Hate to tell you this, but I got fooled! I like to consider myself musically astute, and fairly tech savvy, but there are days when your old buddy Chef Mike just ain't right!
This may be one of them. One of the most exciting, amazing genre-crossing tracks to come my way in a long time blew my mind this week. And the incredibly powerful, usually on-target software I use to produce the California Diner got it wrong.
Left Step Band come from London, UK, and they recorded a bouncy, soulful, dramatic tune called The Deep End. My software, which is generally smarter than me, somehow went out to the internet, and brought back the WRONG BAND NAME! What the heck? So my software, which shall remain nameless, tells me that the band is called “Blank & Jones”. So the fact-checking department of The California Diner (everybody should have their own fact-checking department) kicked into overdrive, and found out that Blank & Jones are a German Trance duo. Very popular in that genre. They also did a song called The Deep End. Strangely enough, their song is dance music, no lyrics, sounds nothing like the gem at hand. So my software figures that hey, The Deep End must be that trance tune. Wrong-o! And even more wrong, since my software is so much smarter than I, I announced it wrong. So how smart does that make me?
So let's get back to Left Step Band. Their song, The Deep End, is an incredible amalgam of symphonic sounds, hip-hop, reggae, and anything else that bounces and uses horns. A Jamaican-sounding rapper, and a lovely female voice backing him up. I've not heard a fusion of styles like this in a long time, if ever. It's too fast to be reggae. Too bouncy to be hip-hop. This song is really unique. And they themselves describe their music as “beats so fat they clinically obese”!
myspace.com/leftstepband
Fortune Dwellers are a jazzy, alternative-sounding pop band from Seattle, led by none other than one of my favorite female vocalists, Katelyn Berreth. She recorded a stunning debut album a few years ago. Her presence and confidence absolutely belied her young age of 19. Well, she's back with a new band, and they released an album called Schizophonic. This one's good. It's got some really jazzy, adult-type tunes that could have been written by Burt Bacharach for Dionne Warwick. Some songs want to make me sit back with a scotch, a comfy chair, and a roaring fire on a cold night. Others make me want to take my wife out for a night on the town, dressed in our finest threads. Kate really wraps her lush, soulful voice around these memorable songs. There are so many interesting textures and rhythms, you'll be drawn in before long. It is literally impossible to not like this album, so just give yourself over now to the charm of the Fortune Dwellers!
reverbnation.com/fortunedwellers
If you'd like to make a request, just drop me a line at mike(at)rechargedradio.com. If you'd like to become an honorary California citizen, drop me a line at the same address. And if you'd like to hear all this great music—simply tune in to the California Diner, Tuesday night, 8:00-10:00 p.m. (GMT), 12:00-2:00 p.m. Pacific, only at Recharged Radio—www.rechargedradio.com.
This note also appears in the News section on the home page of RechargedRadio.com.
See you then!
Chef Mike
mike(at)rechargedradio.com
MN2BDNC
The Smith Bros - Kerrie Anne
Fortune Dwellers - Keep It Simple
The Taters - Such A Good Day
K. C. Bowman - Mare Island
Tina Lie - Twilight Hour
Ben Parcell - Close Your Eyes
Nelson Bragg - Tell Me I'm Wrong
Duncan Faure - In The Right Place
The Dashing Suns - Sally Moore
Joe Symes - Lost Along The Way
Anton Barbeau - Fuzzchild
The Standards - Like a Heart Attack
Kate Burkart - Cross The Street
Chad Neaves - Something In My Soul
Laurie Biagini - Under the Tropical Moon
The Ks - 13 Steps
Splitsville - Pretty People
Skip Heller - I Used To Love California
Maxi Dunn - How Was I To Know?
Left Step Band - The Deep End
Blake Jones & The Trike Shop - Forestiere Gardens
Joseph Swidenbank - Harsh Words
Sexfresh - True
Vegas With Randolph - Above The Blue
The Clutter Family - Head
The Big I Am - Banging on the Wall
Sarah Taylor - Bad Medicine
Joey Oskys - In This Town
Tom Alford - Yes It's You
Terese Taylor - I'm Here
Sweet Sweet Concorde - Carrot Cake
Rich McCulley - Just a Few Miles To Go
Corner Laughers - The Red Queen
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