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We mark two years since Bonnie Pointer passed away from The Pointer Sisters, and we played a smattering of new tunes but mainly recent slept on joints from this year for the remainder. Dan Lloyd throws rocks in hour 2, with a rather mixed bag of new tunes but some sad news as well with Bon Jovi founding member Alec John Such passing away this week.
"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.
June 9, 2022
The Drop with Danno
The Pointer Sisters – Pinball Number Count
Danielle Ponder – The Only Way Out
Mickey De Grand IV – Geraldine
Jon Batiste – TELL THE TRUTH
Jungle – PROBLEMZ
Lettuce – Vamanos
Haley Johnsen – Emily
Yola & The Highwomen feat Cheryl Crow – Hold On
El Michels Affair feat Bobby Oroza – Stack The Deck
The Frightnrs – Always
Maverick Sabre – Good Man
Katalyst feat Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad – Juneteenth
Brian Jackson – Nancy Wilson (Shigeto remix)
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight as the summer nighttime vibes are at full breeze, and we thank you as always for coolin out with us this and any evening you care to do so. It is Thursday night and that means it’s time to make things happen in the funk & soul then rock and or roll categories for our usual 120 minutes this evening, leaving a distinctive mark in spacetime as June 9, 2022. This is Danno, big up to all of you getting with the program once again, and our usual Sampled funk & soul first hour will be off & running momentarily. Not a ton of new biz out this week that we haven’t already spun previously this week, but still lots of brilliant cuts to showcase that we have not previously. Dan Lloyd joins us once again all serious face with dry ice smoke cresting in his wake for our AMPED rock weekly, but before all that it’s all about the history, as we mark the departure two years ago yesterday of Bonnie Pointer, and the only thing this Sesame Street kid can do is play pinball in remembrance. THIS is The Drop.
The Pointer Sisters – Pinball Number Count
The Drop has started the engine on this evening’s funk punk soul rockmobile. Danno here, doing my bit from studio 2, GFN HQ in downtown Gwangju. Thank you as always for doing your bit and lending an ear tonight or whenever you care to stream it.
That was The Pointer Sisters with Pinball Number Count, released in 1976. Now, this was a tune for a series of 11 animated visuals made for PBS’ Sesame Street to help kids learn numbers and such by following a series of pinballs rolling around in a machine. The series is a notable innovation in teaching children at the time with its colorful and imaginative animation and funky tunes provided by the famed Pointer Sisters.
Unfortunately, our bit of history or TIGHT as we call it tonight is not nearly so fun, as Bonnie Pointer unfortunately passed away yesterday in 2020, may she rest in power. Ironically the eldest sister Ruth is the only of the Pointer Sisters still around today, but interestingly she is still performing with Issa and Sadako Pointer, who are of a younger generation of Pointer Sisters.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, pod.
So we started with a bit of a quick hitter right there, so we’ll go for a quartet in the next block in order to cover time alotted this evening for the gig. Up next we have Danielle Poder batting leadoff to be followed by Micky De Grand IV, Jon Batiste, and a heavy hitter b-side from Jungle for the cleanup spot. We’ll talk all four after the beats hit the floor but for now THIS is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday night.
______
Back to the microphone here in studio 2 before we head to the jump on our Sampled funk & soul Thursday soiree. Danno here this is what I do every night on GFN between 8 & 10, and we just rocked a rather rare quartet right there in that last block. Thus, let’s get some background on the foreground that just died down...
Danielle Ponder – The Only Way Out (…amazing moves for one of our favorite up-and-coming singers right now, as this tune made its debut last week on Late Night with Seth Meyers and heralded the announcement of a new album. Some of Us Are Brave drops in September, and simply put we can’t wait.)
Mickey De Grand IV – Geraldine (…this is a tune that dropped last year, it seems the first solo release for the artist, true name Ryan Joseph Michael de Grandy. Formerly, the artist has been part of the groups Dreamboat and Psychic Mirrors, also producing under the solo moniker night school.)
Jon Batiste – TELL THE TRUTH (…turning up the bpm’s a bit here with a tune from the leading man in The Late Show with Stephen Colbert band. The album, which dropped last year is called We Are.)
Jungle – PROBLEMZ (…Tuesday night we gave the a side to this 7” single a spin, and why not rock the b side to give you the other side. This is the first new music from the London duo since last year’s Love In Stereo LP dropped in August, and right in time for summer, no doubt.)
Okay, so that’s just about the end of part 1 but we got a new longer player from Lettuce to let out before we head to part 2. This next tune is called Vamanos or let’s go for those that don’t speak Spanish, and this tune is part of the veteran funk band’s latest LP that dropped last Friday called Unify, so go check it out if ya dig, ya dig? This is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursdays.
Lettuce – Vamanos
II
The Drop returns with a little countrefied soul for the first and 2nd drink of can 2 in the 4 pack on this Sampled & AMPED Thursday evening. Dan Lloyd of course will be in the studio to partake in the 3rd & 4th cans after 9pm for our AMPED rock weekly. Now as to those folk & country soul vibes we just sent into space, let’s run it down but not outta town...
Haley Johnsen – Emily (…the latest from one of our absolute favorites over in the PDX right here. The song is about encouraging the ones you love to keep going and not give up, and I’m sure there are plenty of people that need exactly that message in the world right now.)
Yola & The Highwomen – Hold On (…a huge collab right here with the Highwomen along with Cheryl Crow and Yola. Yola especially has really been impressing us here at Drop Central, especially the English singer’s 2nd solo album Stand For Myself, released last year.)
#9870, @gfnthedrop, pod.
So moving ahead, we’re gonna start with Bobby Oroza as his sophomore album drops tomorrow, then we got joints from The Frightnrs and Maverick Sabre. We’ll talk about all the stuff that needs to be verbalized after the nicer sounds do what they gotta do, but for now THIS is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday evening.
___
Back on The Drop and into the final mic saliva of the first half this evening on our Sampled funk & soul Thursday foray. Danno here holding it down, and Dan Lloyd kicks the door in shortly for our weekly AMPED rock session. Now as to what just went out into the cosmos, that was a trio of soul slow burners to keep things going until they stopped, so let’s summarize what just happened…
El Michels Affair feat Bobby Oroza – Stack The Deck (…a little standalone single that dropped last year. Featured artist Bobby Oroza is out with his sophomore album tomorrow, and that is called Get On The Otherside, out via Big Crown Records so mark it!)
The Frightnrs – Always (…this is the latest tune from the band formerly led by Dan Klein and is the title track to the band’s latest album. For those not familiar, Klein passed away in 2016 from ALS, so good to see this very talented band out of Brooklyn doing their thing very well here in 2022, with the LP dropping in full late last month.)
Maverick Sabre – Good Man (…this is a new artist to us, although the album certainly isn’t new having been released in late January. Don’t Look Up is the English-born Irish artist’s fourth career album.)
Alright, so that’s gonna do it for the first half but not before we marvel at Katalyst and the Jazz Is Dead crew paying tribute to Juneteenth. The day is a celebration of the emancipation of African-Americans, commemorated on June 19th every year and this is a proper bit to add to this celebration coming up in 10 days, and just to add to the beauty of that and keep it with the number 10, we’ll rock a Shigeto remix of Brian Jackson from JID010 called Nancy Wilson, and that’ll be half the battle. THIS is The Drop and it’s halftime.
Katalyst feat Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Adrian Younge – Juneteenth
Brian Jackson – Nancy Wilson (Shigeto remix)
III & IV AMPED
Panic! At the Disco – Viva Las Vengeance
Muse – the Will of the People
The Amazons – Ready For Something
Editors – Karma Climb
Bon Jovi – Keep the Faith
Flogging Molly – The Croppy Boy ‘98
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Nerve Flip
The Mountain Goats – Training Montage
Billy Howerdel – The Same Again
Gaz Coombes – Sonny the Strong
Serj Tankian – Amber Feat. Sevak Amroyan
Panic! At the Disco – Viva Las Vengeance
After teasing fans a couple of weeks ago, Panic! At the Disco have dropped a brand new single called "Viva Las Vengeance," announced an upcoming studio album with the same name and accompanying tour dates.
Viva Las Vengeance is set for release Aug. 19 through Fueled By Ramen and will be PATD's first album since 2018's Pray for the Wicked. Brendon Urie recorded the album with a tape machine. He worked with Jake Sinclair, Mike Viola and Butch Walker on the project.
"Welcome to Viva Las Vengeance. This is the tale about growing up in Las Vegas. It’s about love, fame, burnout and everything that happens in between," the description of the music video reads. "This is the new era, and the journey starts now."
"Viva Las Vengeance is a look back at who I was 17 years ago and who I am now with the fondness I didn’t have before. I didn’t realize I was making an album and there was something about the tape machine that kept me honest,” the frontman added in a press release.
Muse – the Will of the People
Muse frontman Matt Bellamy teased in 2020 that the band's next album would be inspired by the chaos and protests of that same year, and so far the group has lived up to that promise, with their new album title track "Will of the People" following the previously released "Won't Stand Down" and "Compliance."
The band just released their new single with an eye catching video from award winning animator and producer Tom Teller. In it, a secretive group of revolutionaries start to prepare for battle, gathering their weapons in a futuristic landscape and ready to make their grandest statement yet, eventually toppling the statues of their familiar overlords amidst the dusty terrain.
As for the song itself, it's easily the catchiest track fans have heard so far, with a Marilyn Manson "Beautiful People" / The Timelords "Doctorin' Tardis" shuffle with a vocal delivery in the vein of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues."
Of the song, singer Matt Bellamy states, “'Will of the People' is fictional story set in a fictional metaverse on a fictional planet ruled by a fictional authoritarian state run by a fictional algorithm manifested by a fictional data centre running a fictional bank printing a fictional currency controlling a fictional population occupying a fictional city containing a fictional apartment where a fictional man woke up one day and thought 'fuck this.'" So, to be clear, it's fictional.
The Amazons – Ready For Something
The Amazons have shared the next single from their upcoming album How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me?: the riff-tastic Ready For Something.
Says vocalist Matt Thomson of the vital new song: “Ready For Something is a scratching at the walls kind of song. You’ve been in the cage for far too long and you are ready. Ready to live, ready to experience, ready to make mistakes. Anything.”
How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? – the follow-up to 2019's Future Dust – is due out on September 2 via Fiction Records.
Editors – Karma Climb
UK rockers Editors have announced their seventh album, EBM, coming in September. Following up 2018’s Violence, EBM is Editors’ first full-length project with Benjamin John Power, aka Blanck Mass, who was announced as a full-time Editor last month along with the single “Heart Attack.” Now, Editors are sharing another new song, “Karma Climb,” which also has a video.
“There is a strong physicality to this record,” Power says of EBM. “EBM started its life with the intention of connecting with people and filling a very physical space. There is also however an emotional physicality running throughout; An urgency and a sense of panic. An unease. Even in its more tender moments there is a yearning for connection.”
“Ben has certainly been a shot of adrenaline in our creative process,” frontman Tom Smith adds of working with Power. “The songs are so immediate, and in your face.” He also says of “Karma Climb,”: “It’s about hedonistic escapism, not only from the world generally, but also from what people think of you.”
Bon Jovi – Keep the Faith
A founding member of the legendary US rock band Bon Jovi, former bassist Alec John Such, has died at the age of 70, the group announced.
Such played with them from 1983 to 1994, when they had such hits as You Give Love a Bad Name, Livin' on a Prayer and Bad Medicine.
He was credited with bringing the band together and was remembered as a dear friend who was "wild and full of life".
No details were given of how or where he had died.
"Alec was integral to the formation of the band," singer-songwriter Jon Bon Jovi tweeted. "To be honest we found our way to each other thru him..."
A childhood friend of drummer Tico Torres, he brought guitarist and songwriter Richie Sambora to see the band perform, Bon Jovi said.
"Today those special memories bring a smile to my face and a tear to my eye," he added. "We'll miss him dearly."
Born in New York on 14 November 1951, Such became a familiar figure on the New Jersey music scene where the band emerged, the Associated Press reports. He originally played in a band called The Message.
As manager of the Hunka Bunka Ballroom in Sayreville, he was responsible for booking Jon Bon Jovi & The Wild Ones before joining the band himself.
He was older than his bandmates, as he remarked years later in an interview for The Asbury Park Press.
"The record company used to lie about my age," he said. "I was 31 when I joined. I was a good 10 years older than the rest of the band. My sister eventually got really mad because the papers would describe her as my older sister when really she was younger."
The age gap was the reason he eventually left, he said.
"When I was 43, I started to get burned out. It felt like work and I didn't want to work. The reason I got into a band to begin with is because I didn't want to work."
Flogging Molly – The Croppy Boy ‘98
Celtic punkers Flogging Molly have announced their seventh album, Anthem, marking their first new studio LP in five years. Ahead of its September 9th release, the band has unveiled the album’s second single, “The Croppy Boy ’98.”
The new album announcement comes just as Flogging Molly kick off their co-headlining US tour with The Interrupters tonight (June 7th) in Indianapolis. The first leg of the outing runs through a July 3rd show in Asbury Park, New Jersey, with a second leg launching September 9th in Denver and wrapping up September 21st in Paso Robles, California. Tickets for the tour are available via Ticketmaster.
The new album saw Flogging Molly reunite with legendary audio engineer Steve Albini, who worked on the band’s first two albums, Swagger and Drunken Lullabies. Albini, of course, is also known for his production work on Nirvana’s In Utero, among other notable releases.
Regarding the new album, Flogging Molly singer-guitarist Dave King stated, “With this record we went back to the basics in a way that I don’t think we could have done if we hadn’t been playing together for over 20 years. I think going back to Chicago and doing this record with Steve made the experience so fun and I really believe you can hear that on the record. For Flogging Molly, getting together and playing new songs is always the goal — and now we’re just getting excited to start playing these songs live and giving our fans a whole new era of Flogging Molly.”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Nerve Flip
Red Hot Chili Peppers are still fresh off the release of their latest album Unlimited Love, and there’s still plenty of love left to go around: Today, the Consequence cover stars have unveiled the song “Nerve Flip” on digital and streaming platforms, after first being released as a bonus track on the album in Japan only.
Unlimited Love marked the Chili Peppers’ first album with fan-favorite guitarist John Frusciante since their 2006 double LP Stadium Arcadium. You can hear his spirit throughout the record, and even bonus tracks like “Nerve Flip” showcase why we missed him for so long.
A Chili Peppers song through-and-though, “Nerve Flip” layers those chugging, arena-sized guitars with Anthony Kiedis’ often absurdist lyrics — what is “getting high on pink flamingos?” — but the vocalist offers some sage advice by the end: “Slow down the rivers of time in your mind/ It’s just a nerve flip to switch when it’s time for the grind,” he sings.
The Mountain Goats – Training Montage
Nearly one year after releasing their 20th studio album Dark In Here, the famously prolific Mountain Goats are back with a follow-up project, Bleed Out, arriving August 19 via Merge. Produced by Bully’s Alicia Bognanno and recorded in a studio near Chapel Hill, Bleed Out is inspired by “action movies from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s” and features an on-theme lead single titled “Training Montage.”
Here’s what John Darnielle had to say about “Training Montage” and Bleed Out.
So, heads up. I got this idea to write a bunch of songs where they were all uptempo mini-action movies. Plots, characters, heists, hostages, questionable capers, getaway cars, all that stuff. Gas pedal glued to the floor. Eventually, as you might guess, I wanted at least one song where the tempo relaxed a little and that’s the title track but otherwise buckle up. We hid out in the woods in Chapel Hill and made this album with nobody knowing about it. Proper secret-soldier style. It has been pretty hard keeping this under our hats, we are really proud of what we got here. Alicia Bognanno produced & played with us, and the great Shani Gandhi mixed. The first single is “Training Montage” which does what it says on the tin, and you can preorder the album now, and as for tour dates…you know we gotta bring these uptempo jams to a stage near you at the earliest possible convenience.
Billy Howerdel – The Same Again
A week out from the June 10th release of his new solo album, What Normal Was, A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel has offered up the LP's fifth and final single, the yearning, atmospheric "The Same Again." It follows in the vein of its predecessors, leaning into a gothy New Wave sound not far-flung from the darker forays of Depeche Mode.
What Normal Was is due out June 10th via Alchemy Recordings/Rise Records/BMG and is available for pre-order now. It marks Howerdel's debut album under his own name and his first solo record in 14 long years. His last one, 2008's Keep Telling Myself It's Alright, was released under the moniker Ashes Divide.
The day after the LP drops, Howerdel will embark on a massive summer tour, presented by Revolver, that'll trek all over the U.S. and up into Canada with support act VOWWS.
Gaz Coombes – Sonny the Strong
Gaz Coombes, he of Supergrass fame and an obscenely British name, has a new solo song out today. Coombes hasn’t released a new album in four years, and as of now the piano-led mid-tempo rocker “Sonny The Strong” is not publicly attached to any project, though he says the song is taken from his latest studio sessions. If it turns out to be the lead single from some LP, it makes a good first impression.
Serj Tankian – Amber Feat. Sevak Amroyan
Serj Tankian has unveiled the music video for a new song, the folk/classical piece “Amber.”
The song was written with the System of a Down singer’s ancestral nation Armenia in mind and is sung entirely in the country’s native tongue. The title, “Amber,” is pronounced ‘ahm-be’r’ translates to ‘clouds’ in Armenian.
“’Amber’ was written in 2017 after I visited Armenia along with my friends Atom & Arsinee Egoyan and Eric Nazarian as members of the coalition ‘Justice for Armenia’ to serve as election monitors for the Parliamentary elections,” Tankian explained in a press release. “I was so distraught by the slick theft of the elections before ever reaching the ballot box that I wrote this song as a response.”
He continued: “The lyrics however seem to be more poignant today when Armenians are divided politically and socially following the devastating attack on Nagorno-Karabagh and Armenia by Azerbaijan and Turkey in 2020 and the continuous fallout over negotiations with those two dictatorial regimes. ‘Amber’s’ message is that of unity and harmony. Those are the only truly powerful weapons of the Armenian nation.”
For the final version of the song — completed in 2022 — Tankian tapped fellow Armenian singer Sevak Amroyan, who appears alongside the System of a Down frontman in the music video.
“NaturalIy, I have listened to Serj Tankian’s music since childhood and always with a sense of pride,” commented Amroyan. “After getting acquainted with him, I realized that in addition to being an iconic musician he’s also a very proud Armenian. I am happy about our collaboration and thankful to Serj that we’re singing ‘Amber’ together. It’s a great honor for me.”