GNARLS BARKLEY

Now, I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you this, but here goes.

Gnarls Barkley is a Hip Hop duo comprised of vocalist Cee-Lo Green and musician / producer Danger Mouse. Cee-Lo was previously best known from his work in the nineties with Goodie Mob. Danger Mouse was best known for having produced the most famous, completely illegal album of all time, The Grey Album (a mash up of The Beatles White Album, and Jay-Z's Black Album).

These days, they're best known as the team behind the absolutely massive hit "Crazy".

A while back, I caught a re-airing of one of their sessions on Live from Abbey Road. They only showed three songs, all of which are from the dabut album, St. Elsewhere, but the version of "Transformer" they performed was so different from the album version that I wanted to put it up for all to enjoy. While I'm at it, I may as well put up the other two songs, too.

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Gnarls Barkley - "Smiley Faces" (live)
Gnarls Barkley - "Transformer" (live)
Gnarls Barkley - "Gone Daddy Gone" (live Violent Femmes cover)

And one extra, that was been all over the blogs a few months back:
Gnarls Barkley - "Reckoner" (live Radiohead cover)

Buy some Gnarls:
St. Elsewhere, 2006 (buy)
The Odd Couple, 2008 (buy)

Buy some Cee-Lo:
Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections, 2002 (buy)
Cee-Lo Green is The Soul Machine, 2004 (buy)

Get some Danger Mouse:
The Grey Album, 2004 (download)
Dark Night of the Soul, 2009 (listen) (with Sparklehorse, and many others)

SEVEN SONG CIRCLE #3

Here's one of the funkiest mixes I've put together. Well, actually, it's split between legendary funk and lesser known alternative.

There was one incredibly funky track that I tried to fit in, but couldn't make it work. I put that one separately at the end of the post, 'cause it's way too good to let go.

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1 Dinosaur Jr. - "Freak Scene"
2 Rick James - "Superfreak"
3 Jude - "Rick James"
4 Big Audio Dynamite - "James Brown" (remix)
5 James Brown - "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine (Part 1)"
6 Funkadelic - "Hit It and Quit It"
7 Mike Watt - "Maggot Brain"

notes:
1 From the album Bug. (buy)
2 From the album Street Songs. (buy) Unrelated trivia: Rick and Neil Young were roommates for a time in the 60's. They were also in a band together called The Myna Birds. They recorded an album, but it remains unreleased to this day.
3 From the tragically underhyped, and out-of-print, album No One is Really Beautiful. Pick it up if you find it.
4 Original version was on Megatop Phoenix, but that's out-of-print. It can be had on some of their best-of's, though. (buy)
5 One of the longest titles ever for a song. Also one of the best songs, though. A longer version of this was released on the album Sex Machine. (buy)
6 From the amazing album Maggot Brain. (buy) In my book, this features the best backing vocals ever. How does this one connect? The last lines of the JB tune the precedes it are "Can I hit it and quit it?" repeated several times.
7 A Funkadelic cover from Ballhog or Tug Boat. How does this one relate to the first track? The amazing 10+ minute guitar solo is performed by J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. (The organ, by the way, is played by Bernie Worrell, who also played it on the original)

I tried like hell to fit in Cee-Lo's song "Closet Freak" (buy) somewhere, but couldn't find a way. I'm giving it to you anyway, 'cause it's a fantastic song.