Funky Friday Goes South Of The Border

I was exposed to Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass as a young 'un. My parents has several of the LPs, and the slightly cheesy renditions of pop tunes and fun Mexican party tunes made an impression on me - breezy, "Dating Game" music full of horn-y greatness. The memorable and controversial album cover of Whipped Cream was probably what really got my attention tho' - with the naked hottie covered in whip cream. This week Whipped Cream & Other Delights Re-whipped hit stores. It is a set of remixes by Medeski, Martin & Wood, Mocean Worker, Thievery Corporation, John King (Dust Brothers), DJ Foosh, and Camara Kambon. There are also remixes by project co-ordinator Anthony Marinelli, who employs the musical services of Ozomatli (one of my fave multi-culti hip hop acts) on a couple of the tracks. I was a bit worried that this would end up being a cheesy remix set, but it turns out to be pretty entertaining. Most of these are new backing tracks with Herb and his band's horns sampled and layered over it all. Most of them are rooted in the sounds of today's hip hop and dubbed out downtempo music. In the process, most of the originals' cheese has been removed and what's left is a fairly decent set of remakes that doesn't take things too seriously. Perfect for funky Friday...

Whipped Cream (Anthony Marinelli Remix featuring Ozomatli)
Green Peppers (Anthony Marinelli Remix)

A Spot Of Corporate Whoring...
You want the fresh, new freebies and I (with some help from addVice Online) want to hook you up...

The Stills are set to release a new album. I dug their debut a lot. In The Beginning is a new song - it's a bit more roots-rocky than the new wave I expected.

Envelopes are a buzz band from Sweden. Sister In Love is a single from late last year and is a cool bit of shouty indie psych pop.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on the verge of putting out their sophomore LP, and their current single Gold Lion is the talk of the blog-o-mundo - and rightly so. The Diplo remix is very tasty. Watch the video, which features a deliciously soiled Karen O doing a great Siouxsie bit.