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Soulive is this funky jazz soul trio consisting of two brothers, Alan and Neal Evans, and Eric Krasno. All hail from the great state of NY. I had no idea who they were but my friend guaranteed I’d love them. And so off we went in search of the Bowery Ballroom. Inside lies black leather couches, candle lit tables, and an almost 20’s esque ambiance to it. I felt as if everyone should have been wearing beaded dresses and pearls…but alas, we presumed the pretense of the place and fitted in accordingly with all the hipster attire. Drinks were quite expensive but at least the sound is amazing at this venue. Upstairs we went! Towards the sounds of saxophones, soul, and funk!
Live in Show: Soulive
@ the Bowery Ballroom (NYC; 15 10 09)
If I could make a comparison to other genres—for I don’t listen to too much of soul, funk, or jazz on record, rather, I go see the live shows ’cause they’re a million times better—I would say they are the innovation behind Dan Deacon and the life force behind Architecture in Helsinki of funk, the improvisation and reversed electronica of Jedi Electro…of souuuuuuuuuuuul music! The songs they played were at least 7 minutes each time. Building, layering, skipping and playing in between beats, creating an amazing composition causing us to cheer, awe and dance. When they brought on their guest singer (does anyone know his name…I wish I remembered), I felt like I was listening to some D’Angelo infused music. It touched our hearts and we all felt warmer through just the way he’d caress us with his voice, and then at times, preach to us with high pitched intonations.
I was having immense amounts of fun when Zoidis came on. HOT DAMN I love anything saxophone and this man sure knows how to use it. At some points I stopped moving because I couldn’t believe the solo shit he was pulling. Two and half hours and pints of sweat on the stage later, the band ended the show. And like I tend to say after shows like these, I am officially a fan for life and vow to see every live show possible in MTL…as long as it doesn’t empty my wallet too much đŸ˜‰
PLEASE buy their new album Up Here. If you like their live stuff (which IMO is much better), buy their live albums and also go see their shows!
MP3: Soulive – Cannonball
This is the most overdue post ever. I’ve been meaning to get this whole thing published after one week the festival ended…over two weeks ago jaja. Sigh, so much I wanted to do in between but I kept on saying to myself, NO you need to give PART II. And so here it is. As y’all know, I recently moved and it’s been busy and by busy I mean lounging around in MontrĂ©al’s brutal humidity whilst looking for apartments whilsts chilling with awesome flatmates drinking beer whilst have dance parties. So as you can see, very very busy. But here it is! the second half of a most wonderful weekend trip twenty hours south of the MTL.
My recap, MP3s, and live video footage all after the jump!
You know when you look at an artist and get some weird preconception of how they’d sound? And most of the time, it’s not that far off? Well a lil’ lady by the name of Zee Avi popped up in my inbox the other day and after watching her “Bitter Heart” video, which you can watch below, I was completely blown away and I immediately got the album. I have yet to listen to it as I’m catching up on some old new stuff but a review will come in a few weeks, hopefully. She goes by the name of Koko Kaina and she’s from Malaysia. She’s 23 but she is such an old soul. I fell in love with her smile and her voice. She sounds like Regina Spektor, Jenn Grant, a bit of Feist, and the Hawaiian that is Jack Johnson all rolled into one! How great! Her three minute rendition is filled with insouciant folk and heartfelt lyricism and vocal perfection. The last 20 seconds of this song makes my heart split into a million butterflies. Watch the video and see what I mean!
Her album drops May 19th, I’m defs going to shell out the dollars for this one. Buy the album and watch Koko talk about her influences and the process of making her first self titled debut here. She’ll also be playing at Bonnaroo coming up!