Everybody knows Motown was great, but few realize what an incubator the entire City of Detroit was for soul music in its heyday. For each artist on Berry Gordy’s label there were several more just as good who went with another major, or with a smaller, local indie. Some made their names in r&b, vocal groups or gospel before evolving into soul; others started in soul but had their greatest impact in funk. But even… more »
At eMusic, we take pride in being the place you hear about artists first. Whether it's through our eMusic Selects program - which brought you the first releases by Best Coast, Crystal Stilts, Strand of Oaks and more - or our Breaking Artist features, our editorial team is always on the grind to bring you the best new artists first. Our eMerging Artists station is your chance to be first on the Next Big Thing. more »
The office folks at Righteous Babe Records put this playlist together for eMusic. It has some choice songs from the Righteous Babe catalog but also some friends, openers and influencers we either work with or just plain like to play. Hope you enjoy! more »
Whether your tastes skew toward classics by The Smiths and Wilco or current cutting edge tastemakers like Sleigh Bells and Neon Indian, you're sure to discover something you love on Indie Hits, Past & Present. more »
While the legendary voices of such jazz icons as Billie, Ella and Sarah still ring true, subsequent generations of female jazz vocalists have taken the music in new directions, especially in the '90s, ranging from Cassandra Wilson's new-standard caress to Diana Krall's classics with a twist. Taking their lead, young singers over the last decade have been swinging the vocal tradition onto a new plateau with a pop sensibility. In the mix are tunes by… more »
This mix is not for the faint of heart, so all you groovy geezers take it easy with this one, and let the Daptone crew guide you through a soulful journey of some of our favorite party starters, and late night movers.
Get ready, cause we're gonna swing folks. There's a Happening going down in Bushwick, and we here at Daptone Records would like to share it with you. You don't have to be hip, but… more »
Nirvana and Pearl Jam. This is who you'll hear about when the topic of Seattle's music scene is brought up in a historical context. It makes sense. Alternative music has always been the face of the Seattle scene. But before Kurt and Eddie, there was Ray and Quincy and Jimi. Seattle has soul, and the hip-hop community in the 206 is the living proof. They love their hometown and the music reflects that. "Townfolk Hip-Hop"… more »
Turn your subwoofer into an impact crater. The best new and classic Drum & Bass, Dubstep and Jungle with smatterings of IDM and downtempo. Leaning towards the dark end of the spectrum, the only hard rule is it must have massive amounts of low end. You will be guaranteed to drive your neighbors insane with Mortar Bass Bomb. more »
After Elvis went into the Army and before the British Invasion, the years 1958-63 were rock's forgotten years. But they were the years that shaped the musical tastes of baby boomers and of acts from the Beatles and Rolling Stones to Bruce Springsteen and the Ramones. Hear the dance sensations, the one-hit-wonders, the girl groups and doo-wop singers, surfers and rockabilly twangers, the birth of Motown, the evolution of R&B into soul and so much… more »
No original labels or release dates grace this package of two dozen Philadelphia funk rarities, presumably from the late ’60s (and possibly very early ’70s) by the sound of things. Nor will any of the artists ring any bells of recognition, even with the vast majority of specialist soul/funk collectors. Nor do the paragraph-long liner notes offer any clues about who these cats were, and whether all of this stuff was even officially released at the time. In a way, though, that’s cool, making you feel almost as though you’re an archeologist digging up unidentified objects from a civilization that, while certainly not lost, isn’t exactly well documented. For all its relative anonymity, however, the quality of the music is pretty good. Many of the cuts bear a specifically Philly regional spin on the funk sound: horn sections that sound as if they’ve sneaked off the football field to get into something hipper, peppy and upbeat rhythms, and a certain sweetness to the melodies and arrangements that set them apart from the more gutbucket variety of funk being ground out by James Brown and his imitators. There might not be anything here as hit-worthy as the chart singles by Booker T. & the MG’s, but neither is it as faceless as so many rarity compilations are. And plenty of idiosyncratic touches bubble upward to catch your attention, like the elephant roar in Philly Four’s “Elephant Part 2″; the oddly echoed horns of Willis Wooten Ork’s “Do the Train”; the deft blend of brass and wah-wah guitar in RDM Band’s “Butter That Popcorn”; the exceptionally tight party funk of Brass Rail’s “Penguin, Pt. 2″; and the almost doleful cast of the Interpretations’ funk ballad “Lineman.” The 25th and final track, “Bonus Funky Philly Virtue Acetate Beats,” strings together snatches of cuts that (at a logical guess) come from acetates produced at Philadelphia’s Virtue Studio, and might not have been used in full due to their deteriorated sound quality. – Richie Unterberger
