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A tribute to Sharon Jones on the fifth anniversary of her transformation to start proceedings, then new tunes in the funk & punk, soul & rock realms for the full two hours as Danno continues to fly solo this week with the flu unabating.
"The Drop with Danno" on GFN 광주영어방송 98.7FM in Gwangju & 93.7FM in Yeosu, Korea. An eclectic radio curation of all things musical spanning the spectrum every week. Broadcasting 8-10pm KST nightly.
Nov 18, 2021
The Drop with Danno
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – He Said I Can (Live)
Marie “Queenie” Lyons – See & Don’t See
The Bahama Soul Club feat John Lee Hooker – Never Roam No More
Camille Yarbrough – Take Yo’ Praise
Elise LeGrow – Drinking In The Day
Maggie Rose feat Marcus King – What Makes You Tick
Queens Cast & Brandy – Ain’t No Sunshine
Allen Stone with Alessia Cara – Bed I Made
El Michels Affair feat Piya Malik – Idhar Udhar
Abi Farrell – Don’t Follow Me
Los Days feat Tommy Guerrero & Josh Lippi – Floating Against The Night Sky
Mavis Staples – Change
GA-20 – Naggin’ On My Mind
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight on a nice sunny Thursday and since it is the fourth day of the work week, we got to get the soul, rock, funk, & punk out for our Sampled & AMPED weekly. With tonight branded in the sky above as November 18, 2021. This is Danno bossin the mic but not around in studio 2 GFN HQ located in downtown Gwangju, how do you do? As is de rigeur every Thursday it is time to wave the funky plumes to the heavens for our Sampled first hour, with new joints to feature Elise LeGrow, Abi Ferrell, and Allen Stone amongst others during the course of our first 57 tonight. As mentioned last night I’ve been kinda down this week with the flu, so I avoided having both Dan Lloyd and Lizz Kalo coming into the studio physically, but our rock maestro as always will deliver however virtually after we hit the top of the clock again for our AMPED rock and/or roll weekly feature, and I’ve added a couple joints just to make sure we got the time covered and/or we get a bit of extra goods on the podcast. However, one must wait for the previously mentioned, and tonight we pay tribute to the power of Sharon Jones on this 5th anniversary of her passing with a live recording from The Apollo and Sharon being the pure vibe that she was in life. THIS is The Drop.
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – He Said I Can (Live)
The Drop has made the red light go on once again, and it is our Sampled funk & soul Thursday night. Now, we just started with a recent release from Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings recorded live at the apollo theater in Harlem back in 2014, and that’s the 2nd tune on the recently released live record called He Said I Can.
Tonight we start by remembering Sharon Jones, who passed away on this date five years prior. A powerhouse vocalist who only discovered success in music late in life at the age of 40, she was diagnosed with cancer back in 2013, although a series of strokes suffered on election night seem to be what finally caused her passing. Interestingly, she was lucid through all of this, and claimed that the shock of the 2016 election in the US is what caused them.
I’m sure she’s not alone on that count. However, where she is also not alone is at Daptone Records, as she & fellow New Yorker Charles Bradley built up the label from the start 20 years ago, and with Daptone celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, this live record featuring both along with some of the label’s house bands was released earlier this year. The album is called The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live at the Apollo, essential listening for any funk & soul head.
Sharon Jones, a powerful Grammy nominated presence in funk & soul, dearly missed five years on. Rest in power.
#9870 (50/100)…SM…podcast.
Now, we’re gonna keep it mostly with the ladies tonight with both new & older tunes here in part 1, and up next we have Marie “Queenie” Lyons to be followed by John Lee Hooker & Camille Yarbrough, all of which we’ll break down but not off side opposite the soundings. THIS is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday.
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Back on The Drop tonight after our first audio wormhole of the evening. Danno here trying to help you get lost or stay focused, however you wanna do it, coming at you but not necessarily for you from studio 2, GFN HQ, downtown Gwangju. Thanks for bumpin with us tonight, you are just the tops. It is our Sampled funk & soul first hour right now, Dan Lloyd’s AMPED rock feature comes up later on without our rock maestro in the studio physically, but he’s got the playlist locked and loaded as per usual for this week as I’ve had a bit of a flu bug episode this week, so just being cautious having him stay away. For now, let’s summarize our first block of cuts for tonight...
Marie “Queenie” Lyons – See & Don’t See (…an interesting episode in funk & soul right here. This tune appeared on her 1970 debut Soul Fever, and then she just vanished off the music map. Queenie certainly had the qualifications (in both sass and vocals) to be hired by JAMES BROWN as one of his “funky divas.” But quite what happened to Queenie after the album’s release has been lost in the mists of time. “SOUL FEVER” languished in obscurity for a couple of decades. But slowly, through the years, it’s ascended to cult classic status.)
The Bahama Soul Club feat John Lee Hooker – Never Roam No More (…this is a German jazz & electronica combo based now in Portugal. This was the lead single to their 2020 album Bohemia After Dawn, although the single dropped in late 2018. The tune samples John Lee Hooker’s 1946 recording of My First Wife Left Me.)
Camille Yarbrough – Take Yo’ Praise (…now, one lady who is definitely known after making this 1975 record is Camille Yarbrough. Now 83, she spun her music career into becoming a successful author of children’s books and television producer. And of course, any Fatboy Slim fans out there caught that vocal sample instantly. Very good LP, The Iron Pot Cooker, if you wanna dig deeper.)
Now heading towards the end of part 1, we’ve got a recent tune from Elise LeGrow to feature right now called Drinking In The Day, and we’ll finish up with Maggie Rose & Marcus King with a tune called What Makes You Tick, and that’ll take us to the first jump this evening. This is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday night.
Elise LeGrow – Drinking In The Day
Maggie Rose feat Marcus King – What Makes You Tick
II.
The Drop continues and we have officially struck up the bands for our 2nd stanza of the radiological orchestra this evening. What’s going on tonight Drop Gangsters (KOR)? Danno here featuring a couple recent releases on the more acoustic soul front right there to start, so let’s flip the record and see what we can find on the back...
Queens Cast feat Brandy – Ain’t No Sunshine (…a cover of the Bill Withers classic right here. This is a new series appearing on ABC in the States starring Brandy, Eve, Nadine Velasquez & Naturi Naughton, the synopsis of which reads “Four women in their 40s reunite for a chance to recapture their fame and regain the swagger they had as legends in the 1990s hip-hop world.” Kind of interesting, but I don’t know if Brandy needs a series to pump up her career, as she’s been very active here in 2021.)
Allen Stone & Alessia Cara – Bed I Made (…Washington state’s main soul man here teams up with Alessia Cara. This is part of a stripped down album of fan favorites called APART, just out last Friday. The man can do no wrong, even with just a guitar and an empty studio. Brilliant.)
So, let’s head on to the next block, and get a little more drum action, but not go crazy with the gas. Up next we have another instrumental bit of biz from El Michels Affair, to be followed by Abi Farrell and Los Days, all of which we’ll discuss further after they float around and come back to ground. THIS is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday.
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The Drop continues as we reach for the final airbreak of the first half tonight. Danno here, going through our Sampled funk & soul first half tonight, and as stated but in case you’re just joining us Gwangju’s man on the drums Dan Lloyd is only here in spirit tonight as I’ve been battling a bit of flu this week, so just making sure everyone stays healthy for this week. Now, as far as what we just let swerve in the atmosphere, that was...
El Michels Affair feat Piya Malik – Idhar Udhar (…Big Crown main man Leon Michels right here following up the massive success of his full length Yeti Season LP which dropped earlier this year. The Abominable EP is a collection of unreleased tracks, alternate takes, and instrumentals from the Yeti Season recording sessions. The EP drops in full next week on November 26.)
Abi Farrell – Don’t Follow Me (…after an exclusive first play on BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms Show and being selected by Mi-Soul Radio as their One-To-Watch track of the week, this is the artist’s extra smooth third single release for AC Records.)
Los Days – Floating Against The Night Sky (…this band is located “off grid” near Joshua Tree National Park in the US, and this is off their release from earlier this year called Singing Sands, with this single featuring Tommy Guerrero & Josh Lippi with their own quality input.)
So, to finish the first half we’re gonna get in some delta blues stuff before we light it up with our AMPED weekly. Up next is the grand matron of Mississippi in Mavis Staples and a tune called Change, then we’ll get to the younger generation with a tune called Naggin’ On My Mind, which is by GA-20 and that’s gonna wrap our first 57 for this evening. THIS is The Drop on your Sampled & AMPED Thursday and it is halftime.
Mavis Staples – Change
GA-20 – Naggin’ On My Mind
III & IV AMPED
Darkness - It's Love, Jim
IDLES - The Wheel
Hot Water Music - Killing Time
Coheed and Cambria - Rise, Naianasha (Cut the Cord)
Gang of Youths - Tend the Garden
Mitski – The Only Heartbreaker
Korn - Start the Healing
Converge - Coil
Pinegrove - Alaska
NHC- The Devil That You Know
Elbow - Six Words
fanclubwallet – That I Won’t Do
Darkness - It's Love, Jim
The Darkness' 7th album Motoheart is out this Friday. It's classic Darkness - big guitar riffs, crazy high pitched vocals, and it's all very, very light-hearted. As Kerrang says in its 3/5 review:
Motorheart is without doubt the silliest album The Darkness have ever made. Everything Justin Hawkins sings sounds desperately sincere, as if borne of nothing but authentic emotion, and when this apparent candour is applied to the title-track’s subject matter – having sex with robots – it’s clear that The Darkness are mostly here to make us smile.
IDLES - The Wheel
“The Wheel” is about the cycle of alcoholism. My mom was an amazing mother and a wonderful friend, but she didn’t stop drinking until she died. I remember being about 10, on my knees crying and begging her to stop. I can call her a great mother all I want, but she didn’t do enough to be my mother after the age of 16. That was it. She had a stroke and then was under my care as a boy, really. That was the moment that came to my head when listening to this song over and over again, because it has that dark, cold, motorik kind of thing that alcoholism is. I wouldn’t have been able to write it before. I was too angry. — J.T.
We always knew “The Wheel” was coming after “MTT 420 RR.” We knew there would be this smack in the face. We wanted to write a glam rock song, but inevitably we made it really, really heavy. I thought it was important to include a lot of the songs that deal directly with trauma and the immediate reactive responses to trauma in the first half. Then, you have the more head-on stuff later — the realization and the dealing with it. This song, the lyrical content about trauma is really harrowing. It’s so heavy and hyper-realistic that it meant the music got more heavy and obtuse. Even now, the chorus is just one note. It’s such an anti-chorus — Joe’s singing “Can I get a Hallelujah?” and not getting one back. — M.B.
Hot Water Music - Killing Time
Gainesville, FL punk veterans Hot Water Music have announced a new album, Feel the Void. The full LP arrives March 18th, but first single “Killing Time” is available now for your listening pleasure. Stream the track below.
Hot Water Music’s latest effort comes after a period of uncertainty for the band. Singer-guitarist Chris Wollard stepped away from the project in 2017 to focus on his mental health, bringing the future of the band into question. That same year, The Flatliners’ Chris Cresswell began performing with the group after a chance encounter between the singer and Hot Water Music drummer George Rebelo.
Now, the band returns, both Chrises in tow, with Feel the Void. They reunited with producer Brian McTernan for the record as well, marking a sort of full-circle moment for the group. McTernan recorded the early aughts Hot Water Music classics A Flight And A Crash, Caution, and The New What Next, and in recent years has lent his talents to scene stars Turnstile.
Coheed and Cambria - Rise, Naianasha (Cut the Cord)
Coheed and Cambria have served up a new song, “Rise, Naianasha (Cut the Cord),” as well as an accompanying animated lyric video. The track follows up the band’s August single, “Shoulders,” and comes ahead of Coheed’s much-anticipated follow-up to 2018’s Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures.
On “Rise, Naianasha (Cut the Cord),” Coheed and Cambria display their penchant for progressive rock, with shifting dynamics, a doomy instrumental breakdown and Claudio Sanchez’s creative storytelling.
“‘Rise, Naianasha’ explores the reach of love and loyalty and the reality that sometimes you need to be more than a shoulder to lean on — you need to become the destroyer,” Sanchez said of the genesis of “Rise, Naianasha (Cut The Cord).”
Gang of Youths - Tend the Garden
Gang of Youths have a new album on the way. angel in realtime. is due out February 25th via Warner, and along with the announcement, the rock quintet have shared the new single “tend the garden.” Gang of Youths have also outlined a North American tour in support of the record.
angel in realtime. was heavily influenced by the passing of frontman Dave Le’aupepe’s father, whose life was largely a mystery to his son. “My dad was a gifted and passionate gardener,” he said in a statement. “Despite our humble surroundings, we were always surrounded by beauty. The journey he made from Samoa to NZ to Australia was a difficult and inspiring one, but also fraught with mistakes, regret and terrible choices.”
Le’aupepe added, “I like to think he was building something beautiful, and pondering what life had given him in spite of his mistakes and concealment. We never knew his story until after he died, so this is the most poetic interpretation of his affinity for gardening that I could think of.” Mirroring the dichotomy of beauty in the face of adversity, “tend the garden” is a bittersweet track that teeters back and forth between a whimsical synth groove and melodramatic piano arrangements. Finally, it bursts into a euphoric, shimmering coda.
Korn - Start the Healing
Korn's year is winding down on a high note as the veteran band has just released "Start the Healing," their first new original song since the issuing their 13th album, The Nothing, in 2019, and it is now confirmed that Requiem will serve as that album's successor. Feb 22, 2022.
The track's arrival comes after days of light, cryptic teasing by Korn and its members. A billboard bearing a black/grey background and the Korn logo began to appear around the world earlier this week and this was followed up by static video clips that offered up one clue, "11:11," leaving fans to try to piece together the significance of these numbers in tandem with the infinity loop symbol that appeared in captions.
Converge - Coil
Blood Moon I, the colloration between Converge, Chelsea Wolfe and others, is out this week. It got awarded Album of the Week over at Stereogum, who state "Bloodmoon: I isn’t a Converge record with guest appearances. It’s a complete revision of what Converge even is." From the early tracks, it seems this is much less frenetic and aggressive than your typical Converge record and instead leans heavily on input from the records collaborators, notably Chelsea Wolfe and Cave In's Steven Brodsky.
Pinegrove - Alaska
Pinegrove have announced a new album, 11:11. The follow-up to last year’s Marigold is out January 28th through Rough Trade. To coincide with the announcement, the New Jersey band has shared 11:11’s first single, “Alaska.” Stream the track below.
11:11 marks Pinegrove’s fifth studio album. Evan Stephens Hall and company produced the record themselves, and Death Cab for Cutie collaborator Chris Walla handled mixing. In a press release for the album, Hall described the album as a beacon of hope in troubled times.
“Calling the record 11:11 should be a heartening statement, though there’s certainly a range of emotion across the album,” Hall said. “There’s much to be angry about right now, and a lot of grief to metabolize. But hopefully, the loudest notes are of unity, collectivity, and community. I want to open a space for people to feel all these things.”
Short and sweet single “Alaska” offers a look at the more rocking side of Pinegrove, a group who usually wear their folk and country influences on their sleeves. The guitar-driven track contrasts with the previous single “Orange,” a slow-moving waltz that protests government inaction regarding climate change.
NHC- The Devil That You Know
NHC, the new supergroup featuring Foo Fighters‘ Taylor Hawkins and Jane’s Addiction members Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney, have released two new songs: “Devil That You Know” and “Lazy Eyes.”
Back in September, we first reported on the new trio, who shared two song shared their first two songs — “Feed the Cruel” and “Better Move On” — at that time. Now, they’re unveiling have another pair of tunes.
Fans of Hawkins’ drumming and Navarro’s guitar playing will immediately recognize the musical familiarities between NHC and the full-time projects of each member. “Devil That You Know” touts psych rock flourishes and lush melodies while “Lazy Eyes” is a more active, power-pop jammer. The former is Jane’s-y, the latter more Foo-like.
Elbow - Six Words
Beautiful ballad from Elbow's new album Flying Dream I, out tomorrow. Early reviews have noted the album has a much more restrained sound than Elbow's previous work (and Elbow has always been a restrained, Radio 2 sort of band anyway) but when the songs are this good, it's hard to complain.