Orchestra, Mighty Continentals, Bus People Express and the Malcouns – had already begun showing the hallmarks of a West African inspiration, they've worked through their Afrobeat jones in the years between Whitefield sessions. These hombres aren't your typical "world music" dabblers, they're more like dedicated cultural research scientists seeking alternative remedies for repetitive rhythm fatigue in hopes of ultimately finding a cure for indie-rock boredom. All of the time not spent collaborating with musicians from around the globe to glean their modes and moves (Max reportedly even took a fact-finding trip to Burma to pick up the finer points of Saing Waing music), they were piecing together the funky secrets from the ancient vinyl artifacts they'd excavated. 
That's not to suggest the resulting Earthology album sounds like it came out of a laboratory. On the contrary, the Whitefield Brothers pride themselves on their "raw soul" attack and although some of the grime has been removed to give clarity to the colouring of the gongs, flutes and various exotic string and percussion textures, the grooves are still built on a foundation of hard-pounding drums and bumpin' basslines which remain stone solid throughout. 
Since they've had the necessary time to absorb their influences, they're able to create exciting new compositions that are uniquely Whitefield Brothers which may recall something you've heard from Multatu Astatke, Salah Ragab or Mustafa Özkent without aping them. The addition of guest vocalists including the fantastic Bajka along with credible rappers Percee P, Mr. Lif, MED and Edan in addition to the stellar supporting cast of musicians from El Michels Affair, Antibalas as well as the mighty Dap Kings horn section ensures that there will be no mistaking Earthology for anything but a contemporary funk masterwork of devastating power.

Boston-raised MCs Mr. Lif and Edan throwdown on the album's lead single, The Gift which you can check out here.
Now Again has just released The Gift as part of a 12" EP featuring Oh No's Gifted remix and instrumental versions of each. It comes housed in a beautifully illustrated sleeve by Lewis Heritz who also designed the dope Earthology cover.

Obsessive collectors should note that there's also a super limited Whitefield Brothers seven-inch single which boasts the otherwise unavailable track Savannahstan (with Castor Pollux on drums). It's available exclusively with initial copies of Earthology purchased at the Stones Throw site. See link below.

Links
myspace www.myspace.com/thepoetsofrhythm
web page www.nowagainrecords.com/whitefield-brothers
Stones Throw www.stonesthrow.com/store/album/whitefieldbrothers/earthology
Bajka myspace http://www.myspace.com/bajkamusic
Bajka's Lyrical Funk Podcast http://parisdjs.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=426039#



Sahara Swing by Karl Hector and the Malcouns

Mulatu of Ethiopia... and Brooklyn

Ever since the darkly exotic music of Mulatu Astatke was given a starring role in Jim Jarmusch's quirky comedy Broken Flowers, people have been booking flights to Addis Ababa and turning over rocks to uncover more of Mulatu's magical Ethiopian jazz innovations from the 60s and 70s. While a portion of his vintage work has appeared as part of the excellent Ethiopiques series – Vol. 4: Ethio-Jazz and Musique Instrumental 1969 - 1974 (Buda) culls 14 instrumental tracks from two Ethiopian LPs originally issued in 1972 and 1974 – there's still loads of amazing stuff to be rediscovered. His enjoyable Latin-flavoured jams recorded in Brooklyn and issued in small runs on the tiny Addis Ababa and Worthy labels was the source of Mulatu's initial profile boost amongst vinyl hounds, beat diggers and club selectors yet for a long time the only way you could get Mulatu of Ethiopia, Afro-Latin Soul and Afro-Latin Soul Vol. 2 was dropping serious dough.

Clearly, a comprehensive Mulatu Astatke career overview is long overdue. While the Strut label's new Mulatu reissue comp New York - Addis - London: The Story Of Ethio-Jazz 1965-1975 is by no means definitive, the 20-track set is well-intended attempt to at least cover the bases. Compiled by Soundway label boss Miles Cleret (who also supplies the informative notes), the set is could be considered an expanded version of his own label's Multatu Astatke 10" EP from 2005 as those same four tracks Emnete, Ebo Lala, Yefikir Tizita and Asiyo Bellema are used as the jump off point for a sampling of Mulatu's London and New York work before returning to Ethiopia for his classic Amha label joints that have already appeared in the Ethiopiques series.     
It's all solid material and if you liked what you heard in Broken Flowers, there's much more to love here but it would've made for a more worthwhile release had Cleret dug up more of Mulatu's exciting recordings not previously compiled elsewhere. Still New York - Addis - London is the best single disc survey of Mulatu's incredible legacy available, if only by default. Listen here: mulatu-ethiojazz.com

One Mulatu Astatke track that was missed, Alemiye (featuring Belaynesh Wubante and Assegedetch Asfaw), appears on the super dope Psych Funk 101 (World Psychedelic Funk Classics) CD/LP collection which takes a tip from B-Music's Cross Continental Record Raid Road Trip series to seek out fuzzy funked-up obscurities from Turkey, Russia, Iran, South Korea and other far-flung places you wouldn't expect overamped head-nodders to have been cut in the late 60s and early 70s.
Apart from the top-notch track listing – including fab freakouts from the mysterious Staff Carpenborg, Italian exploito-soundtrack ace Armando Sciascia and George Garanian's well-respected Melodiya Jazz Ensemble – the great thing about this diverse set is the packaging which includes a 36-page booklet filled with fantastic full colour sleeve images from the original records which you'll never otherwise encounter in this lifetime. Right on!
If Psych Funk 101 has the look and feel of one of Stones Throw's Now Again comps, it might have something to do with the fact that label honcho Egon assisted with the licensing. It's also available at a reasonable price on the Stones Throw site: stonesthrow.com

Not to be outdone by some achivist upstarts, Egon has assembled a killer psych set of his own called Forge Your Own Chains: Heavy Psychedelic Ballads and Dirges 1968-1974 (Now Again) CD/2LP. It comes packed tight with brilliant brain scramblers from mad, bad and sometimes sad hombres like Baby Grandmothers, Shin Jung Hyun & The Men, Kourosh Yaghmaei, T. Zchiew & The Johnny along with some creeps you may have actually heard about such as Morly Grey, East Of Underground, Shadrack Chameleon and Montreal sluggers Ellison. The accompanying documentation is just as tight and I'm not just saying that because I contributed a few lines to the liner notes. Initial copies ordered from the Stones Throw site come with a limited Guilty Simpson-blessed promo single My Time To Shine. You'll need it.

Here are the tracks:
1. Top Drawer “Song of a Sinner” 8:44
2. Sensational Saints “How Great Thou Art” 3:35
3. East of Underground “Smiling Faces Sometimes” 6:27
4. D.R. Hooker “Forge Your Own Chains” 4:45
5. Shin Jung Hyun and the Men feat. Jang Hyun “Twilight” 5:40
6. T. Zchiew and The Johnny “Let Yourself Be Free” 3:46
7. The Strangers “Two To Make A Pair” 2:52
8. Damon “Don't You Feel Me” 2:36
9. Ellison “Strawberry Rain” 5:33
10. Morly Grey “Who Can I Say You Are” 3:45
11. Shadrack Chameleon “Don't Let It Get You Down” 4:44
12. Ofege “It's Not Easy” 4:25
13. Ana Y Jaime “Nina Nana” 3:18
14. Kourosh Yaghmaei “Hajm-e Khaali” 2:42
15. Baby Grandmothers “Somebody's Calling My Name” 9:13