Another British band making a splash on this side of the pond is Band of Skulls, with their recent Shangri-La Records release, “Baby Darling Doll Face Honey.”
These guys (and a gal) are a cross between The Pretenders, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The White Stripes, with a little aggro-emo-soul.
After a touring summer ending with Lollapalooza, their tunes will be featured in the upcoming release of “New Moon” (Twilight 2).
Here’s a YouTube clip of their single, “Blood.” Blood and Skulls, yea. Rock on.
There’s a little group out of Gothenberg, Sweden (same place as Jose’ Gonzalez) who’re capable of big sounds, and their electro-pop, soul-infused, funk ballads are primed for dancefloors, headphones, and big-booming car systems around this world.
Teamed with the beautiful looks and sublime seduction of Yukimi Nagano’s voice, high-school friends Erik Bodin (drums), Fredrik Wallin (bass), and Håkan Wirenstrand (keyboards) came together as the band Little Dragon, stepping into the spotlight with the release of their late-2007 single on Peacefrog Records, called “Twice“.
Their self-titled album, Little Dragon, went on to achieve popular success with those in-the-know in 2008, and their major-label debut, Machine Dreams, is slated for a September 3, 2009 domestic release.
These Swedes have a gifted take on the pop-funk, synth-soul dance vibe, and they’ve taken the torch from similar sounding groups like Koop, Massive Attack, Zero 7, and Phoenix.
The first single from the new album is in heavy rotation on KCRW, and has a chill, trip-hop vibe to it.
Called “Feather,” there are a few copies floating around YouTube, and here’s one:
The recently released Soul Power documentary captures the state-sponsored 1974 concert in Zaire that set the stage for Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s legendary “Rumble in the Jungle.”
What a spectacle of soul-infused musical bravado. In the midst of Vietnam, Nixon, Civil Rights, and a miserable economy, Don King and James Brown pulled off the impossible, just like Ali, in the middle of war-torn Zaire. That’s some Soul Power.
Soul Power is produced and directed by Jeff Levy-Hinte, president of Antidote Films, who was also the producer-director of the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings (1996). Most of the Soul Power footage was uprooted after the production of When We Were Kings. All this gloriously funky footage has been waiting nearly 35 years to see the light.
Soul Power keeps your head bobbing by showcasing these historic performances from funk, soul, and R&B legends like B.B. King, Bill Withers, and the kinetic madman and self-professed Sex-Machine, James Brown, whose early-70s single of the same name lends the film its title.
Using notable cinematographers, Albert Maysles and Paul Goldsmith, to lend the documentary a gritty but stunning style verité, the footage captures the Don King-promoted Rumble in the Jungle’s political and personal spirits in all their vivid intensity.
