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We open with an ode to Al Wilson, then it's funk and punk and soul and rock for our Sampled & AMPED Thursdays with Gwangju's rock maestro taking us out to end it all.
"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.
Apr 21, 2022
The Drop with Danno
Al Wilson – La La Peace Song
Monophonics – Love You Better
Rudy De Anda – Cascading
Otis Kane – Free
sir Was – Wish I Could Stay
Stefan Mahendra feat fika & James Beckwith – Honest
Kate Bollinger – No Other Like You
Kate Bollinger – I Don’t Wanna Lose
Allen Stone – A Bit of Both
Haiva Ru feat Devon Gilfillian – Don’t Want Your Love
Robohands – String Feelings
Orgone – Samson
The Rugged Nuggets – Eleventh Hour
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight after a rather overcast scent of rain approaching kinda day, and it is time to make it rain with the funk punk soul rock as it is Thursday, wafted into weather warnings as April 21, 2022. This is Danno, hosting the show that doesn’t quit, emanating the nice from studio 2 in downtown Gwangju, how do you do? Very good new stuff to go through in both hours, with Colemine Records really bringing the new heat for here in our Sampled funk & soul first half, with sir Was, Allen Stone and Devon Gilfillian also adding some extra accent on the slaps. Our rock guru Dan Lloyd will be back in studio to continue the fun in a more rock-oriented vein with our AMPED weekly which starts in part 3 tonight going until the bitter end. But before any of that takes place it’s time for our TIGHT (or) feature to begin the ruckus of love, and who better to do that than the late, great Al Wilson? THIS is The Drop.
Al Wilson – La La Peace Song
The Drop has lit ignition on our Sampled & AMPED Thursday night for this week going over all the latest in the funk punk soul rock realms. For those unfamiliar, this is Danno doing the funky stuff for hour 1, and we just opened as we often do with our TIGHT (or) feature to start the show with some history, that was Al Wilson with La La Peace Song for our opening salvo.
A great soul singer who never made it to any type of superstar status, Wilson passed on this date in 2008. The singer did have a huge hit with Show & Tell from 1973, released the year prior to what you just heard. La La Peace Song was supposed to be the next big thing at the time for the artist, but OC Smith recorded and released his own version of the same song simultaneously to Wilson’s, and sales suffered as a result.
After the 1970’s Wilson was mostly performing at lounges and small venues around the country, but kept at it and he also experienced success in the UK northern soul scene which gave his career another boost. However, in a tragic turn in 2007, most of his studio masters were consumed in a fire that ripped through his home garage which he’d converted into a studio as well.
Rest in power, Al Wilson. A great singer who never got his due.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, pod.
Alright, now that the shameless promotion of self is out of the way, we have a trio of new joints from some of our favorites coming up right now. Monophonics is out with their 2nd single to the upcoming Sage Motel LP, and then we have Rudy De Anda and Otis Kane up to bat after that, all of which we’ll have a bit of a chat about after the sonics spin in the air. THIS is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday.
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The Drop is back at it on the microphone here in studio 2 this evening. Currently amidst our Sampled funk & soul first hour with Dan Lloyd and his rock concoction that we call AMPED ready to rollick starting in hour 2. For right now, we just heard a few new joints right there so let’s get to the details on all three points in the triangle...
Monophonics – Love You Better (…lead singer Kelly Finnigan and his Monophonics have been hitting the road in Europe on tour, and this is the 2nd single to drop from their upcoming Sage Motel LP which comes out May 13. Finnigan will be on the show that very day to rock a playlist with us and take us through some of the background of the band’s latest LP…so do mark it.)
Rudy De Anda – Cascading (…this is a standalone single for now from the Chicago-based artist out of the West Coast. According to the label Colemine Records, the song is a modern take on mid-1970s Brazilian soul, reminiscent of a Delegation meets Tim Maia and Joao Gilberto jam. The artist says additionally that "the more that I fell in love with the tropicalia Brazilian sound, the better I understood how to translate it in to my own music." Check out Rudy’s Tender Epoch album from 2020 for more if you wanna dig deeper.)
Otis Kane – Free (…this is the latest from the 100% independent artist who’s based in LA and seriously on the rise these past couple of years. Do check his debut album Purple Blue for more if you dug that, and he has a slew of standalones and collabs from the past year as well.)
Okay, so we’re running out of real estate on the clock and we still have a couple good new tunes to let run around and breathe a bit. Sir Was is out with Wish I Could Stay this week, which would seemingly be a joint cut from last year’s Let The Morning Come LP, which sees the artist dealing with their own potential mortality after being diagnosed with a rare disease. After that we have Stefan Mahendra and fika who are back with James Beckwith in tow on a cut called Honest. This is from Mahendra’s new EP due out June 3rd which I believe is self-titled, but don’t hold me to that. This is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul first hour.
Sir Was – Wish I Could Stay
Stefan Mahendra feat fika & James Beckwith - Honest
II
Into the 2nd quarter with the tempered flame and accompanying slow burn for tonight’s Sampled funk & soul first half. Danno here making sure to stir it from studio 2 GFN HQ with Dan Lloyd bringing the heavy rock heat for hour 2. That being said, for now it’s all about tomorrow night as we have a very special guest joining us, that was...
Kate Bollinger – No Other Like You (….)
Kate Bollinger – I Don’t Wanna Lose (…tomorrow sees the lovely Virginia native now signed to Ghostly International come out with her latest EP, and Kate will be joining us for an exclusive interview and playlist selection in hour 2. The EP is called Look at it In The Light, out tomorrow, and get a look into the EP with tomorrow’s edition of The Drop.)
#9870, @gfnthedrop, pod.
Moving ahead, we have a trio of new releases from artists we just adore. First up is Allen Stone and we’ll cut to Haiva Ru after that and finish with Robohands. Full details will follow the magic, but for now this is The Drop on your funk & soul Thursday.
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The Drop once again on the mic but for the final time in hour 1 tonight. Danno here, making sure the studio’s properly funky before Dan Lloyd jumps in and blows up the place with our AMPED rock weekly. For that last block, we had a few tunes from some serious favorites down here at Drop Central, so let’s go over it…
Allen Stone – A Bit of Both (…this is a recent addition to the American music reality show rubric called American Song Contest. Modeled after Eurovision, each of the 50 states in the US sees one contestant submit a song, and I would guess this is the entry for Washington State, where the artist is from. As usual, brilliant stuff from Allen Stone.)
Haiva Ru feat Devon Gilfillian – Don’t Want Your Love* (…for those unfamiliar, Haiva Ru is a band out of Santa Barbara, CA lead by Allie Merrill. This song of heartbreak sees the band teaming up with LA-based Devon Gilfillian for a seriously proper touch of soul on this tune that dropped last Friday.)
Robohands – String Feelings (…this is the latest from one of our favorites out of London, the latest single via King Underground. The 2nd single to drop from the upcoming Violet LP due out this summer, the album on the main was inspired by Library Music from the 1970’s, a movement based mainly in Italy.)
So we are close to the close of this first hour tonight, but we still have a new joint from Orgone called Samson to rock, which is from the veteran band’s upcoming Lost Knights LP, due out May 27. After that we probably have a bit of clock real estate to cover so we’ll go with The Rugged Nuggets and a joint called The Eleventh Hour as we reach tonight’s 21st. THIS is The Drop and that is halftime.
Orgone – Samson
The Rugged Nuggets – Eleventh Hour
III & IV AMPED
Citizen – Bash Out
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Kepler-22b
Fontaines DC – Roman Holiday
Momma – Speeding 72
Dance Gavin Dance – Synergy ft Rob Damiani
Tim Kasher – What Are We Doing
High Vis -Talk For Hours
Bruce Lee Band – I Hate This
Nervus – Drop Out
Kirk Hammett – High Plains Drifter
Raw Plastic – Crying on a Surfboard
Belle and Sebastian – Young and Stupid
Citizen – Bash Out
Last year’s Life In Your Glass World was a leap forward for the Ohio trio Citizen, and next week they’re embarking on a tour where they’ll perform alongside Turnstile and Ceremony. Today, they’re releasing a new one-off single, the driving and likable “Bash Out.” “If I never come around/ If you don’t see me for a while/ Just know I ain’t coming home,” goes the chorus. The song comes with a video directed by Mason Mercer.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Kepler-22b
In a few days, prolific psych-rockers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard will release their new album, Omnium Gatherum, which follows last year’s Butterfly 3000. So far, the Australian band shared an 18-minute single “The Dripping Tap” and “Magenta Mountain.” Now, they’re back with another album cut: “Kepler-22b,” which also has a music video.
Commenting on this period of abundance, the band’s the band’s Stu Mackenzie says: “We have lists of albums and ideas we should try that we haven’t done yet. I don’t know if we’ll ever work through them all… I hope we can keep this thing going for a long time. Maybe one day we’re just going to wake up and be like, ‘I don’t know if I’ve got anything else to contribute. I’m going to call it.’ Maybe that’s how it’s gonna end. But at this point, we’ll just keep on making music as we feel inspired.”
Fontaines DC – Roman Holiday
This week, Fontaines D.C. are set to release their latest album, Skinty Fia. We’ve already heard a few album tracks from the Irish post-punkers, including “I Love You,” “Skinty Fia,” and “Jackie Down The Line,” and now we’re getting one more: “Roman Holiday.”
Kicking off with a strong beat, “Roman Holiday” has a bittersweet, almost longing melody. The band’s Grian Chatten says of the single: “‘Roman Holiday’ makes me think of the wide streets of north London in the summer and the urge to discover them at night time. The thrill of being a gang of Irish people in London with a bit of a secret language and my first flat with my girlfriend.”
Momma – Speeding 72
Prepare to meet Momma: Today, the Brooklyn indie rock duo have announced their next album Household Name. It’s due for release on July 1st and marks their debut on Polyvinyl. As a preview, co-bandleaders Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten have shared the great single “Speeding 72” and its accompanying music video.
Indebted to alt-rock greats like Nirvana, Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt, and The Breeders, Momma make fuzzed-out guitar music that feels both warmly familiar and excitingly new. Household Name was also Friedman and Weingarten’s first time recording in a proper studio, giving their heavy riffs the hi-fi clarity they deserve without compromising the band’s ’90s-inspired grit. Pre-orders are ongoing.
“Speeding 72” is a tried-and-true summer jam, a breezy song about driving in a car intended for driving in a car. But despite its borderline hackneyed subject matter, “Speeding 72” is chock-full of sticky hooks as Friedman and Weingarten’s airy vocals urge you to join the ride. “Hey, I heard you’re coming from a complicated place at best/ I know a cure, put the pedal to the metal, lay it all to rest,” they sing. Watch the Zach Stone-directed music video for “Speeding 72” below, and remember to always wear your seatbelt.
Dance Gavin Dance – Synergy ft Rob Damiani
Dance Gavin Dance have shared a new statement addressing the immediate future of the band, following the death of their bassist Tim Feerick last week.
The group have confirmed that, in light of their "devastating" loss, they will continue ahead with live plans in Tim's honour, as they know it's "what he would have wanted". So too will they release a new album – the details of which will be announced very soon.
"After many internal discussions with our team and, most importantly, Tim’s family, we have decided to perform this year’s Swanfest and do the subsequent tour in honor and dedication to Tim," DGD write. "We will also move ahead with the announcement of our forthcoming album, later this week."
Read the full statement below:
"This past week has been the most challenging time in Dance Gavin Dance’s history. On Thursday, April 14th, we found out that we had lost Tim. While he was the bassist in the band, he was also our brother and best friend. Losing him is devastating. We were preparing to meet up this past weekend in Sacramento for a photoshoot and then rehearse this week ahead of Swanfest and the subsequent tour, when we heard the devastating news that he was no longer with us.
"After the initial shock and sadness, it wasn’t long after that we were faced with some challenging decisions about the immediate future and our upcoming plans. After many internal discussions with our team and, most importantly, Tim’s family, we have decided to perform this year’s Swanfest and do the subsequent tour in honor and dedication to Tim. We will also move ahead with the announcement of our forthcoming album, later this week.
Tim Kasher – What Are We Doing
Cursive’s Tim Kasher has been rolling out his new solo album Middling Age (out April 15th) since the release of “I Don’t Think About You” in February. A couple weeks back we heard him team with punk lifers Laura Jane Grace and Jeff Rosenstock on “Forever Of The Living Dead.”
The remarkably catchy “What Are We Doing” is Kasher’s exploration of the widening class disparity in America, contrasting images of empty excess with snapshots of people sacrificing a lot just to scrape by. In addition to its customary indie rock instrumentation, the song deploys horns and cello to gorgeous effect. Here’s what Kasher has to say about it:
“What Are We Doing” was written in my current home of LA, and though it references it specifically, it’s more accurately an indictment of the US and/or any first world society — the excess we expend at the expense of others. As a member of said society, I indict myself as well in the song; my hands are just as dirty as the next entitled citizen, benefitting from a “grab-n-go” economy. As is often my preference, the brighter and more melodic a song is, the harder I tend to downturn the lyrics, as I’ve attempted here on this catchy little number, wagging the finger at myself and all of us privileged folk for continually exploiting and taking for granted this system that seems to have been created exclusively for those more fortunate.
High Vis -Talk For Hours
High Vis are a punk band that came out of the same London scene as Chubby And The Gang, Higher Power, and the Chisel. They also formed directly out of hardcore bands, including Dirty Money, Tremors, Die, and the Smear. All of that would set High Vis up to be an aggressive, gnarly prospect, and supposedly their shows do get pretty intense. But based on their new single, they’re taking that intensity and tapping into different chapters of British music history.
Along with the announcement they’ve signed to Dais Records and the promise of an album due out later this year, High Vis have shared a new track called “Talk For Hours.” There’s a bit of a punk edge to it, but more so of the post-punk variety — and otherwise, there’s swirly Creation Records textures and Madchester dreaminess underneath the bite. Frontman Graham Sayle says the song is “”a sobering reflection on endless conversations without resolution. Temporary chemical optimism and subsequent hopeless introspection. A song born out of late nights waiting your turn to shout your struggle that no one will listen to.”
“Talk For Hours” is an addicting and exciting hint of where High Vis might be going in the near future.
Bruce Lee Band – I Hate This
The Bruce Lee Band have shared the second single off their upcoming album One Step Forward. Two Steps Back. (due May 27 via vocalist Mike Park's Asian Man Records), and this one's a 92-second, fired-up ska-punk ripper that was written by band member Jeff Rosenstock and taught to the rest of the band right before they recorded it, and you can really feel that spontaneity coming through in the song.
Nervus – Drop Out
The UK punk band Nervus have announced a new album, The Evil One, their fourth overall and first since 2019’s Tough Crowd. It started coming together during the pandemic after group leader Em Foster took some virtual songwriting lessons with Cloud Nothings’ Dylan Baldi, and lead single “Drop Out” is a massive, chiming power-pop song about wanting to leave society behind.
Kirk Hammett – High Plains Drifter
Kirk Hammett has shared the first proper taste of his upcoming instrumental EP, Portals.
Previously teasing that this music would be "soundtracks to the movies in your mind", the Metallica man absolutely delivers on first offering High Plains Drifter, which you can listen to below now.
Kirk shares that High Plains Drifter "was not meant to be specifically music for [the 1973 movie of the same name], but it was once it was written, I immediately thought it conveyed the same sentiment as the film, so the piece was christened accordingly.
"The music for High Plains Drifter initially came from a Flamenco piece I had written. It was a two-and-a-half-minute piece, and I really liked it, but it was one of those riffs that would be hard to integrate into Metallica. I knew I wanted to do something with it, even though it came out spontaneously. I had been sitting outside messing around with a Flamenco acoustic guitar I’d just bought, and it flowed out in the moment. I was determined it would have a life. It would have its moment."
Portals is out on April 23 via Blackened Recordings.
Raw Plastic – Crying on a Surfboard
Polish indie-punks Raw Plastic have been dropping EPs and singles since late 2020, and now they're gearing up for a new four-song EP, Stuck On Spring, due April 27 via New Morality Zine (pre-order). We're premiering the video for lead single "Crying On A Surfboard," which has a driving, catchy punk/post-punk feel that scratches a similar itch as stuff like The Only Ones, Modern English, and early Cure. It also comes with a video inspired by '90s video games, as the band explains:
With "Crying on a Surfboard" we took a deep dive into nostalgia and looked back on the moments while growing up, when you first realize that there are things out of your control and sometimes you’re bound to fail. We wanted to explore those nostalgic feelings further with a video, that’s a sort-of throwback, sort-of homage to late '90s/early '00s low-polygon era of video games that shaped us almost as much as the music from back then. The music video was a collaborative effort between our dear friend and talented 3D artist Wojtek Pawlak (@wojti3d) and our guitarist/illustrator Bastian (@getxxlost).
Belle and Sebastian – Young and Stupid
Last month, Belle And Sebastian announced A Bit Of Previous, their first album in seven years, out on May 6th. So far we’ve heard a couple tracks from it, including “If They’re Shooting At You” and “Unnecessary Drama.” Today, they’re back with another one.
Belle And Sebastian’s latest is album opener “Young And Stupid.” Instead of sharing a quote accompanying the new track, the band has instead presented a memory courtesy of Jon Hamm:
In 2015 at Bonnaroo, Belle And Sebastian invited Zach Galifianakis and me up to the stage during their set to toss gummy bears in each other’s mouths. Then Stuart got into the fun and demanded a catch as well. It was dramatic, stupid, and done with style and grace. I know I can speak for Zach when I say “I want to thank them for their inclusion of us into their show.” I know the audience was simply confused, but we were absolutely delighted. Please enjoy this new album with a gummy bear of your choice, and think fondly of all of us.