Blogcritics Category: Music: Funk

Concert Review: George Clinton, Parliament/Funkadelic, 01/01/08 at Nokia Theater L.A. Live Center, Los Angeles, CA

Laron Cue — Fri, 9 Jan 2009 01:25:50 EST

George Clinton/P-Funk rock Downtown LA, Sly Stone drops bye to say "Thank You"!
Just when I thought my holiday's were an official bust, I got a highly confidential phone call, that would change my maddeningly dull New Year weekend. Instead of joining the SoCal ranks and hitting up one of the many New Year's Eve celebrations, I was the victim of a nasty headache. No, I am not usually prone to migraines. I guess I had...

Music DVD Review: Parliament Funkadelic - The Mothership Connection Live 1976

David Bowling — Mon, 5 Jan 2009 08:58:20 EST

Houston gets funked on Halloween night of 1976.
I’m not sure how an aging, balding, Beach Boys fan like me ended up reviewing a Parliament Funkadelic DVD but somehow it magically appeared in my mail box. So here I am, transported to Halloween eve of 1976, watching the mother ship land in Houston, Texas. George Clinton began his musical odyssey as a member of the Parliaments who were...

Brandon Daviet's Top Ten Albums of 2008

Brandon Daviet — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:48:02 EST

BC Writer Brandon Daviet makes his picks for the best albums of 2008.
I always like to wait until the absolute last minute to make my album of the year list. The list is a sacred and cherished tradition for most music journalists and you never know what might creep onto shelves on the last Tuesday of the year. That said my list is decidedly mainstream this year and I admit that I am musically stuck in the past and...

Music DVD Review: Parliament Funkadelic - The Mothership Connection Live 1976

The Masked Movie Snobs — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:50:12 EST

Fumo wants the funk and this DVD gives it to him.
Written by Fumo VerdeHow would you like to spend a Halloween night funkin’ out with one of the P-Funk originators? With this DVD you can. Parliament Funkadelic played a freaky October 31st show in Houston’s Summit Arena. Dressed in outfits ranging from super-shaggy Mexican sombreros to folks wearing diapers with freaky mask/glasses...

Music Review: Q-Tip - The Renaissance

Anthony Tobis — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:29:32 EST

After years of red tape and aborted projects, Q-Tip finally drops The Renaissance.
Q-Tip is a modern embodiment of the effects that the increasingly consolidated corporate conglomerates have on the cultural output in America. Back in 2002 Q-Tip -- three years removed from the release of his commercially successful, dance club ready, album Amplified -- was ready to initiate a paradigm shift in the hip hop sound. Layering his laid...

Music Review: Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou - The Vodoun Effect: 1973-1975 Funk & Sato From Benin's Obscure Labels

Richard Marcus — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:20:22 EST

Funk. latin, Vodoun, and African high life come together in one exciting explosion of sound.
I'm sure we've all seen or heard various documentaries about the history of popular music in North America that have traced the roots of jazz and blues music back to the tribal sounds of Africa. The blues developed out of the songs, "hollers", that the slaves used to sing while working in the fields that were a mixture of old...

Music Review: Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children

Andy Peterson — Tue, 9 Dec 2008 09:26:51 EST

Electronica's eureka moment: probably the only classic album not reissued in 2008.
By the early 1990’s we had become familiar with the paradoxical idea of dance music that you couldn’t dance to. As rave ground to a nihilistic halt, the Warp label’s seminal Artificial Intelligence series precised a change of direction, it's roots deep in the eloquence/elegance of the first wave techno that had been originally...

Music DVD Review: Living Colour - New Morning: The Paris Concert

Paul Roy — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:18:47 EST

Living Colour makes up for lost time with their second concert DVD release in as many years.
Living Colour's welcome entry into the excellent New Morning: The Paris Concert DVD series goes a long way in making up for the ridiculously short run time of their previous concert DVD - last year's, On Stage at World Café Live. Where that one whittled down a career-spanning, two-hour performance to a measly 58-minutes for the DVD,...

Music Review: Living Colour - CBGB OMFUG Masters - Live August 19, 2005 - The Bowery Collection

Charlie Doherty — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:50:42 EST

Living Colour's inspired 2005 performance at the once-influential, now long gone CBGB club in NYC is now on CD.
New York natives Living Colour are no strangers to the legendary and as of 2006, deceased NYC CBGB rock club, which supported live acts for 33 years. The band, known for its unique fusion of heavy metal, funk, reggae and other genres and influenced by everyone from Fishbone and Bad Brains to Jimi Hendrix, played at the world's "most important punk...

DVD Review: Stax DVD

Richard Marcus — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 11:09:54 EST

It's impossible to imagine what pop music would sound like without Stax Records.
You have to wonder what it is about Memphis, Tennessee that so much great music has come out of that city. Sure there are plenty of other cities which are hotbeds of musical talent, but it was two independent record companies out of Memphis that created what are arguably the sounds that have most influenced popular music. In the mid-1950s little...