This design by Wotto is definitely my favorite... Trumpty Trump puts the DOPE in Ropeadope...haHA!
If you missed out this time around, the Ropeadope Design Collective will be having another go by the end of the Summer. Get updates from my boy Matt (head of the RDC).
Whaaaaaaat? Okay I know I've been lacking on the posts as of late. But this is a lil sum sum special for you.
Imagine Pink Floyd's masterpiece "Dark Side of The Moon" but in Chip Tune, 8-Bit style. I'm talkin' classic NES "beeps" boops" "baps" and "bloops". You know, I'm talkin Mario jumpin on goombas, Little Mac vs Glass Joe punches in the eye, Contra gettin' sweet scatter-shot power ups, Tetris flippin blocks around.....you get the idea.
Well you don't have to image it because this fellow, Brad Smith, actually made it. So just go HERE and download the damn thing!
So for a while I was really into indie, folky, country, singer songwriter stuff. Stuff like Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, A.A Bondy, Monsters of Folk type stuff.
Also for a while (like a 7 year while) I have be extremely into Ropeadoope Records. They have always been a great label that I've looked at for putting out great music. (like Charlie Hunter's "Right Now Move", Medeski Martin and Wood's "Uninvisble", the fantastic PhiladelphiaExperiment, and newer releases like Greg Hester's "Hustlers, Killers, and Thieves," and Drive If You Must's "Circles". All of these albums share the quality jazzy,funky, or experimental type music that I've Ropeadope to put out. Surprisingly though, a few newer releases have strayed out in quite a different direction.
Releases from the band Cabinet and more recently The Spinning Leaves have captured that folky country sound I had gotten so found of. Cabinet's self titled release is an upbeat country joyride containing some great danceable, fun, and beautifully written bluegrass tunes. I can't say I dislike any song on the entire album although Elizabeth, The Tower, and The One are a few of my favorites.
The Spinning Leaves' release "Love" is, as Bruce Warren WXPN's Executive Producer has said:
acoustic music with air and warmth and vibrancy. This ain't your old folk. It's new folk steeped in tradition for the modern world.
This is really some great music from both bands, and you don't have to listen to me ramble on about them to figure it out. Just give them a listen below.
Get to it!
Cabinet Live from the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, PA on November 28, 2009.
(From their website) Because I can't really even describe them
Kicksville. Population at last count: 58 and growing fast. Founded as a creative vacation resort by Mayor Mike Stehr and Commissioner Conrad St. Clair, it's grown into a musical collective, artistic movement, and a virtual community. Everything is created from scratch by Kicksville's citizens, a team of musicians, artists, writers, and tech geeks who commute to Kicksville from twelve different cities on three continents and who've worked with a dizzying range of other artists ranging from Laurie Anderson to Van Halen and dozens of others, including Queen, BB King, King Crimson and members of the Grateful Dead.
The music of Kicksville ranges from the Malian blues of Kalamaya to the surrealist funk of Dumfukistan to the dark industrial throttle of Krankypants. Incorporating improvisation, painstaking programming, melodic sensibility, bizarre sound effects, and award-winning poetry, genre-defying is a lame cliche that doesn't even come close to describing Kicksville.
I first heard of these guys about 2 or 3 years ago at All Good Music Festival. I happened to be wandering around on either the second or third day of the festival when I heard some interesting sounds off in the distance. I made my way to where the sounds were coming from, which happened to be the Ropeadope sidestage and subsequently, from the band Kicksville. I had never and still to this day haven't ever (as far as I can remember) seen or heard anything like this before. From their thumping bass, 19-something speech samples, electronic experimentations, and pounding rhythms; this band is well, somehow enjoyable. They have since released three albums, Enter the Flavor Hut, The Results of a Higher Mission, and lastly Kicksville The Singles- Season 1, which is a collection of weekly single "episodes" of sonic ambition that were released over a 13 week period. They have also released quite a number of episodes for Kicksville- Season 2 as well. Check em out HERE. Buy their music. See some videos HERE', you know the routine.
FEATURING The South Philly Experiment House Band: Chuck Treece - Drums Nick Bockrath - Guitar Leon Jordan - Trumpet Corey Riker - Sax, Ewie Tom Spiker - Bass
WITH Kuf Knotz serving as the Master of Ceremonies
This is a place for all things "entertainment", which is essentially all things me. Music, art, movies, TV, new technologies, "everything" and (maybe) anything involved with entertainment. I put the words "entertainment" and "everything" in parenthesis for the fact that firstly some things I may find entertaining other people may not and secondly there's no way I can really cover everything out there.
Some of my entries may seem completely random but I feel as though spontaneity and randomness should be a part of life. Nonetheless, I hope this brings you some kind of enjoyment, for that's the real reason behind this whole thing.
The exact origin of the name "Danny b Funk" is unknown but it was developed years ago due to my funky bass playing and all around "funky" nature (whatever that means).
My outlook and attitude towards life, as well as inspirations are influenced greatly by:
1960's hippie culture, sounds, noise and beats, Funk, the Grateful Dead, cartoons, Les Claypool, comic books, the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, professional wrestling, "the groove", Living in the country, rhymes, The Twilight Zone Dr. Seuss,improvisation, video games, standup and improv comedy, old school hip hop, DJs, Shel Silverstein, Drum Machines, Vinyl Discs, boat shoes, electricity, mythology, Eastern religion and philosophy, acoustic instruments, Mick Foley, jazz, awkwardness, music as a whole, antics, shenanigans and tomfoolery.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Posts
