We all have our favorite musical collaborations. When your favorite artists from each of your favorite bands joined up for a song or maybe a whole album, it was the best. Old school groups like Cream and The Traveling Wilburys were doing it back in the day. (Mega old school: Imagine if Mozart actually jammed out with Beethoven and Vivaldi on a few concertos?)
N.A.S.A. stands for North America/South America. This duo consists of North American based producer Squeak E. Clean (Spike Jonze's brother Sam Spiegel) and the South America producer (and pro skateboarder) DJ Zegon. These guys just love music so much that they spent five years making the album "The Spirit of Apollo". When it was finished there would be over 40 of today's artists from around the world converging into one project.
Where else can you have the Talking Heads on a track with Charli 2na?
What about the Red Hot Chili Pepper guitarist John Fruscanite backing up the Wu Tang Clan's RZA?
When Tom Waits is on the same song as Kool Kieth, you know this is not your average musical listening experience. Other names include George Clinton, KRS-One, Del the funky homosapien... The list keeps on going.
Now on top of all this fantastic audio talent, they also chose to tap the visual world of graphic design and animation. Skateboard photographer Mark Gonzales, artists Marcel Dzama, The Date Farmers and Shepard Fairey. (of the Obama "Hope" poster fame)
All these images would be funneled and animated by industry heavyweights Syd Garon, Paul Griswold and Splunny. It takes a great deal of forethought to have music videos for almost every song an the album, Each one as different as the next.
Bottom line: Squeak & Zegon are reaching new worlds without even having to leave this one. In my opinion, N.A.S.A. is the best music collaboration to come out of 2009.
Genre mixing shouldn't be a surprise to anyone nowadays, a modern example is the rock/rap rendition of "walk this way" with Aerosmith and RUN-DMC. Some years back there was a man called Ray Charles who fused Gospel and Blues together to create "Soul" music. There are two emerging genres that have been forged recently and I feel they need to be brought into focus. I'm talking about "Nerd-core" and "Psycho-billy" (And no they're not a cartoon superhero duo... or sports drink flavors for that matter)
Nerd-core is a hip-hop based genre, but with an intelligent often encyclopedia-like vocabulary. Instead of the popular "Gangsta" theme that permeates the Hip-Hop market, this new form of Emcee inverts that tough guy persona with a stereotypical "Nerd". The self proclaimed MC of "Nerd-core" is MC Frontalot. Frontalot's rhymes are about his everyday life struggles. He portrays the outcast "nerd" theme with extensive vocabulary and scientific subject matter in his verse. No more rhyming about guns, bitches and crack. These nerds like a different kind of "crack"... The kind that opens pirated software.
Much like punk was a drastic rebelling from the popular push of disco and grunge was a reaction to the 80's Hair metal dominating the scene, Nerd-core is the pendulum swinging back from the gangsta rap that was being pushed in the late nineties.
Then there's Psycho-billy... (Not to be confused with Goth-a-billy) This genre is forged from 70's punk rock and 50's Rockabilly. The 50's clothing style and outcast political stance give this niche a look and purpose. Think of a 1950 Cadillac doing 80mph with Bettie page in the front seat and flames smeared down the side. Often at these shows there is a certain brand of mosh pit/dancing that looks more devastating than it is. It's referred to as "wrecking". Psycho-billy lyrics usually center on the themes of fast cars, fast women and fast music and have an upright bass player in the band instead of electric.
The musical tide shifts quickly but never rests. Think of how the Metalheads felt about "grunge" when Kurt Cobain shattered the leather jackets with flannel shirts. Think of how your grandparents thought your parents were being warped by the the Beatles. Imagine Dr. Dre feelings about Nerd-core or what Johnny Cash thinks of Psycho-billy.
In the summer of 1998 I met Money Mark behind the Paradise in Boston. He was on tour for his most recent album "Push the Button". After the show had finished, he was outside moving the gear into to van out back with his band. My girlfriend (future wife) and I went over to tell him how much we dug the show. He was ecstatic and struck up a conversation with us. Then he called over his band and introduced us to his crew.
Mark "Money Mark" Ramos-Nishita is one of the most talented and unrecognized keyboardists of our time. He is responsible for that retro-synth sound on two of the 90's more popular MTV hits. Beck's "Where It's At (Two turntables and a Microphone)" features an throwback organ riff that we all recognize. It sounds like a sample with all that vinyl snap, crackle and pop going on, but Beck weaves his audio magic yet again!
The other hit you might know is that seizure organ flavored hip-hop staple, The Beastie Boys' "So Watcha Want". Mark just adds that signature riff to the chorus that sets this rap song apart from anything before them. (Beck would sample this song ten years later for "e-pro" off the album "Guero")
Mark was actually doing work as a carpenter when he was hired to do repairs at the home of the Beastie Boys. Through that meeting, he would then sit in on jam sessions and record with them on "Check Your Head" and "Ill Communication". His fuzzy-synth electronics would become an essential part of the Beastie sound. The Beasties went from a heavily sampled hip-hop sound to a full fledged band capable of handling rap, punk, rock and instrumental Jazz during this time. This was unprecedented in the real world of "two turntables and a microphone" and "three M.C.'s and one DJ". I feel Mark Ramos-Nishita was the force that crystallized that formula and brought the Beasties to that next level. (if George Martin can claim fifth Beatle, then $Mark is Fourth Beastie!)
Since then Money Mark has been tapped as the hired gun on keyboards by numerous artists. He was in the original lineup of musicians in Jakob Dylan's Wallflowers. He collaborated with Sean Lennon on "Sunshine" for the first Handsome Boy Modeling School album. The Dust Brothers, Porno for Pyros and most recently Jack Johnson have collaborated with $Mark. Johnson recently signed the keyboardist to his label Brushfire Records for Mark's next solo album. So it flows...$Mark continues to push his genre-collage feel into whatever project he touches.
So anyways, there we were talking with $Mark behind the Paradise. I had been taking pictures for a friend that night and he notices the camera in my hand. Mark says we should all get in a picture. I was beside myself at this point. Mark gets his drummer to take the picture and the rest of the band all get into these grand poses. Mark puts both arms around me and my girl and smiles. It was perfect. That was right about the time the drummer says "There's no more film in this camera!" We all groaned in unison. Undeterred, Mark turns to me and says "Hey, we'll be here for like another half hour if you want to get another camera". I laughed and said "It's all good Money Mark". The picture in my head is ten-times better.
I was first introduced to Nick Drake's music while living and attending college in Boston. A roommate of mine had "Five Leaves Left" on vinyl. It was fall and the trees were their usual lava-like array of color. I remember hearing that odd guitar tuning for the first time in my cold apartment bedroom. Though it wasn't part of my current musical taste, I recorded it to tape and always kept some Nick Drake around.
The story of Nick Drake is ultimately a tragedy due to the fact that he never saw his success. He played piano, clarinet and saxophone but his instrument of choice was his guitar. Due to his persistent insomnia, he would experiment into the night with odd tunings and record the results. From this he developed a sound all his own and proceeded to gain a recording contract. All seemed to be going well.
Drake would only live to be 26 years old and only record three albums in his life. The years that he produced Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter and Pink Moon would be his happiest though he would battle depression constantly through these times. Those three albums would inspire the next generation of countless musicians like the Black Crowes, The Cure, Charlie Hunter and Norah Jones
At the end of his life, Nick Drake believed that his music was ultimately a failure due to the lack of recognition from his present day critics. His depression was evident in his lyrics and he died of an overdose of anti-depressant/sleeping pills. Some would speculate suicide; some would say a tragic accident due to the fact that this talented writer left no note.
In 2000, 30 years after his death, His song "Pink Moon" was licensed for use in a Volkswagen commercial. After that one commercial his albums started to sell again. In the one month time span after the first airing of that commercial, he sold more records in that month that he did for the past thirty years.
His music then moved into movie soundtracks with The Royal Tenenbaums, Garden State and Seven Pounds. Books were written about his life like "Darker than the deepest sea" by Trevor Dann. Documentaries were made for television and radio. Brad Pitt voiced the BBC documentary "Lost Boy: In search of Nick Drake" about his music and tragic demise.
If only he could have seen what his brief recording career would become. Near the end, Nick Drake retreated into his own realm. A troubled cure for a troubled mind.
This past Friday I attended an extremely positive concert with my family. Michael Franti & Spearhead came to Lowell, MA for the Lowell Summer Concert Series. This particular show was special because my family has been listening to Michael Franti & Spearhead for some years now and we can all attend the show due to "kids 12 and under get in for free". (Just the fact that they can get in is cool, but you add "Free" and that makes this parent want to breakdance!)
Now this is not your average kid concert. This is not the Wiggles or Barney on ice. Michael Franti & Spearhead have a long path of social rights activism behind them. Franti himself is a children's author and a talented documentary filmmaker on top of being a positive example of what a musician can be. His music and his live performances are great, but it is what he does when he's off the stage or out of the studio is what makes him exceptional. His unconventional use of Hip-Hop, Rock, Reggae, and Funk promotes peace and social tolerance.
He's out helping his global village by giving back and funneling his energies into worthwhile endeavors. I learned about a great organization called vitamin angels that night. In short, they provide vitamins for all children in this country and across the world. This small act prevents crippling diseases, blindness and other problems that are due to a lack of basic proper nutrition.
The path behind Franti is just as interesting as what he is currently doing. His first band was an Industrial Punk group called the "Beatnigs" known for power tools on stage creating percussion and pyrotechnics. His next project "The Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hoprisy" would be a largely recognized for their lyrics of present day political and social frustration. (This band also featured the revolutionary 8 string Jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter) All things moved forward when he finally morphed into his current state with Spearhead. Now his platform for social commentary mixed with his love for all genres of music propel him far past today's artists.
It was a rare family atmosphere that allowed both of my favorite worlds, music and family. I smiled as the sound from the opening act blasted my sons as they played with other children. The humid air was thick and a light rain started to sprinkle us as Franti hit the stage at dusk while my 5 year old perched on his viewpoint from upon my shoulders. Once the first song was in full swing we started to jump in time with sea of bodies moving as one whole. I will always remember during a "A Little Bit of Riddim” craning my head up and to the side to see his 5 year old eyes gleaming with the colored lights as we bounced as one.
Franti's communication with the audience in between songs are genuine and heartfelt. I listened to him while I now held my 2 year old (three next week) aloft above in the ocean of heads. He spoke of his 21 year old son leaving for a trip and how he thought back to when he was a brand new dad. Holding his baby in his arms and how he was excited but scared about how it would all turn out.
Michael Franti & Spearhead are the change that they want to see in the world. Franti uses every medium he can to convey his message of peace and tolerance no matter what is against you. Whether it is through his music, his movies or his literature, He tries to remind you to truly stay human.
I immediately flashback to when I was a child playing a cassette tape of "Thriller". It was summertime and I was in the backyard at a family cookout with my bare feet in the grass. My grandfather was cooking on the grill. My cousins were running around me as I held the encyclopedia sized player up like an idol emitting audible sunshine for all.
The music videos are what I remember the most. I can recall most from my memory, scene for scene, if the music is playing. Let's set aside the uber-expensive ground breakers like "Scream" and the obvious milestones like "Thriller". (And while we're at it let's also set side the "Don't stop till you get enough" too...Chroma-key-tastic!)
Upon looking back upon the arc of his music video legacy, I believe the strongest example to focus on is "Leave me alone" from the 1987 video centric "Bad" album. The song was written and composed by Jackson as a counter-attack at the tabloid press that persecuted him for most of 80's.
This video was produced by Jim Blashfield who also produced the music videos for Tears for Fears' "Sowing the seeds of love" and the Talking Heads' "And she was". Both of these videos and "Leave me alone" have that same kind of similar stop motion photography feel to them that was very popular when MTV first rolled onto the scene. Blashfield's image technique, coupled with Jackson's music and ideas, would land him his first MTV music video award for best special effects. Later that year, "Leave me alone" would win the Grammy for best music video.
The video itself is a surreal environment with Michael riding an amusement park ride through a series of his public and private imagery. National Enquirer headlines come to life with Michael singing from the pages. Cameras and phones emerge in his wake trying to catch him as he flies by. A floating nose and scalpel passes into view as an iguana climbs the wall among other exotic animals. Dogs dressed in business suits litter the landscape.
The reoccurring theme of the dogs in business suits throughout the video in something to note. The chorus lyrics are "Leave me alone. Stop it. Just stop dogging me around." At one point the viewer gets a glimpse of Jackson's over sized hand being staked down by by one of the dogsuits as if somewhere off screen they are erecting a circus tent.
He seems to take those ridiculous tabloid cover stories and run with them. "Michael Builds Shrine to Liz" reads a newspaper as he steers into a pyramid where different versions of Liz Taylor throughout the years are on display. "Michael Buys Elephant Man's Bones" reads another newspaper as we move through a sideshow featuring animal oddities. This scene resolves on Michael dancing a choreographed number with the animated elephant man's bones. The fact that Jackson is dancing happily with a ball chained to his ankle as if he is a prisoner in this sideshow is commonly overlooked. (also overlooked is the floating nose followed by a scalpel which address' his plastic surgery issues)
The real kick of this video comes when you realize that Jackson himself is the amusement park. All involved are having fun at his expense. The piece ends with Michael breaking free of all the rollercoaters and ferris wheels that hold him down in this twisted park. The final shot is Michael alone, standing tall and triumphant above the decimated games and rides.
It is one the the most creative and insightful videos to come from Michael Jackson's music. "Leave me alone" illustrates a fantasy within a fantasy that is ultimately Michael Jackson's unfortunate reality.
If you were listening to music during the late eighties and early nineties, then you probably know the repetitive drumbeat sample. It was used in LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" and Kris Kross' "Jump". Dr. Dre used it for the gangsta rap classic "Let me Ride" and Mark Walberg used it in "Good Vibrations", back when he was "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch". It is the intro to the Grateful Dead's "Scarlet Begonias" cover by Sublime. It is the outro for the Anthrax & Public Enemy's rap/metal anthem "Bring the Noise". Madonna and Lenny Kravitz used it for the controversial "Justify My Love" (Allegedy, an affair with the material girl is rumored to be why Kravitz and the Cosby kid Lisa Bonet divorced. But that's a whole other wave in whole other ocean for right now)
The point I'm trying to make is that there is a distinct percussive sample that links them all together. To find its root you have to go back to 1969, When James Brown called out an impromptu drum break during a recording session of his "New New Super Heavy Funk". (And that's not a typo; J.B. thought it was so new it had to be named "new" twice) The name of this recording would be "The Funky Drummer" and due to that improvised drum break, it would become the most sampled song in all of recorded music's history.
This song is a repetitious vamp with Brown pushing every member of his band to give all they got. About 5 minutes through the song James Brown, notorious for working his musicians very hard, dictates to the band "Give the drummer some". He then calls on his drummer Clyde Stubblefield directly "You don't have to do no soloing, brother, just keep what you got." Don't turn it loose, 'cause it's a mother." All the musicians, and Brown himself, go silent. For 8 bars Clyde Clyde Stubblefield does what his bandleader commands. No fills, no solos, just that raw exposed backbone of the James Brown sound...the snare hits... the bass kicks. Then they all come in on the "1" and take the song on home. Released in 1970 on a vinyl 45, The 7 minute track had to be edited into two parts so it could be put on both sides of the record and sold as a single. It reached #20 on the R&B charts and that was that. They moved onto the next gig, in the next town, for the next song. Life moves on.
I don't think anybody in that studio could have ever conceived what that 8 bar break would do to the landscape of music in the coming decades.
Spin forward 40 years later, it has been credited with 182 identifiable sample credits and that's just the major label recording artists who have to credit the song openly. If you take into account the hundreds of songs that were produced using that break by underground artists during the 80's, 90's and into today, that number would grow exponentially. Now add to that all the studio musicians who have mimicked this 4/4 staple and you have good idea of how much this has impacted music as we know it.
Here is a Youtube Clip that has the last :20 seconds of the actual song, then the immediately recognizable 3 minute loop of the beat.
The influence is not limited to that Rap/Pop genre of the last decade. That funky little niblet moved forward into all sorts of other genres. For example, industrial electro-rock like Nine Inch Nails' "Piggy", Irish pub music in Sinead O’Connor’s "I Am Stretched On Your Grave", the smooth jazz realm with Kenny G's song "G-bop" (Yeah, I know...) and even as far as metal with Slayer's collaboration with Atari Teenage Riot in "No Remorse". (Yes, my metalheads, Kerry King is down with the Funky Drummer) Even James Brown himself has sampled... well... himself! for 1988's "She Looks All Types A' Good".
What about Clyde Stubblefield you say? The session musician that played the actual drums. He was paid for the recording session but never made a dime from being the actual "Funky Drummer". James Brown allegedly made millions from the sample royalties alone. Clyde now tours and produces albums under his nickname "The Funky Drummer". In my humble opinion, I feel that Clyde Stubblefield is pretty much an honorary member of Public Enemy due to the fact that they use the "Funky Drummer" sample on 7 different tracks! (Clyde is key to the public enemy sound just as much as Chuck D's angst and Flavor Flav's Clock)
So when you hear it in the back, think of James. More importantly think of Clyde. The "Funky Drummer" break is a staple of our modern culture and it is American as apple pie. It is interwoven in our musical traditions and when I think about it, it’s like we have a decade worth of music from one song.
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