Tag: Erykah Badu

The New Mastersounds – From Leeds To Louisville (VIDEO)

If you’re not aware, The New Mastersounds are a hard working, non-stop touring, (mostly) instrumental funk machine from Leeds, England. On May 31, 2011, their tour swung through the Bluegrass State. Attendance was somewhat sparce due to the My Morning Jacket album release show occurring at the Louisville Palace the same night (a show that featured Erykah Badu as a special guest and was webcasted live to youtube by VEVO & American Express).

Nonetheless, The New Mastersounds gave all of their energy, playing over 2 hours without a set break. They even went off the written setlist for an impromptu cover of James Brown’s Get On The Good Foot. It was clear that they were having a great time, even if it was a Tuesday night and the crowd contained barely 100 people.

I shot about 30 minutes of stage-side video, which has been upgraded with my friend’s on-stage audio recording. This video contains 5 songs: Run the Gauntlet, You Got It All > Mark’s Red Guitar, Six Underground & Get On The Good Foot (James Brown cover):

If you’re in the Bluegrass State, The New Mastersounds will be back this Wednesday, September 7th, at Cosmic Charlies in Lexington, Kentucky.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson – Tribute Mix by RandyB

Michael Jackson Tribute Mix by RandyB – August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009

This is just something I did two years ago after MJ passed. It doesn’t have the slickest mixes and crossfades, its just a spontaneous selection of tunes mixed mainly from vinyl. I know that everyone and their mother made MJ mixes, and many of them are better than this. It was just an excuse for me to bug out for an hour by myself. Why not share it?

You can download the tracked mp3’s here: MEGA

R.I.P. Michael Jackson – Remember The Music.

01. Ain’t No Sunshine (intro)
02. I Wanna Be Where You Are (The Roots & Erykah Badu)
03. We’re Almost There
04. Heartbreak Hotel
05. Can You Feel It (live)
06. Dapper-Dan
07. Dancing Machine
08. Ease On Down The Road (with Diana Ross)
09. You Can’t Win
10. Can’t Get Outta The Rain
11. Things I Do For You
12. Off The Wall
13. Blame It On The Boogie
14. Working Day & Night
15. PYT
16. Somebody’s Watching Me (with Rockwell)
17. Wanna Be Startin Something
18. Another Part of Me
19. Human Nature
20. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You
21. Say Say Say (with Paul McCartney)
22. The Girl Is Mine (with Paul McCartney)
23. It’s The Falling In Love
24. Cinderella Stay Awhile
25. Never Can Say Goodbye
26. Jam
27. Smooth Criminal
28. In The Closet
29. Scream (with Janet Jackson)
30. Leave Me Alone
31. Who Is It?
32. You Rock My World
33. Remember The Time
34. I Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer (Stevie Wonder at MJ Memorial 7/7/09)
Bonus Tracks:
35. Stevie Wonder’s speech (6/28/09 Milwaukee)
36. Stevie Wonder’s We Love You Michael chant (6/28/09 Milwaukee)

The Roots & Brass Heaven – 2007 Tour

The Roots & Brass Heaven – Game Theory > Star > Sing A Simple Song > Long Time > I Ain’t No Joke > Get On The Good Foot (3/11/07 NYC @ Nokia Theatre)

Back in early 2007, The Roots went on tour with a 4 piece brass band named Brass Heaven. In my opinion, this tour was the absolute apex of The Roots as a touring unit.

The setlist was awesome, with covers of tunes by Sly Stone, Rakim, James Brown, The JBs, Kool & The Gang, The Police, The New Birth and even Ram Jam’s “Black Betty.”

The energy on these shows was just through the roof. Questlove had a glow in the dark, black and white camo drum kit and even brought out a small trap kit to play at the front of the stage for the JB’s portion of the show. They closed each show with a 15 minute funked out version of The New Birth’s “I Can Understand It” (this arrangement eventually morphed into the arrangement used for the title track on the Roots last album, How I Got Over) complete with a Soul Train Line with each and every band member dancing through.

The track at the top of the page is the first 20 minutes of the show (taken from an excellent audience recording, courtesy of It’s All The Way Live). That track begins with The Roots & Brass Heaven marching into the theatre from the back, unamplified, in New Orleans street parade fashion.  Note Black Thought’s dead on recital of Rakim’s “I Ain’t No Joke” verses (& the pitch perfect recreation of the horn stabs of The JB’s “Pass The Peas,” which Eric B. & Rakim sampled for the original track).  Also, don’t miss the subleties that the sousaphone adds to the bottom end throughout.

The Roots & Brass Heaven – Gimme Some More > Way With Words (2/20/07 Austin, TX @ Stubbs BBQ)

This second track is from the middle portion of the show (taken from a SBD source). It begins with a workout on The JB’s “Gimme Some More,” played by only Brass Heaven & Questlove (playing at the front of the stage on a small trap kit).  This segues into the re-entrance of the full Roots band and the performance of an unreleased tune, roughly titled “Brown Sugar Jawn” aka “Way With Words.” The tune is based on the music of D’angelo’s Brown Sugar with Black Thought’s “Way With Words” verses on top.

Big thanks to sol-exposure for the Tuba Gooding Jr. pic. Check out her site, as she has many great live music pictures.

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