World's Fair

Central Park’s SummerStage may have finished last week, the McCarren Park Pool may be over, and while that may herald the end of the free show season, it does not indicate a dearth of good live music. In fact, it means anything but.

Here are just a couple for the next month or so.

Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queen. Here are the facts:
-Naomi will change your life.
-She plays at Fat Cat every Friday from 9-10pm.
-It only costs $3.
-She will change your life.

STREAM “What Have You Done”

World’s Fair
MySpace
Website

(more…)

 
 
Central Park’s SummerStage is definitely one of the premiere events of the season in New York, and Daptone Records is quickly becoming one of the city’s premiere labels, so what better way to celebrate both by having Daptone close out the venerable series with a good old-fashioned revue!? Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens will kick things off, followed by Menahan Street Band (marking their debut live performance!), and the mighty Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings will close out the evening.

Sunday, August 17th
Daptone Revue @ Summerstage
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings + Menahan Street Band + Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens
3 - 7pm
FREE

This Sunday, from 3 to 7 pm, the label will be gracing music fans with three sets from some of its most talented artists. First up is Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens. Naomi Shelton first lifted her soulful voice into the Daptone family back in the Desco days of the late 1990s. Under her maiden name, Naomi Davis, she gave us “Forty First Street Breakdown,” which has become a secret weapon for funk DJs. Next came the coveted “Wind Your Clock” 10-inch, which surfaced only as test pressing due to the record company’s untimely demise, and later she fronted Sugarman and Co., delivering “Promised Land” in 2001.

Naomi has a regular Friday-night residency at the West Village’s Fat Cat, during which she and her band regularly blow away the audience with her powerful vocals, popping basslines, and spot-on harmonies (and for only $3, it’s probably one of the cheaper ways to change your life). “What Have You Done,” a staple of her live set, was recently featured on NPR’s Song of the Day (”She wields her blunt voice with no-nonsense passion, marking her as an heir to the late gospel great Dorothy Love Coates“), and you can listen to it for yourself right here.

“What Have You Done”

Find more about Naomi here.

(more…)

You’ve heard the hook before: the staccato eighth notes, the warm horn swells, the cry of “speech.” It’s the opening to Rolling Stone’s number one song of 2007, Jay-Z’s “Roc Boys (And The Winner Is).” But those trumpets aren’t coming from some obscure 70s soul sample. Instead, Hova’s production team looked a bit closer to home for the source, finding inspiration in the 45 of “Make the Road by Walking” by Brooklyn’s own Menahan Street Band, one of the many projects of Thomas Brenneck, best known, perhaps, as the guitarist for the Dap-Kings, the Budos Band, and Amy Winehouse (Jay-Z wasn’t the only one impressed by the track, either: a local Brooklyn principal got into contact with Brenneck after hearing “Roc Boys” on the radio, which eventually led to a elementary-school band performance of “Make the Road by Walking”).

Check out “Make the Road By Walking”

Recorded entirely in analog in his Brooklyn home, Menahan Street Band’s debut LP, Make the Road by Walking, out October 14, redefines the idea of bedroom project. Released on Brenneck’s own Dunham Records, a subsidiary of Daptone, the album is sonorous and warm, effortlessly enveloping itself in the Daptone funk Brenneck has helped to make flourish but also stretching itself out amiably into new territories.

The album maintains a mood, of course: breezy but not banal, composed but not over-thought — but Brenneck’s many influences besides soul and funk, from Ethio-jazz to rocksteady to film scores, also come through expertly and clearly. This is in musicianship and production, both of which are professionally spacious: the slight tape hiss, the vibes and sax seeping congenially into the room the other occupies, a thoroughly real and passionate approach and resulting sound; “The Contender” rides along loosely on a bouncy bass and picked guitar, everything pulling together for the hook but still leaving some answers unresolved, “Karina” layers itself nicely with thoughts of piano solos and growling horns, while the album ends with a Brooklyn cool version of Philly bravado in a cover of Rocky’s “Going the Distance.”

Despite its studio origins, this is a band that isn’t afraid to leave the bedroom every once in a while. Their debut live performance, in fact, will be as part of the Daptone Revue, the close-out show of the Central Park SummerStage 2008 series, itself a sign of all the label has accomplished.

Though he called on the expertise from members of the Daptone family (and extended family), including Homer Steinweiss, Dave Guy, and Leon Michels, Brenneck himself played many of the instruments when the rest of the band wasn’t around. What comes out is a fully-realized depiction of his life in Brooklyn, on Menahan Street: vibrant, exciting, and of course, very soulful.

Make the Road by Walking - DOWNLOAD

Artist: Menahan Street Band
Album: Make the Road by Walking
Label: Daptone/Dunham
Street Date: October 14, 2008
 
CONNECT: World’s Fair | MySpace | Website