Raphael Saadiq's "The Way I See It"

In "Doing What I Can," the opening track of Raphael Saadiq's proper solo debut, Instant Vintage, he gives you a taste of just what he's about to bring to the table: samples, stories, bass lines, strings, blues, joy and heaps upon heaps of soul. Journalist voices uttered in spun sound clips paint a brief biographical picture of this 42-year-old modern day Otis, Sam or Marvin. And yet, for some reason, this introduction is wholly necessary.

When enthusiasm is shared with strangers to his genius, it usually tends to go something like this:

"Raphael Saadiq?"

"Yeah. Well, he was in a group called Tony! TonI! Tone! Remember that song "Feels Good"? Ya know, it feeeels gooood. This is like early '90s."

"No."

"Orrr, he was in a group called Lucy Pearl with the lady from En Vogue. Their jam was called "Dance Tonight." I wanna daaannce tonight, I wanna toooaast tonight, I spend my money tonniiight. Dawn of 2000ish?"

"Still no."

"He produced that Joss Stone record."

"OH NICE! Love her."

No, you see, this man is a deeply talented creative force to be reckoned with in the 21st century. His creativity is inspiring and, although we've waited for something as substantially radical as Vintage (Ray Ray didn't quite floor people in 2004) for some time now, he has delivered another dense soul classic to be listened to, celebrated, sung along to, made love to and praised for years and generations to come.

Rarely does a musician come along who seems to embody something unique. A genre-defying artist who may be taking notes and inspiration from all kinds of influences (Gladys Knight and the Pips, A Tribe Called Quest, and Stevie Wonder to name a few) but has actually soaked it all up and spat out something beautifully different. He's also landed in a vague new genre on some kind of healthy kick with the likes of Adele, Duffy, Amy, and Alicia touting bygone R&B and getting some hefty sales out of it. Perhaps thanks to Amy's idiocy - just sayin'.

Raphael soars above these little girls and laughs a stoney, wizened chuckle. He's also produced and collaborated with some of their more substantial peers: TLC, D'Angelo, Kelis, Mary J., Jill and Erykah. He employs some heavy-hitters to guest on his latest particularly thrown back gospeldelic joint, The Way I See It. The Rebirth Brass Band adds another layer of old school funk to my favorite all-out jam on "Big Easy," Jay-Z doesn't ruin but re-envisions a sad but unduly solidly crafted track called "Oh Girl," and Joss Stone lends her smokey pipes to a joyous and triumphant "Just One Kiss."

But out there in the front with three happy, shiny gems of '50s-infused openers we get "Sure Hope You Mean It," "100 Yard Dash," and "Keep Marchin'." Standouts on their own, for sure, but like several others on this album, there's an undeniable groove. It's hard not to bob your head, snap your fingers and start shaking. They're happy, they vary in pace from mid-tempo to balls-out-boogie and it's impossible to think about much more than the way Mr. Saadiq sees it. The way he sees it, love is something to hold on to, life is something you can't let defeat you, good times are something to celebrate and a kiss is something to roll around in.

The achievement that is T.W.I.S.I. has not escaped a few critics and tastemakers. The record has garnered three Grammy nominations: Best R&B Album, Best Traditional R&B Performance for "Love That Girl," and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for his collaboration with Stevie Wonder on "Never Give You Up." Yes, Mr. Wonder. Fascinatingly, though, the legend does not croon a note, only breathes them to life with a harmonica. His presence is appreciated and classy on a deep-in-the-record sleeper song.

iTunes, which apparently has an Editorial Team, named The Way I See It their choice for 2008's Best Album. Those are some britches, Raphael. Please just keep on keepin' on your righteous soul path.

Some favorite Black Cab Sessions clips.

Have you seen this business on Black Cab Sessions?

One day I watched about 20 to 25 of these. I'd never seen it before. These were my favorites:

St. Vincent:


Spoon:


Cool Kids:


Fleet Foxes:


Jens Lekman:

Laura Marling performing "Ghosts" live.

This song will haunt you.

Winter Music Highlights to Come

Yes, Pitchfork just put out their list of noted Winter releases but obviously I'm not quite excited about some releases and pumped about others.

Here are my edited picks:

January:
6 - Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion (6 - vinyl release, 20 - CD release)
20 - A.C. Newman's Get Guilty, Antony and the Johnsons' The Crying Light, Atmosphere's God Loves Ugly, Bon Iver's Blood Bank EP, Calexico's Live From Austin, TX, Matt and Kim's Grand
27 - The Bird and the Bee's Ray Guns Are Not the Future, Hot Chip with Robert Wyatt and Geese EP (CD release), Kylie Minogue's Boom Box: The Remix Album

February:
3 - Ben Kweller's Changing Horses, The Von Bondies' Love, Hate and Then There's You
10 - India.Arie's Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics, Lily Allen's It's Not Me, It's You
17 - Alela Diane's To Be Still, Asobi Seksu's Hush, Beirut/Realpeople's March of the Zapotec/Holland, M. Ward's Hold Time

March:
3 - The Boy Least Likely To's The Law of the Playground, Laura Gibson's Beasts of Seasons, Neko Case's Middle Cyclone
10 - Mirah's (a)spera
17 - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's Beware, Kelly Clarkson (TBA)
24 - Dan Deacon's Bromst, The Decemberists' The Hazards of Love
30 - Frightened Rabbit's Liver! Lung! FR! (intl release, out now in US), PJ Harvey and John Parish's A Woman A Man Walked By (UK release)
ETC. - Grizzly Bear (TBA), The Juan Maclean's The Future Will Come, MSTRKRFT's Fist of God

April:
7 - Lady Sovereign's Jigsaw, The Thermals' Now We Can See

And beyond: Big Boi's Sir Lucious Leftfoot... Son of Chico Dusty, Ciara's Fantasy Ride, Clipse's Till the Casket Drops, Eminem's Relapse, Mastadon's Crack the Skye, Missy Elliot's Block Party, Patrick Wolf's Battle, Wilco's Ashes of American Flags (DVD), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (TBA)

Holidays

They're kind of a drag.

Without a family or partner in your city you have to go somewhere else for holiday happy times. That usually involved a long drive, plane trip, train ride or bus situation if you don't drive. When you have barely 24 hours off from work, it doesn't seem worth it try to make it a couple states over.

People put so much pressure on having a meaningful and fantastic day, flawless and planned out as much as possible: menu, presents, itinerary, wardrobe, etc. Well, that didn't happen for me at all this year. Christmas was a bit of a bust. Thank goodness I had Harmony make the Greyhound trip to Philly for two nights. Otherwise I would've been totally alone on the big day.

I didn't foresee that grocery stores and every other business (other than some Jewish and Asian establishments) in Philadelphia would be closed on the big day. I thought there would be time to get our groceries and compose a meal. Wrong. So we walked around Philly most of the morning, in the beautiful crisp, sunny air, looking for a place to eat or buy groceries. We shouted "Merry Christmas"s to strangers who responded in kind. We almost wanted to ask them if we could follow them to their destination home and be their sad guests.

We ate at a Vietnamese join on S 11th and it was kind of alright. But Harm's body didn't think so. We ended up having a movie marathon; 4.5 movies starting at about 2pm. Juno (tears shed), When Harry Met Sally (maybe one or two tears shed), The Family Stone (many tears shed), Love Actually (no tears, I believe), and Legally Blonde 2 (was started too late and didn't hold our interest enough to keep us awake, I suppose). It was nice to blubber like a little girl. Quite comforting and relieving.

But mom and dad are coming from Red Hook tomorrow. So we'll have a little more XMas before the New Year. And I'm bartending on New Years Eve night. Another night that people hem and haw and wring their hands over to make sure everything is glorious. There's a party downtown at a hotel where tickets cost $135 for five hours of open bar, food and entertainment. No thank you. I should make approximately $200, I hope, on the night, so that's nice.

2009 should be a weird year. A lot can happen; a lot will happen. A new Neko Case record is on its way.

Pitchfork's Readers' Poll Top 25 Albums of 2008

I did not see this before coming up with mine. Promise.

01. TV on the Radio: Dear Science
02. Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes / Sun Giant EP
03. Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
04. Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
05. Deerhunter: Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
06. Portishead: Third
07. MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
08. Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours
09. M83: Saturdays=Youth
10. No Age: Nouns
11. Girl Talk: Feed the Animals
12. Sigur Rós: Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
13. The Walkmen: You & Me
14. Dodos: Visiter
15. Wolf Parade: At Mount Zoomer
16. WHY?: Alopecia
17. The Hold Steady: Stay Positive
18. Nine Inch Nails: The Slip
19. Of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping
20. Okkervil River: The Stand Ins
21. Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III
22. Beach House: Devotion
23. Crystal Castles: Crystal Castles
24. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
25. Beck: Modern Guilt

My Top 25 Albums of 2008 List

25. Mates of State - "Re-Arrange Us"
24. Ra Ra Riot - "The Rhumb Line"
23. Portishead - "Third"
22. Kings of Leon - "Only by the Night"
21. Raphael Saadiq - "The Way I See It"
20. Beck - "Modern Guilt"
19. MGMT - "Oracular Spectacular"
18. Kylie Minoguq - "X"
17. Deerhunter - "Microcastle/Weird Era Cont."
16. Gnarls Barkley - "The Odd Couple"
15. Vampire Weekend - "Vampire Weekend"
14. TV on the Radio - "Dear Science"
13. Lykke Li - "Youth Novels"
12. Hercules and Love Affair - "Hercules and Love Affair"
11. Department of Eagles - "In Ear Park"
10. Santogold - "Santogold"
9. Hot Chip - "Made in the Dark"
8. Erykah Badu - "New Amerykah"
7. Dodos - "Visiter"
6. Estelle - "Shine"
5. Bon Iver - "For Emma, Forever Ago"
4. Fleet Foxes - "Fleet Foxes"
3. Death Vessel - "Nothing is Precious Enough for Us"
2. Jenny Lewis - "Acid Tongue"
1. The Walkmen - "You & Me"

Some videos I watch just about every day.

I wrote this preview of Deerhunter for Flavorpill.

Deerhunter

Bradford Cox, the lanky frontman and curious creative force behind Deerhunter, has done it again. Upping the ante laid down by the 2007 achievement Cryptograms, Cox and Co. drop Microcastle which includes a second bonus disc - Weird Era Cont.! Though perhaps Cox's fascination for '50s and '60s pop is present and palpable, the Joey Ramones-y freak show seems to take a back seat on this rather psychedelic musical journey through reverb-heavy, post-punk, droney acid-dripping rock n' roll. Guitarist Lockett Pundt takes lead vocal responsibilities on "Agoraphobia" and bassist Josh Fauver wrote most of standout "Nothing Ever Happened." Nonetheless, the Atlanta psych-rock quintet takes giant strides with their newest sunlit noise-rock masterpiece.

I'm going to be writing with my roommate a blog called What's Rockin Watkins. I wrote this.

I can't stop listening to Jenny Lewis. There, I said it. Do you smirk? Do you giggle? Trust me when I tell you it is new American popular folk music at its finest. Acid Tongue is an absolute delight from beginning to end (depending on the mood you're in). I do love Jenny herself; I find her painfully charming in her delivery, her sense of humor, her writing abilities and her personal style. Umm, saw her in a You Tube clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1a7XAgBNww) with a tank top and overalls. But I've been stern with Lewis and her side projects in the past with my concerns and disagreements. Here is my arguement for Acid Tongue.

Let's begin with Under the Blacklight, Rilo Kiley's latest LP. Yup, some songs sucked. Real, real bad. "Dejalo"? "Smoke Detector"? I'd listen to it on the way to work from Red Hook to Poughkeepsie and, in the privacy of my enclosed space, let out an audible variation of "NOOOO!!!!" when those tracks arrived to my ears. But "Silver Lining," "Close Call" and "Give a Little Love" were kind of rad, strong additions to a long list of Rilo Kiley hits that will stand on their own over time.

Concerning Rabbit Fur Coat, well, I'm a convert. There are some serious boot-stopmin' Americana jams on her first solo record and her collaboration with the Watson Twins still sometimes surprises me with its perfectness. Sometimes Jenny's voice just sounds that much better with a few other whispery voices joining her on choruses and ends of lines (like in the "Acid Tongue" clip above). Though some of the lyrics may have been a little overwrought at times, she came into a class of women in rock with that record and now, with this one, she's dared to step into the ring with other, thoughtful indie rocking women like PJ Harvey, Neko Case, Feist, Joanna Newsom, and dare I say, Emmylou Harris and Patti Smth?

I like the line that AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine opened up his Acid Tongue review with: "Somewhere along the way, Jenny Lewis decided that she wasn't an indie rocker but that she was a lady of the canyon, a singer/songwritre spinning stories on her own." It's so fitting, some of these songs feel destined for campfires, ranches, riversides and sun-baked porches. Of couse, she'd have a four-piece band and amps behind her, but including all that, her sound would fit right in. LIke a chameleon, even.

Different tracks stand out for different reason. She went way long with an amazing multi-tempoed "The Next Messiah" clocking in at just under nine minutes. But before that, the opening two tracks also set the tone for a new kind of Jenny Lewis record, one that exudes artistry, talent, poise, power and gusto. On the "Black Sand," Lewis met a beautiful boy who took her away and was never the same, on the black sand walked "a mother unwed with a scar down her chest, and on the black sand she dreams she's on her knees, being pushed by the wind to her hands. And that's really all there is to this song, just beautifully delivered and timed to a guitar part, a perfect opening to this record.

"The Next Messiah" and deeper into the record's "Carpetbaggers" are the records all out traditionally big-sounding California rock with hints of good Eagles, Tom Petty, and Jackson Browne. Though Elvis Costello has managed to weasel his way into Jenny's close, artistic circle of friends, his brief appearance on "Carpetbaggers" doesn't completely ruin the song for me (not the case for certain others). If you listen to this song the way I have for the past few weeks, you will be fighting off the phrases: "I'm a carpetbagger, baby / I'm coming to your town / I'm going to treat you kind / I'm going to rob you blind / I'll smile all the time / Whoa, yeah / Whoa, yeah." Seriously, the whole thing.

Though, this record does give us Jenny in a delightfully welcome turn: she appears as an aimless, hard-rockin', boozin', acid-trippin' road-tripper with her hobo bag and guitar as her only friend, ready and willing to throw down a rip-roarin rock show to any bar and saloon along the way kind enough to put her and her band up and pay for their share of bourbon. But then there's the later, tenderer part of the night, up in her room after all the liquor's been drank, the shouting over the crowd, the stolen cigarettes and all the blues of past break-ups and future heartaches strummed away, when all she's wearing is a billowy, white nightgown and she sits you down to chirp out "Sing a Song for Them," "Trying My Best to Love You," and "Bad Man's World."

It's on these gems that you feel like Jenny has put something out simply because she believes in it. She hasn't not put this on a disc so that you can buy it and she can buy a fancy car in L.A. She has written a gritty, personal, inspired rock record in the late 2000s that somehow manages to seem like it's striding into the forefront of indie rock womanhood, and yet, at the same time, she's just made this little thing and wants you to have a listen. "What do you think?" she'd shamefully utter with her hands wrapped up in her dress, her knees together and her flats a foot and a half apart on the living room floor. You wouldn't be able to wipe that wine-colored, uncontrollable smile off your face and say, "You did it."

One of my first Flavorpill music listings!

Beck w/ MGMT and Spoon:

http://flavorpill.com/losangeles/events/2008/9/20/beck-w-spoon-and-mgmt

My Out music feature!

http://www.out.com/detail.asp?id=24105

I interviewed Darren Hayes for Out this summer. It just went up and it's long! Check it out.