By Jenn Sussman aka DJ Belladonna

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

1. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings “100 Days, 100 Nights” – One night last weekend, a few of us from the Whiskey Dregs crew sat around on Carlos and Aryn’s terrace (aka The Hall of Relaxation), enjoying some cocktails, the breeze after a warm day, and the tunes from Carlos’ iPod. I commandeered the iPod for a bit (sue me, I’m a DJ) and located this new soul classic by the one and only Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and we all lamented the fact that we were not uptown at the legendary Apollo Theater, where Jones and the D.K.s were performing that very night. Jones’ label, the Brooklyn-based Daptone Records, has formed the nucleus of the resurgence of true soul music over the past 5 years, using analog recording techniques that would make you swear you were listening to a recording from the golden era of soul in the 1960s. Jones herself is a late entry to the music industry, finally enjoying steadily-increasing recognition and success in her 50’s. “100 Days, 100 Nights” is the title track from SJDK’s 2007 album and a nice addition to the soundtrack for a chill evening on a terrace in NYC.

2. Caribou “Odessa” – A little British birdie put me on to this track via Facebook a few weeks ago and I’ve been wiggling around to it ever since. Shades of Daft Punk emerge on this quirky, bouncy gem from indie dance chameleon Dan Snaith’s latest project, while a slowed-down old school house beat and a snap track hold the groove underneath a plaintive vocal. In fact, there are hints of old school house all over Caribou’s April 2010 release Swim, though they are well blended into the mélange of electro-pop dance that makes up the bulk of this album. Swim is a little too similar to most other indie dance records being released these days, but much of Caribou’s older work and Snaith’s former project Manitoba is a lot more textured, layered and original.  Regardless, “Odessa” is extremely wiggle-worthy.

3. Ceremony “You Never Stay” – Whiskey Dregs’ founder Carlos is nuts about this band right now, catching them live last weekend in NYC and reviewing their latest release, Rocket Fire, for the Dregs. I can see where he’s coming from; Ceremony reminds me of all of my favorite classic alternative genres without sounding like a blatant rip-off. Imagine New Order, Ride, Sisters of Mercy and OMD getting together to mentor a band – the result would be Ceremony, a gorgeous cacophony of shoegaze-style guitar fuzz, dance-pop sensibility, gothic melancholy and programmed beats. The song capturing my attention right now isn’t from the recently-released Rocket Fire but rather a track from their 2008 debut album Disappear. She Wants Revenge, take notes… this is how you pay tribute to your idols without trying to be them. I’ll be spinning this one on Friday night.

4. The Strokes “Heart In a Cage” – NYC rockers The Strokes are one of very few contemporary bands that offer up true, stripped-down, bare bones rock n’ roll. No samples, no mergers with hip-hop artists, no synth lines – just plain rock. Somewhere in the ocean of electro, indie dance, Gaga singles, and sub-par rap music that is drowning popular music as we knew it, rock n’ roll is hanging on for dear life. The Strokes were fortunate to have been propelled onto the music scene by an anticipatory wave of outsized proportions at a time when great rock still had a fighting chance on the airwaves, but they’ve largely been worth the hype. The Strokes are a band who neither try to kill their idols nor be them, but rather appreciate them and pay homage, channeling such influences as Buddy Holly, The Velvet Underground and seminal New York punk rock act Television. My Strokes pick is from what I consider to be their best album, 2006’s First Impressions Of Earth.

5. DeRobert and the Half-Truths “Fallin’ In Debt” – I have six words for all you deep funk and soul fans out there: Buy. This. Album. On. May. 11th. I’m a religious listener of the extremely funkadelic weekly deep funk, soul and hip-hop sessions known as We Funk Radio (listen online at wefunkradio.com), recorded live every Friday night since 1996 on 90.3 CKUT FM Montreal by Canadian funk freaks Professor Groove and DJ Static, so I’m used to hearing amazing soul classics, old school hip-hop and rare funk gems alongside future funk, soul, hip-hop and jazz classics. But a few weeks ago, they dropped a track by soul scene new jacks DeRobert and the Half-Truths called “Too Busy” that literally had me dancing in my seat and searching for more. The house band for the Tennessee-based G.E.D. Soul Records label, DATHT’s debut album Soul In a Digital World will be released on May 11th and will for sure be droppin’ some sweet soul science on your eardrums. Forget Fatboy Slim, these are the real funk soul brothers, y’all.

6. MGMT “Electric Feel” – Another topic of conversation while hanging out last weekend in the Hall of Relaxation was what the @#$^%  electro-art-rockers MGMT were thinking when they recorded their brand new album, the head-scratching travesty known as Congratulations. Was it a joke, we wondered? (Sadly, probably not.) Were they on drugs, we wondered? (Almost certainly.) Would we ever again hear an MGMT song as great as “Electric Feel”, we wondered? We all really hoped so, and we played it then and there to remind us that good bands sometimes put out bad records, but fortunately technology keeps their great singles close at hand. One of a handful of truly great singles that includes the smash hits “Time To Pretend” and “Kids” from MGMT’s 2007 debut album Oracular Spectacular, “Electric Feel” is sexy, funky and belongs on everyone’s booty mix. And I‘m not talking about pirate booty, people.

7. The Cardigans “Sick and Tired” – Time spent last week with a good friend of mine who’s a definite spiritual throwback to the ‘60s had me thinking about this saccharine and swingy pop morsel from Sweden’s antidote to 1990’s grunge rock, The Cardigans. Best known for their breakout hit “Lovefool” from Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 reimagining of the classic Shakespearean saga Romeo + Juliet, and for the darker-than-their-usual-fare “Erase/Rewind” from their 1998 release Gran Turismo, “Sick and Tired” hearkens back to the pop-revivalist origins of The Cardigans during a time in music history when music was taking itself far too seriously. This is music for girls with blond bobbed haircuts in go-go boots and pop art dresses to dance to, atmospheric and bright. I love listening to this song when I need a break from the grungy gloom and doom of ‘90s rock, even though I do love it so.

8. A Guy Called Gerald featuring Louise Rhodes “Humanity” – I read a review of this song once that likened it to crashing a jazz club on Venus, and I couldn’t agree more. Yet another example of the musical hotbed that was Manchester, England in the 1980s and 1990s, Gerald Simpson has been involved in a dizzying array of musical genres and the evolution of those genres; beginning with the Detroit techno, acid-house and beats-inspired 808 State, and later moving on to solo efforts in everything from electro to jungle to drum n’ bass and breakbeat styles, influencing a whole generation of musicians in those genres, such as Goldie, Junkie XL, Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. Jazzy vocals on this track from AGCG’s 2000 album Essence are provided by former Lamb singer Louise Rhodes, another Manchester native.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BKQvOSCUNc&feature=related

9. Murray Head “One Night In Bangkok” – An ‘80s pop classic written for a unique Broadway production, this quirky and slightly mysterious tune helped set the tone for the tale of a love triangle between rival US and Russian chess masters and the woman who managed one and loved the other during the propaganda-laden Cold War era. This song has always been a favorite of mine, a sort of new wave/showtune hybrid with old-time radio broadcaster style vocals that somehow became a worldwide smash hit. The song’s one dirty little secret is that it was written by Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA, but I won’t tell if you won’t.

10. Fischerspooner “The 15th” – I love this electro update of Wire’s post-punk classic. In fact, I love it to the 3rd power, which I guess means that I love-love-love it. Fischerspooner’s take removes all warmth from the track, speeds it up a bit, and approaches it from a much colder and more distant synth-and-metronomic-beat driven place that works so well for the song. Fischerspooner’s music in general doesn’t move me; there are so many other groups out there doing what they’re doing, but better and much more enjoyably, but man, did they nail this track. I recently spun it at a goth/industrial/new wave party and several people came up to ask me about it, including a friend of mine who’s a post-punk fan and hadn’t heard this version. As for me, I wish I could have stepped out from behind the decks and danced to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0gYubtKxDo