 | Elizabeth & The Catapult launch their jaunting Momma's Boy with the
same magnetic, cheeky funk that has been consistently selling out live shows around New York City the last couple years. One of NPR's Best Discoveries
of 2006, Elizabeth received the ASCAP Leiber and Stoller award in 2001 and for two years toured across the U.S. with soul queen Patti Austin.
Billboard said of Momma's Boy, "Triple-A is an ideal launching pad for the song's rootsy patina, though adult top 40 could also have a fine
time crowning Ziman as a new queen. "Momma's Boy" is a weighty title that will prompt savvy listeners to look for more from this budding
act." Web | MySpace | Video |
 | Mega Bass is the latest collaboration between San
Francisco-based singer and songwriter Aidan Hawken (Highwater
Rising) and Brooklyn-based producer Jacob Bronstein (Modern
Sleeping), a team that has been making music together in one context or another for more than 15 years. Crafted around Hawken's smooth, sweet
chord structures and infused with Bronstein's restrained drum programming and sound design, the two make songs that gravitate between Bay Area
R&B-flavored soul tunes touching on Shuggie Otis and Marvin Gaye and the electronically altered indie-rock of Radiohead and The Postal Service.
Blind tends toward the latter, moving in Mega Bass' melancholy mode, but achieving an aching, powerful pride in Hawken's lyrics about broken
promises and personal betrayal. Web | MySpace |
 | Ryan Scott is a triple threat: a virtuosic guitarist, a
soulful vocalist, and a sophisticated songwriter. Here, Ryan's smoky, expressive vocals guide his epic hard soul song, Harmony. Building on the glowing depth that he first demonstrated on his debut album from CrystalTop Music in 2006, Ryan is
about to take a step into the mainstream. Ryan has a new release coming in Summer 2007 and he's poised to become an important artist achieving that
rare bridge between respected musicianship and undeniable popular appeal. Web | MySpace |
 | A singer-songwriter in the grand tradition of the
Young New York Songstress, Christina Courtin has a few extra tricks up her sleeve. She has a vocal chutzpah that instantly disarms an audience.
The Running Kicks includes guitar, percussion, stand-up bass and, on occasion, violin, which Christina's been playing since age 3. She has an
uninhibited performance style, which Time Out New York describes as "a fearlessness that most vocalists reserve for the shower." Her songs are
peppered with her wry humor. And while she can deliver mid-tempo ballads like the best of 'em, Christina can also rock out. Together with her
masterful band, Christina genre-hops from blues to soul to rock, blending in elements of jazz and classical music. Web | MySpace | Video |
 | Trombonist Dion Tucker's Oddlogik is banging jazz from a
band of seasoned pros who have played with heavyweight legends ranging from Herbie Hancock to Ray Charles to Mos Def to the New York City Ballet.
Vocalist Gretchen Parlato's "shrewd, emotive, and subtle approach" has
been praised by Hancock himself as possessing "a deep, almost magical connection to the music." You can hear it coming out all over the slinky Let's Make When Right Now. While adamant that they are firmly of the jazz world and not just some D'Angelo-esque R&B, anyone
listening can hear how smoothly Oddlogik gets down. Play this track at night. MySpace |
 | Ocote Soul Sounds is something new from
Martín Perna, creator of now-legendary afrobeat orchestra Antibalas and frequent collaborator with TV On The Radio. The eminently-head-noddable Cariño is
a solo effort from Perna at the crossroads of Fela Kuti, Eddie Palmieri and Nueva Cancion. The sounds are found at the intersection of the downtown
dancefloor, the sweaty basement bembé, and the smoldering campfire of a remote beach. Born on Brooklyn rooftops, Mayan pyramids, and Texas
traffic jams, the music carries traces of long-lost corridos of Mexico, echoes of Yoruba godparents, of wistful soul music and Sufi poetry sung behind
closed doors, blazing a path of love and mystery. Web | MySpace | Video |
 | The Dang-it Bobbys borrow from the classic
country music of Hank Williams and Waylon Jennings, lend it to contemporary indie rock such as that of The Shins or Beck, and make sure to pay it back
to the intricate songwriting of jazz standards of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. The heart of their anthem here, Say Goodbye, is a
soaring southern rock chorus worthy of The Allman Brothers, yet restless enough to wander off into Stevie Wonder-ish chord changes that speak of
doo-wop. Chief songwriter Kris Bauman's incisive,
clever, and sometimes plain funny lyrics sit comfortably on music that is sometimes quick pickin', sometimes blue, and sometimes downright
ridiculous. Web | MySpace |
 | With his San Francisco-based modern rock outfit Highwater Rising, Aidan Hawken has written songs that
have been featured in several films and TV shows (The OC, Sex and The City, Boston Public, Laguna Beach, One Tree Hill) and drawn thousands of fans.
Here, Aidan digs into solo acoustic mode with a modern talkin' blues called Late Night With Christina, recorded in his
Silverlake home studio. Aidan's tossing snapshots at us, plaintively pinning descriptive vignettes of his time spent in Los Angeles, proving his
enchanting songwriting skills again in his keen ability to convey sadness and loss, but sound hopeful and full of love at the same time. Web | MySpace | Video |
 | Will Smith might have overlooked this forgotten gem from Bill
Withers' +Justments album from 1974, but thank god Pyeng Threadgill didn't. Pyeng takes Can We Pretend and
shows us again why she's the New Blues Chanteuse winning over audiences from Oakland, California to Cognac, France, fleshing out the song's natural
D'Angelo and spinning it as perfect 2007 folk-funk. With her gorgeous, Ella Fitzgerald-meets-Joni Mitchell vocals and unmatched Wurlitzer keyboard
work from Ben Stivers, Pyeng injects what the San Francisco
Chronicle once called her "eloquence of understatement and precision" to make Can We Pretend a 30-year-old modern classic. Web | MySpace | Download free MP3 - Pyeng Threadgill - Can We Pretend? |
 | With kick, pep, savor and sabor, Austin
multi-instrumentalist Adrian Quesada debuts here his newest side-project, Los Electrics. Quesada is better known as the frontman for Grupo Fantasma, described by the Austin Chronicle as: "the best band
in Austin. The only other band I've seen get that kind of audience response was the Ramones... Even when [the group] intentionally attempts to stick
with Latin recipes, their uplifting dishes manage to carry the scent of the African motherland." Quesada also co-lead with Antibalas' Martin Perna
2006's El Niño Y El
Sol release from Ocote Soul Sounds. By culling members of Fantasma, Quesada offers us El Buena Gente, updating the best of Carlos
Santana and Ray Barretto into a steamy, searing Latin funk work-out. Web | MySpace |
 | Luz Mob slides in to close the album with Tabaco Y Ron, his raucous, horn-fueled, caliente cumbia. Not content with a banger resting on his sick drum programming and
natural, open alto sax lead, Luz called in soldiers from across the NY scene, including Kevin Louis (Oddlogik) on trumpet, Nico Georis (Palo Colorado) on accordion and piano and David Martinez on percussion to create
something that is part Carlos Vives and all Brooklyn. The track was mixed by luminary engineer and producer Scotty Hard (Wu-Tang Clan, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Prince Paul). MTV called Luz Mob's
fire "hot to death" and Rolling Out summarized, "Luz Mob's take on some retro classics stirs up waves of nostalgia and sets them on fire with
his scorching island interpretations." Damn. Luz lets loose, so you can too. Web | MySpace | Videos |
