Top Chef, too. Karla should've won.

I will miss you, Karla.

Yup, I watch American Idol.

She killed it:

A couple pieces of writing I just had published.

A review of the Sick Puppies' Dressed Up as Life on Mix Down.



A preview of Tom Jones at Terminal 5 in New York City for Flavorpill.

I got some cool records.

There's a place on Passyunk called the Beautiful World Syndicate (check their MySpace) that I like. They have a ton of old vinyl, $5 used CDs, DVDs, etc. It can be a lot of work looking through all the titles, sometimes pulling out vinyl one at a time because the bins are so full or they're under a table, but it pays off sometimes and you find a gem or three.

I got a Gang Starr record called Daily Operation from '92. So sick. It's got some of the best '90s hip hop songs to speak of: "The Place Where We Dwell," "Ex Girl to Next Girl," and "Take It Personal."

I also got some weird compilations on vinyl. I found Volume 2 of Super Disco Brake's, which I think is just songs that people sample. Here are the songs:

James Brown's "Funky Drummer"
Juice's "Catch a Groove"
Harlem Underground Band's "Smokin' Cheeba Cheeba"
Bill Withers' "Use Me"
Cymande's "Dove" (used by the Fugees on The Score)
Ann Winley's "Watch Dog"
Meters' "Sophisticated Cissy"

The real gem, though, is an LP called Breakdancing. That's it. No artist or anything. It's from 1984 and it reports to be based on the Avon book Breakdancing. Not only are there instructions between songs, there's a diagram sleeve that I have photographed and posted here. Here's that song lineup:

Malcolm McLaren and the World Famous Supreme Team's "Buffalo Gals"
Herbie Hancock's "Rockit"
Lisa-Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force's "I Wonder If I Take You Home"
George Kranz's "Trommeltanz (Din Daa Daa)"
Run-D.M.C.'s "It's Like That"
John Rocca's "I Want It To Be Real"
Kid Savage and the Supreme Rockers' "Drive Me Crazy"
C-Bank's "One More Shot"
Grand Master Melle Mel and the Furious Five's "White Lines (Don't Do It)"
The Rocksteady Crew's "Hey You (The Rocksteady Crew)"

I'm excited and/or curious about these shows in Philadelphia.

Takers?

February:
Thurs., 5 - Black Keys (@ the Electric Factory)
Fri., 6 - The Pretenders (@ the Electric Factory)
Sun., 8 - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (@ Kungfu Necktie)
Fri., 20 - M. Ward (@ the Troc)
Sat., 28 - Tapes n' Tapes (@ Johnny Brendas)

March:
Sun., 1 - Blitzen Trapper w/ Alela Diane (@ First Church)
Mon., 2 - Plants and Animals (@ Johnny Brendas)
Fri., 13 - The Feelies (@ Johnny Brendas)
Mon., 16 - Takka Takka (@ Kungfu Necktie)
Thurs., 19 - The Ting Tings (@ First Church)
Sat., 21 - Bloc Party (@ the Electric Factory)
Sun., 29 - Asobi Seksu (@ Johnny Brendas)

April:
Wed., 1 - Lady GaGa (@ the Electric Factory)
Fri., 3 - Dan Deacon (@ First Church)
Sat., 4 - Kool Keith as Dr. Octogon vs. Dr. Doom (@ Johnny Brendas)
Wed., 22 - Of Montreal (@ the Troc)

May:
Tues., 12 - Animal Collective (@ the Electric Factory)

I don't care what you try to say - she is fierce and talented.

I bought some things today.

On compact disc I bought:
Erykah Badu's "Baduism"
A Tribe Called Quest's "The Love Movement"
El-P's "I'll Sleep When You're Dead"
The Black Keys' "Attack and Release"
Spank Rock's "Yoyoyoyoyo"

And on vinyl:
TV on the Radio's "Dear Science"

Plus in print:
Magnet

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.