There's been no shortage of head-turning, ass-moving live retro-funk ensembles in the past few years, but few are as dead funky, or rock as hard, as England's Baby Charles. "Life's Begun," a standout from the eight-piece band's self-titled debut, demonstrates it perfectly: while Dionne Charles huskily gives us the very post-Woodstock warning, "You've got to be who you've got to be/ Not judge yourself on someone else," the band gets good and freaky and hard: wild organ whirls, hard-blues guitar filigrees and solos, bass drum pounding like a golem, implacable bass, droll horns, as in-the-pocket as Stax but played with the determined communal looseness of early Funkadelic. Where the Dap-Kings pride themselves on coming on clean like '68 JB, Baby Charles 'groove is dirtier, be it the shadowy horns, driving, chicka-chuck guitar lead and spacious drum breakdown of "No Controlling Me" (the group's first single, released in 2006) or the blaxploitation-ready "Treading Water" (love those flutes mixed into the brass). Another song that exemplifies their shag-carpeted sound is also the one that's attracted the most attention, deservedly enough: "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor," a cover of the Arctic Monkeys 'greatest hit that manages to… read more »