In it’s original release, the now-classic (and still bumping as f**k) mixtape Couche Tard pulled together elements from all over the place — an untouchable generational and cultural crossbreed mixing tracks from Spank Rock with comedy drops, jazz, reggae, disco, funk, breakdance and even doo-wop, the crew of Xxxchange, Devlin and Darko completely outdid themselves.

According to Xxxchange, “Couche Tard is the name of a convenience store in the french part of Canada. It translates roughly to “we go to bed late” or “we stay up late”. Luckily, the sessions made it to Soundcloud (in advance of the crew’s soon-to-come CD/DVD project Win Win) where you can drop them at your party, get together, powerpuff circle, shindig, or you know … just so you can put on something ill to listen to. Or, if you want the full CD/DVD experience, you can still purchase the deluxe edition from Underground Hip-Hop here.

“Couche Tard” Mix CD by Xxxchange, Devlin and Darko

[ The Official Fully Fitted Blog ]

Dexter Wansel – You Can Be What You Wanna Be

[Buy Life on Mars/What the Worlds Coming to from Amazon]

Starting out as jazz flutist Herbie Mann’s backing band, Googie & Tom’s first band together Air (not to be confused with the French duo of the same name) was an unrelentingly funky prog-jazz effort fueled by the sweet, soul-laden tones of Googie’s voice. Their first and only self-titled album was released on Mann’s Atlantic Records label imprint, Embryo, in 1970. I was told by my friend Daniel tonight (and I hope someone can verify) that the album was written entirely by Googie herself — although THAT REAL SCHITT has a story which tests Daniel’s somewhat, in which the story of how “Sister Bessie” came to exist and what it was written about –

Well, I finally found the deal, as explained by the song’s writer Moogy Klingman: “Someone told me a true story about a nun, who took LSD after falling in love with a hippie, and then made love to him, deciding she would leave the church and the convent. Apparently, the hippie had different ideas and left town quickly. This song is about what he might say to her about his hasty exit, if he said anything at all.” Okay… safe to say I wouldn’t have ever guessed that one. NEXT LEVEL.

Shortly after this album was released, Googie & Tom would leave Air to become born-again Christian.

In the years that followed, Googie would also end up provide backing vocals for acts that Tom was performing with, including Hermeto Pascoal, Flora Purim, Herbie Mann, David Matthews, John Blair, Bette Midler, Ray Barretto, Lenny White and Jeremy Steig to name but a few. In 1980, she & Tom made an album called Shine The Light of Love for Columbia Records, a Christian music album that was, in many ways, light years ahead of their contemporaries. However, mediocre production quality and lack of promotion from the label caused the record to disappear.

Eventually, Tom began studying jazz at UCLA and returned to Asheville, NC. Sadly, Googie Coppola passed away in 2008. Their daughter, who performs under the name EvaEva, lives in Brooklyn and is a performer in her own right.

I want to apologize if some of this info is slightly inaccurate — I really can’t find much information about them on the web, and what I could find was from other music blogs who have attempted (as I have) to cobble together the story of how this Air record never really took flight & came to find it’s place in music history as simply an overlooked classic for crate diggers to drool over. The music on the self-titled Air album is so immediate and so incredible, you’ll probably (if it’s your sort of thing) find it hard to imagine how it stays footnoted. If you don’t feel like looking around for a copy on vinyl, just go cop the CD from Dusty Groove. Thank me later.

[LISTEN] Air – Man Is Free
Air – Man Is Free

[LISTEN] Air -Sister Bessie
Air -Sister Bessie

But from what everyone tells me, the only thing I’m really missing out on is their live show. Lucky for me (and all of Memphis) that they will be appearing at Minglewood Hall on 26 August 2010. Considering that Pretty Lights just sold out Red Rocks Ampitheatre, it’s realistic to expect a huge turnout for their other tour stops.

Pretty Lights (aka Derek Vincent Smith) is a studied musical collage artist, coordinating found samples with bits and pieces from everywhere, meshing those with original beats and added parts to create electronic dance music that crosses sub-genres of the artform. One track is downtempo, another is funky, another meshes elements of hip-hop. In his live show, he incorporates live instrumentation with his MPC noodlings to elevate things to an entirely other level. To that end, drummer Adam Deitch, an accomplished and well-respected session drummer, has just been added to the lineup of Pretty Lights, beginning with this weekend’s Wonderlust Festival in California.

Pretty Lights has just dropped their second free EP of the year, Spilling Over Every Side, made freely available from their website. All told, three free EP’s will be delivered to fans this year, a generous gift if ever one could be made. The free download is well-worth the price of an email address, as I hope you can tell from this track, “Hot Like Dimes”. Download the album direct from Pretty Lights website by clicking here.

Pretty Lights – Hot Like Dimes

Upcoming Pretty Lights Tour Dates

07/3 SQUAW VALLEY, CALIFORNIA Wanderlust Festival
08/07 MORRISON, COLORADO Red Rocks Amphitheatre
08/14 SAN FRANCISCO, CA Outside Lands
08/14 SAN FRANCISCO, CA The Independent (night show)
08/25 KNOXVILLE, TN The Valarium
08/26 MEMPHIS, TN Minglewood Hall
08/28 NEW ORLEANS, LA CAC Warehouse
09/03 CHICAGO, IL North Coast Music Festival
09/04 NEW YORK, NY Electric Zoo Festival
09/05 AUSTIN, TX Nocturnal Festival
09/25 SANTA BARBARA, CA West Beach Festival

Azymuth – Maracanã (us 12”mix) by loudersoft

Read more about the Funk Factory album here, but you won’t find any for sale presently at it’s current cost of $49.99. The album appears to be well and long out of print.

Funk Factory – Rien Ne Va Plus

Express Yourself – WATTS vs NWA (Hawk reboot) by Hawk Edits

Stones Throw keeps the DâM-FunK ball rolling with a brand new 12″ maxi-single due this fall featuring performances from several funk & hip-hop notables. How about primo vocalist Steve Arrington (from the band SLAVE?)(“Just A Touch of Love”?)(parentheses around everything?)? How about Compton’s one and only MC Eiht? Yeah, you know what it is. This track come from that 12″ maxi-single. I know you gonna dig this.

Dam-Funk: Hood Pass Intact feat. MC Eiht

[FURTHER INFORMATION/HT:Stones Throw Blog]

Disco track #2 for this July 4th weekend is damn near the most perfect disco song ever recorded & it’s still both funky and relevant. It went to #1 on the Dance chart in 1979 for a week & is the band’s only hit. The full name of the band is actually Love De-Luxe with Hawkshaw’s Discophonia, but I mean… who can remember all of that? There’s actually a 16-minute version, and if you want it let me know. This may be half that long, but no less of a stone groove & as much of a dance floor classic as anything I’ll ever post.

Love De-Luxe with Hawkshaw’s Discophonia – Here Comes That Sound Again [115 BPM] (Right Click -> Save As)

We’re trying to fix up, look sharp. Nahh mean?

Mark Ronson & The Business INTL – Bang Bang Bang feat. Q-Tip & MNDR by loudersoft

(Editor’s note: this originally appeared on Loudersoft on 4 March 2009. I’ve updated the post to include MP3′s of the tracks so that, hopefully, it will pull people from MP3 search engines to discover Kutiman and his site. It’s definitely my favorite website of 2009 and, without a doubt, one of my favorite experiences of the past decade. If you’re visiting here from The Hype Machine, please be sure to go back and ‘love’ the songs you love by clicking here. Thanks.)

The full story on Thru-You, video and MP3′s after the jump.

Perennial Loudersoft favorite (and Israeli soul brother extraordinaire) Kutiman has changed the game up inna massive style with http://thru-you.com — wherein he takes pieces of videos from YouTube and remixes them.

But Kutiman doesn’t just remix them, you see — he completely re-arranges them to make entirely new songs, a style often paralleled by artists like DJ Shadow, Girl Talk and producers, including the late great J. Dilla. Unlike the mediocre Dilla copy-catters and the weekend Girl Talk wanna-be’s, Kutiman’s ingenious idea to use freely available YouTube footage of people playing their own instruments and patching them together into the framework you are hearing is solidly game-changing. Thru-You explores the limitless possibilities presented by YouTube for creative people who dream of remixing the world. Others may have attempted something like this, but I certainly haven’t seen it done with such an unnerving depth.

Get there and check this out. It’s seriously amazing. http://thru-you.com

Kutiman – The Mother of All Funk Chords
Kutiman – This is What it Became
Kutiman – I’m New
Kutiman – Babylon Band
Kutiman – Someday
Kutiman – Wait for Me
Kutiman – Just a Lady
Kutiman – About [thru-you]

[MySpace : Thru-You : YouTube Channel]

Purchase Kutiman’s self-titled first album on iTunes here:

Through time and circumstance, a lot of what record fans consider to be “classic” falls by the wayside. Such is the fate of the critically-acclaimed and oft-sampled solo album by soul master, funk pioneer and session mastermind Don Blackman. This 1982 record is still available as an import for a whopping $39.99 in the U.S. However, it’s worth every cent of that and more. Flawless keyboard arrangements and vocals, tight funky-basslines, synth and Moog progressions that are unlike anything you’re likely to hear anywhere else, the album transcends its out-of-print status on repeated listenings.

Funk fans, take note of this one.

Don Blackman – Heart’s Desire

Don Blackman