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Just in time for my database recovery, here’s a track from the new Lord T & Eloise album Chairmen of the Bored.
Featuring Gangsta Boo on lead vocals, get ready to take a trip with “Hollywood Stars” & turn up the bass. Bangity bang bangity bang bang, y’all! It’s going to be a minute before you can get your hands on a copy, so enjoy the jam & keep your eyes peeled for further updates.
In the interest of full disclosure, let me say it right up front: yeah, I’m friends with the men of Lord T & Eloise and I even make a guest appearance on their new album, Chairmen of the Bored. However, that being said, if you read this website with any frequency, you know I make a big deal about being very particular about what I write about. I have plenty of friends and acquaintances out there about whom I have never written a single word because of my strong conviction to only write about music that really blows my mind or trends in music that I see as vital to the progression of things. Furthermore, my friends (at least my real friends) will tell you that I’m more critical of their work than anyone. Why? Simple: because if I actually care about you as a person and I know that you value my opinion, what good does it do you for me to want to sit around and bullshit you?
If you’re the kind of person who comes to me for my opinion only because you want to hear someone else tell you how great you are, I don’t want to be bothered with talking to you or talking about you. Ever. The Lord T & Eloise situation is no different for me, and these gentlemen know it all too well. Now if you want to know the story, read it after the jump.
This bit of pleasant and surprising news just reached the desk of Loudersoft, a couple of days late (the kiss of death in the blogosphere of course) but still fresh! We’re thrilled to hear and announce that, according to quintronandmisspussycat.com, Quintron’s new album will be released by Memphis’s own Goner Records. Here’s the “official info”:
So….the secret is out and not secret any more. Major big time record label GONER RECORDS of Memphis TN, will put out the new Quintron record. We sincerely apologize to Colombia, Matador, Vice, and Time Warner for turning you down but the deal that GONER RECORDS offered us was just too good to pass up. Maybe next time. The title and the cover and all the music is still a big secret….unless you live in New Orleans cuz I like to DJ my own shit….a lot. The cover has a snake on it…oops. shut up, no YOU shut up! There is a song about Freedom. Shut UP!! release date Oct. something or other, 2008. World tour to follow unless. Thank you Goner…”friend-ghetto” 4 life.
We’re looking forward to see where this exciting development leads us.
In the last 40 years, Reverend Al Green has gone through a number of spiritual changes and incarnations. His voice is instantly recognizable, a hallmark that has come to represent what people associate with classic R&B and soul music. I couldn’t give you a number, but I’d be willing to bet that a whole lot of you babies out there were conceived to the strain of love songs like “Let’s Stay Together”, “Still In Love With You, “Call Me”, “Take Me To The River” and so many more. The house that Al Green and Willie “Pops” Mitchell built at Royal Studios in Memphis, the Hi Records sound if you will, has remained an untouched legacy that seemed to speak of an era gone by.
Come to find out that Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson and James Poyser had “a run at Al Green” (to use ?uest’s own words) over the last two years at Electric Ladyland in NYC. Fans of soul music might be tempted to overlook a new recording by Al Green because, well, they’re just convinced that his best years are behind him as a performer. With the arrival of Lay It Down next week on Blue Note, the death knoll of the Hi Records sound is silenced entirely and, with it, a new generation has the opportunity to experience the genius that is Reverend Al Green.
The meticulous craftsmanship with which this album was designed, from the way in which it was engineered, recorded and mastered to the choice of musicians, leaves the listener wondering, “Did they make this record in 1973 and keep it in the vault for 35 years?” The roots rhythm and blues mixed with touches of gospel are an extension of Willie Mitchell and Al Green’s dream rather than a carbon copy of his past works. James and ?uest got it all in there: Al Green’s rich multi-dimensional vocals are all here, complete with pitch-perfect falsettos.
It’s a welcome resurrection of Al Green and Willie Mitchell’s Hi Records sound, full of lush backing vocal arrangements, congas mixed with tiny drums, the pure soul dynamite of the Dap Tone Horns, Poyser turning it out on the Hammond B-3 and the unparalleled guitar work of the late Chalmers “Spanky” Alford. The 12 songs on Lay It Down don’t come across as a cheap attempt at imitating a sound; it has the feel of an old friend who you’re glad to see again, slipping on your favorite pair of shoes, enjoying a big plate of your favorite fried chicken and biscuits or, maybe, like falling in love for the first time. There is no caricature or sad figurine of an aging star in this album. It is as if the 24-year-old Al Green has come back to tell us, “I haven’t gone anywhere, baby. I’m still here.”
In an effort, I suppose, to bring the “process” up to date, guest appearances from wonderful vocalists like Anthony Hamilton, John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae are smattered throughout the record. On one of the songs we’re previewing, “Take Your Time”, Corinne’s sexy alto duet adds a respectable, if occasionally pitchy, flavor to the great Reverend’s unwavering falsetto. However, these guest appearances serve as more of a distraction rather than an addition. While not unpleasant, the guest appearances actually magnify the series of legendary performances on this record which belong to Rev. Green himself.
And no star shines brighter than Reverend Al Green himself, after all. His inspired songwriting and performances on this album offer inarguable proof that through his incarnations and changes, Al Green has never lost connection to the very style that he originated. Lay It Down is well poised to be my number one album of 2008, a shining example that the house Hi Records built lives on. Run, don’t walk, to get your hands on this.
Al Green - Just For Me
Al Green - Take Your Time (Feat. Corinne Bailey Rae)
You can purchase Al Green’s Lay It Down by clicking here.
Well, festival day one is less than 24 hours away. I’m barely awake right now, having been working on a documentary for the National Civil Rights Museum this weekend, and I’ve started to go through my inbox of Folk Alliance information. If you’re a fan of folk music, names like Belle & Sebastian, Peter, Bjorn and John, Loney, Dear, Joanna Newsom, or Devendra Banhart, you couldn’t help but be familiar with the artists whose influences are whispered into theirs. Dotted in amongst those showcasing are a younger generation of up and coming performers whose advance word-of-mouth has me excited — folks like Raina Rose, Anthony da Costa and Colin Spring are names that weren’t immediately familiar to me, but in their company are folks such as legendary songwriter and storyteller James Lee Stanley, Belfast poet and songwriter Andy White and Britain’s legendary folk-pop troubadours Chad and Jeremy, whose music serves as an inspiration and a blueprint for the modern folk-pop experience.
The window of opportunity for master musicians and legends of the craft to come together with a forward-moving, fast-coming younger generation of folk artists closes a little bit more each year. I hope you’ll be able to come and enjoy some of the wonderful performances, spend one-on-one time with these folks and enjoy the great music.
The 2008 Folk Alliance Conference will be taking place here in Memphis from February 20th thru the 24th, and I hope you’re planning on attending. Last year’s attendees are making a splash everywhere, from movie soundtracks (attendees Alvin Youngblood Hart and Carolina Chocolate Drops are featured in the soundtrack to the movie The Great Debaters) to concert venues and festivals around the world. Of all the music conferences happening in the U.S. today, none is more vibrant, exciting, eclectic, or more reflective of the wide reaches of creative power than the Folk Alliance conference.
This month, Loudersoft will be highlighting songs by artists who will be attending the festival. Stay Tuned.
Memphis, get ready to get up for the get down at the Hi-Tone on Saturday night with Buck Wilders, The Hook Up, Chase One (Memphix) and Redeye Jedi (Memphix). When these shindigs happen, the parking lot is always full, the place is always packed, the music is always funky, and the vibe is always good. See You There!
We have a thing for Cat Power around here and nothing makes us happier than congratulating Chan Marshall on winning the 2007 Shortlist Prize for Music. Beating out some tough competition, there should be little question that The Greatest (Matador, 2006) is an appropriately titled record. Here’s the story from Billboard.Com:
Cat Power’s “The Greatest” has been named the winner of the 2007 Shortlist Music Prize. The album beat out nine other releases from finalists such as Band of Horses, Beirut, Bonnie Prince Billy, Cat Power, Girl Talk, Hot Chip, Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor, Spank Rock and Tom Waits.
“The Greatest,” recorded in Memphis with veteran session musicians, became Cat Power’s top charting album when it opened last year at No. 34 on The Billboard 200. As part of its Shortlist win, the album is featured in a special iTunes promotion that includes the exclusive track “Up and Gone.”
The Shortlist Prize launched in 2001 and was won in its maiden year by Sigur Ros. Subsequent winners were N*E*R*D, Damien Rice and TV On The Radio. Last year, the Shortlist morphed into the New Pantheon Award, after a dispute between former Shortlist partners Tom Sarig and Greg Spotts. Sufjan Stevens’ “Illinois” claimed the 2006 New Pantheon Award, although no public ceremony was ever held.
Among the artists voting for this year’s winner were Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, the Killers’ Ronnie Vannucci, Franz Ferdinand, KT Tunstall, Panic! At The Disco, the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Stevens.
Someone named TJ (Teresa) Searcy was kind enough to have invited me to attend a BurnLounge function here in Memphis on Wednesday night at Holiday Inn Select - 2nd Floor Ballroom 5795 Poplar @ I-240, Memphis on Wednesday, May 23, 6:30pm. After receiving the evite, I responded that I might be attending. I got frustrated with her emailing me the same evite repeatedly (four times in 12 hours). So after I had already responded saying I might attend, I did some research that I think people should check out. You see, folks, BurnLounge is a giant scam and they’re using some big names to try to convince you that they’re for real.
Memphis is a city filled with individuals who make art desperate for a chance to earn a living from their art. BurnLounge being a giant pyramid scheme, what better place to take advantage of people’s greed and ignorance than the city where stands a giant pyramid as a looming suggestion of how easily people can be manipulated. Everyone around here is desperate to make a buck, so who better to use as “marks” in the scheme than your own friends and family (or people who dream of making money on the internet)? When you see “Justin Timberlake Enterprises” and “Elvis Presley Enterprises” as people included in their “store owners”, you might be able to suspend your disbelief long enough to pay the fee to, as you would be led to believe, sell music. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Fine Print (or what the hell is wrong with these people):
1) BurnLounge uses interchangeable language to sell you on their “store owner” concept. People are led to believe that they can sell music through their store; however, BurnLounge’s financial schematic doesn’t really revolve around sales — it revolves around what all MLM’s revolve around, signing people up under you as “store owners”. They use the language of the music industry as a ply to get you to come on board and be involved. If you replace their references to the music industry in their pitches with any other industry — vitamins, time shares, cleaning products — you will get the exact same pitches used by notorious MLM’s like Herbalife, Amway, and many many others.
2) Up until recently, the format of the songs you could purchase were only good for people who are running Windows and are using Windows Media Player. No brainer, it’s not a tech-savvy site because, think about it, they don’t care if you sell/buy anything or not. Even though they now sell MP3’s, it changes nothing. The reason they made this change was to continue to look like they are “developing strategy” when, in reality, they’re just changing their tune to fit the model.
3) The only way someone can find your “store” is to search from within the BurnLounge interface — there are no direct links to your store that you can give to people, you can’t find your store in Google by searching for it, and you have to email people to get them to join you — which fits directly in line with the MLM model. Edit: They have direct links to stores enabled now and people have dedicated sites that merely redirect you to their BurnLounge stores.
4) Most Many of the songs (it is widely reported) are horrible quality, don’t work on your iPod, and/or are off-brand versions of the originals – and if you email their support team about it, you will get slow or no response to your issue, something you don’t find happening with iTunes. Among these many versions you will find many karaoke versions of well-known songs, instrumentals, and the like. Why is this? Because they’re not actually making the partnership deals with the major labels that they promise they are. The labels are all hip to what BurnLounge is and are unwilling to license their premium content to BurnLounge because of what it is: a top-heavy scam.. Edit: Major labels do license their content to BurnLounge, however licensing agreements are not the same as partnerships.
5) Representatives use misinformation to get you to buy-in to their plan. I have been approached by more than one person with a BurnLounge store who repeatedly denies that what they are doing is in any way a pyramid scheme. If you look at their model and what it is, there is nothing else that it can be.
6) You can make money, but not necessarily from sales of yours/other people’s music. You can make money either by signing people up as store owners or by selling songs. The primary method of generating income (as with all MLM’s) is how many people you sign up underneath you. Edit:You may have to complete a “sales quota”, but this is only so that you maintain a regular financial contribution to the downline.
7) They are quick to tell you about their affiliations with celebrity names in order to get you interested in making money with them. What they don’t tell you is that these people are all top-levels on the pyramid and you, who end up on the bottom rung of the pyramid, are not getting the same residuals as Rick Dees, Shaquille O’Neal, MC Lyte, Ted Nugent, and the others whose names they throw around. See, those people have thousands of contacts to place in their own downline. If you don’t, then you don’t earn any money.
This is network marketing that attacks the very fabric of Memphis’ music underbelly, manipulating and feeding on the hopes that you’ll get some mailbox money for your work as an artist. There is nothing I can say to you to make you stop what you’re doing, Justin Timberlake (why is Futuresex/Lovesounds is all but absent from BurnLounge even though you have a store?), but know that the Federal Trade Commission is keeping an eye on BurnLounge even though they’re trying to now manipulate people into believing their site is another social networking site for music fans in yet another attempt to create new marks for your so-called business.
Detractors say, “What’s your problem, E.J.? Are you against making money?” I’m all for making money in the music industry through doing what you’re supposed to do: making good product. If you agree with me, perhaps you should show up to this function and ask the tough questions like “Who do you think you’re fooling?” I’m all for competition with iTunes, but this is not the model, not the way, and not a smart investment for anyone looking to make a living off of their own music.
Additonal Reading:
BurnLounge is doomed to failure @ Puramu’s ITtoolbox Blog
Everything Just So
Flutterby
Wikipedia Entry on BurnLounge
Google Search for BurnLounge scam
Memphians may not be familiar with London’s The Clientele, but critics and reviewers everywhere (including us here at Loudersoft) have had their latest release, God Save The Clientele on frequent replay for weeks now. Creating dashing and daring 60’s-influenced pop medleys riddled with literary references, they have built a musical style and catalog of lovely harmonies and longing that peeks from behind the shaded windows to let the sunlight bleed in.
Appropriately, this tour brings them to the spiritual mecca that produced Big Star, a band whose influence is felt all over their newest record in uncompromising heaps. According to their press and biography information, this elicits a newly-uncovered “optimism” from their work; by any name, it makes God Save The Clientele another in a series of sketches capturing musical glimpses of pure beauty in their ever-growing drawing room. Along with one of our favorite artists of 2006, Baltimore’s etherial Beach House, and the newly-named The Third Man (formerly Augustine), I predict a show at The Hi-Tone tonight that will be both blissful and memorable.
The Clientele - “Bookshop Casanova”
The Clientele - “Somebody Changed”
Beach House - “Master of None”
You can purchase God Save The Clientele from iTunes by clicking here 
. You can purchase Beach House’s self-titled album by clicking here.
The Clientele on MySpace
Beach House on MySpace
The Third Man on MySpace
monday may 14th
9pm doors
$8 cover
Hi-Tone Memphis