Latest RIBS Mix: “Let’s Get Started”
OK, did some cookin’ in the kitchen and you get to sample the result. The latest RIBS mix (and MP3 file), as promised yesterday, has been posted.
The Soundtrack of Your Life…
Here’s a theme/project I’ve been thinking about for a couple of weeks now and I thought I would throw it out here for consideration…
“If you had to record the SOUNDTRACK OF YOUR LIFE, what would it sound like?”
This was one of those thoughts that popped into my head while sitting in traffic one Friday afternoon. Ever since then it keeps coming back to me every now and then. It’s a pretty intriguing question, but also a very expansive concept, so I decided to break it down into 3 distinct time periods and go from there:
1) High School Years
2) College Years
3) “Party Time” [post-college, pre-marriage ;-> ]
Here’s a quick list, in no paticular order, that I compiled for my “High School Years” soundtrack.
James Brown – Payback
Ohio Players – Pain, Skin Tight, Fire
Parliament - Chocolate City, P-Funk, Mothership Connection
Mandrill - Ape Is High, Git It All, Hang Loose, Fencewalk
WAR - Slippin’ Into Darkness, All Day Music
Kool & The Gang – Let The Music Take Your Mind, Funky Stuff, Hollywood Swinging, Jungle Boogie
Labelle – Lady Marmalade, Isn’t It a Shame
Rufus w/Chaka Khan – Once You Get Started, Rufusized
Marvin Gaye – What’s Goin’ On, Distant Lover, Got To Give It Up, Let’s Get It On, Sexual Healing
The O’Jays – Back Stabbers, For the Love of Money
The Staple Singers – Respect Yourself, I’ll Take You There
Blue Magic – Sideshow, Stop To Start, What’s Come Over Me, Look Me Up, Welcome to the Club
The Main Ingredient – Everybody Plays the Fool, Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely
The Spinners – Mighty Love, Then Came You, Love Don’t Love Nobody
Herbie Hancock – Chameleon
Gil Scott-Heron – The Bottle
MFSB - Love Is The Message
Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes – Bad Luck, Don’t Leave Me This Way, I Miss You
Earth, Wind & Fire – Evil, Keep Your Head To The Sky, Mighty Mighty, Devotion, Reasons
The Nite Liters/New Birth – Afro Strut, K-Jee, Got To Get A Knutt, I Can Understand It, It’s Been A Long Time
The Isley Brothers – That Lady, Summer Breeze, Fight the Power
Black Ivory – You and I
The Temprees – Dedicated To The One I Love
The Originals – Baby I’m For Real
Of course, there’s a lot more to be added to the list, and these are just songs from the high school years! This is a theme I will be returning to every so often until I can decide on a final set of selections for the playlist.
But I’m curious… What would *your* soundtrack sound like?
New RIBS Mix… Available Tomorrow
Note to Self: never release a new music mix on a Wednesday, that day belongs to EJ and his Old School Wednesday mix.
So go check out EJ’s latest, The Sound of Music. And then stop by my MP3blog site, Rhythms In Black Satin, tomorrow for my latest effort that I call “Let’s Get Started”.
New Mix on RIBS: “You Know How To Love Me”
A new mix, “You Know How To Love Me”, has been posted over on the mp3blog site, Rhythms In Black Satin. You can listen to the radio.blog version or download the .mp3 file.
Enjoy!
SoulTrackin’ 08-22-06…
Man, real life work and the chase of the almighty $$$ seems to keep getting in the way of of me posting the weekly SoulTrackin’ on Sunday/Monday like I planned. Then again, without the $$$ there wouldn’t be any website to update (got a point there, eh?). Anyway, a couple of quick hits on the happenings right now before going back to the chase, and a more extensive review of SoulSite happenings later tonight.
Found a new (at least new to me) SoulSite the other week that I’ve been following lately. It’s called SoulYankee (http://soulyankee.wordpress.com). Billed as “A blues and soul HQ North of the Mason-Dixon”, you’ll find interesting and entertaining information here. I like it.
In the previous SoulTrackin’ I mentioned the classicsoulmusic70sstyle forum I found on Yahoo! Groups. I’ve been enjoying following the message postings on this very active site. My favorite feature so far is the weekly “Old School Music Quiz” that is posted every Sunday night (around 10:30pm – 11:00pm). This consists of 10 trivia questions that the members spend the next week figuring out and posting the answers to (I’ve always been a sucker for music trivia). Here’s an example of one of the questions from this week’s quiz:
#7. On the 1977 Marvin Gaye album “Live At The London Palladium” who is credited playing the milk bottle and spoon?
Highly recommended.
Jason “The Stepfather of Soul” Stone has posted his latest podcast, Episode #10, (”Get Down”). This one is a funky, dance oriented mix of southern soul. Go to the Get On Down With The Stepfather of Soul homepage and scroll down to the “The Podcasts – RSS – Now available on iTunes!” section in the right hand column to download.
OK, back to chasing the almighty $$$. More SoulTrackin’ later…OBTW… I’ve got a couple of new mixes myself that are almost ready to go. They’ll be posted on my sister site/MP3blog, Rhythms In Black Satin (RIBS) in the next day or two. Stay tuned!
Black Weblog Awards… Finalists
The finalists for the Black Weblog Awards have been announced and posted. Here’s the form where you can cast your vote!
Soul Music Summit… What Happened?
Anyone know what happened at the Soul Music Summit in the ATL this past weekend? I’ve been searching the ‘Net for the past few days and I haven’t been able to find a single piece of info on how it went. Even their website has not been updated with any info {sigh}.
I hope it all was a smashing success (I’m confident that it was). Hopefully, the next time around, the planners will be able to have bloggers on staff to provide “real-time” updates of the event that can posted online for those of us who are not able to attend.
SoulTrackin’ 08-13-06…
Whoa! Missed posting a “SoulTrackin’” last week. That’s what happens when you are fighting a mad (and mean *mad*!) toothache/earache. The two worst pains in the world IMHO (although the wife would probably rate them second and third, if you know what I mean {smile}).
Anyway, as the saying goes, …”if you miss a little, you miss a lot”, and there was a quite a bit bit of activity these past couple of weeks on the “SoulSites”. I know I can’t possibly get to it all, but let’s recap as much as we can…
Right now, as I write this, I’m groovin’ to the latest mix from GrantLove over on SOULCrates. He’s put together a beautiful, mellow mix that he calls, “Funky Ballads featuring Con Funk Shun”. Perfect for chilling out on a Summer afternoon (or evening for that matter). Do yourself a favor and go check it out. (GrantLove, if you are reading this… please, please, please post the MP3 file of this mix! I want it for my collection.)
From AK at Soul Shower comes word of a brand new SoulSite in the blogosphere, Got The Fever. A few weeks ago one of AK’s readers, Kevin, submitted a guest post that was publshed on Soul Shower and the response he received was so positive that he decided to start his own blog. Way to go Kevin, and “Welcome, home!”. There is no such thing as “too much” when it comes to covering soul, funk and R&B. We will be checking you out regularly from now on.
Speaking of Soul Shower, the move (to Indiana) has been completed and AK is getting settled in his new residence. As one who has moved more times than I care to remember, I know this is a welcome relief. And to celebrate we get the presents, as Soul Shower highlights some “soulful music from newer artists” (Lynden David Hall, Steve Spacek, Alice Russell and The Dansettes); gives us a gem from a “classic” group, The Voices of East Harlem; and gives props to one of my all-time favorite groups, Graham Central Station, with the cut “Is It Love”.
The Soul Music Summit was held down in Atlanta this weekend (August 11th and 12th). I have been trying to find out what happened at the conference but, alas, cannot find any info about it online. {sigh} More thoughts about this in a future post.
The Soul 2 Soul podcast at Honey Soul on August 10 featured DJ Ernie G. Go check out Honey’s great site for the playlist and file download (which is also available via iTunes). While you’re there you’ll also find info on Mos Def’s upcoming new album, TRU3 MAGIC and a link to check out Talib Kweli’s new video.
During my search for SoulSites online, I found what looks like a really good and active forum on Yahoo! Groups called, “Classic Soul Music: 70’s Style”. Founded in March of 2000 and with a current membership of 2049, they’re averaging over 600 messages a month in 2006. Here’s the forum description:
Welcome to the club of Classic Soul. If you love classic soul music, you have come to the right place! We talk about Chaka Khan, the Whispers, Jackson 5, Pointer Sisters, Temptations, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Parliament, Teena Marie, Earth, Wind and Fire, O’Jays, Delfonics, Blue Magic, Manhattans, Maze, LTD, Marvin Gaye and more!
More from GrantLove: on his “other” site, Raps Roots, he gives us a tasteful mix of “some classic and not so classic tracks from the past”.
Norvell serves up shows number 39 and 40 over on The Jazz Suite. If you like Jazz, you are gonna love this. If you don’t like Jazz, you are gonna love this (it’s that good!)
You know, I’m not one to admit defeat (at least that’s the way I’m going to write it in *my* autobiography) but, man I just can’t keep up with Jason Stone over at Get On Down With The Stepfather Of Soul! In the past two weeks he’s got 14 message postings. Soul Blues, Soul Gospel, a look back at the 1972 Wattstax Festival/Concert and the resulting album released the following year, more on Bettye LaVette… and that’s just for starters. OK, my fingers are tired already! Just go visit the site and immerse yourself in all of the fine, musical information provided by the “Stepfather”. OBTW, did I mention his podcasts? Yeah, he’s got those too!
Darcy on FEEL IT treats us to some background info on L J Reynolds (long time member of The Dramatics) and a cut, “Let One Hurt Do” from early in his career with the group Chocolate Syrup.
The Captain’s Crate has an enjoyable post about The Price Of Soul.
Last (for now) but certainly not least, you *did* check out EJ’s latest Old School Wednesday by now, didn’t you? He’s got new batteries in his boom box and is kickin’ a monster Rap/Hip-Hop mix that’s got everybody talking!
Well… there’s still more to catch up on, but I’ll have to continue this edition of SoulTrackin’ in the next post.
The Crates – Episode 5
Filed under: Podcasts, Soul/R&B, SoulSites, SoulTrackin'
Let’s check out Esther Phillips, Harvey Mandel, the great George Benson, Johnny Smith, Stacey Lattisaw and more…
The Background Flow – Episode 3
Filed under: Podcasts, Soul/R&B, SoulSites, SoulTrackin'
This Episode features Madlib, Obsidian Blue, Joey Chavez, Nicolay, Big La vs. Todd (that’s me!!!), and well as others…
Radio.Blog Playlist Sort Order…
I just love the Radio.Blog application. It makes it so easy to add music to your site for visitors to listen to. BUT… there was one annoying thing about the default settings that drove me crazy for a while until I found the solution: the default sort order of the playlist.
As it turns out, by default, Radio.Blog sorts your playlist in the order of the most recently uploaded song first. In many cases, if you are like me, you want your playlist songs in a particular order. The information below (which can be found in the Radio.blog.club message board at:
http://forums.radioblogclub.com/viewtopic.php?t=962&highlight=sort+playlist)
explains how to sort your playlist in the order of your choosing:
The key to sorting your playlist lies in the “playlist.php” file, which is in your “sounds” directory (the same one you upload your song files to). We need to edit that file, so open it up in a text editor like NotePad on Windows or TextEdit or SubEthaEdit on the Mac. (We do not want to use a word processor like Word or WordPerfect; they do too much for what we need.) Specifically, we’re looking for the line that says:
Code:
krsort($tracks);This line sorts your playlist so that the most recently uploaded song is at the top. This is on line 26 of radio.blog 2.1’s “playlist.php” file. If you’ve modified your “playlist.php” (perhaps you installed rbDJ) or you’re using a different version, it may be on another line.
To sort your playlist alphabetically, change that line to:
Code:
asort($tracks);To reverse your playlist so that the oldest song is at the top and the newest song is at the bottom, change it to:
Code:
ksort($tracks);To randomize your playlist so that the playlist is in a different order each time radio.blog is opened, change it to:
Code:
shuffle($tracks);If you want to set a custom order for your playlist, it’ll be a bit of work, but it’s possible. Start by setting up your playlist to sort alphabetically as described above. Now, before you upload your songs, rename them to put a number in front of them in the order you want them to play. For example:
1 My First Song.rbs
2 A Second Song.rbs
3 It’s The Third Song.rbsWhen your playlist is sorted “alphabetically,” it will be sorted by that number at the beginning of the name, in that order.
Note that if you have more than nine songs, things might get a bit funky… Due to the ways computers handle strings of text such as filenames, your playlist will be sorted with “10 Song Ten.rbs” before “2 Song Two.rbs”. To fix this, just “pad” the one-digit numbers by adding a zero before them:
01 My First Song.rbs
02 A Second Song.rbs
…
10 The Tenth Song.rbs
11 Song Number Eleven.rbsAlternately, you can use letters (A to Z) instead of numbers if you have less than twenty-six songs. Just remember to consistently use either capital or lower-case letters, and put a space after the letter.
Once you’ve made the changes, just re-upload your changed “playlist.php” into your “sounds” directory and test it.
Hope this helps!
All That Jazz: In Celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month
I don’t talk about my love for jazz enough on this blog so I figure jazz appreciation month is the perfect time to do so. I have to admit that my knowledge is lacking. Mama Vivrant Thang was never really into jazz so it wasn’t played much around the house. She did love Kenny G though and [...]
The “Boys” Are Back In Town…
Remember the Four Brothers Beats blog? Well, the boys are back! BUT... not quite in the way you may have been expecting. It's, how shall we say, "the same, but different!"
Vendors, Authors and Artists– Sell Your Items in This Year’s Capital Hip Hop Soul Fest
Last year's Capital Hip Hop Soul Fest was a musical celebration while vendors sold their products to eager to buyers. Book authors, including Felicia Pride-- writer of The Message and activist author Devin Walker were among some of the top authors who sold their books. The 2009 Capital Hip Hop Soul Fest will be held this year on Sat., July 25 in Marvin Gaye Park in Washington DC. While the musical acts are still being selected, vendors are able to reserve their tables now to receive our Early Bird Discount. For more info, email us at CapitalHipHopSoulFest@gmail.com
Fusion: Where Music, Technology, and Artist Creativity Intersect
Hello readers and listeners. I trust all is well today. This post is a follow-up to the previous post about the subject of an upcoming podcast I hope to resurrect entitled Fusion. The concept of this podcast came to me via an off the cuff discussion I had a few years ago with a fellow podcaster/recording artist/graphic designer. Both of us, being musicians in our own right, began discussing our backgrounds and influences in making music, which invariably talking about how technology (past and present) played a role taking the music from inner to outer. I began to see the different paths ...
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Cupid’s Hunt: 2009
Translator
By N2H