Oldies Stylee

Eddie Lovette - Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel

Fear not fellow Soul enthusiasts, for it is our distinct honor to present the perfect accoutrement to your Holiday quandaries, woes, and/or (for you well adjusted folks) delights. Introducing Staten Island's newest sensation: The Sha La Das!  Making their debut, they offer up two sides of unadulterated holiday cheer - Sha La Da La La (Christmas Time)' b/w 'I Wish Christmas Time Was Over.'  Discovered by Dunham Records mogul and one man musicial gang, Tom 'TNT' Brenneck, you may recognize their doo-wop tinged harmonies from such SMASH records as Charles Bradley's Victim Of Love. Ring a bell? Well I should hope so! And if that's not enough to make you wanna fill yer belly with Egg Nog and cover your house in lights, the Sha La Das are a legitimate family affair. Compromised of Patriarch Bill Schalda with sons, Paul and Billy Jr. - this ain't no Patridge family people, this is the REAL DEAL. Side A, penned by Thomas Brenneck and Bill Sr. is a mid-tempo seasonal masterpiece, decorated to the nines with lush harmonies, gratuitous sleigh bells, and an insistent Yuletide groove, courtesy of the Menahan Street Band. Side B composed by Bill Sr. is a classic group harmony carol, sure to warm even the coldest of souls. Save yourself the trip to the Macy's window and get hip to the sonic Holiday realness of Daptone Records and the Sha La Das.

Sha La Das - Sha La Da La La (Christmas Time)

With this record, The Como Mamas join forces with the boys of Menahan Street Band (billed pseudonymously here as The Radiant Rhythm Band) to lay bare the funkier side of gospel music. 

“The rhythms we all play were already right there in their vocals,” explains drummer Homer Steinweiss, “so it felt natural to lay down the grooves behind them.” Thomas “T-N-T” Brenneck, the up-and-coming producer who brought us both Menahan Street Band and Charles Bradley, presided over the collaboration, which took place in the old Dunham Studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

https://www.facebook.com/thecomomamas
http://www.daptonerecords.com

The Como Mamas - Out of the Wilderness

Buy it on Bandcamp - bit.ly/1CLoQKX
Buy it at the Daptone Shop - http://shop.daptonerecords.com
Buy it Digitally - radi.al/TheFrightnrs

We would like you all to give a gregarious “Great To Meet Ya’” to Daptone’s newest sensation, The Reigning Rocksteady Kings of Queens, New York: The Frightnrs. Once you hear their version of the late great Etta James’ classic (pressed into Daptone Family recipe petroleum based chips), “I’d Rather go Blind,” you will find it impossible to not want to get down with friends and foes alike, imbibing on rum-flavored hooch lovingly poured into a pineapple or preferred tropical-fruit shaped vessel. 

Flip over this waxen platter of reggae perfection and find the dubbed-out ‘VERSION’, expertly produced by long time Daptone ringer, Victor ‘Ticklah' Axelrod. 

The Frightnrs  - I'd Rather Go Blind

From his latest album, Changes, out now. Order the album at: 

Bandcamp - https://charlesbradley.bandcamp.com/
iTunes/Amazon/Google Play - http://radi.al/CharlesBradleyChanges

Revelation
We’re living in
Am I dreaming?
Who is gonna protect us now?
Right back to color 
Blacks depreciate
If we’re not careful
We’ll be back segregated

Change for the better of your soul

We gotta change my love 
We gotta change for the world 
I got to give you my love
If you don’t know me by now just check yourself

I ain’t afraid to love you
See I come with open arms
Stop hiding behind religion
Hate is poison in the blood 
Heaven is crying, the world is shaking
God is unhappy, the moon is breaking
Blood is spilling, God is coming

What are you gonna do
Shout them loud. Take this love
Put away the gun and take this love
We gotta change my love 
We gotta change for the world 
I got to give you my love

Change the false pretense
Change the hate in you

We gotta change our love 
We gotta change for the world 
I got to give you my love 
Changing, changing, changing for this world
All over the world
Change

http://www.thecharlesbradley.com
http://www.facebook.com/thecharlesbradley
http://www.twitter.com/charles_bradley
http://www.instagram.com/charlesbradley

Charles Bradley - Change For The World

From the debut album, Nothing More To Say, available now. Order at shopdaptonerecords.com


The Frightnrs escort Daptone into the world of long-playing reggae with both the sweetest and the roughest record of the decade.

Crafted under the meticulous eye of black-belt reggae mastermind/producer Victor Axelrod (AKA Ticklah), Nothing More to Say is a rocksteady masterpiece the likes of which has not reared it’s head since the golden era of Studio One.  However, you’ll find no imitation here - none of the faux-jamaican cliches of lesser reggae bands.  Like all things Daptone, this record is above all soulful and honest. With the exception of two soul covers (both from the Daptone catalog: Bob & Gene’s "Gotta Find a Way” and Saun and Starr’s “Gonna Make Time”,) the record is populated by original compositions of the highest order.  They are simply great songs, and though their treatment here is masterful, each one of them has the melodic and lyrical substance to hold it’s own in any genre. “Till Then” invokes the coquettish hyper-rhymes of top-form Smokey Robinson, while “Hey Brother” sounds like it fell off the desk of Gamble and Huff, and “Purple” defies any comparison at all.  From the first cracking snares of “All My Tears” through the final pulsing echoes of “Dispute,” the murderous rhythms of Rich Terrana (drums,) and brothers Preet and Chuck Patel (bass and piano, respectively) can be heard chunking mercilessly towards oblivion as Dan Klein pours his endearing poetry over over the top like some other-worldy falsetto potion. The combination is a sound birthday-suit raw, mesmerizing, infectious, and above all, lovely. This record will long be treasured by lovers of reggae, lovers of soul and lovers of love.

Nothing More To Say

The Frightnrs - Nothing More To Say

Charles Bradley's new album, Changes, out now and available at http://shop.daptonerecords.com

Charles Bradley "You Think I Don't Know (But I Know)"

The Olympians self-titled debut album, featuring members of The Dap-Kings, Lee Fields & the Expressions, and Menahan Street Band, is out now. Order now: shop.daptonerecords.com

The Olympians - Sirens of Jupiter

Debut album is out now. Features members of The Dap-Kings, Lee Fields & the Expressions, and Menahan Street Band. Order now: shop.daptonerecords.com

The Olympians - Apollo's Mood

This land is your land, This land is my land

Though it has often been co-opted as a benignly patriotic campfire sing-a-long, "This Land Is Your Land" was actually written by Woody Guthrie in 1944 as a subversive protest song in biting response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." At my sister Samra's urging, we recorded our version in 2004, during the George W. Bush presidency, in an effort to re-establish it as a song about social justice.

Ironically, when Woodie Guthrie resided in Coney Island in 1950, his landlord was none other than Donald Trump's father, the infamously racist real estate mogul Fred Trump, about whom Guthrie composed his poem "Old Man Trump," including the lines:

     I suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate
     He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts
     When he drawed that color line
     Here at his Beach Haven family project 

Using a dark re-harmonization of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" as an intro, the Dap-Kings re-arranged "This Land" as a rough blues-y march, setting the tone for Sharon to tear into the lyrics of the song with the fiery gusto of a revolutionary. However, it was the inclusion of Guthrie's rarely-heard original verses that really enabled Sharon to reclaim the song as an urgent and unambiguous demand for equality and human dignity in a nation rife with social injustice and patriotic hypocrisy.

Today, as we inaugurate a rapacious billionaire to the highest office in the land, those original verses resonate with us as loudly as the day they were written:

     There was a big high wall there
     That tried to stop me
     The sign was painted
     Said 'Private Property'
     But on the backside
     It didn't say nothing
     This land was made for you and me

     One bright sunny morning
     In the shadow of the steeple 
     By the relief office 
     I saw my people 
     As they stood hungry
     I stood there wondering 
     If God Blessed America for me

We are grateful to Woodie Guthrie and to Sharon Jones, two friends of the people and bitter foes of the Trumps, who have given us an essential soundtrack to our struggle. When times get dark, let us not crumble in fear and bigotry. Let us honor the unbreakable spirit of those tireless fighters who have fallen before us. Let us rise to the fight, and let us help each other never to forget this noble truth:

    This land was made for you and me.

-Gabe Roth

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "This Land Is Your Land"

Black Velvet is out now:
LP/CD/BoxSet/Digital: https://ffm.to/charlesbradley 

Off of Charles Bradley's upcoming album Black Velvet, “I Feel a Change” was originally recorded as part of the Victim Of Love sessions, but ended up not being included on the album. 

November 5, 2018 would have been Charles Bradley’s 70th birthday. In celebration of his extraordinary life, Daptone imprint Dunham Records has released his fourth and final album. Black Velvet features ten studio recordings never before included on any album.
 
Black Velvet is a celebration of Charles Bradley, lovingly assembled by his friends and family at Dunham/Daptone Records. Though chronologically the material spans Charles' entire career, this is no anthology, greatest hits or other shallow rehashing of the songs that already made him famous. Rather, this album is a profound exploration through the less-travelled corners of the soulful universe that Charles and his longtime producer, co-writer and friend Tommy "TNT" Brenneck created in the studio together over their decade-long partnership.

Black Velvet

Charles Bradley - I Feel A Change

Menahan Street Band - The Crossing

From the new compilation - Bad Education Vol. 1: Soul Hits of Timmion Records - out now. http://dapt.one/TimmionHits

Pratt & Moody - Lost Lost Lost

What better way to christen Daptone’s fledgling imprint Penrose Records than with “Can I Call You Rose?,” a sumptuous and serendipitously titled mid-tempo premier by San Diego’s blossoming young soul serenaders, Thee Sacred Souls. Stepping off the stage after their very first club date, Josh, Sal, and Alex were tugged aside by producer Bosco Mann whose seasoned ears had been tickled by their set. Backs were patted, hands were shook, and three days later heads were bobbing in Mann’s Riverside studio, as the Souls laid their first notes to tape.

#getmoreplays

Can I Call You Rose b/w Weak For Your Love

Thee Sacred Souls - Can I Call You Rose

It’s about time someone put this cut on a 45!  As one of the most popular groups on today’s So-Cal soul scene, Thee Sinseers need little introduction. Their performance of “Seems Like” live at the Recordium went viral to the tune of over a million views, making them thee in-demand group for souldies parties up and down the coast. I heard they even played one party where the crowd wouldn’t let them leave the stage before playing “Seems Like” for the third time. When asked what song they wanted to cut for their Penrose session, singer, songwriter, and man-who-can-play-any-instrument, Joey Quiñones didn’t hesitate to answer, “We need a proper recording of that song.” And so it was done. In the candle-lit studio, the band delivered unto us a starkly intimate rendition, stripping the tune down to its underthings, and laying bare Joe Q’s euphonious exhortations.

#getmoreplays

Seems Like b/w Seems Like (Instrumental)

Thee Sinseers - Seems Like

Though Bryan Ponce and Adriana Flores share the stage with Joey Q as part of the East LA souldies outfit Thee Sinseers, they really step into the spotlight with The Altons, a group they themselves founded along with drummer Caitlin Moss and bassist Gabriel Maldonado . On this their debut single on Penrose, Bryan sings the lead with a smoky-sweet falsetto that bends tenderly from growl to howl and back again. The group takes a turn through a classic Miracles-style mid-tempo groove on the A-side, leaving you helplessly addicted to their sweet eponymous refrain, When you go that’s when you’ll know…

#getmoreplays

Penrose Records Vol. 1

The Altons - When You Go (Thats When You'll Know)

Los Yesterdays originated in an Altadena garage when Gabriel Rowland teamed up with his old friend Victor Benavides. Rowland, a long time drummer and eccentric creator of multitudinous soulful things, took charge of recording as well as playing all the instruments, while Benavides wrote and cut vocals. The project pretty much stayed in their garage for a few years until a mutual connection brought them to the attention of Tom Brenneck and Gabe Roth, who both dug the songs and offered to join in on guitar and bass respectively so that the duo might be able to perform their music live. The four soon found a handful of gigs behind them and a Penrose recording date in front of them. The latter from which sprang the celestial reverie of “Tell Me I’m Dreaming,” a full-throated pop-souldie complete with orchestral percussion and co-ed chorus, as well as “Time,” a dark psychedelic meditation with a rawness that betrays the garage in which it was conceived. Though the production rings with the high-ceilinged echoes of the Penrose studio, the songs retain in whole the idiosyncratic architecture that could only have been hatched by two mad geniuses in a garage.

#getmoreplays

Los Yesterdays - Time

From their debut, self-titled album. 

Buy it here: http://bit.ly/1DenP7H

The Budos Band - Up From The South

Get it at the Daptone Shop: http://bit.ly/1E03bOb

Charles Bradley - You Put The Flame On It

San Diego's sweetest export is back with two sublime sides of West Coast flavored soul. The soft, tremolo-kissed intro of "Will I See You Again" seeps out of the speakers like a cool Cali breeze, allowing the drop to hit like Thor's hammer on the dancefloor. As the groove gets in you, Josh Lane's vocals send you to a place transcendent of time and space... A world where lovers love, and hate has no place. "It's Our Love"'s mellow but funky feel grinds out a vibe that tempers the "beat" in Beat-Ballad. Thee Sacred Souls are raising the bar to heady, unattainable heights.

Thee Sacred Souls "Will I See You Again?"

Mahalo Ke Akua, Aloha Always

Keep da Flow & Never Give up. 

Disclaimer : I do not own the rights to these songs. 
All rights go to their respective owners. 🤙🏽

Oldies Stylee

Koga93.