Infected Mushroom Review - Jambase.com

Here is a review that steps outside the comfort zone, as it is of a band that I don't particularly love. The Infected Mushroom show was a particularly intense mind-fuck barrage of beats and noise, and as I'm not a raver at heart, I couldn't truly get into it. Regardless, it was an interesting musical experience. And a note to you all: Psy-Trance is not for the faint of heart. It is utterly relentless.

Infected Mushroom :: 07.17.09 :: The Regency Ballroom :: San Francisco, CA

MJ On The Brain!

So I don't know about you, but ever since I heard of MJ's death last week, I've had some serious case of MJ obsession. It seems like the world feels the same way, as his albums are currently taking up 13 of the 15 top spots in Amazon's bestselling music list as I write this.

It's been consistent for me lately that whatever I'm doing, be it working or grocery shopping or whatever, that my thoughts always eventually drift back to MJ, like they're being pulled by a super-funky magnet of some kind. I've found myself browsing the internets late into the night for breaking MJ news, or footage from his final rehearsal. I can't help it, I've been consumed by the man, the concept of MJ. In terms of cultural magnitude, his death is going to be right up there with Kennedy, Elvis, and Princess Di's. We'll always remember where we were when we heard that MJ died. This is a big fucking deal.

The man was, and will always be peerless. Dude's music is blasting from every other car that passes on the street these days, and will dominate most DJs playlists for months to come. But it seems like it's always the obvious, super-saturated cuts that are getting spun, i.e. "Billie Jean," etc. In response to this, in my current obsessive MJ mode, I've made an Essential Mix of super-fresh MJ Deep Cuts for y'all to download and get down to. You probably have heard some of these songs, but most will still be fresh and new to your psyche, and offer optimal danceability as a result.

An MJ Mix - The Deep Cuts

1. Jackson 5 - I Want You Back (Z-Trip Mix)
2. Jacksons - Lovely One
3. Jacksons - Give It Up
4. Jackson 5 - Stop! (The Love You Save)
5. Jackson 5 - Darling Dear
6. Jacksons - Everybody
7. Jacksons - Blame It On The Boogie
8. Jacksons - Your Ways
9. Paul McCartney w/ MJ - Say Say Say
10. Michael Jackson - Come Together
11. Jacksons - Walk Right Now
12. Michael Jackson - P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)

Download Link

RIP Michael Jackson - Goodbye, Sweet Prince.

No matter how freaky he got, MJ was always the fucking MAN. It goes without saying that no one can ever hold a candle to the raw talent that oozed from every pore in this guy's body.

But it's hard not to see MJ's life as a tragic one. Growing up in the public eye in front of a camera since the age of seven, he was deprived of any kind of real childhood, and so he spent his entire adult life obsessed with recapturing his lost childhood as a result. However bizarre he got, it could always be attributed to the fact that he was a victim of his own celebrity.

But putting that aside, he was simply the best at what he did. Dude felt the funk straight to the core, and could sing and dance better than ANY man, period. He was fuckin' MJ, for god's sake...

In tribute, here's his performance from the 1988 Grammy awards, back when he was still at the top of his game. The first song is lip-synced, but it honestly doesn't matter a bit, because "The Way You Make Me Feel" is just an excuse for MJ to bust out the hardcore-nasty show-stopping moves: he's all like, "Check this sick shit out, America!" Then MJ gets all gospel on our ass like only he can with "Man in the Mirror." It seem like the first half of this is lip-synced as well, but they turn his mic on right when the gospel choir comes out, and he proceeds to preach it like Sunday morning and bring the funkin' house down. Be sure to watch this one 'till the end.



Come on, how can you not love this guy? You have no soul if you don't.

Ozric Tentacles Review - Jambase.com

Next we have a Jambase.com review I wrote of the recent Ozric Tentacles show in San Francisco. Most have never heard of these guys, who are criminally underrated kings of space/prog/trance rock. Their music will melt your face clean off your skull, and it is also beautiful. Ed Wynne (pictured left) is a guitar god in every sense of the word.

Ozric Tentacles :: 05.27.09 :: The Independent :: San Francisco, CA

For those who have never heard said glorious music, here are links to the band's monster 1990 album Erpland for your listening pleasure. It is a great place to start if you are new to the band:

Link 1
Link 2
Password: sakalli

Concert Review Triumvate - Jambase.com

We have assembled inside this ancient and insane theater to propagate our lust for life and flee the swarmy wisdom of the streets.
- Jim Morrison, "Ghost Song"

Here is a threesome of concert reviews of mine that have been posted on Jambase in the past month or so. They all were fantastic shows, all for different reasons:

Karl Denson's Tiny Universe - 3/21/09

Steve Kimock Crazy Engine w/ Melvin Seals - 3/28/09

Derek Trucks Band feat. Carlos Santana - 4/15/09

And always remember what Frank Zappa said once:

Information is not knowledge
Knowledge is not wisdom
Wisdom is not Truth
Truth is not Beauty
Beauty is not Love
Love is not Music
Music is THE BEST

John Hartford - Mark Twang

I recently wrote a loving tribute to one of the great albums by one of the all-time great bluegrass artists, John Hartford. The write-up of Mark Twang can be found here, on jambase.com. If you are not familiar with John Hartford and like bluegrass music, then you are doing yourself a large disservice by not checking this master out.

Hartford always had a flair for the irreverent. We leave with a reefer-inspired blessing of Hartford's, known as the track "The Lowest Pair" on Mark Twang:

Much further out than inevitable
Halloween is thy game.
Sky king has come and Wilma's done,
Uncertain as it is uneven.
Give us today hours devours in bed
As we forgive those that have dressed up against us
And need us not enter inflation,
But her liver, onions and potatoes.
For wine is a shingle
And a more, and a story for your father.
All right!

Top Five Party Startin' Funk Albums

As Facebook has officially gone off the deep end, what with the twitting and insanely tedious applications (including top five lists), I will contribute another top five list of my own in this forum, and continue to ignore the junkyard of minutiae that Facebook has become.

Having been inspired by a funk-tastic Karl Denson's Tiny Universe show that brought the dance party heat last weekend, I humbly present to you my Top Five Party Startin' Funk Albums. These are the albums you throw on at a party and play beginning to end once your crowd is socially lubricated enough with drink that dancing is a possibility. The infectious grooves present on these albums will get people moving, and get the party really started. They have been tested in the field over the years, and are the ones I come back to time and time again. Now let us begin the Funk Lesson Countdown:

Honorable Mention: Any Fela Kuti album. Nothin' like some good Afrobeat to lock everyone into the pocket. Most Fela Kuti songs are at least 15-20 minutes long, and are relentless with the hypnotic African funk. I recommend the Confusion/Gentleman album as a start. Also, anything by Antibalas will also do.

5. Maceo Parker - Life on Planet Groove
This live album from 1992 brings the heat. With Fred Wesley on trombone, this is the James Brown horn section funkin' it up and bringin' the house down. The first two tracks, "Shake Everything You Got" and "Pass the Peas," clock in at 28 minutes combined, and provide enough syncopated sax to make your granny shake it.

4. The Greyboy Allstars - Live
Greyboy is one of the great modern funk bands, playing patented West-Coast Boogaloo old-school style. This live album from 1998 is tight as hell, with Karl Denson on sax and jazz flute, and Robert Walter on the crunchy Hammond B3. The band chugs along tight as a drum, and it is very hard not to shake your shit in the process.

3. Lettuce - Rage
A modern classic. Funk supergroup Lettuce just released this album last year, and i have since given it more party play than Rod Stewart in the 70s. With members of Soulive and virtuoso Adam Deitch on drums, this band punches the funk in like it's their business. In my opinion, Lettuce is the tightest and best funk band playing today.

2. The Jacksons - Triumph
I know what you're thinking. Where's Thriller? Well, though it is the #1 all-time party-starting album in the history of mankind, Thriller isn't a funk album. But this criminally underrated album is. It is a wonder no one has heard of it. It was released in 1980, directly in between Off the Wall and Thriller and I see it as equally awesome as Off the Wall. MJ and his brothers have left Motown at this point, which means they changed their name to The Jacksons, and have complete creative control over their music. The result is a fucking awesome album of bass-popping pick-me-up disco-funk tunes that you probably have never heard. Plenty of patented MJ-snapping and clean L.A. production throughout, making for an awesome MJ dance party to songs that you haven't already heard a million times.

1. James Brown - In The Jungle Groove
This is pretty much the holy grail of funk music. It is a compilation of studio jams from 1969 to 1971, which is the period in which James Brown essentially invented funk as we know it. An 18 year old Bootsy Collins plays bass on these tracks, which are the most in-the-pocket grooves to ever punch you in the gut. "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothin'" is my favorite track, with a bouncing lead bass line and a relentless groove that pounds you into the ground, its so deep. "Funky Drummer" is the most sampled track in the history of hip-hop music, if that says anything about the grooves on this album. If this album doesn't get the dance on at your party, then your party sucks. Period.


Thank you, goodnight! And always remember to Pass the Peas.

Archive IV - Jambase.com

Most recently, I reviewed a Big Sam's Funky Nation show for Jambase. You can read it HERE.