Fat Freddy's Drop

I came across this 7 piece soul/dub outfit out of New Zealand a few days ago and cannot get "Boondigga" out of my head.

At first, I was convinced the vocalist for the track was Jamie Lidell but after a closer listen, found that Freddy's main vocalist has a much smoother tone. It really sets the perfect mood for nice chill day or a lazy evening, it's so easy to just listen to. Over the past few years they've secured a worldwide fanbase through sheer hard work and savy independent CD and Vinyl Releases. I feel so behind, I can't believe i've been missing out on them till now.

Nearly four years ago, the Freddy’s traveled to London in December 2005 and were on-hand to pick up the Worldwide Album Of The Year at the Radio 1 Gilles Peterson Worldwide Music Awards 2005, as voted by fans worldwide that tune in to the tastemakers show on the BBC.

Freddy’s dominated the 2005 New Zealand Music Awards, taking Best Group, Best Album, Best New Zealand Roots Group and the Peoples Choice Award. On December 18, 2005 the group were awarded the Worldwide “Album of the Year Award”, as voted for by over 20,000 listeners of Gilles Peterson’s BBC Radio 1 Worldwide show. Fat Freddy’s Drop have now released their second major studio album, Dr Boondigga & The Big BW - shipping GOLD on the first day of release on 26th May 2009. Featuring Art & Design by Otis Frizzell, the album features nine fresh phat tracks that span soul, dub, reggae, techno, blues flavors.

Fat Freddy's Drop - Boondigga

Stuck In A Funk

When you drive my particular Suzuki Esteem, you need to have some esteem of your own. It has a lot of cosmetic damage, the air conditioning doesn't work (I live in Las Vegas), the CV joints feel like they're about to rip out the sides of my wheels; it smells like cat piss, etc.

To make matters worse, the CD player doesn't work, and the radio receiver doesn't spit out any signal from iPods, either. So generally all inhabitants of the Esteem are going to be sweating out salt bricks, whilst their skin breathes a in a warm, rejuvenating piss mist. Luckily 88.1 has a very good format, especially on Thursdays, completely and utterly solving all the issues previously important with my whip.

"Classic Thursdays," is a lot of soul, funk, and R&B, and lord knows that I can always use some more of that in my life (and will probably be talking about it more often). One of the groups that I've been feeling recently is Cameo.

Cameo started out as the New York City Players in 1974, boasting 23 members. Their songs during this era are mostly funk smashes, but some of their stuff trends off into the disco range. Their style definitely Rick James'ed out during the 80s, too, as the band thinned out into 5 main members. In 1986, they released a classic that would later be sung in cacophonous tribute by dorky white guys in karaoke bars everywhere, "Word Up."

Here's two of my favorites of their earlier work: