MOG

Many thanks for the links. Soul Sides immediately paid off.

I'm listening to "Don't You Worry Now" at the moment. I hear exactly what you mean. Thanks again. Off for more research....

thanks, great post!

Roll me in sand... mmmmmm, ouch. So, what are we talking about here? Jack Black... Jack White... and the denizens of the underground of the sultry? Love this cover, Kate, the link to the live bit, superior.

When it comes to retro soul you might as well go retro. But Alice is earning her love with the ol' school snobs like myself. Haven't heard Amy Winehouse yet, but the constant press just puts me off. The hype-machine is working overtime on that one. But Alice is the real deal for real.

I was invited to see Alice Russel towards the end of last year. I'd never heard of her before, but I found her gig to be mostly brilliant. It had an almost inevitable lull in the middle, but she performed very well, despite having a bad cold. Her band were excellent, too. I recommend seeing her live; she's formidable.

Oooh, i'm jealous! She is only playing in New York and the UK right now, so i'll just have to hope she makes it to the West Coast eventually.

You'll be amazed by the volume of the voice of such a teeny woman. She's mini.

"Don't You Worry Now" is a cool track. No doubt about it...

Alice has an awesome voice. Here's hoping that she will be around for years to come.

Great post, FYI that Seven Nation Army cover was a collab with some guy on Ubiquity Recs going by the name of Nostalgia 77 if anyone is looking for it. I can also vouch for the Quantic work, it is all good. I have not heard her solo stuff. Will do.

I haven't seen Amy Winehouse live, yet. Providing she doesn't postpone again, I'll be seeing her at the end of the month. I prefer Amy Winehouse, though, because I find her tortured lyrics so engaging, far more so than Alice Russel's, despite her great voice.

I totally understand that. I think for me, it is more the case of hearing the Dap-Kings as her backing band. I really loved what they did with Sharon Jones, and then when Amy got ahold of them, they seemed to create exactly the same type of music that they already did for Sharon. I like Amy's lyrics and rough voice, but I am not as interested in the music. Also, Amy has been totally overplayed on the radio over here, and that always results in a little tired-ear syndrome for me.

I 'spose I heard her without actually "hearing" her. The Quantic stuff sometimes soars over my head. I think you might have just EMCD'd me (or whatever the kids are calling it)..As for Ms.Winehouse, I'm not gonna hate on her, and I don't begrudge her success, but to me, hers is a good record, a well made exercise in style. I wish it would lead to further discoveries in retro-soul, but it probably won't.

One more thing. His list is nice, but leaves off (prolly intentionally) all the new soul albums by old soul stars, some of which are quite good. Solomon Burke,Candi Staton, Dan Penn/Spooner Oldham, Howard Tate, etc.

She does a great job with Seven Nation Army. Good post.

Great post, and I agree with Spike great cover of that song

I'm with you all the way. The Amy hype is getting out of control.

Funny, I heard "Hurry On Now" about 2 days ago on Dennis' MOG. I downloaded the track immediately and I haven't been able to get enough since then. I was about to do a post extolling it as my favorite recent MOG discovery. Her voice is sooooo soulful.

right on chicka 'preciate it

I have that Seven Nation Army 12" she did with Nostalgia 77, which I loooooved and hunted down after hounding the dudes at Amoeba to stock it (wtf - aren't they supposed to be ahead of the consumer?).

She fell off my radar as too many people often do, so now i'm going to have to go on hunt. thanks!

great post, i totally love what you have written. Thanks for 'trustin' in me too

Walking the Cow

Hey, friend. Thanks for the welcome. I'm still unsure about how to use all of this. haha

Ok. I know I'm late with this but I had to say something. You got me with the Amy Winehouse dig. Her and Regina Spektor should just go to rehab and get it over with. You also had me at Quantic. Big fan. Checking out allmusic guide I see that "Doin it Right" by Mike James Kirkland is the album of the day. It's released on Ubiquity's Luv 'N Haight division. I look and see that Alice Russell has put out 3 albums with awesome covers I have to add. I notice that she's linked to some guy named TM Juke. Mosey over to him and he's a music maker that co wrote some of Alice's songs and had his own albums released on Ubiquity. I thought I was just casually reading a post. Now I got at least 7 albums to buy. Thanks Kate! :)

I know! Same thing happened to me when I started to look into her work. I might as well just get everything put out by Ubiquity, because so far I haven't been disappointed by anything they release.

Now that's an undertaking. There has to be about 700 downtempo comps from around '97 that you might have a hard time sifting through. I'd gladly take them all if someone gave them to me. I wouldn't complain.

Ditto!

Sorry for the late comment, just read this article. I heart first from her exactly via the song of TM Juke. Great track, I heart quite a while up and down. Regarding your "smoky moods": Did you ever go to a Gothic event? I have no idea how the gothic scene is about where you live, but as far as I read your posts, this could be really something, you like. I'm not really part of that scene, as I neither like to dress up like a vampire nor like a SS-officer nor like some androgynous thing. But two times a year there's a quiet atmospheric dark event in the old walls of my town, that we're usually visiting. A blac t-shirt, and maybe black trousers are enough - the scene is quiet tolerant here - no dresscode (there are other places, where that's different). Compared to other music events, their encounters are different: dense and deep. The best thing: they actually play very slow and epic songs sometimes and people actually dance to it - in their own, different way. That is something, that's nearly impossible in other events, where people want to have a "good time", that is, going off like crazy. They would kill the DJs, that put some slow, atmospheric things on the turntable. And that's quiet different in the Goth/Industrial-scene here. For me those guys are a new form of Hippies - very dark Hippies indeed - but still Hippies, because they don't dance to look cool or something like that. They dance to express a certain form of dark romanticism. I enjoy the atmosphere there a lot. So give it a try, if you're more often in that dark romantic mood, if not already did so.

I think I could enjoy that. Most of the goth events I have been exposed to here are kind of laughable, and I am not into the whole costume thing. BUT- I do like some of the music, especially the more strange industrial stuff. Although there is no way I could ever look cool when I dance :)

Well, I can image, that it also can get laughable. But here usually it isn't. And the thing with the "looking cool on the dancefloor": this is another point I like regarding this events: nobody, but virtually nobody cares. They all look strange, dance strange, so there's no such thing as "looking cool", or at least it doesn't matter at all. That you like industrial is tough. But it doesn't surprise me that much, afer your post regarding Cobra Killer. The atmosphere is kind of similar.