Modernaire, Modernaire.

"When Eye Lay My Hands On U "

Among the many unreleased Prince projects is the High album from 2000. The disc was complete and ready for production, but Prince pulled the plug and opted to release it via his then-burgeoning (and now defunct) online music club.

As Uptown writers note in the exhaustive chronology The Vault, the album is accessible and straightforward, likely another attempt at a commercial comeback (1999's Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic had a similar intent, but ultimately failed.

By and large, the music on High is far more compelling than anything on Rave, and with smart marketing and single selection, I believe it could have had significant commercial impact. Alas. Many of the songs were later repackaged in the second incarnation of Prince's online music club, but spread across a few releases, losing any sense of consistency as to what the High album may have sounded like in its initial configuration. [Note: many of the tracks were also initially released via 2-track singles sold on the 2000Hit N Run tour.]

To that end, here is the original tracklist:

1. U Make My Sun Shine
2. My Medallion
3. Supercute
4. Golden Parachute
5. High
6. When Eye Lay My Hands on U
7. When Will We B Paid
8. Gamillah
9. Underneath the Cream
10. The Daisy Chain

Standout tracks here are "My Medallion," "Supercute," "The Daisy Chain" and "When Eye Lay My Hands on U." All are accessible yet interesting enough that they could have seen some success in the musical climate of 2000. But I digress.

The main motivation behind this post is a recent late night spin of volume 5 from the mind-bogglingly comprehensive The Work set of unreleased material. I haven't heard the High tracks in a while, and I was quickly reminiscing about bumping these tracks in my Cavalier (via Discman with cassette adapter, naturally) that summer. Suddenly, it's July 2000.

More importantly, "When Eye Lay My Hands on U" is a track that blows me away. There are so many layers here, not to mention the blistering guitar work. Take a listen:



And here's a great live take from the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 2009:


Prince Montreux 2009 When I lay my hands on You by madonnacelebration

Just because.

Poor video quality (due to the rip; this looks to be from the proshot Parade warmup gig at First Ave.), but what the hell. Still a jam.




Between the sudden urge to hear/see this and Pete's post about the excellent Makings of Rain dvd, I think it's time for me to dust off those Prince bootlegs.

2010 Disappointments

Since mid-November, I've been listening (mostly re-listening, actually) to 2010 almost exclusively. This is of course in preparation for my annual year-end mix, now under production. I've decided to make a few preliminary posts leading up to the mix itself, and this is the first.

Why did I just spend three weeks straight listening to this music? I surely have a pretty good idea of what my tops pick would be. This is more a chance to catch things that fell through the cracks. More accurately, to give one last chance to albums that either didn't impress me, or perhaps didn't received enough attention. There are always a few releases that, upon this final review, I move from the "NO" pile to the"Maybe" or even "YES" pile. Overwhelmingly though, this re-review process leads to filling up the "NO" folder. No doubt, there's more bad music than good music released each year.

I'm not here to catalog what I thought were all of the bad releases that I came across this year. Instead, I'm going to share a few disappointments - albums that I legitimately looked forward to with anticipation, but ended up being (as Raoul Duke would say) "a lame fuck around, a waste of time."

Here then, are Gonzo's four biggest musical disappointments of 2010.

MGMT - Congratulations (Sony)

I remember it like it was Record Store Day. And it was! I admit, I approached the album with trepidation. 2008's Oracular Spectacular may be overexposed, but it's a damn fine album. As the hype machine for Congratulations began spinning, I was skeptical. It would be pretty easy for MGMT to not have another great album in them. But I started to buy into some of the hype. I mean hell, it had a scratch off cover! So on my first visit (of many in 2010, I might add) to Indiana, PA's Backstreet Records, I picked up the double LP on Record Store Day.

The album is...interesting. Truthfully, I don't think it's as horrible as many have cast it, but it sure isn't a winner either. I admire them for not trying to remake Oracular Spectacular. But Congratulations just isn't that interesting. I really wanted to like this record. And there are some decent tracks, but the whole affair reeks of mediocrity. "It's Working" is pretty much the only salvageable track here, and perhaps "Brian Eno" (though I fear this is interesting only because it's an ode to Eno). Maybe they can recover and put out another great record. But I'm sure not going to give it a blind buy.

.Jamie Lidell - Compass (Warp)

I first heard Jamie Lidell in the time between his Multiply and Jim albums. I loved both, thus Compass was much anticipated. It came out the same week as the Band of Horses and LCD Soundsytem albums. But the Lidell disc ended up being the odd one out. It lacks the musical diversity of Multiply and the tight, punchy, well polished sound of Jim. The album is a chore to get through. It's also lyrically a bit dark. It actually reminded me (in tone, not style) of Lenny Kravitz's Circus and Gnarls Barkley's The Odd Couple. By that I mean it appear to be Lidells "depression album.' That can be ok, but it simply isn't executed very well. The best songs on Compass aren't as good as the worst songs on its predecessors. "Telephone" standouts are "I Wanna Be Your Telephone" and "Enough's Enough," but these are fairly uninteresting in comparison to the tunes comprising Lidell's last two releases.

Prince - 20Ten (NPG)

It pains me to include a Prince album on a list of musical disappointments, but thems the breaks. Much of Prince's output in the last decade has had the Purple One going reflexively retro. Somehow, every time a Prince album is released, some half-baked critic hails it as "his best since Sign 'O' the Times or "as good as Purple Rain." Bitch, please. It's not a bad album, but it's Prince ripping off himself, and the result sounds horribly rushed and uninspired. As I said in my initial review of the album, Prince should probably stop releasing an album in year, going for quality over quantity. It's still better than Planet Earth, though.

Lil' Wayne - I Am Not a Human Being (Cash Money)

I won't say that I had huge expectations of Lil' Wayne's new disc, especially after Rebirth. But I thought perhaps we could forgive him for his questionable foray into the rock arena, and that I Am Not a Human Being might recapture some of the glory of Tha Carter III (perhaps this is because the album adapts one of my favorite tracks from the latter album). But nay, the album is a disappointment. Uncreative, lacking innovation, overly formulaic. Maybe I should give the guy a break. He did spend the bulk of 2010 in prison, after all.

These were probably the four most disappointing albums for me in 2010. Not the worst. But guess what - there was a lot of great music released this year. So much so that in my next post, I will briefly survey the runners-up to my year-end selections. Stay tuned...

Gonzo goes to Amoeba Music

I've just returned from a trip to San Francisco. While my primary purpose in visiting was a conference and catching up with old friends, I was also stoked to visit the legendary Amoeba Music.


This is actually one of three stores Amoeba has in California, the others being in Berkeley (the original) and Hollywood. Amoeba consistently ranks in those "Best Records Stores" lists, and I've heard years of personal testimony. I never doubted, but now I can confirm that Amoeba Music is a) worthy of such praise b) really fucking big and c) totally overwhelming.

(Note: this image does not include the video department, the 45s, or the new releases).

Prior to entering, a long-time friend, music geek and current SF resident said "it's better if you have a list. Otherwise you'll get overwhelmed pretty easily." I did not have a list, and yes, I was overwhelmed. I would browse for a bit in one section, then think of something to look for somewhere else, rinse, wash repeat.

The prices seemed fair, but not incredible deals nor overpriced (I admit, my price-gauge on vinyl has been immensely spoiled by Jerry's Records in Pittsburgh). I did find some gems, however. It's rare anymore that I come across Prince 12 inches that I either don't have or are out of my price range (limited promos and such). But I filled two gaps there ("Diamonds and Pearls" and "Black Sweat"), as well as a remix 12" for MJ's "You Rock My World" - featuring Jay-Z! Didn't even know that existed. I also found a bunch of nuggets in the clearance bins, which are easy to miss. Mostly funk and r&b stuff (filling many Earth Wind and Fire gaps). The coolest thing that I found was a recent release of an old New York Dolls show:


The label touted it as the best-available recording from the era, plus you got a cd copy with the 180-gram vinyl. Count me in! I listened to the cd on the way home from the airport, and it is pretty great (though Johannsen's vocals are mixed a little low). It's not exactly a bootleg release, but from what I can gather it's a Russian company putting out some excellent reissues and previously unreleased gems from all over the musical map - the Dolls, the Cure, the Who, Stevie, Can, Bob Marley and many more. Something to keep an eye on.

Fortunately, my friend found me amidst the bulging aisles and gestured that we should leave. "I've found it unwise and financially unsound to spend more than an hour in here." Which is probably good reasoning (I did leave my place in line to check for one more thing).

Anyhow, if you're ever in Cali, Amoeba is a must. I can't imagine that being my local record store, though. Living in California is expensive enough as it is!

"$50 cool cash!"

This is the best late-night YouTube find in a loooooong time:

Review: Prince's 20Ten

Another year, another Prince album. Just as we were starting to wonder if the Purple One was going to be releasing anything this year came the announcement of a new disc. As you may be aware, Prince is not releasing the album to iTunes or any other legitimate download service. And to date, there is not an official US release. The talk around the campfire is that former label and long-time foe Warner Bros. will distribute the album in the US, but there has been no official release date announced at this point.

Prince has however begun to release the album in Europe by slipping the disc into a number of print publications. Because the Internet is dead, obviously. Predictably, the album leaked online within hours of discs getting into the hands of fans overseas.

I have to admit, I wasn't all that amped for this album. Usually (to a fault, even), I get pretty psyched for new Prince discs. Maybe there just wasn't enough time between the announcement and release for anticipation to build. Maybe I was just a little nervous about how the new disc would sound. Maybe it was a little bit of both.

Pressing "play," I entered the album with low expectations. Those expectations were met, and perhaps even exceeded - but just barely.

As I've said many times, I don't expect Prince to do anything particularly new or innovative at this point in his career. The well is dry. The most that we can expect is competent and pleasurable albums, a la 2004's Musicology or last year's Lotusflow3r/MPLSound. Occasionally, we'll get a flash of brilliance (2006's "Black Sweat," for example). But the fact of the matter is that Prince is well past his creative peak. I think that's to be expected. For us to expect another groundbreaking album from the man is expecting too much.

So what's the score on 20Ten? It's been hyped as a return to Prince's sparse, synth-driven funk of the 1999 era. However, you can't just fire up the Linn LM-1 and call it "classic Prince." If this self-referential retro style is what Prince was going for here, he achieved it more effectively with MPLSound.

Some tracks do pull it off, however. The start-stop progression of "Sticky Like Glue" may be the most successful example. It actually reminds me of a specific Prince song, though I'm having trouble placing it. "Wonderful Ass," perhaps (though it is nowhere near as funky nor interesting as "Wonderful Ass"). Prince's faux-rap bridge is a little cringe-worthy though. "Lavaux" is another that somewhat successfully appropriates the aesthetic qualities of Prince's most successful 1980s material. It pales in comparison of course, largely due to the fact that the lyrics leave much to be desired.

Another track that's been getting some attention is "Future Soul Song." If the totally uncreative title didn't give it away, this is Prince in his baby-makin' mode, and it has rarely sounded more contrived. The chorus just seems forced: "This is a future soul song." It also reminds me of Planet Earth's "Future Baby Mama," which I'm not a fan of at all. The album's other ballads, "Walking in the Sand" and "Sea of Everything" are equally uninspired. Maybe part of the problem is that this is such well trodden territory for Prince. Some of the greatest R&B ballads of all time came from his pen - "Purple Rain," "The Beautiful Ones," "Nothing Compares 2 U," "Adore," "When 2 R In Love," "Do Me Baby," et. al. Perhaps he's exhausted the idiom, and the best that he can do are these sound-alikes that never quite get us to where we want to go (the bedroom?).

The album's official closer, "Everybody Loves Me" sounds like a joke. Maybe it is. It's so incredibly juvenile that I would give it a pass were it written for Happy Feet 2. It's jumpy pop groove is also not a far cry from 2009's "No More Candy for U," which closed out MPLSound.

Notice that I referred to "Everybody Loves Me" as the album's official closer. There is a hidden track (#77). I'm reminded of 1998's New Power Soul. Like that album, Prince has once again buried the disc's most interesting piece. "Laydown" is a dark, mid-tempo groove laden with synth flourishes and a female vocal brings to mind the sample in Jay-Z's "Lucifer." Despite the facepalm inducing lyric in which Prince refers to himself as "the Purple Yoda," it's a solid groove that has Prince putting his spin on contemporary sounds (it sounds very much in the vein of a number of club/hip hop tracks from recent years). This would probably be the cut that I would cherry pick from 20Ten.

In sum, the album isn't doing anything that Prince (or others) haven't already done. The bulk of the songs are good enough, but after a handful of listens, nothing on the disc is particularly compelling lyrically, musically or emotionally. One of the reasons it took me so long to write my review is that after giving it a spin on Saturday, I wasn't compelled to give it another listen. Not because it's bad, but because it's chock full of mediocrity. This is only underscored by the fact that 2010 is the best year for music in recent history. I was much more interested in repeatedly listening to new offerings from The Roots and M.I.A. than Jamie Starr.

For much of his career, Prince was releasing an album a year. The exceptions are 1983 (whilst Prince was occupied with the Purple Rain album and film), 1997, 2005 and 2008. Indeed, some years saw multiple releases. I can't help but wonder if Prince continues this annual release schedule to maintain his status as a prolific artist. I think Prince would do well to cut back to say biannual releases in the hopes that this would lead to higher quality product. With a lot of Prince's work in the last decade (and even a bit beyond that) I sometimes think that you can cull one great album from two that he released. I stand by my claim that last year's double disc would have made one great album. Same goes for 2004's Musicology and 2006's 3121 (though I enjoy both). Planet Earth remains a lost cause.

But the fact of the matter is that I don't direct Prince's business decisions, nor those guiding his career. I'll continue to buy his product, and catch him live when I have the chance. In the end, 20Ten is not a bad album, just one that as a unit, is thoroughly underwhelming.

On a standard grading scale, I'd give it a light C that teeters on the brink of a C-.

Day 21 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy

It's hard out there for a Prince (fan)

If you know me, you know that Prince is one of my biggest musical heroes. I love the little guy, but oftentimes he just says or does ridiculous shit (especially true of the last decade). The latest hubbub making the rounds on the web is no exception, unfortunately.

In an interview with the UK's Daily Mirror, the Purple One had this to say:

"The internet's completely over. I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it.

"The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.

"They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."

Yeah, tota.....hey, wait a minute. Something about that doesn't sound right. Let's see, MTV isn't hip, ok, numbers are bad, maybe, wait, what's this about the Internet being dead?

As a friend and colleague on the other side of this debate tweeted, "As a communications scholar, you should know that media forms, no matter how dominant they may seem, don’t last forever." And of course, I totally agree. At best, media evolve and merge into other forms. At worst, they die out completely.

For example, look at print newspapers. It's an industry that's been on its deathbed for the better part of a decade, a death expedited by the economic recession of 2008-present. Thousands of jobs cut, plummeting ad rates, many papers going online only or shutting down the presses completely. So here we have a perfect example of a medium that with the access and increasing portability of the Internet, has become simply outmoded.

Back to the matter at hand. The Prince of 2010 shuns web distribution of music because the Internet is "over" and "unhip." Pray tell, if you aren't distributing music digitally in 2010 (even via legal routes), where do you turn? Newspapers. I wish I were joking.

Repeating an experiment from 2007, Prince is slipping copies of his new disc 20Ten in a slew of UK-based print publications: Courier International in France, the Mirror and Daily Record in the UK, Het Nieuwblad in Belgium, and the German edition of Rolling Stone.

The irony is enough to choke upon.

Many of my geeky friends and I have been commenting on how amazing 2010 has been for music thus far. What has also been striking this year is artists' growing embrace of making their music available for free. Most often, this comes in the form of streaming. Spoon, LCD Soundsystem, Big Boi, Dead Weather, MIA, The Roots, Ratatat, Sleigh Bells - these are just a few of the artists who have made their music available free of charge online in the last 6 months, be it on their own websites, MySpace, NPR's First Listen, or some other venue. Then of course, you have artists such as Twin Sister (one of my 2010 picks) who put their latest EP up for free download (at 320kbps) ahead of its official release. Note also that personally, I've purchased all of these titles, save Big Boi, Ratatat and The Roots (and they're all great - I just haven't gotten around to them yet).

And let's not forget Radiohead's "pay what you want" experiment with 2007's In Rainbows (a model adopted by some indie folks including Girl Talk and Saul Williams). The "pay what you want" model yielded 1.2 million downloads of the Radiohead disc, averaging $8 per download (read: $9.6 million). The eventual physical release sold 166,602 in the US and UK alone (let's conservatively estimate $1,666,020 [$10/disc, of which the band sees $1-2) plus 100,000 copies of the $80 "discbox" edition ($8 million). The Internet didn't seem so 'dead' for In Rainbows. But that was a whopping three years ago. Web use and relevance really has taken a nosedive in that time period. Psych.

This makes Prince's recent statements even more perplexing. Does the rest of the music world have it wrong? Of course not. I'd venture to say it's proving rather successful, though this is pure conjecture (although it's worth pointing out that Sleigh Bells' Pittsburgh show sold out - I doubt that such bands could generate nearly the amount of buzz for themselves in the pre-web era).

The real fact of the matter is that Prince has never been able to make the Internet work in a way that is mutually satisfying to him and his fan base. I'll go polemic and say that every online venture he's embarked upon has been an utter failure. Here's a brief rundown:

Love4OneAnother.com
This site sprung up around the time of Emancipation (1996-7). Horribly designed with no real content to speak of other than occasional diatribes that were characteristically cryptic. I also remember Prince was playing Vegas in 1999 or so, and was going to stream the whole show live, for free. Holy shit! All Prince fans ended up seeing on the web that night was an animated Windows Media Player logo. Buffering. The site closed shortly thereafter.

Crystal Ball
During Love4oneanother.com's reign, Prince released his Crystal Ball set, a 5-disc compilation of unreleased tracks and new music. Curiously, the release is now hailed as significant (as in this WSJ article from April), being one of the first major albums bypassing traditional record industry distribution and sales methods. That's not really how it played out, of course. The album was also available via Prince's now-defunct mail order service, 1-800-New-Funk. Anyhow, here was the deal - pay $65, get this exclusive 3cd set, plus 2 new cds, plus a t-shirt. It was also going to come in this innovative spherical package that somehow managed to hold the cds.

I went for it, obviously. The album was originally announced in the booklet to Emancipation in the fall of 1996. Prince also promoted it during his 1997 concert tour. Countless production and shipping delays got it to us in the spring of 1998. Even better, it was no longer an "exclusive" set. A 4-cd version hit shelves at Best Buy, Target and other major retailers weeks before fans who pre-ordered the set got theirs (more cheaply too - and with proper packaging). So really $65 got you the album later, at greater cost, plus an album of shitty new age music by Prince and a t-shirt that only seemed to come in XL. And that crazy crystal ball packaging idea ended up looking more like a puck. Prince's service also couldn't keep their records straight, levying multiple charges on a number of customers. I was one of those customers. However, they credited more orders than I purchased, so I actually profited on the deal. Sucka.

NPG Music Club
During and following his dispute with Warner Bros., Prince boasted that he envisioned a world where he could deal directly with fans, delivering music to their doorsteps, or their computers. Better yet, he raved about how much material from the Vault he could put out in such a venue. Enter NPGMC - the NPG Music Club. I believe this started in February of 2001 (I recall getting a cryptic Valentine's Day email leading up to the launch). Initially, there was a monthly membership fee of I around $100. This gave you access to content updated on a monthly basis that included live material, exclusive new music, unreleased music from the vault, videos, chats, web radio shows. You also got first dibs on concert tickets (a perk that I enjoyed thanks to a friend with a membership). It started strong. Then updates came with less frequency and volume. In light of this, in 2006 or so the fee was reduced to somewhere around $25 for a lifetime membership. This is when I figured "what the hell" and signed up. Guess what website went dark four months later?

Social Networking
Prince briefly engaged in social networking, but in a very short period of time, his MySpace and Facebook pages disappeared.

3121.com
With the 2006 release of his 3121 album, Prince launched a new website bearing the album's name. Content and membership perks were to come. They didn't. The site went dark.

Lotusflow3r
2009 saw the release of Prince's Lotusflow3r. Prince promoted the new album ahead of release via mplsound.com, featuring a snippet of the new record. The site closed within a month. In its wake was Lotusflow3r.com, another membership-based site. For just $77, members got a year's subscription, which included the new albums ($9.99 at Target, by the way), and regularly updated exclusive content. One problem - there was but a mere trickle of content made available to members over the course of the year. Dissatisfied fans grew even more furious when they were charged $77 for an automatic renewal in early 2010. The site went dark this past spring.

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After the first few flops, many Prince fans (myself included) took the line that hey, the Internet is new - we haven't figured out exactly how to harness it. At least Prince was experimenting, right? Bucking the system? Sticking it to old man Warner?

Fair enough, but nearly 15 years later, he still hasn't made it work for him while so many others (indie and major) have. And this most often comes at fans' expense.

Speaking of which, there is one way in which Prince has mastered the web: as a means to seek and sue his fans. This all began in 1997 when Prince's legal representation began sending cease and desist letters to maintainers of Prince fansites. Infractions included posting lyrics (in whole or in part) to compositions by Prince, posting Prince's likeness (which technically are property of the photographer/publishing agency in question), and using the symbol. Yes, the symbol that Prince insisted he be addressed by, the symbol that he sent out to the press so that they could avoid referring to him as Prince.
There may have been some legitimate takedowns too (posting of music, etc.), but the fact of the matter was that Prince was going after the very folks who still found him relevant.

Then there was his more recent tirade, going after eBay, Pirate Bay and YouTube. You may recall this headscratching story from a few years back:

The woman sued Prince and UMG in response - and I believe she won (though I can't seem to find any coverage of the verdict). Coming full circle, there was also a brouhaha when Prince's cover of Radiohead's "Creep" (performed at Coachella in 2008) began making the rounds on YouTube. Prince ordered the videos be taken down, despite the fact that he has no stake in the rights of the composition or its performance. Radiohead admirably prodded him to cease the takedowns. It was a groovy cover, though.

In short, it seems to me that Prince's dismissive stance toward the Internet is a product of his inability to use it effectively. Despite all his talk of "freeing the music" and "interactivity" in the 1990s, Prince 's constant blunders on the web have led him to shift blame from his own poor business and marketing decisions to the medium itself. I can't make much sense of it beyond that. While giving albums away free in newspapers is fine, that actually costs him more upfront than digital distribution. If it's piracy he's worried about, newsflash: not creating a digital version isn't going to prevent piracy. France's Courier International will be the first to hit stands with the disc this Thursday. Let's see how many torrents there are of 20Ten by evening.

Maybe it's all a ruse, like when Prince changed his name to the symbol in 1993 for "spiritual purposes," then admitted in 2004 that it was an attempt to get out of his contract with Warner Bros. (who by the way, Prince met with recently - ostensibly to distribute 20Ten in the US). Maybe this is pulling the proverbial wool over our eyes and he'll unleash an efficient and effective digital wonderland as 20Ten begins to hit shelves/doorsteps. Maybe. But I've learned full well by now that when it comes to Prince, you don't hold your breath.

Happy 52nd to Prince!

Friday Funk

Something different...

JB & MJ

I'm sorry. I just can't get off of the MJ kick. I will acquiesce that the coverage has been too much, and there's no end in sight. It's died down a bit, but LaToya's kicking up dirt with murder accusations, the autopsy report is done and should be released soon, and toxicology reports are still on the docket. But let's continue to table past and present controversies and reflect on the career. Tonight I've been thinking about James Brown and Michael Jackson.

James Brown was of course hugely influential on MJ. What did J5 play to audition for Berry Gordy all those years ago?



And what about that totally surreal moment when they (and Prince) shared the stage in 1983?



And I've always loved this moment from two decades later:




Money quote: "I can't dance in heels like you."

And on a more somber note:

Report: Purple Rain 25th Anniversary Party

As I've pounded into your skulls for the last month, on Friday my good friend Cunningham and I threw a 25th Anniversary Party for Purple Rain at the Brillobox in Pittsburgh. It was a rousing success. At the peak of the night, there were around 120 folks there, shaking what their mama gave 'em. Everybody seemed to have a great time. I certainly had a blast, though my feet are still recuperating from the damage a night of dancing in heels inflicted (now I understand why the ladies toss their shoes at wedding receptions).

Upon hearing of Michael Jackson's passing on Thursday, we pretty immediately decided we had to close the night with a Michael Jackson track. On the fly however, we ended up doing a 30 minute MJ set. We felt we must. We unfortunately didn't have all of MJs work with us, but we had some - and wireless access to iTunes. So we made do, and the crowd got down.

After that, we said our thank yous only to be met with cheers of "PURPLE RAIN! PURPLE RAIN!" So we closed the night with the purple one's anthem. People slow danced. It was off the hook.

Some photos:


DJs The Kid and The Character, your hosts for the evening.


Starting off with a screening of that cinematic masterpiece, Purple Rain.


The Character rocks the decks.




DANCIN'!


The Kid takes over.


Paisley Park Productions, bitches.


The Character loses his 'stache, but not his cool.



Slow dancin!

PLAYLIST:

Jesse Johnson-Fast Girls
The Time- 777-9311
Prince-Lady Cab Driver
Vanity 6-If a Girl Answers Don't Hang Up
Jill Jones-G Spot
Prince-I Wanna Be Your Lover
Prince - Dirty Mind
Prince - Sleep Around
Prince & the New Power Generation - Cream (NPG Mix)
Prince - Irresistible Bitch
Prince - Controversy
Prince - Dance 4 Me
Prince-Acknowledge Me
Prince-Housequake
Prince-17 Days
Dez Dickerson and the Modernaires-Modernaire
Morris Day-Oak Tree
Prince-When U Were Mine
Vanity 6- He's So Dull
Prince-America
Prince-Trust
Prince - Soft and Wet (disco mix)
Prince - Private Joy
Sheena Easton - Sugar Walls
Prince and the NPG -Sexy MF
Prince - Black Sweat
Prince - Batdance (excerpt)
Prince and the NPG - Gett Off (Houstyle)
Sheila E. - Holly Rock
Prince - Let's Work

(the next set isn't necessarily in order)
Prince-Head
Prince-DMSR
The Time-Jungle Love
Tevin Campbell-Round and Round
Prince-Kiss
Prince-Erotic City
Prince-U Got the Look
Vanity 6-Nasty Girl
Prince-1999
Prince-Pussy Control
The Time-The Bird
Sheila E-The Glamorous Life
The Bangles-Manic Monday
Prince-Partyup

The Jacksons-Walk Right Now
MJ-Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
The Jacksons-Shake Your Body Down to the Ground
MJ-Remember the Time
MJ-PYT

Prince-Purple Rain

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Thanks again to all who came out! And thanks to Bill for sharing his photos and being on call all night.

Friday Funk

25 years ago yesterday (6/25/84), Prince's Purple Rain album hit shelves, a month ahead of the movie. The album was preceded by the single "When Doves Cry," Prince's first number one. On the strength of that and the follow-up singles ("Let's Go Crazy," "Purple Rain," "I Would Die 4 U," "Take Me With U"), Purple Rain topped the charts for 24 weeks, selling 13 million copies in the US. (That number has since increased to 20 million.) In late July of 1984, Prince simultaneously held the number one film, album and single spots in the country, a feat previously accomplished only by the Beatles, I believe.

The album is undeniably a tour de force. Many hail it as Prince's greatest achievement. I don't know that I agree (my favorite album is Sign 'O' the Times. No, it's 1999. No wait, it's Dirty Mind). Regardless, the album's merit is undeniable, and it's impact on music and popular culture continues to resonate. Every track is a winner. From the raucous pop-rock of "Let's Go Crazy" to the nastiness of "Darling Nikki," the emotional frustration of "When Doves Cry" to the anthemic beauty of "Purple Rain" - the album remains a 20th century achievement in composition, production and execution.

Spin Magazine's Brian Raftery has a nice piece in the current issue, an intriguing (albeit brief) oral history of the Purple Rain project, including interviews from former members of the Revolution, The Time, Prince's management and others. In addition, there will be a free download of a Prince tribute album, Purplish Rain on Spin's site starting July 1. I haven't bought Spin in about 15 years, but put Prince on the cover and see if I don't buy it.

The 25th Anniversary of Purple Rain is significant. We have for years marked the anniversaries of Sgt. Pepper, Dark Side of the Moon, et. al. In terms of musicianship, skill and cultural impact, Prince is every bit as historically relevant as the Beatles, The Stones, Pink Floyd - take your pick from the rock canon. I'm pleased to see that the music press is beginning to recognize this.

As a reminder to those in the Pittsburgh area, a friend and I are throwing a celebration tonight in honor of the 25th anniversary of Purple Rain:



$1 off the cover if wearing Prince/Purple Rain-related costume.

And now onto the Friday Funk:

"don't buy the black album. I'm sorry."

Those of you who know me personally are likely aware by now that my hetero life partner and I are throwing a party for the 25th Anniversary of the Purple Rain album and film in Pittsburgh next month:



One of the good/bad things about this is that it's become an opportunity (read: excuse) to fill some holes in my Prince and Friends vinyl collection. I've been collecting Prince wax for about 10 years, though I've only become fervent about it in the last 5-7 years. It seems that I've gotten to the point where the items I don't have are those more difficult to come by/dangerously expensive pieces - The Gold Experience, Come, the so-called Love Symbol album - and the legendary Black Album.



I won't go into too much detail, as it would be redundant with what I am about to share. But for those of you that don't know, in short Warner Bros. was set to release The Black Album in 1988, and Prince pulled the plug at the very last minute. All copies were too be destroyed, but of course some WB staff snagged copies, and it went on to be the most heavily bootlegged album of all time. Pretty impressive, considering the history of albums like Smile and The Basement Tapes. Prince eventually let Warner Bros. release the album in 1994 as a contract filler, albeit in limited edition.
You can still find CD copies on Amazon etc. for fairly reasonable prices. I'm not sure how many they pressed, but they couldn't have been too limited, as I was still able to buy mine at the store (the now defunct Blockbuster Music) circa 1997-8.

Recently a friend mentioned that he saw a copy of The Black Album at Jerry's Fine Used Records in Pittsburgh. Sadly, by the time I made it there, someone else had nabbed it. So I've been poking around on eBay, and there are occasionally vinyl copies available. Some bootlegs from the late 1980s, some promos of the official 1994 release. Differentiating between them can be tricky, which brings me (finally!) to the purpose of this post.

In poking around for The Black Album on wax, I came across this very informative and detailed site: http://www.theblackalbum.info/. There's a great overview of the history, the various editions that were produced, etcetera. Very cool and interesting site for the Prince geeks out there. That is all, funky friends.

Weekend Recap

I don't usually delve much into my personal goings-on here, but Saturday was filled with music, and I'm still kind of reeling from it. So I shall share.

One of my best friends from college came to visit and we set off on a record shopping excursion. My plan was to use this as an excuse to check out a bunch of Baltimore records stores that I haven't gotten around to yet. In this sense, the mission was a failure, as after only two stops, we both had to stop for fear of our bank accounts going belly up.

But it was absolutely a successful trip.



Consider this a plug for a tiny record store tucked away on Aliceanna St. in Fell's Point. I'd passed !El Suprimo! many times on my long runs, each time thinking "I really need to check this place out some day." I wished I had gone sooner. !El Suprimo! is a small shop, possibly the size of an average bedroom. Despite this spatial limitation, the racks are PACKED with great finds, AT GREAT PRICES. I know that this sounds like a commercial, but it's true. Being a Pittsburgh native, I'm fairly spoiled by Jerry's Fine Used Records, where discs average between $3-$6. Because of this, I often find things that I want when I'm shopping other places, but am resistant to paying say, $10, $15, $20 for a single disc (unless of course it's something that warrants such cost).

ANYHOW, upon exiting !El Suprimo!, I said to my friend, "It's like a little Jerry's." By this I meant that I found a bunch of gems (roughly 12 discs) and paid about $30 for the whole lot. SCORE! Their funk/r&b section is particularly tasty. So check them out if you're ever in the area.

And, they're conveniently located near what I would say is Baltimore's landmark record store, The Sound Garden.



The Sound Garden is much more expansive in terms of space. The bulk of the store is devoted to CDs and DVDs, but within the last year, they've opened a vinyl room that is pretty dope. The bulk of the vinyl is new (and newISH) releases and reissues. So you might not have luck finding that original pressing of Zen Arcade, but you will find modestly priced hip hop, indie rock and electronica discs. I picked up two discs that have been on my list (2008's releases from Portishead and Love is All), which set me back about $35. Not bad.

But what has gotten me and my friends in trouble at Sound Garden in the past is their used CDs. Prices aren't exceptional here, but are about the standard you'll find in any used CD joint. However, they somehow manage to bring in pretty high quality discs, especially newer releases. It's well worth taking the time to sift through the used bins, for sure.

So that was my Record Store Day. Given the occasion, I justified my purchases as fighting the good fight for indie record stores. A good deed, if you will.

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We topped off the day with what I hear is an annual event, the Prince vs. Madonna vs. Michael Jackson dance night at the Ottobar, conveniently within stumbling distance of my apartment. Well worth the $6 cover, which I paid as "Joy in Repetition" played.

Overall, a killer night. The place got pretty packed, and pretty much everyone was dancing. How could you resist with the triumvirate of 1980s pop royalty? They played far too much 21st century Madonna, for some reason, but that's my only real complaint. There wasn't much in the way of deep cuts, but I think that's to be expected when your covering three huge artists. There were a few unexpected tracks though, such as Madonna's "Gambler" (from the Vision Quest soundtrack), Prince and Sheila E.'s "A Love Bizarre," and one of the hottest jams in my book, "Hot Thing." Beyond that, other highlights for me included "Pussy Control," "Erotic City" (duh) and "Remember the Time." The latter was amazing purely because I was on stage dancing next/with a dude that knew the song as well as I did, and I think we were both floored that each of us knew all of the ad-libbed lyrics in the break. It was "a moment."

But the kicker was the end of the night. The DJ announced this was the last track, when I heard Casey Kasem's voice. Of course, hearing Kasem always makes me think of
Negativland's take on "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". But no, Casey was here to tell me that the number one song of the week was Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson with "Say Say Say." I have to admit that I did NOT see (hear?) that coming, and it blew my mind into a million pieces. Needless to say, the place danced everything they had left into that song, and it's been in my head for the last 48 hours. I even dusted off the 12" a friend picked up for me a few years ago, which I have share for the ridiculous cover art:



So Saturday was kind of epic in my little music geek world. And for now, I'll leave you with the video. It always creeped me out a bit that Latoya was MJ's love interest here. But that's beside the point, I guess (???).

Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson - Say, say, say

Review: Prince - Lotusflow3r/MPLSound/Elixer

This is a little long. I tried to keep it short and sweet, but brevity is not my strong point and hell, there's a lot of music here.

After months of classic Prince hype, his new 3-disc set dropped at Target on Sunday. The albums have been available for download in the members section of his new website. Given his history with failed websites however, I remain unconvinced that it is worth $77, at least until there are tour dates. So like a good fanboy, I avoided the leaks and reviews, and hit up Target just as soon as I finished my pancakes Sunday morning.

First up in the set is Prince's new protege Bria Valente, and her album Elixer.



In the interest of time, I'll just say that Exlixer is better than I'd expected, mostly because my expectations were pretty low. Even as a Prince related project, I doubt it's something I would have bothered to pick up were it released separately. And let's be honest, that is true of most of the folks who pick up this package, I'm sure.

Now onto the main act.

I'm struggling with whether to treat Lotusflow3r and MPLSound as two distinct records or complementary parts of a whole. Neither is exactly what I would call a concept album, though they do have their own vibes. I'll comment on each individually, but also have some broader comments that apply to both.

Thankfully, Prince's latest offerings are better than 2007's trainwreck, Planet Earth. Yet neither of the new discs really shows Prince breaking any new artistic ground. And that's to be expected. I gave up on the idea of Prince putting out anything earth shattering basically around the time that I became a "serious" fan (1996-7). However, I haven't given up on the idea of Prince being able to put out well crafted and enjoyable records (see Musicology and 3121).

Listening to these two discs, I'm struck that these days, Prince is at his best when he's hearkening his classic material. That might mean breaking out the Linn LM-1 drum machine, slipping into his Camille voice, or simply getting a little naughty.
And I'm okay with that, to be honest, because he does it well. I can accept that most of my musical heroes that are still around have well surpassed their artistic peaks. Meet the new Prince, same as the old Prince.

Part of the reason that I think it works for Prince however, is that (pop) culturally, we're nostalgic for the 1980s. Having been such a pivotal figure of that decade (and of popular music more generally), Prince has been pretty strategic in playing into this - the Super Bowl, the Vegas shows, the Musicology tour, etc. I applaud him for it. Though he still can't get the Internet right and is ridiculously possessive of his intellectual property, he is otherwise aging gracefully, cementing his legacy in American popular music and culture. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that the songs that I love on both of these albums tend to tie themselves to classic Prince.

But let's get to the nitty gritty.



Sandwiched between two instrumentals that recall 2003's N.E.W.S. ("From the Lotus..." and "...Back to the Lotus"), the bulk of Lotusflow3r is guitar-laden, an aspect of Prince's abilities that hasn't been the focus of an album since 1996's Chaos and Disorder, which was more chaos and disaster. Lotusflow3r is a more successful attempt, I'm pleased to report.

A general complaint I have is the overuse of processed vocal effects. On some tracks (namely "Colonized Mind") it works, but on most it just seems unnecessary and distracting("Boom," "Crimson and Clover"). Some of the tracks are simply uninteresting ("4Ever" and "Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful," which sounds an awful lot like Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic's "Prettyman"). Others are range from good to just OK ("$," "Love Like Jazz," "Wall of Berlin").

Prince has always been into pulling out covers in his live shows. In recent years however, he's moved away from just doing classic funk and R&B tracks into other territory - The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, the B-52's, (and sadly) Jimmie Eat World. Lotusflow3r's take on Tommy James' "Crimson and Clover" fits well into this trend, also incorporating bits of Hendrix's cover of "Wild Thing" from the Monterrey Pop Festival. It's a fine cover, though I'm not sure it adds anything new to the song, aside from Prince's guitar work.

"Boom" is one of the more enjoyable tracks, with Prince alternating between a dreamy, laid-back verse and a choppy rock chorus. To be honest, it sounds like it was lifted from one of Lenny Kravitz's early albums. Of course, Prince was an influence on Lenny Kravitz. Chicken? Egg?

The two real standouts on Lotusflow3r are "Colonized Mind" and "Dreamer." Matt, a friend and loyal blog reader, noted that "Colonized Mind" recalls "The War," "which is a good thing." I agree. "Colonized Mind" can be viewed as a significantly more focused revision of "The War." Yet here, Prince isn't ranting about post-apocalyptic life, but offers a more directly political, coherent statement on race and ethnocentrism (from what I can gather, anyhow). Dark and lyrically rich, "Colonized Mind" has Prince preaching without being preachy, and showcasing his blues-rock mode of guitar playing.

When I saw Prince perform "Dreamer" on Leno last week (with Michael Bland and Sonny T backing him, no less), it was one of those jaw dropping Prince on TV moments. Similar to when Prince stole the show during the all star jam at the Hall of Fame ceremony in 2003, or that blazing performance of "Fury" on SNL in 2006. My concern was that, like the latter example, the studio version would sound thin and flat compared to the live version. Thankfully, Prince pulled it off, and "Dreamer" rocks pretty hard on disc as well. It's Prince in his most intense rock guitar mode. Aces!

HIGHLIGHTS: "Colonized Mind," "Dreamer"



The focus here on MPLSound is funk and dance numbers, though there are handful of un-noteworthy ballads as well ("U're Gonna See Me," "Here," "Better With Time"). Nay, the uptempo joints are where MPLSound shines.

"(There'll Never B) Another Like Me" is again marred with overused vocal effects, though it's a catchy dance number reminiscent of songs from the unreleased High album, and in fact has a rhythmic base very similar to that project's title track.

For all of his JW preaching, Prince still throws out the occasional innuendo, such as the hook of "Chocolate Box" - "I got a box o' chocolates that'll rock the socks off any girl that wanna come my way." Like a few other tracks on this disc ("Dance 4 Me," "Valentina"), it has a minor key synth bass groove that sounds club ready, though "Chocolate Box" boasts a much more infectuous hook. And Q-Tip! Prince's forays into hip hop historically produce questionable results (see Tony M.). Even when a stellar MC like Chuck D. comes to play ("Undisputed" from 1999's Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic), it often sounds forced. Q-Tip was a perfect choice for guesting on this particular song, and I'm reminded that this isn't even the first time they've worked together (Tip guested on a remix of "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" in 1999).

"Dance 4 Me" brings back the Camille voice, a much more palatable vocal effect that became a Prince trope in the late 1980s (though also featured on "Erotic City.") Although in recent years it sometimes seems that Prince utilizes this effect for the hell of it, it works on "Dance 4 Me." In fact, "Dance 4 Me" wouldn't sound all that out of place on the original, aborted Camille album, alongside "Housequake" and "Rockhard in a Funky Place."

Like Lotusflow3r, my big pick for MPLSound is a track we saw on Leno last week.
"Ol' Skool Company" is a 7.5 minute mid tempo funk piece that can be read as an extension of "Musicology" in that it expresses a yearning for old school funk. It sounds like a more rounded out version of Prince's recontextualization of "When Will We Be Paid?" by the Staples Singers, and also resurrects that song's critique of the music industry, albeit in less oppressive terms. The song also includes a "holy shit" moment for me, when Prince hits on a number of my soft spots:

"Radio used to be local, untouched by the man
Songs we used to sing used to mean something
Now they just bland, Like the drummer
Where's the real drummer? Where's the real drummer?
Michael B., Mint Condition, Morris Day, Jellybean wishin', Sheila E., brother John, and sometimes me, until the dawn
If the White House is black, we gotta take the radio back
Power to the people, power to the people"

Solid!

HIGHLIGHTS: "Chocolate Box," "Dance 4 Me," "Ol' Skool Company"

The Verdict:
Overall, I'm pleased. It's not breaking much new ground, it isn't terribly innovative, but Prince successfully references his peak material while with some success, updating it for the present day. I admit that I was very concerned after Planet Earth that Prince was just done. These albums show otherwise, despite the fact that they really aren't anything Prince hasn't done before. And while I generally don't buy into the arguments surrounding The White Album, Exile on Main Street etc. that they should have been one disc, my hunch is that one could make an incredibly solid disc from Lotusflow3r and MPLSound. Which I will probably do shortly.

For good measure....

Last night's performance. Get 'em while they're hot - I'm sure these vids will be taken down before you can say "overzealous copyright bozos."

Friday Funk

Well funkateers, Prince's new set drops on Sunday (sunday?!) exclusively at Target. Clearly, this will be my first order of business sunday morning. As is the case with anything Prince puts out nowadays, my expectations aren't all that high, but I will say that I like what I've heard thusfar. I'm not persuaded to pay $77 for his new Internet wonderland, lotusflow3r.com. Of course, announce tour dates and ticket presales, and I'll probably recant that statement.

If you weren't aware, the little guy has been on Leno the past two nights, and will be again tonight. I will say that last night's performance of "Dreamer" WAILED. I love it when Prince rocks out on the guitar. Here's Wednesday night's performance, which gives us a taste of the funk-laden disc of the three CD set.



Have a funky weekend, and I'll see you at Target sunday AM.