DJ's Old-Time Granny and Dyn-O-Mite spin old school soul, funk, and disco jams! The show airs on special occasions on WCOM radio, 103.5 FM in Carrboro, NC, and streams online worldwide. www.resoul.org
Visiting Rhode Island, I've been jonesing for fresh music and overlooked dusty grooves. Which has led me to haunt every thrift store within a three-state radius, and become pals again with every college and low-power station on the FM dial. So I was especially psyched when out of the blue, dance party aficionado and musicologist Hannah13 turned me on to some amazing sounds today.
Totally rad. At first I thought this track was brand new, then realized it's from the 80s. Which is really shocking, Les Rita Mitsouko were ahead of their time for sure. These funky French cats were too cool. Now I've gotta find their LP's. Andy was the first single from their second album, The No Comprendo, produced by longtime Bowie producer Tony Visconti. One half of the duo, guitarist and keyboardist Fred Chichin died of cancer in 2007, RIP.
This afternoon, WXDU got a taste of the SOUL flavor. My friend Barbara, aka DJ Berrytone (formerly of the Barbara Berry Singers), asked me to help her filling in for the station's long-running Saturday afternoon world music show, Mondo Mundo. We were joined in this caper by Ali HiFi, a friend to hard rock lovers and church people throughout the Triangle in her role as host of the Early Riser show on alternating Sunday mornings from 8-10 am. After very little arm-twisting, we convinced her that spinning some global funk would be much more fun than going home to do her taxes. And we had backup research assistance from artist-in-residence Jeff, who was digging through the library's extensive collection of CD's and vinyl treasures, unearthing gems from a diverse musical spectrum including The Makeup, local legends Motocaster, and Man Or Astroman (I think he got locked in the "M" section). Also a CD that I won't get too specific about because he probably wouldn't want his name forever associated with it on the interwebs. But since Ron Jeremy was a featured vocalist, we all agreed it was a quality production.
Back in the day, Barbara was on staff at Barry's Video Dance Club.
The day's theme as chosen by Barbara was "Funk and Disco World Wide," with a focus on tracks circa the 70s & 80s. We got some advance buzz even before going on air. And when I rolled up to the station on Duke's East Campus for the first time in over ten years (the last time I was there it was while attending a moderately wild party in the downstairs lounge with a bunch of miscreant XDU DJ's, for which we were eventually kicked out of the building), the substitute Mondo Mundo team had already pulled many choice selections to add to the vinyl I brought to the table.
Barbara came up with some Peruvian cumbia-funk from Los Destellos, and discovered what the Miami Vice theme would have sounded like if performed with sitars, off an LP by Ashwin Batish. Ali turned our listeners onto funk from all over Africa, including Tirogo from Nigeria, psychedelic Zam-rockers Witch from Zambia, and the African Brothers International Band from Ghana. I hauled in some of the same old shit I've been flapping my gums about on this blog for the past few months, plus new additions to the SOUL rotation from global disco-funk-soul outfits like Azymuth (Brazil), Yellow Magic Orchestra (Japan), Supermax (Germany), and Khaled, the "King of Rai" (Algeria). I've already mentioned that Jeff exposed us to the musical stylings of The Hedgehog, who apparently is very fluent in the international language of love.
It was lotsa fun. Except for guests not being able to talk on the air at XDU. I guess that's a new rule since I last made special appearances on the 88.7 airwaves. Our setlist is online, and hopefully at some point I'll be able to post a link to the full show for downloads.
