Playlist for 2/20/08

Sorry for the delay on posting this playlist - I’ve stopped taking my computer to the station, and it’s very easy to procrastinate typing this up later on…

Without further ado, here’s the Night Train playlist for 2/20/08:

The JB’s: “Night Train (Instrumental Live)”
James Brown: “I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door I’ll Get it Myself”
New Process: “More Mess on My Thing Pt. II”
Pronouns: “Chicken Peck (Part II)”
Jr. Walker & THe All Stars: “Clinging to the Thought She’s Coming Back”
Rufus Thomas: “Breakdown (Part I)”
Professor Longhair: “Mardi Gras in New Orleans”

Playlist 2/13/08

Here’s the playlist for the first half of last night’s Night Train. I’ll post the show itself next week (you can pick up the mp3 from last week below.)

A couple 45’s to start…

James Brown: “Night Train” (7″, Island Records 1962)
“Say It Loud I’m Black & I’m Proud (Pt. I)” (7″, King 1968)
Junior Walker & The All Stars: “Groove & Move” (7″, Soul 1970)
Syl Johnson: “Dresses too Short” (7″, Twilight 1968)
Millie Jackson: “Breakaway” (7″, Spring 1972)
Maceo Parker: “Soul Power ‘92″ (from Life on Planet Groove, Verve 1992)
Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators: “No One’s Gonna Love You” (from Keep Reachin Up, Timmion Records 2005)

Last Week’s Show Posted, Upcoming Concerts

The first 60 minutes of last week’s Night Train are now freely available for download. Pick it up here.

The recently opened Sullivan Hall (formerly Lion’s Den) in Greenwich Village, where I saw the Dynamites play an explosive set last Friday night with Charles Walker, is turning out to be a great new venue for funk. Two fresh acts will be playing some live music there in late February and March.

Lettuce is a rougher and jammier instrumental offshoot of Soulive, featuring Eric Krasno and Neal Evans from the latter group on guitar and keys respectively. Not to be too judgmental, but I much prefer Lettuce’s gritty stylings over Soulive’s smoother soul sound (especially of late). Soulive’s recent touring, with Toussaint Yeshua on vocals, demonstrated that they had moved far away from their jammy origins. With Lettuce, Neal and Eric are taking a conscious step back to their roots. They’ll be playing two nights at Sullivan Hall, February 29 and March 1 at 9PM; tickets are $14a/$16d.o. and available here. Their music is most easily accessible from their myspace.

More exciting show announcements after the jump.

Playlist 2/6/08

James Brown Night Train

Joe Tex You Said A Bad Word

Rotary Connection I Am The Black Gold Under The Sun

Timmy Thomas Why Can’t We Live Together

Parliament One Of Those Funky Things

Billy Butler Right Track

Captain Coconut Jubilant Crackhead Strut

Dynamites with Charles Walker Own Thing

Ticket Giveaway! Tonight!

Make sure to tune in to the Night Train on 89.9FM tonight at 1AM, because we’ll be giving away free tickets to see the Dynamites play at Sullivan Hall this Friday.  There will be trivia…

Preemption Reminder for Tonight

Wednesday January 30 will be devoted to Roy Eldridge on WKCR.  Therefore, no Night Train.  Remember to tune in next week…

Antibalas Concert Review, Budos Opening at Beacon…

…and don’t forget, you can listen to the Night Train wherever, whenever, by picking up the MP3 of the first 80 minutes of Tuesday’s show for free. Control-click/right click and “save to disk” to listen to it outside the browser.

Back to business: turns out the Budos Band will be opening for Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings when they come back to New York. Another reason to make it out there for this one. That show is at the Beacon Theater on Friday, February 15. Tickets, available here, are $25-$35.

Also, just noted that Galactic will be going back on tour, but have not yet announced any NYC dates.

As I mentioned on the last show, I was lucky enough to snag tickets to Antibalas‘ sold-out show at the Southpaw in Park Slope last Saturday. Doors opened a little late, but I didn’t mind too much because the show started pretty much on time…

(The whole shebang, plus photos… well, a photo, after the jump.)

Download the Night Train!

Download away… this is a bit of a pilot thing, and it contains only the first 80 minutes of the show. Email me at jik2105 (at) columbia (dot) edu with any suggestions/comments on how this system works out. Due to space limitations, I’ll only be able to post one half-show at a time - make sure to grab it before it gets displaced (which won’t be for an extra week due to the preemption).

The URL is http://www.columbia.edu/~jik2105/night-train-1-23.mp3.

Playlist 1/23/08 & Upcoming Preemption

The Night Train will be pre-empted for the Roy Eldridge birthday broadcast on KCR next Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (1/30/08). Bollocks.

Sorry about the lateness of the playlist for last night - I promise I’ll start putting it up this afternoon.

As promised, the Night Train for 1/23/08:

We started off, of course, with the traditional “Night Train”. Next up were recordings by artists which have just played in or soon will hit New York (Antibalas, The Dynamites, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings) plus a request (marked by a *):

James Brown: “Night Train” (7″ single w/ Famous Flames, Island Records 1962)
Antibalas: “War Hero” (from Security, Anti- 2006)
The Dynamites Feat. Charles Walker: “Slinky” (from Kaboom, Outta Sight 2007)
*Funkadelic: “Cosmic Slop” (from Cosmic Slop, Westbound 1973)
Rufus Thomas: “Sophisticated Sissy” (Stax 1967)
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: “Something’s Changed”
“Humble Me” (both from 100 Days, 100 Nights, Daptone 2007)

We then moved on to tackling a stack of 45s a friend of mine recently brought over from Cleveland, plus many more requests:

100 Proof: “Somebody’s Been Sleeping in My Bed” (7″ single, Hot Wax 1969)
Joe Tex: “You Said a Bad Word” (7″ single, Dial 1972)

The Dynamites feat. Charlie Walker Coming back to NYC

One of the most promising new acts playing high-powered old-school funk, the Tennessee band the Dynamites featuring the veteran Charles Walker will be playing at Sullivan Hall in Greenwich Village on Friday, February 8.  I saw these guys play at the Annex in July, and it was a… mind blowing experience.  At least as much energy as Lee Fields generated with the Dap Kings at the Apollo last year, except with no seats or separation from the band.  Sullivan Hall is larger, but still should allow some wild dancing and all the energy that comes with…

Tickets available now, $15 advance and $18 day of.  The Dynamites are opening for Eric Lindell, so make sure not to get there too long after the 8:30 showtime.  18+.

And Antibalas at the Southpaw was every bit as solid as I predicted.  Proper post (with pictures) on that when I get the time.

And, of course, listen to the show tonight! 1AM!