Man, so busy on my 1st job right now – inbox is a mess.

Yet I got an urgent request from P-Funk drummer Gabe Gonzales (also he heads up the funk group Enemy Squad) (read my post on him here) to share a few old funk classics, so I uploaded them for him. Now I share with you since I am so busy – when a friend asks for some music – why not make it a post.

Billy Bass Nelson, original Funkadelic bass player, has this jam with guitarist Eddie Hazel called ‘I Ain’t Got Nobody’. I don’t much about how it came together. Billy Bass handles the lead vocals here. Unfortunately, somebody but bad mutronic bass overdubs on top of Billy’s monster straight ahead sound.

Billy Bass Nelson and Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic – I Ain’t Got Nobody

JJ Barnes ‘So Called Friends’ (featuring Funkadelic)

R Kelly – Ignition (DJ BCause Spread Love Re-Tally)

Excuse the short post – hope you still enjoyed. Let us know in the comments.

An abstracted DJ BCause at the Elbo Room San Francisco – summer 2010

I’ve been so busy on the 1st and 3rd jobs, I didn’t have time weigh in here on the 2nd job – Earfuzz – to let y’all know, though y’all know – that Phelps ‘Catfish’ Collins passed away (full wikipedia bio). Shucks, even Pitchfork noticed.

Whu? Pitchfork on the deep funk? Well that’s because Catfish is one of America’s most under-rated and over important guitarists of all times. You see up top his amazing work with James Brown as a member of the JB’s doing a solo here in Olympia Theater in Paris – which you can find in it’s entirety on this live James Brown CD – Love Peace and Power.

I did a search on The Hype Machine and found no one even posted any of Catfish’s work with his brother Bootsy Collins. So here are two jams in the cloud y’all can check out and download.

Bootsy’s Rubber Band – Live in Louisville – 1978 – notice the amazing Catfish MUTRONIC guitar solo that comes in at about 2:50 in on this jam ‘Very Yes’..

Bootsy Phelps and the Complete Strangers – Fun on Your Thang

Click here to view the embedded video.

I never got to meet Catfish, darn it. But Bootsy Collins has been a big part of my life. And as said in this great Cinncinati Inquirer article by Lori Kurtzman and Lauren Bishop the point is made – without Catfish’s father like influence over Bootsy – we’d never have the amazing duo working either with James Brown or on their own with the aid of P-Funk. So thank you Catfish! For the music and the vibes. Maurice Bernstein, Co-Founder / CEO & President of Giant Step has a nice memory of Catfish here on the Giant Step site.

There is a memorial concert planned and fund being established in his memory according to BootsyCollins.com

Your invited to join me Bootsy Collins and “The Catfish Nation’ to celebrate the

CATFISH LIFE, ONE SMILE AT A TIME!

It all takes place at the Madison Theater Sept. 4th 8pm til 2am 730 Madison Ave. Covington Kentucky.

Catfish motto was: If it’s free it’s for me, so yeah, it’s FREE to everyone.

We have opened a “Catfish musicians fund” that will be set up to help unfortunate musicians that fall on bad times and can not afford their own burial.

So we are asking the ones that can to donate to this cause. You can email us at: bootsycf7@gmail.com for more details.

I’ll dig for more rare Catfish Collins later. Thanks for remembering this amazing guitarist in the meantime. If you have favorite Catfish Collins memories leave them in the comments below.

Ugh, hey @chuckdafonk here. Wanted to post something up for ya, but I’m stuck on my first job for Cisco, then my 3rd job ‘trying to settle things’ you know – and so my second job as Earfuzz guy is getting squeezed.

Still, even with my grinds – how could I deny you a few cloud funks – current / new thangs that I am so jamming on … Here are FOUR FOR THE FUNK.

RichGirl, Fabolous & Rick Ross – Swagger Right

The fab team at CreamTeam hipped us to that one — Rick Ross’ verse for me personally is right on time with this line:

“new address – but the neighbors know my name – I confess, I’m addicted to your frame – it took a Rich Girl to come set this shit plain”.

And yeah, we all want a ‘RichGirl’ – no doubt, so we are trying to get our swagger right.

The fam at Solid Bump Records have a hot new EP with this ‘Paper Cat’ record by Adulture and OCD Automatic. I have to say the BitFunk remix is so super smooth

Adulture and OCD Automatic – Paper Cat (Bit Funk Remix)

Damn, the always amazingly talented U-Tern gave us a smoking hot LexiconDon remix and then like returns a week later with this sizzling burner Mark Ronson disco dub ..

Mark Ronson & The Business INTL – Bang Bang Bang (U-Tern’s Disco Dub)

Here’s one I reposted up on our Earfuzz Soundcloud as I had blogged about it a while ago - and you know what – cuz you know it’s true! … still working harder every day!

Buddy Miles Regiment – Working Harder Every Day

Oh yeah and this morning via Buddy Miles twitter feed – @TheBuddyMiles – I was apprised to this epic live fire with Buddy Miles and Buddy Guy – and I guess it’s true - IT’LL BE MY TIME AFTER A WHILE ; and then I can get back to the first and 2nd job of Earfuzz and blog more funk.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Big Daddy Kane: Ain’t No Half Steppin
From: Long Live the Kane [Warner Bros, 1988]

Heatwave: Ain’t No Half Steppin
From: Too Hot to Handle [GTO, 1976]

Diana Ross and Michael Jackson: Ease on Down the Road
From: The Wiz soundtrack [Motown, 1978]

Billy Squier: Big Beat
From: The Tale of the Tape [Capital, 1980]

ESG: UFO
From: S/T [Nine Nine, 1981]

The Emotions: Blind Alley
From: Untouched [Stax, 1971]

Hamilton Bohannon: Singing a Song for My Mother
From: Stop and Go [Dakar, 1973]

I figured that it was about time that I stepped up to the plate after an extended hiatus from posting.  Thanks to Chuck for keeping the fuzz rolling since Junior has decided to take a break from bloggin. Let’s hope that Junior doesn’t leave us for long, as his insightful assessments of rare funk, soul, jazz and hip-hop have been sorely missed during the past month. This one has been in the works ever since G Bogs commented on here that they would like to see Big Daddy Kane’s “Ain’t No Half Steppin featured on a future Anatomy of a Sample post. Well, this goes to show the readers that their comments are taken seriously on Ear Fuzz. I encourage more of you to chime in and let me know what song you would like to see featured next on Anatomy of a Sample. I will do my best to satisfy any requests that you might have, so definitely keep them coming.

With that being said, I am happy to present the latest episode of Anatomy of  a Sample  for your listening pleasure. Today’s episode focuses on the samples used in the classic old-school joint by Big Daddy Kane called “Ain’t No Half Steppin”. For those of you were not exposed to this track when it was originally released in 1988, you are in for a pleasant surprise. As for the rest of you, just sit back and ride the wave of nostalgia that takes you back to the day when you first heard this song bumpin’ on every car stereo in your high school parking lot.

While most of the songs sampled  in “Ain’t No Half Steppin’ don’t necessarily stand on their own as stellar tracks, they are an excellent example of a producer employing the best parts of a song to create something new and vital. From the opening bars of the track, the listener is immediately presented with three samples, setting the stage for a hip-hop masterpiece. 

The main backbeat and groove of the track are taken from the first few seconds of The Emotions’ groovy soul number entitled “Blind Alley”.  Clearly, they added an ample amount of bass to the track,  more than likely to satisfy the appetites of the bass-heads cruising around the strip in their brand new rides.  While this sample carries the main groove, it is hardly the only thing worth sinking your teeth into here.  One such example is the almost “Psycho” like sound effects taken from the 22 second mark of ESG’s “UFO” which sounds like it was phased in and out using studio trickery. Last, at the 34 second mark of “Ain’t No Half Steppin, a smooth horn line from the 18 second mark of Hamilton Bohannon’s “Singing a Song For My Mother” is introduced , but it seems to have been altered to sound a bit faster with more echo.  Now we have the main groove from “Blind Alley” peppered with horn blasts from “Singing a Song For My Mother” with a little bit of  spooky synth from “UFO” adding to the overall complexity of the song.

Next, during the chorus of the track,  the 1:39 mark of Heat Wave’s “Ain’t No Half Steppin” is sampled to great effect, providing a melodic counterpoint to Kane’s gruff rhyming style.  After this, Kane samples his own material in the chorus with a refrain of “I’m the Big Daddy Kane”, as well as a random part of “Ease On Down the Road by Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. This one had me absolutely baffled, as it was part of the scratching at the very end of the chorus, and is practically impossible to decipher. If any of you have any thoughts about what part of ”Ease on Down the Road” was sampled, I would greatly appreciate your feedback.

After two more incredibly creative verses from Kane, the vocals from the 27 second mark of Billy Squier’s “Big Beat” are expertly scratched in by Mista Cee for about 17 seconds . To close out the track, Kane spits one more verse that fades out with the horn sample from Hamilton Bohannon’s “Singing a Song For My Mother”, sounding like it has been bathed in echo.

I hope you have enjoyed this episode of Anatomy of a Sample, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my analysis of the samples used on Big Daddy Kane’s “Ain’t No Half Steppin.

Hey folks! Thanks Chuck for keeping the Fuzz rolling.

I’ve been at a loss as to what to post exactly these days. I was contemplating doing an homage to Junior and posting some forgotten Soul or Funk gem, but I’m still trying to figure out if I have anything fitting in my collection. Junior is a hard act to follow; so many amazing selections and posts.  Salud! … So,  in the interest of avoiding bloggers block and putting some fresh tunes up, I’m going to work with what I have banging around at the moment. Here are two random 45RPM 12″ platters that sound better (in my opinion) at 33.

Rocking a record at half speed is, of course, nothing new – DJ Screw famously inspired a whole Hip Hop movement out of  Texas with his “screwed” down mixes. For the curious, there is a great documentary about Screw which has conveniently surfaced on Youtube – part 1 of 11 kicks off here. And currently, Dave Nada of Nadastrom is wandering the country wrecking shop with “Moombathon” – his self-described brand of screwed down Dutch House. A great story on the origins of Moombahton here, and, a very tasty Nada mix-tape here.

… now, let’s slow some stuff down…

First up, we take 1985 Synth Pop Disco Curtie and The Boombox single Black Kisses (Never Make You Blue) and stretch it from from 4:27 to 9:04. Interesting things happen… the rhythm section shifts gears to a meditative echo-y drum stomp almost reminiscent of a long Cure jam (kinda like Pictures of You perhaps?). The staccato guitar retains a bit of its original pace and bounce. Meanwhile, the vocals are pitched down to a thicker, huskier tone (again, I get a goth vibe).  At 33, the synth arrangement really comes into focus.

The original is also quite excellent… Black Kisses works at any speed really.

Next up, we have a record I thought I was playing at the right speed, then I heard the Youtube uploads – I couldn’t believe it. I very much do not like this tune at its original tempo: it’s too “in your face”. However, screwed down, I absolutely love it – it’s addictive. At 33, Nino’s brilliant layered shifting arrangement and wonderfully expansive mix just kind of shimmers (if that makes any sense). This record sits well in any room as a low-key dance track or just an upbeat sound-scape.

Hope you dig. Thanks.

Hey here in San Francisco, it seems like we can get as much funk as we want as far as gigs. Tonight (7/25) is the 2nd year anniversary of Sweater Funk at the Li Po Lounge; apparently its a funk party not to be missed. Well I guess I’m grinding too much since they are already on their 2nd year anniversary and I’ve never been, and I don’t know what a ’sweater’ funk is .. I just funk. Regardless, the Sweater Funk team though put up a mix you can get here to give you an idea of the boogie funk sound they get into.

Meanwhile, I’m tethered to the desk between my first job, my second, and my third – but I wouldn’t want to neglect putting some funk for y’all up into the clouds.

First up, I’ve wanted to do this post on Albert King’s post Stax Records, kinda ‘funk’ years that occurred on Tomato Records. I haven’t had time to really getting the writing together though. In the interim period of doing some Albert King research, I found this amazing Albert King soul guitar gem, called ‘I’m Doin Fine’ and the lyrics kinda of fit where I’m at with ‘accepting thangs’ .. #TRUTH:

I can remember the times I used to cry – and then I saw a man one day who didn’t have no eyes – You see I’m doin fine. I’m doin fine, fine, fine after all.
The police gave me a ticket, made me mad as hell – When I went to pay the fine, a man got six months in jail. I’m doin fine. Lord I’m doin fine, fine, fine after all

Albert King – I’m Doin Fine

‘I’m Doin Fine’ comes from Albert King’s 1977 album ‘The Pinch’ which was his last official LP for Stax Records before he jumped to Tomato Records. I’ll get more into the amazing years Albert King enjoyed with the label in a further post.

READ ON FOR MORE CLOUD FUNKIN ….

Regarding King’s Tomato Records years, let me at least share one boogie jam from that era before I whip out the extended post. I was surprised to hear from my New Orleans based DJ friend and overall funk savant DJ Soul Sister that she hadn’t heard King’s 1979 New Orleans funk overture, ‘New Orleans Heat’ which was produced by Allen Toussaint and even featured Meters guiarist Leo Nocentell. So I share – Here’s one of the few jamming originals from that album:

Albert King (with Allen Toussaint and Leo Nocentelli) – We All Wanna Boogie

Ok more cloud funkin.

I’m a Leo, ok? From Cannonball Adderley’s ‘Love Sex and the Zodiac’ …

Cannonball Adderley – Leo

And more Adderley and more info on Leo’s – another, different cut about the same sign from another record just titled the ‘Soul Zodiac’ … more cerebral

Click here to view the embedded video.

I shared a lot of George Clinton this week over on our Earfuzz Facebook page – http://facebook.com/earfuzz - and that’s because it was George’s 69th birthday on July 22nd. Happy Birthday Leo/Cancer George!

Here’s one I didn’t share on our page – a live George Clinton and Garry Shider (rest in power) vamp called ‘Skip to My Loo’ – I think from a 1979 tour. Even baritone Ray Davis (rest in power) comes in at the end and helps out.

Parliament-Funkadelic (Live) – Skip to My Loo

Ok I’m back to grinding and I’ll see y’all SF peoples out at Sweater Funk

I got wind this past Friday that some your favorite DJ’s were posting up their favorite 45s on Twitter – taking photos of rare 45’s and posting the links. You can easily go to Twitter and search on the hash tag – #45Fridays. I’m already missing Earfuzz bossman Junior and his penchant for writing up rare as heck soul and funk 45s. He’d love #45Fridays!

Ok, so the pictured 45 – I found it on DJ BK-One’s Facebook page ; I wasn’t even looking for it on Twitter. BK-One I had only heard of once because he was on a compliation called ‘Do It To It’ which I suggest you cop here, but I imagine he’s a great DJ, I just haven’t earpeeped his mixes yet. He’s got a nice joint on the comp called ‘Turn that MF UP’. Ok shameless plug – I’m on that same ‘Do It To It’ comp as well with my own group fONKSQUISh. What’s weird is, my jam on the comp features Funkadelic’s Billy Bass Nelson. Well BK-One’s posted the pictured 45 for #45Fridays – and it’s a Revilot 45 by The Holidays, a Detroit vocal group featuring Funkadelic. Apparently BK-One says it was also released as a Parliaments instrumental, but I’ve never heard that one either – I’ll have to dig for it.

‘All That Required’ is a typical George Clinton penned jam - I mean, you know, where George out does Smokey Robinson with the one liners as George typically does – and a Holland brother (from the famous Holland Dozier Holland Motown and post Motown writing team) is here writing too, so go figure.

I’m not the DJ who digs for 45’s and has an extensive collection – but I certainly have most all of the George Clinton produced 45’s from the late 50s to the early 70s. BUT I didn’t have this one! It’s quite a revelation for me since I always believe I’ve heard every P-Funk rarity ever. You can hear Eddie Hazel do some sick and twisted things with the rhythm and lead guitars, and I’m pretty sure Billy Bass Nelson is holding down the bass line – almost sure it’s the entire Funkadelic band. I’ll ask Billy about it … Anyone care to leave some more info this one in the comments?? I love at about 2:30, Eddie just kicks this twisted guitar solo just in time to work on out as the song fades on …

The Holidays – All That is Required (Is You) – featuring Funkadelic / George Clinton Produced

Of course, there are also right beautiful vocals from the Holidays on the song, who I can’t turn much up on via a Google search because – well, the Holidays – turns up other results. I’m sure you know more – go ahead and let us know.

READ ON FOR TWO MORE #45FRIDAYS …

Ok real quick, two more 45’s to share. I’m looking to funk songs to contain my mantras right now. And Billy Preston’s ‘Whole New Thing’ is one of those jams … produced by the ever elusive Truman Thomas, a keyboard player who we funkateers often confuse for Billy Preston himself, assumed to be a pen name, but we’re never sure. Jeffery Bowen also gets writer credits here, but I assume he took the credits from Billy Bass Nelson as well. But Billy doesn’t play on this Preston version – I believe it’s Keni Burke on bass, who you may know from ‘Rising to the Top’. Regardless of the credits, ‘Whole New Thing’ is a romp, and I’m going with the mantra in the lyrics:

It’s the beginning of a whole new thing
My head is together, and I’m feeling breezy
Believe me when I tell you people, that it was never easy
I couldn’t create cuz some people all around me didn’t want to see me make it
Me and friend talkin deep within, said we can’t afford to fake it
I know in life everybody get’s a chance, most times the people blow it
But I got a field of green green grass, sit back and watch me grow it

Billy Preston – Whole New Thing

While I love Billy Preston’s version of ‘Whole New Thing’ .. Rose Banks version of the same the jam – to me wins out. Rose Banks by the way of course is actually Rose Stone – Sly Stone’s sister. And Billy Bass Nelson does this different thing on the bridge that takes this version of ‘Whole New Thing’ in a different direction. Plus Truman Thomas goes a little more synthesizer-tastic here. And Freddie Stone, Eddie Hazel and Billy Bass are just taking the song in a more P-Funk direction. Love Billy Bass’s walking basslines here – more in the cut in a way than the Preston version.

Also Rose starts out with a different lyric which is more honest, but it’s also uplifting.

It’s the beginning of a whole new thing
My head was under the weather, I’ve been out in the rain
My eyes have been so cloudy, I couldn’t see a thing
It’s the beginning of a whole new thing
My head is together, and I’m feeling breezy
Believe me when I tell you people, that it was never easy
I said goodbye to yesterday – I left it all behind
Today’s the first day of my life, I came alive inside me
And the truth is, that love was the only thing I needed
I’m satisfied deep down inside, my life now has true meaning

Rose Banks – Whole New Thing

I own the 45 for Rose Banks’ ‘Whole New Thing’ and would love to take a pic of it – but it’s locked up in the basement of my ‘Whole Old Thing’ – but here’s a picture of a promo copy.

Also since we are on the topic of the Family Stone, more pics of 45 rarieties relating to Sly Stone, posted up also by BK One:

Still so busy, too busy to write! So here are some jams in the interim!

Thanks to my Earfuzz colleague who posted up this hip hop video from Canadian rapper Shad, above. I’m feeling the vibe – is it an Al Green sample? I can’t tell. More on Shad right here.

Ok since you are grinding like me, here are a couple more cloud thangs to keep you going.

I am a GIANT fan of DJ U-Tern and I see he’s got a new remix up here from LexiconDon. I have no idea who LexiconDon is, but uh I am LOVING THIS summer boogie funk vibe, oh man U-Tern, you slayyyyy it every time!

Make sure to keep up with DJ U-Tern’s blog here – http://onedaylater.blogspot.com

The blog Some Kind of Awesome posted up THE JAM of Prince’s new 20Ten album, so I repost it here .. it’s called ‘Lay it Down’.

Keenhouse from LA – one of my favorite kinda ableton new wave funkers ever – revisits House De Racket’s ‘Oh Yeah’ and breathes new super funk life into this shout calling song to all the funkers of the past, present, and future:

GrahamZilla, who you may remember from Thunderheist, has a new EP coming with Jess Jubilee – I’m feeling this sampler for ‘Bossanovva’ – with two V’s. BTW, GZ is known as ‘Nautiluss‘ now.

Feeling Skinny Friedman’s electro trip out funk here with ‘100 Dollar Salad’. DJ Apt One makes this sound kinda BOOMY on the remix. I wonder what the base sample is for this because I really love it.

Ok still not enough music for you to grind to? Uhhhh… I love this minimalistic housey kind of mix from Nick The V .. Check it – 30 minutes of concentration music for your work day. Track listing here.

View from my desk at work! GRIND ON…

Here’s a quick take of things up in the clouds right now

DJ Apt One – The Tilt

DJ Apt One is a collaborator and just the homie, a precise and funky musician as well as talented DJ. He’s got a new single coming out this week, and this is the A side .. fastidious disco-y slickness

Maximum Balloon – If You Return (Featuring Little Dragon)

I left SXSW 2010 with a lot of memories and tears in my eyes. I was crying for a couple of reasons, but the vocals and lyrics of Little Dragon singing on the Gorillaz’s ‘Empire Ants’ just made me more melty as the plane left the tarmac. I love Little Dragon’s smooth vocals on this track … and the rhythm guitars and snyths just wash me over with some kind of future throwback funk.

Ok several more jams to earpeep !! Read on for more cloudfunkx …

Foals – Miami (Remixes)

Digging on the pop zsteeze of the Foals’ jam ‘Miami’ .. a few good electro-disco remixes right here, including a slap bass laden Tim Fuchs / Flight Facilities remix and a super bouncy take on it fromJono Ma.

Tim Fuchs / Flight Facilities Remix

Jono Ma / Franklin Furter Remix

GUTS – You’re Living Like Pigs (Tal M. Klein Remix)

I follow the Soundcloud of Bay Area producer Tal M Klein pretty religiously for breakbeats, remixes, and just general funkyness. One of his remixes for GUTS caught my ear recently. I can’t even explain the vibe of this track. Just listen, it’s uproarious, uplifting, like some disco-chill out Sesame Street theme, even big on the horns, and then some kind of chamber-esque euro vocals – too much to even consider in one jam – but it works! I asked Tal about the artist …

I think this is coming out later this year. GUTS is my main man in Ibiza, his website is http://analoglife.fr and he’s got an album on Nightmares On Wax’s Wax On label and another on his own Pura Vida imprint. Check him out!

Ok the Albert King post is coming, I promise, but for now I’m gonna jam on these and get back to work!

While we do at Earfuzz focus on the rare funk/soul/jazz/latin/hip-hop+more steeze – here are few newer type jams coming in from around the net. Since I myself would wind up sharing most of these with people throughout the week privately, why not do it right here… and we promise, you’ll dance, dance dance!