Like any normal person (I suppose), my musical tastes have wandered in and out of various genres throughout the years. Lately, I've been noticing that I really like that Daft Punk/Pharrell song that everyone's listening to. I started going through my collection to find similar stuff, but the closest thing I've found in my library is Warren Zevon (see below).
Does anyone have any suggestions for bands I should check out? Not looking for clips of old Supremes performances, etc. I'm more interested in more modern stuff.
Zevon is hardly modern, I mean the guy's been dead for like a decade. After 1988/89 you'll have trouble finding "pure" Funk (mostly funk-fusion), other than maybe Jamiroquai or Poets Of Rhythm.
But anyway,
Jamiroquai
Poets Of Rhythm
Parliament/Funkadelic
Brothers Johnson
Mid-80s RHCP
Tower Of Power
Average White Band
Isley Brothers
Earth Wind & Fire
Ohio Players
Sly & The Family Stone
Zapp
Prince
Whole ####load of that stuff
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Always liked Jamiroquoi for a modern funk sound. They got some backlash from having one or two of their songs overplayed early in their career, you know, angry hipsters telling you it's not cool anymore, but all their CD's are solid and a lot of fun.
Like a lot of modern bands, the genre lines are blurred, but there are definite funk elements. Acid-jazz, fusion, dance, reggae, etc.
Named after a slang word for "stink," funk was indeed the rawest, most primal form of R&B, surpassing even Southern soul in terms of earthiness. It was also the least structured, often stretching out into extended jams, and the most Africanized, built on dynamic, highly syncopated polyrhythms. As such, it originally appealed only to hardcore R&B audiences. The groove was the most important musical element of funk -- all the instruments of the ensemble played off of one another to create it, and worked it over and over. Deep electric bass lines often served as main riffs, with an interlocking web of short, scratchy guitar chords and blaring horns over the top. Unlike nearly every form of R&B that had come before it, funk didn't confine itself to the 45-rpm single format and the classic verse/chorus song structure. Funk bands were just as likely to repeat a catchy chant or hook out of the blue, and to give different song sections equal weight, so as not to disrupt the groove by building to a chorus-type climax. In essence, funk allowed for more freedom and improvisation, and in that respect it was similar to what was happening around the same time in blues-rock, psychedelia, and hard rock (in fact, Jimi Hendrix was a major inspiration for funk guitar soloists). The roots of funk lay in James Brown's post-1965 soul hits, particularly "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (1965) and "Cold Sweat" (1967). Sly & the Family Stone, who started out as a soul band influenced by rock and psychedelia, became a full-fledged (albeit pop-savvy) funk outfit with 1969's Stand!. However, the record that officially ushered in the funk era was James Brown's epochal "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine." The arrangement was spare, the groove hard-hitting, and Brown's lyrics were either stream-of-consciousness slogans or wordless noises. Brown followed it with more records over the course of 1970 that revolutionized R&B, and paved the way for the third artist of funk's holy trinity, George Clinton. Clinton's Parliament and Funkadelic outfits made funk the ultimate party music, not just with their bizarre conceptual humor, but their sheer excess -- huge ensembles of musicians and dancers, all jamming on the same groove as long as they possibly could. Thanks to Sly, Brown, and Clinton, many new and veteran R&B acts adopted funk as a central style during the '70s. Funk gradually became smoother as disco came to prominence in the mid- to late '70s, and lost much of its distinguishing earthiness. However, it had a major impact on jazz (both fusion and soul-jazz), and became the musical foundation of hip-hop. Thanks to the latter, funk enjoyed a renaissance during the '90s, especially among white audiences who rushed to explore its original classics.
Long running radio show out of Mtl on ckut. Bringin the funk and oldschool hip hop for fifteen plus years. Over 500archived shows where you can skip tracks search etc... they also have a stream on itunes shoutcast and tunein. I would higly recomend it as you will find a lot of rare funk that has never been reissued.
Anyways, of the top of my head right now:
Rufus Thomas
Gil scott heron
fatback band
curtis mayfield
ill be back later with more
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I personally found that Jamiroquai bordered closer to disco than funk, but they do have some funk elements. Funk exists in small doses these days, but it's not recognizable compared to the classic funk. Here is an example from TV on the Radio.
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I second the vote for Curtis Mayfield for classic funk. The guy was also revolutionary in terms of lyrics because nobody was really talking about life in the ghetto before him. Ice T mentions him as the most important influence for rap and hip-hop.
But he also had inspirational songs too.
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Ice T mentions him as the most important influence for rap and hip-hop.
Considering what got Ice-T paid (besides killing it on SVU), he damn well better say that.
I'd once again seriously recommend checking out wefunk (http://www.wefunkradio.com/). They've been on the air since '96 on CKUT in Montreal. It's basically a two hour show which is a full mix of funk and classic (mostly) hip hop. The beauty of the website is that you can search tracks, skips sets, etc. So if your not in the mood for hip hop (or funk) you can skip those sets and listen to what you want. You can also just search out single tracks which you can't find easily anywhere else (stuff that's not re-issued, rare b-sides, stuff like that). It's also incredibly cool to hear an odd two second cut from some random old funk track and remember where it was sampled in hip hop. Often times they'll point it out at the end or even mix between them.
I use tune-in on my phone to play music in my car, and their radio stream is pretty much all I listen to. Anyways, I've got a bit of a list here. Some of it might be a little more on the soul/jazz side though. In no particular order....
James Brown
James Brown
Lee Fields
Sly & The Family Stone
The Meters
Lee Dorsey
Rufus Thomas
Kool & The Gang
James Brown
Herbie Hancock
Quincy Jones
Baby Huey
Ohio Players
Nite-Liters
James Brown
J.B.'s
Bobby Byrd
Chicago
Lee Moses
Bootsy Collins
Soulier:
Al Green
Ann Peebles
Syl Johnson
Aretha Franklin
Marlena Shaw
Just go check out the wefunk website. Check any random show. If your even slightly interested in funk music you won't be disappointed. Use the website and skip the hip hop if you don't like it. Just do it. Popcorn.
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Last edited by ShaolinFlame; 08-23-2013 at 12:35 AM.
One of my favorite more modern funky tracks is "Funky Square Dance" by Phoenix
Also, to me, that Daft Punk "Get Lucky" song appears to have it's chord progression ripped off from a Korean kid who posted this on Youtube a couple years ago. It's pretty awesome.
Help a Jive Turkey Find the Funk
