Les Deuxluxes with Devil Makes Three @ The Mod Club, Thursday

Count on Montreal's Anna Frances Meyer & Etienne Barry performing a few songs from the next Les Deuxluxes album. 

Happy Birthday Alice Cooper!

Celebrating Vincent Furnier's birthday with a few peak-period Alice Cooper performance clips. 

UK power trio Yak are back with a mighty whump

Check out "Fried" off Yak's new album Pursuit of Momentary Happiness due February 8th. 

Whaddya mean you don't know Kelly Finnigan

Check out Kelly performing "I Don't Wanna Wait" off his solo debut The Tales People Tell out now. 

Kelly Finnigan, the lead singer of Bay Area-based indie-soul auteurs Monophonics, has announced his debut solo album ‘The Tales People Tell,’ out April 26 on Colemine Records. Over the course of the album’s 10 new, original songs, Kelly channels a multitude of influences that reflect a lifetime immersed in the music and culture of soul, R&B, and hip­ hop - it’s the story of an outsider that followed an unorthodox route, always guided by his own creative north star.

Kelly guided the songs on ‘The Tales People Tell’ from their conception all the way to the record pressing plant over the course of two years. He wrote and produced each track on the record and plays 10 instruments throughout, while enlisting the help of friends and legends like drummer James Gadson (Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, Beck), members of Monophonics, and Kelly’s own father, prominent sideman/keyboardist Mike Finnigan (Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Etta James).

The result is a timeless collection underscored by a sense of community, a family affair of a record that’s at once raw and gritty, tender and emotive, lush and symphonic. Check out Kelly singing "I Don't Wanna Wait" at Brooklyn's Hive Mind Studios below. Tales People Tell is out now. You can mailorder a copy directly from Colemine Records right here.

Happy Birthday James Black

Remembering New Orleans drumming legend James Black on his day with the Guardian Of The Groove documentary. 

New collection explores Star Band de Dakar's Cuban inspiration

Ostinato Records is releasing a 6-track Star Band comp focusing on the influential Senegalese crew's Afro-Cuban jams. 

STAR BAND DE DAKAR: Psicodelia Afro-Cubana de Senegal

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, when the Cuban way won hearts, minds, and ears across Africa. This album is the soundtrack to a time when Cuban music was the future for 1970s Senegal. Led by some of Senegal’s most famous singers, like Youssou N’Dour and Laba Sosseh, the legendary Star Band achieved the perfect gumbo of Cuban and Senegalese sounds. Changüí, Guajira, Salsa, and Son flirt with cosmic Mbalax guitars, Sabar rhythms, Afro-Latin horns, and Spanish vocals spiced with a Senegalese twang.

With just two microphones and a four-track Revox tape recorder, Ibrahim Kassé, Star Band’s founder and owner of Le Miami, recorded their entire catalog in his nightclub. Each album contained one stand-out Afro-Cuban tune, often covers of Cuban classics or original compositions using the deep, layered sound that had evolved over centuries from the roundtrip journey across the Atlantic. Six of Star Band's most psychedelic Afro-Cuban tracks, an ode to their finest hour, were selected for this new compilation, remastered in the original mono on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl in a gatefold sleeve accompanied by a 12 page booklet filled with photos from lead guitarist Yakhya Fall’s personal collection. Listen to "Guajira Ven" and "Misterioso" followed by "Andado" and "Mariama" below. Pre-order a copy right here.

One For The Weekend: Flash & The Memphis Casuals