Audio Files: Cornelius, James, Riley and Castor

Winston Riley was one of many artists we lost tragically in recent weeks. Excuse me if I make a big deal about it.

Within the past two weeks the musical genres of Funk, Soul, Reggae and R&B lost some notable figures. All figures that were introduced to me at a very young age. Below is a tribute to their music and a few words as to how Etta James, Winston Riley, Don Cornelius and Jimmy Castor -- have all made an impact on my life in some odd way.

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Audio Files: "The Vision" Beat Tape by DJ Manwell

From the basement of the Midwest, to the Bay Area. The Vision beat tape....produced and scratches by Dj Manwell by Dj Manwell

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Commercial Break: BET Cypher With Yelawolf, Slaughterhouse & Eminem

This is moreso a placemarker for me. I'd been looking for this cypher for a couple days and thanks to the Ohio-based site OMNImix. I found it. Feel free to enjoy.

Audio Files: Bjork & Gondry Together Now You Know You In Trouble

Coming from a drum & bass-slash-dubstep [active] hater, I'll leave it to Bjork's newest single to do justice to a combination of sounds I traditionally hate. 

Heck, I'm not even sure if I like Bjork!

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Audio Files: Jorge Ben "It Comes From The Willows"

I've been posting a lot of, 'downers' according to my inbox. If there were some emoticon for a nonchalant shrug I'd insert it here. So how about we enjoy some soulful music from Brazil?

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Commercial Break: Japanese Woman = One Woman Trio

The weeks are long, hard and rewarding. This week was filled with heavy lifting and crazy news. I mean, who saw the UGO/IGN merger happening? I know I didn't.  Oh yeah, Osama's dead.

Perhaps all of these meldings and mergers are a sign of things to come? Maybe we are all meant to be closer together. Eventhough, we actively participate in a social media that kinda pushes us further apart.

How many of us are more comfortable responding to a text than returning a phone call? I'll plead guilty on that one.  The video above is, well, weird. It is also a small reminder of why I got into this whole thing. To make a connection. To vent. To have fun.

[Sidenote: I think the most impressive aspect of this video is that she stops the camera, unwavering, with her bow.]

Commercial Break: Bluegrass I Like

It takes a lot for me to endorse music that a room full of middle-aged white people are giddy about, but here we are. After a full day of work, answering e-mails and contorting my body -- sometimes I just need to hear a musically adept band cover a Black Eyed Peas song. And who doesn't hate the Black Eyed Peas? Seriously, they're really awful.

The Cleverlys do it right. Their sound is genuine.

I can't take full credit for the this find, this comes compliments of Chrissy [here's hoping for that Usher "OMG" cover].

Audio Files: Marteria - Second Bedroom [German]

Look at this as, this site further echoing the point that good music and great music videos are still being made. Unfortunately we don't have the heyday of Muchmusic or MTV circa early 90s to point us in the direction of non-U.S. videos, but props to Marteria [no, not Materia]. 

I don't have much I can say about Marteria/Marsimoto or Peter Fox, because I'm still super new to this music. I'm not gonna bulls**t a faux knowledge base. But I will say, according Marteria's wiki, not much is really known about such a popular rapper. So feel free to fill me in on the history. "Danke", in advance.

Aside: There are actual portions of the video that were shot over a time-lapse. Meaning, there were moments while shooting where the subject had to stand absolutely still for an extended period of time. Tough stuff to shoot.

Below are translated lyrics:

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Musical Notes: Behind The Scenes @ Ubiquity Records

Now I can be the creepy guy at parties that says, "I'm friends with a Japanese model." Yeah, I'm that guy now.

I've been [unknowingly] listening to Ubiquity artists for years now. A label I once knew for re-releases is now synonymous with current funk and hiphop artists. Even as I began typing this, I didn't know the band Nomo hd released work on this label.

Good job, Ubiquity Records. Can't wait to see what comes out in the future. 

Also, good job Emiko.

Audio Files: B-Sides Edition [Funk, Psych, Rock, etc]

This segment of Audio Files is dedicated to the sentence, "Yeah, but have you heard this version?" As an aging, and possibly over-the-hill bboy, I've had the privilege to dancing to some strange tunes over the past ten years. The strange thing is, when I stopped dancing and started annoying deejays, that's when these little gems got stuck in my head.

Feel free to contribute some of your favorite b-sides and tunes close to your ears.

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