Your Daily Song Fix

If a man writes this song for you and you don’t fall in love with him your heart is made of stone. The Chicago-based group Pieces of Peace is also, almost certainly, the only band to ever be created in Chicago and disband in Singapore.

"Why would you deny me?"

If you’ve made it to Singapore as a band you’ve probably done something right, or have you?

I love my Dap Kings and my Amy Winehouse but sometimes there is nothing like the real deal.  This is song is 1960s soul that melts your heart and reminds you that you have to treat your lady right.

The last song on In Rainbows, the latest from Radiohead, is a tear-jerker.  It is written from the point of view of someone who has passed along to the great blogosphere in the sky if you catch my drift.  Slow, somber, totally Thom Yorke.  In fact, Thom wanted the track to be the first on the album.  What a weirdo.  This AmpLive remix, however, puts a whole new spin on a relatively new song.  As a matter of fact, Del the Funky Homosapien undoubtedly makes hip-hop history on this track, spitting the first  rap ever recorded to reference the ever so popular Quicktime video format.  What a G.  AmpLive, faced madd legal turmoil regarding the Rainydayz remix album from which this track is from.  Big, fancy lawyers making big, fancy claims about how this album wasn’t pre-approved.  Blah, Blah Blah.  Luckily, the information superhighway patrol AmpLive acrued fought the good fight, and the album was released for free here.  Way to stick it to the man, AmpLive.

In 1998 Animal Liberation Orchestra (aka ALO) debuted their first album “Animal Liberation Orchestra & The Free Range Horns Vs. L.A.G.” under the label Lagmusic. The Saratoga, CA quartet pairs jam band bounce with balmy Hawaiian twinge. ALO was originally a nine-piece ensemble which was streamlined to consist of the four core members.  ALO keyboard player Zach Gill attended college with the king of the mellow sound, singer/songwriter Jack Johnson, who eventually signed ALO onto his label Brushfire Records.

"I hate conventional blues, but I love myself."

When you hear the break in this song you’ll wonder why this band didn’t do that kind of thing all the time. JSBE provides the kind of music you think you’d play after 15 glasses of whiskey and it feels awesome.  Boogie down + sledgehammer over the face rock  = me dancing/screaming at the top of my lungs.

JoSpence was a member of the Washington-based (What! What!) Pussy Galore.  After the band broke up in 1990 it seems Jon Spencer set out to destroy everything he loved about to the blues.  Thank god I love every minute of it.

SPN

Sam Cooke began his career singing gospel, first with siblings and later as part of other various groups through the early 1950s.  In the second half of that decade, Cooke transitioned to pop music, releasing “Lovable,” his first pop single in 1956.  “Having a Party” was recorded in 1961 under his own record label after he had gained significant notoriety.  The studio version of this song features Cooke’s clear, soothing voice; something he carried over from his gospel days and a quality his fans adored him for.  The live version of the song appeared on “Live at the Harlem Square Club,” recorded in 1963, just one year before his controversial death in December, 1964.  In this live cut, a coarseness can be clearly heard in Cooke’s voice, probably as the result of time spent touring and performing live shows.  This grittier version of the song exemplifies something closer to rock and roll, and captures Sam Cooke’s true versatility as a singer and performer.

Studio version:

Live version:

In honor of the New Orleans Jazz Festival this past weekend, here is a New Orleans classic originally written by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford.