Thanks for the Food & Stuff… (Something Else! on www.WtnrRadio.com for 11/26/09)

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For all the folks in or from the USA, \”Happy Thanksgiving!\” I hope that it is a good day full of friends, family and good food. Please remember the spirit of the first Thanksgiving, sharing between two very different groups of people (Native Americans and the immigrant \”Pilgrims\”) celebrating the survival of the newcomers due to help from the locals. There is more to be said about that story, but I\’ll leave you to discuss that amongst yourselves–this blog is about music. The musical feast for today begins with the \”Something Else! Intro\” (kind of like an opening prayer or speech) and then we dive into the treats. The first few tunes have a \”food\” theme in keeping with the preceding holiday greeting, \”Corn On The Cob\” by Courtial, from the San Francisco Bay Area. That area has produced so many great acts such as Tower of Power (Oakland,) Sly & The Family Stone (San Francisco,) Santana (San Francisco,) the various Escovedos (including Coke, Pete and his daughter Sheila–better known as \”Sheila E\”; Oakland) and MC from Oakland, Del the Funkee Homosapien (featured later in this show.) For our next \”dish\” we \”go to the go-go\” with Washington DC classic \”Sardines\” by the Junkyard Band. Their other big song was \”The Word,\” a critique of Ronald Reagan\’s defense budget \”Man, Reagan\’s makin\’ bombs with all the money these days, yeah man, my sister couldn\’t even get no school loans/My grandmother couldn\’t even get her food stamps!\” Funk classic and third dish for us is \”Pass The Peas\” by Fred Wesley & The JBs (JB = James Brown\’s band–if you listen you can hear James speak in the intro right before the horns come in.) After all that food, you\’ve got to \”wash it down\” with something. What better than the original party-starter, \”Firewater?\” New Orleans\’ Wild Magnolias sing a little bit about alcoholic beverages… I\’m kind of proud that you never know what you\’re going to hear on this show and \”Where Pathways Meet\” is a great way to introduce you to the o.g. space traveller, Sun Ra. Sun Ra contended that he was born on Jupiter and had his own mythology he created around himself and his music. Space is the Place is one of his most famous albums. \”You Can Fly\” seems an appropriate song to play after the man responsible for jazz space travel. One of the original \”nu-soul\” songs by Omar (or \”UK street-soul\” as it was called at the time) from an important compilation called \”Homegrown\” on Kongo–a family affair run by his uncle. Vanessa Simon also has a track on there that I\’m sure will wind up on one of these shows. \”Jazz Thing (Instrumental)\” by Gangstarr was something I originally heard on radio many years ago and I\’m glad to be able to share it with you. Saxophone duties are handled by the producer(!) Branford Marsalis (who later worked with DJ Premier on the Buckshot LeFonque project) and keyboards are by the late Kenny Kirkland (Branford\’s pianist at the time.) Scratches of course are by DJ Premier. \”Lyrics To Go \’09 feat Del The Funky Homosapien\” by Bidimridim is from a forthcoming tribute mix in honor of A Tribe Called Quest. You can download this and another promotional track (\”Check the Rhyme 2009 feat The Lessondary\”) also included in the Eclectic Relaxation mix from here. I love both tracks and as a fan of \”The Quest\” it\’s nice to hear a new interpretation of their music. \”25 West 38th Street\” by Peter Kruder notches the tempo up a bit as Mr. Kruder seems to of late, getting away from the spacy-slow-motion music that made him and his former collaborator, Richard Dorfmeister, famous–maybe he wants people to dance more now? Truth be told, he was DJing house music even when known for producing downtempo, so this isn\’t really that new for him. The next track is a bit of a treat as it features an artist you\’re well acquainted with on remix duties–ME!! \”Conga (T-Bird Remix)\” by Groovy Costa is from a Barcelona electro/minimal house producer I know and like. The track can be purchased here. We close out with another electronic house track from Dennis Ferrer, \”Hey Hey (Dennis Ferrer Attention Vocal Mix.)\” I don\’t know Dennis personally, but I love his work…

Enjoy the show and if you eat too much food, download the show and dance it off! See you next week.