Daryl Hall and Sharon Jones: ... What elses is there to say???

This video is ridiculous.  I'm on a roll... I think its because I am not writing much under the guise of  "the music speaks for itself".
Live From Daryl's House ep. 34: Sharon Jones

ATTENTION: Daryl Hall feat. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings is coming to Chicago!  Tickets on sale tomorrow!!

Cookin' W/ Sharon' : Sharon and her Dap Kings on IFC's Cooking with the Band

So being related to both food, one of my very first blog posts, and one of my favorite bands I was super excited to hear that Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings would be making an appearance on IFC's new show with LES tattooed hipster chef Sam Mason  called "Cooking with the Band".  Food and music, together? Like that would ever be interesting... What type of twisted individual would ever think of syndicating a show focusing on two such disparate topics?  Well the Village Voice didn't much care for the new show, calling it "the end of reality cooking shows or the death of indie rock or both".   Really Village Voice? I mean really?  Frankly I would expect more from the Voice.  Indie rock has clearly been dead for at least a year.  And who ever said they had enough of Padma Lakshmi?

Well anyway, being a fan of the band (I know admittedly little about the guy they are cooking with, besides that I always go running past his restaurant, W-50,  on Clinton St.), I certainly enjoyed the episode although I would have preferred that Sharon or some other members of the band had shared their own recipes instead of just kinda awkwardly standing around.  I learned a few things too from the show.  For starters I never knew that drummer Homer Steinweiss has a food blog and I am definitely going to use my food processor to make a marinade out of cilantro at some point in the near future.  Anyways, my business is not in TV reviews, so my advice is to check out the article and video preview on the New York Times website.

For your enjoyment I am going to put up the song that got me hooked on Sharon Jones oh about two and a half years ago.  This song is, in my opinion the best protest song I have ever heard from this past (understatement) tumultuous decade entitled What if We Stopped Paying Taxes?  Also coincidentally I ran into my friend Evelyn who works at Human Rights Watch and gave me their new fundraising cd entitled Causes 2 produced by the record company Waxploitation (of Danger Mouse and Gnarls Barkley fame) which includes a new track by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, covering Bob Marley's tune It Hurts to Be Alone.  This is a great new little number.  I don't think that Sharon has the best vocal performance on this one but there is most definitely something about those horns. The thing about the Dap Kings, being a great band, is that they always pull through.  Yes, something about those horns indeed...

Great Minds Think Alike...I hope.

So today I was checking out Soul-Sides (a highly recommended music blog) and saw that after I had willfully stolen their from their site, they have decided to steal from mine as well and present a mix by Manhattan MC Cool Calm Pete on the subject of, get this... food and music.  Sound Out-Loud is truly ahead of its time with proliferating this excellent combination to the inter-web, or right on it (this site is only about a week old after all), or at least on to something...I hope.  Either way i thought it was kinda cool that notable music blogger/scholar Oscar Wang hadn't thought the notion of food and music together to be too farfetched, plus the mix is pretty cool as well.

If you want to check it out, just do yourself a favor and go to Soul-Sides.

And in a similar vain, some more of the woman I love...

Fish in the Dish -Sharon Jones

Soul Music in The New Millenium: As bitchin as always, maybe more so

These days, (circa Marcus Newman's summer of soul 2008) I tend to think soul music is where its at, so needless to say I have been listening to a good bit of it lately. Among many purveyors of soul there are a lot of good soul blogs out there that are proliferating soul to the masses, the most popular one probably being Soul-Sides. Another central fixture in this trend, and what hooked me (along with the aforementioned declaration of a summer of soul), is Daptone Records founded by NYU alum (my alma mater, sooner or later) Gabirel Roth a.k.a. Bosco Mann. Essentially Daptone Records is how I learned to love soul. However I always did appreciate a good groove and was once a member of a funk band, and though there is a lot I can say about Daptone Records the woman who I owe my regards to is their flagship singer, none other than miss Sharon Jones. Her backing band, you may have heard of them, is the dap kings who were are most famously known for supplying Amy Winehouse with her signiture vintage sound. They are also on the Jay-Z remix from my first post. I saw Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings last Sat. a great show, it could've been more of a dance party than it turned out to be (too many white people I suppose). Sharon, however probably wont be making an appearance in New York for a while, but if you want to see some great live daptone soul in New York check out Naomi Shelton and The Gospel Queens of Brooklyn at the Fat Cat on Christopher st. and Seventh Ave. every Friday at eight.

Here are two soul tracks. One by my lady Sharon Jones (written by Bosco Mann). The other one is sung by the eminent Nina Simone, who I guess is not really a soul artist per-say but the album this song comes from is pretty soulful and I feel provides an appropriate contrast.

Sharon Jones - How Long Do I Have to Wait?(2005)

Nina Simone - He Ain't Comin Home No More(1967)

and why not another taste of Sharon...

Why Don't We All Stop Paying Taxes?

bad ass.

Also let me add that anyone who wishes to pass on a music selection, recipe, or even a complete post yourself they should feel free to send me thier contributions.