Soulful Thursdays
POSTED:: April 1, 2010
FILED UNDER:: General
Call it Spring Fever, call it ants in our pants, we’re not all too sure, but at WMSE, we’re complete suckers this week for anything that’s got that extra pep in its proverbial step.
Two releases we just got have us particularly fevered: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings’ I Learned the Hard Way and Mark Sultan’s $ just arrived in the mail, and we are, to lightly put it, super-stoked. ‘Jazzed’, you might add.
Listen to Jones & the Dap Kings’ “Give it Back” (click the photo, above). The new album is officially due out on the 6th, and is their fourth full-length on Brooklyn’s Daptone Records. According to the press, “the record marks a bold step forward for a band who almost singlehandedly stewarded today’s return of soul music to its more traditional sound”.
Produced by Bosco Mann and recorded on an Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth, Jones and the crew energize their recordings throughout, equal parts serious, down and out soul and get up and dance to the music jams.
Known as one half of the King Khan & BBQ show, Mark Sultan has long been making a name for himself with his previous work in Montreal’s the Spaceshits. His latest release, entitled $, on Last Gang Records, showcases his Sam Cooke-ish vocals with plenty of doo-wop, R&B and garage-y scuzz. Produced by Sultan, $ is a solid collection of seamless songs that blend genres with ease.