Lurking on the iplayer is the soul brother to the super disco series of documentaries: We Want The Funk. We finally got round to watching this on Friday and it’s a treat. Actually the first 15 minutes are skippable, as we get the background funk grew from in the early sixties music such as Motown that was about fitting in. By the end of the sixties with the rise of black power people were less interested in fitting in. Enter James Brown, rightly put front and centre as funk ground zero, with Say It Loud. From here we get some awesome clips of JB sweating and hollering, the psychedelia of Sly Stone – and the still bonkers sound and sight of George Clinton and Funkadelic. Someone watching the Parliaments in the late sixties recounts how the first three nights were normal soul music. Night four George went to the bathroom and came out with his hair frizzed out and wearing a nappy. There’s Bowie’s Thin Ginger Haired Duke appearance on Soultrain and the descent of the mothership at a Funkadelic gig. David Byrne of course crops up with his take on the skew wiff funking of Talking Heads. Burning Down » Continue Reading.
Who is Marc Rebillet?
A bit of random surfing in a moment of idleness brought up the clip in the comment below. A performer in a bar on Dallas some 7 years ago, looking and acting like a young Walter White.
What is this geeky, nerdish bloke doing, freaking out behind a keyboard and a looping set? Has he lost his mind? Is this some kind of public breakdown being filmed for social media humiliation?
Kind of sucked in, I settled in for the full 16 minutes, and was wowed by the musicianship, humour and improvisation. Started off Walter White, ended up Jesse Pinkman.
Of course, Marc Rebillet has a following in the millions, has done sellout tours of the US and Europe, and played Coachella (at least) twice.
How many more completely unknown, but world- famous musicians are there out there? How many who do what Marc does? Probably loads. They just don’t appear on the AW – until now.
Say what you think of him. Maybe he’s very familiar to you. He probably isn’t to everyone’s taste, but he’s very intriguing to me. And very funky.
Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals
Anyone else heard this guy? My son recommended him via this link – from NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts.
Ultra funky four piece band, brilliant playing, GOOD SONGS, especially “Heart Don’t Stand A Chance” which starts at 3.44
He started playing drums in the church (familiar story) – and here’s something he said about his background from Wikipedia – “My little sister and I went out front, and my pops was on top of my mom. There was blood in the street. He was arrested, and that was the last time I saw him. I think he did 14 years.”
Bowie Klaxon
The Guardian has details this morning of unreleased 1974 soul and funk lp The Gouster that became Young Americans coming in the next box set of reissues:
A previously unreleased David Bowie album is set to be released. The Gouster, recorded in 1974, was Bowie’s experiment in soul and funk, which later morphed into Young Americans, released in 1975. It will appear later this year in a box set, Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976).
Below the line is an entertaining commentary on cash-ins/its not unreleased/was on the 1991 CD reissues/there’s real unreleased stuff not included still
