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 »
Although John Phillips record releases virtually ground to a halt after his 1970 solo debut album, he did continue recording intermittently in the ’70s. The 13 tracks forming the core of Jack of Diamonds are an approximation of how a second Phillips solo LP might have sounded, pieced together from various sessions in 1972 and 1973. Phillips made a great contribution to mid-’60s pop/rock as chief songwriter for the Mamas & the Papas, and to be harsh, this batch of tunes is not only weak in comparison, but also finds him losing his central threads of stylistic identity. Maybe it has something to do with the confusion of finding his music increasingly out of step with the times, but much of this is pretty lethargic, nearly faceless, early-’70s singer/songwriter fodder. Sometimes inspired by the time he was spending in New York, the songs reflect a vague sense of dislocation, discontent, and sketches of slightly odd characters and milieus without connecting deeply. As a solo singer, he seems inadequate to the task of fully expressing the complexities he apparently wants to probe. The instrumentation is a too-tame form of laid-back jazzy early-’70s rock, despite (or because) of the presence of pros like Jim W. Gordon, Van Dyke Parks, and some of the Crusaders. “Jack of Diamonds,” aka “Me and My Uncle,” is a real good song, but you won’t know it from the lounge-ish reading he gives it here, and it’s terribly inferior to the versions cut by Dino Valenti, Judy Collins, and Mike Wilhelm. The five cuts designated as bonus tracks — not intended for a second Phillips album, but recorded between 1970 and 1973 — are both different in mood and a little more satisfying, including the two songs he contributed to Robert Altman’s eccentric movie Brewster McCloud; a couple Mamas & the Papas recordings that didn’t make their ill-fated final album, “People Like Us”; and another version of “Me and My Uncle.” – Richie Unterberger
