Love You Moon

You'd think that being unemployed I would have plenty of time to listen to and write about music, and you'd be right. Yet somehow I find myself struggling to motivate myself to find new music let alone write about it. Perhaps living in my parents house in a room with no stereo system and a semi-reliable internet connection has something to do with it.

Today I present to you Love You Moon, the side project RX Bandits frontman Matt Embree. The "group", which basically consists of Embree and a couple guest musicians on some of the tracks released their debut album this fall entitled Waxwane.

I've written plenty before about RX Bandits and their amazing musical abilities, and Matt is a great guitar player and singer. I think this cd is a decent display of his skills, although being an acoustic album he limits himself from the beginning. The cd is full of his powerful vocals, and of course politically and socially charged songs. Also featured, a staple of the Bandits, are lots of complex rhythms and interesting chord progressions. Matt does a great job of varying up the styles and parts that the sound doesn't become stale; however, my one piece of criticism is that at times he tries to do too much with his acoustic and it seems a little overdone.

Overall its a solid disc, and if you are in anyway a Bandits fan I recommend checking it out. If not I at least recommend listening to "Late May's Gaze" which is a beautiful and moving ballad that I have become somewhat obsessed with lately.


Love You Moon - David's Birthday

Love You Moon - Late May's Gaze

Love You Moon - Why Pop Stars Sell Silicone

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

- Alec

Ray Charles (before he was Ray Charles)

I've got some nice relaxing tunes for you today... I'm sure most of you have heard of Ray Charles either from the recent film about him Ray!, or just from hearing your pops play his old records. Charles was one of the R&B/soul icons in the 1960's. He wasn't necessarily the greatest person in the world (heroin addict, fathered children to 7 women, etc.), but he sure put out a whole cache of memorable hits. Georgia on my Mind, Hit the Road Jack, I Got a Woman....just a few of his tunes that once you hear the title you can begin to sing.

Before Charles hit the top of the Billboard charts with his singing, he actually put out a couple of jazz records with buddy and jazz-vibraphonist extraordinaire Milt Jackson. Milt Jackson, along with Lionel Hampton are probably two of the most influential and famous vibraphonists of all time. Milt always felt a little bit smoother to me. With him you would want to kick back and smoke a cigar, but with Lionel you would sit up on your seat and hang on every note.

Soul Brothers/Soul Meeting is the name of the CD which combines two sessions that Jackson and Charles recorded. The first song, "Bags of Blue" is an 8 minute masterpiece where Jackson starts it off with some excellent vibe work. Ray Charles, who predominantly plays piano on this record then hops in with a little bit of saxophone. The traditional jazz swing keeps the number moving and after a while Ray hops back on the piano and riffs over the top of it all. "Deed I Do" is a more romantic-feeling tune where the vibes and piano seem to call back and forth to one another. It almost seems made for a man/woman singing duet. Enjoy!

Ray Charles and Milt Jackson - Bags of Blue

Ray Charles and Milt Jackson - Deed I Do

Fort Knox Five

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up but I've have kind of a crazy couple of weeks. For those of you that don't know, I was laid off from my job in Phoenix as part of some downsizing, and have decided to head back towards the great Midwest to look for work this time around. While being unemployed during a time of such economic difficulty and uncertainty is fairly disconcerting, I am looking at this as an opportunity for a fresh start and a chance to relocate to somewhere I would rather live (probably Chicago). Anyways, enough about me, to the music!

My post today is on the DC group Fort Knox Five. They create a wonderful style of hip hop/funk/latin music that is fun to listen to and great for parties. Similar to some other producer style cds such as Mark Ronson's Here Come The Fuzz or Intramural's This Is A Landslide , this cd features some guest artists to provide the vocals; however, many of the tracks are just bumpin instrumentals.

While the style on the cd varies quite a bit from song to song, I think one way to maybe describe it would be as a mix of Jurassic 5, Parliament Funkadelic and Ozomatli with bits of disco and electronica thrown in. You're thinking that doesn't make much sense? Well then just take a listen and check out these tracks from their 2008 release Radio Free DC.

Fort Knox Five - Insight

Fort Knox Five - Sao Funky (Parts 1 & 2)

Fort Knox Five - Uptown Tricks

Enjoy
Alec