The Not-Pop Jukebox

You can't really classify David Stephenson because you never know what his next song will sound like. He does some lovely acoustic guitar numbers, some punk-y rock tunes, and then--out of the blue--you get Back That Booty Up. It's playful disco with the least deep lyrics you can imagine, which is pretty darned shallow if you your imagination is colored by pop songs.

Nonetheless, the song has cracked me up this morning while making me do some quality chair dancing. Thus I've brought it to you, my darlings. Have a listen and then head over to SoundCloud to hear more from this musical chameleon.

A few months back I panned the development of the Swedish band Mando Diao but I'd not yet checked out the side project Caligola that two of the members have been pursuing for a couple of years. I finally got around to it and I'm here to report that they've gotten over the mopey turn the band has taken.

Take, for instance, the disco-fueled Forgive Forget, just indie enough to be modern while tweaking my 70s sensibilities. This is more a return to the energy of Long Before Rock 'n' Roll and much more to my liking. I'll be following them with interest but for now just enjoy this taste of their sound.

You poor dears have been without Earth, Wind, & Fire for far too long. To that end I bring you one of my favorites. Got to Get You into My Life is not only a quintessential EWF song but it's off the first cassette I ever owned: "The Very Best of Earth, Wind, & Fire, Vol. 1". I still have it, by the way, though it's much the worse for wear. I actually bought a replacement for it but never could bring myself to toss the original.

If you're ready to get your groove on, complete with funky horns and lots of seventies style, have a listen to Got to Get You into My Life. You can pick up the CD for seven bucks right now via the album cover above, about what I paid for that second cassette a couple of decades ago. If you're a disco funk fan like I am, throw me a few recommendations or let me know your favorite Earth, Wind, & Fire song!

What's more high-energy than disco funk? An All Hazards remix thereof, of course. I can't imagine a song more likely to get me out on the floor than Party Down. It takes serious boogie and cranks it up to eleven, which is pretty much what All Hazards does to everything.

Party Down is one of those songs that I've been enjoying for ages and thought I'd long posted for you all. Luckily for you I think to check, from time to time, and realize when I've deprived you of yet another San Francisco treat. The duo has a lot of dancing just waiting for you. Head on over to SoundCloud for lots more.

Was Boogie Nights in Saturday Night Fever? Who knows? Who cares? All I know is that it should have been, and that I bet John Travolta boogied his bootie off to Heatwave, back in the day whether on film or not.

I certainly did, and still do. While this was definitely a pop song, long ago, you don’t hear a lot of disco any more. I prefer this sort of aged cheese to the modern-day versions by Kesha and the like. Neither is deep or particularly good music but at least disco made the vocalists actually sing about partying at clubs rather than letting the computers do it.

(In case you were about to point it out, I do know that Boogie Nights was the titular song in the movie Boogie Nights, not Saturday Night Fever. That was tongue-in-cheek, kind of like this paragraph. Shush it and boogie, darlings.)

Of late, no one seems to know the difference between "jive" and "jibe". For those of you who want to know how to use jive properly in a sentence, I have eight songs, from across a few decades and at least six genres, to help explain it. Also, I'm fond of making theme posts like this, much like my Big Shuffle list.

Have a listen to The Four Charms and then Grammatik remixing the same song (though the Nat King Cole version). Don your roller skates and jive with the Bee Gees and then take them off again for some 80s goodness from Men at Work. Swing between Guns n' Roses and Mojo Nixon, with a little Screamin' Jay Hawkins thrown in the mix. And if you just can't get enough, pop over to my playlist of Java Jive for a steaming pile of coffee-flavored jive talkin'.

With apologies to...a whole lot of people, Dunken K Bliths had Qui Gon jamming, I was listening to Leprechauns Love Disco, and the world clicked for me. That is, he's almost perfectly on beat and I laughed until I cried. As a bonus, the song rocks.

Irish Steph is not, as the name might lead you to believe, an Irish woman. He is, in face, male and French. That doesn't hold him back from making...well, great electronica that isn't particularly Irish--except IRA's Tweed. I heartily recommend the latter if you enjoy Leprechauns Love Disco and, really, how could you not?

This is one of those playlists that started with two songs I intended to post as a You Pick the Winner pair. Then I wondered how many other, similar songs I could find. Even deleting the worst from the pile I was left with nine songs asking, "Does your mother know?"

I've left my first two candidates at the top of the list: Jim Bianco's If Your Mama Knew and ABBA's Does Your Mother Know? Then move on to The Supremes, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Gary Glitter, Neil Diamond, and Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas. To round it out there are groups called Lordi and Termites. I'm pretty sure there are at least half a dozen genres represented here, if not a separate one for each song.

Whatever your lines of distinction, have a listen and let me know which of the nine "if mama knew" songs you like best. While I love the zydeco song, Your Mama Don't Know I still love Bianco and ABBA so I don't really have a stand-out favorite. I need your votes, my dears!

Here's a post-Halloween pile of Friday Funk for you all: Bootsy Collins as Casper, funkin' up the joint for nearly seven old-school minutes. For those of you unfamiliar with the 70s, Stretchin' Out (In a Rubber Band) may be best explained by the wide variety of and easy access to drugs, as well as a musical reaction to the "free love" hippie thing and the shocking prevalence of satin jumpsuits. It's rather amazing so much great music came out of such a bizarre decade, truly.

Get your skank on, darlings, and have a jam to the utterly well-named ska-awesome that is Suburban Legends. In their most suburban of songs, High Fives celebrates looking "totally bitchin'" and acting like superior asses in high school.

Now, it just so happens that They Might Be Giants has their very own, kid-based song called High Five which features that same game that jerks play on other kids in high school. For all it's doofy lyrics, it's still got some great horns and a pile of disco sensibility that you don't expect from the duo. Nor, if you've not kept up with them, do you expect a kids' chorus, but you get that, too.

So enjoy a pair of High Fives from me. C'mon, guys, don't leave me hangin'.

I've been listening to a fair amount of Antibalas lately and, as a Manu Dibango fan already, was excited to see them incorporating makossa into their numbers. It took about thirty seconds of Makossa #3, however, before I realized that it was not the ever-talented Mr. Dibango the needed a head-to-head match-up with the New Yorkers. It was Isaac Hayes and the iconic Theme from Shaft.

Normally I'd include both songs in a playlist below, but for some reason the recording of Makossa #3 on Grooveshark cuts off at 1:23. The video below gives you the full, five-minute treatment. And then I figured you'd need a video for Shaft, too, because, well, it's Shaft. Note that the version in the opening credits for the film are a little different, and a little faster, than this one (which is the one I have), but if you haven't seen the film and don't understand just what a BAMF he is, go see it. Now. I'll wait. Can you dig it?

I almost forgot to invite you to tell me which wah-wah pedal you like best. That is, after all, the entire point of You Pick the Winner. Do share, my dears. Do you have a nostalgic Richard Roundtree connection to Isaac Hayes or does Anibalas take that same funk-filtered sound, wrap it around makossa, and steal your love?

You Can Dance is all that used to be right with pop music when I was a kid, back when massive sound was where it was at. Please, pretend that sentence wasn't a grammar train wreck and pay attention. Months ago I posted another Chilly Gonzales song called Bongo Monologue that sits more on the jazz hop side of the coin.

You Can Dance, on the other hand, gives you an Earth, Wind, & Fire vibe with a layered sound that makes you want to just go ahead and dance, already. It's less typical of Chilly Gonzales's usual style but it's a great tune in its own right. You get looping samples, half a choir, and 70s-style vocal meandering mixes with some lovely piano modernized with a squidgy digitized voice. What's not to love?

It came to my attention recently that I had a number of songs with the same name, namely Oh No. Naturally, I had to make a playlist and find more. Thus it is that I can bring you Nada Surf, Gogol Bordello, Dr. Dog, and Frank Zappa all on one post.

Note that not all of these songs are great. They are all, however, not bad enough to make you say, "Oh, no!" If you stick with it that far, you can enjoy Chico DeBarge and Camper Van Beethoven mixed with Haypenny, Zeds Dead, and Mooney Suzuki. I think I got them all, but have a look at the list below if you want to make sure. I left off Andrew Bird's Oh No as I've already posted it but if you're still hungry for more after these ten do click over and have a listen.

With deep thanks to Dirk Talamasca for sharing this on Google+, I bring you the bluesy proto-funk of Shuggie Otis along with a sincere argument for those of us who were alive in the seventies for the banning of flares and an explanation at our dismay at seeing them come around again, fashion-wise. Bootie Cooler doesn't try to distract you with lyrics about shaking your bootie. It just gives you a chance to cool it. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, this is Soul Train, whose dance line was the teaching tool of suburban white children across the US.

As a side note, I kept expecting someone to sing "boogie nights" when I listened to the song. Watch the fantastic (if un-related) video for Bootie Cooler and have a listen to Earth, Wind, & Fire's Boogie Nights and let me know if you hear the similarity. Even if you don't, I think this is a great pair of 70s tunes, particularly if you're in a mood to boogie your bootie tonight.

For no discernible reason, the last few months have brought a lot of people here to listen to Funky Stuff. Not only do I appreciate all of the visitors and the amount of other things they take the time to explore on The NPJ but the influx brought to my attention that I've not posted more Kool & the Gang, either before or since.

Let's fix that little problem today with (Jump Up on the) Rhythm and Ride, a disco-funk, semi-hip hop, harmonized bit of giddy-up fun. There's enough of a driving beat to make you want to dance with Shawn McQuiller (the lead singer who's done an admirable job since JT Taylor left in 1987).

Enjoy the rhythm and go for a ride with Kool & the Gang. Sadly, this one missed the charts entirely when it was released in 1992 but anyone who's a fan of the group, or of music in general, ought to find plenty to love.

It's a rough week for old-school music lovers! First Chuck Brown passed and now Donna Summer has left us. As a not-so-closeted disco fan, I've dimmed my mirror ball for the night in her honor.

I have also been enjoying a little Donna Summer retrospective and wanted to share with you a hit from yesteryear that you never hear these days. Get your groove on with some Bad Girls, from the heady days of sex, drugs, and no HIV. It's not only appropriately named, it has traffic whistles and has a great, pounding bass line just made for doing the hustle.

Hopefully no musicians will die tomorrow and we can get something a little more recent, though it's been a great week for funk here on The NPJ. RIP, Donna Summer.

In honor of President Obama coming out in favor of gay marriage today, I thought we'd have a terribly fun song that really has nothing to do with it. In fact the song celebrates the exact opposite of marriage. Oh, just shut up with your logic and enjoy It's Raining Men. If you're nice I'll bring you something a little more substantial tomorrow.

I noticed today that I had three songs about whistling on my massive playlist so I took a look and quickly found a fourth. Then I thought I'd see what else I could turn up on the ever-helpful Groovshark. Happily, I found plenty.

I started with the four I already knew: They Might Be Giants, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, KC & the Sunshine Band, and The Pinker Tones. Then I found Elvis Presley, Firewater, Dean Martin, some guy named Scooter, and a bizarre thing from The Left Rights. I dropped some less-enjoyable tunes from the list and kept it to a nice, manageable Monday list of nine songs.

Tell me if you know these songs and which one you like best. Much as I love TMBG and Firewater, my pick from the stack would be Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

You don't generally see terms like "Scottish" and "jazz-funk" together but that's what I've got for you today, my dears. The Haggis Horns have played with tons of famous people but they don't need some famous front-person to make you groove. I've chosen their cover of Kool & the Gang's Who's Gonna Take the Weight to share because it's a showcase kind of tune and because I could share the original, too.

Not only that but I found another sort-of-cover to throw onto the stack (hands up, those who remember stacking records on your turntable). Have a listen to the very different take that Groove Terminator offers, more electro-funk with hip hop sauce. I wish I could have found an album version of the Kool & the Gang original but the intro verbiage does explain the meaning of Who's Gonna Take the Weight and pretty well shows you that this predicament in which the world finds itself is nothing new. The live version comes from the late 70s!

Do tell me what you think, of any of the versions but particularly of The Haggis Horns. And, as a plug and an observation, Google + has turned into a prime source of new music for me, both in mentions from others and people sending me their stuff to review. If you've been avoiding joining a new social network, do give it a chance.

In 1982, Dazz Band released what many likely think was their one and only hit: Let It Whip. Clearly they've forgotten Joystick from a year later but let's focus on one songs at a time, here. Let It Whip brought them massive radio play and a Grammy and it's the song for which they are best known.

For me, this song falls in a nostalgic category occupied by Earth, Wind, & Fire, KC & the Sunshine Band, and a whole pile of other disco funk. But as my life edged into the 80s this sound expanded to include people like Midnight Star.

Dazz Band bridges the disco-to-80s-music transition and Let It Whip exemplifies that slide. (Not the Electric Slide, silly!) And so I offer it to you today, for you edification or guilty-pleasure remembrance. Happy Friday!