For my theme I went with two not-very-danceable classics by acts that are nominally "dance" bands (at least I've done the White Man's Overbite to their songs many at time):
Funkadelic, Maggot Brain
For those unfamiliar, George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic have a tangled discography - this would be the 3rd "Funkadelic" album, but the 4th album by a Clinton act (the 3 Funkadelic releases were preceded by one Parliament album), and as the decade progressed the releases would begin to overlap ridiculously and keeping track of who did what when is pointless.
Bottom line is it's some form of P-Funk, which mean they're gonna hit it on the 1 and do in ya earhole, but it's FUNKADELIC which is warning that it's going to also get pretty fuckin' weird. Not coincidentally, this was in the phase where George Clinton pretty much said they'd take tons of drugs, hit the "record" button, and see what happened.
What happened in this instance is "Funkadelic's 'A Love Supreme' " (in the words of Greg Tate), the title track. For those of you who have never heard of Eddie Hazel, this is where his rep was made. It's essentially 10 minutes of Hazel jamming out with minimal accompaniment, and it's freakin' brilliant. I'm basically putting this album in so all y'all HAVE to listen to that....
....not that the rest of the album lacks merit. For me, the "best of the rest" would be "Super Stupid" - Eddie Hazel singing and jamming out over an uptempo, near-hard-rock groove. "Back in Our Minds" is delightfully off-kilter with some proto-Biz Markie vocal stylings. "Hit and Quit It" is a slight departure in that it's more acoustic than electric, but still 100% P-Funk.
The album closer, however, bears special mention - if "Maggot Brain" is can be described as a psychedelic guitar freak-out, "Wars of Armageddon" is just a general freak out. I have no idea what the hell is going on here, and I doubt that anyone in the band did either. Over it's near-10 minutes, they manage to squeeze some solid R&B jamming in amongst the shenanigans. Bonus points for topping Blue Oyster Cult - "Cowbell? Fuck that, we'll put the damn cowbell along with the COW in our song!"
P-Funk strikes me as being almost a "singles" band these days - people know their "Greatest Hits" but don't really get that deep into the discography. Hopefully you guys find the effort rewarding.
Daft Punk - Human After All
Another one of my favorites; a bit less to say here because, well, DP are significantly less interesting than Parliament....but then again, about 99.5% of the world's population is. But the album is also a lot more homogenous compared to the various directions Maggot Brain heads off in.
What IS interesting to me about Daft Punk is that their 3 studio albums all "feel" significantly different - these guys aren't going to stand in place and just do what's expected. In this case, they followed up the slick, synth-poppy Discovery with the raw, repetitive Human After All...at least most reviews thought it was overly repetitive and primitive. DP said they regarded HAA as "pure improvisation" and the bulk of it was recorded with "two guitars and a drum machine," not to mention minimal production.
The album doesn't have any real standout tracks - though I don't mean that in a bad way. The album is consistent; nothing hit me as particularly weak, but all 10 songs just kinda grab onto a groove early and run it into the ground. In some cases the homogeneity could be a weakness; in this case, I think DP are trying to create a mood and a listening experience - taken one by one, the songs are just fine. Listening to the whole album in one sitting there's a cumulative effect that builds up.
My personal faves were "Steam Machine" and "Prime Time of Your Life."
Funkadelic, Maggot Brain
For those unfamiliar, George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic have a tangled discography - this would be the 3rd "Funkadelic" album, but the 4th album by a Clinton act (the 3 Funkadelic releases were preceded by one Parliament album), and as the decade progressed the releases would begin to overlap ridiculously and keeping track of who did what when is pointless.
Bottom line is it's some form of P-Funk, which mean they're gonna hit it on the 1 and do in ya earhole, but it's FUNKADELIC which is warning that it's going to also get pretty fuckin' weird. Not coincidentally, this was in the phase where George Clinton pretty much said they'd take tons of drugs, hit the "record" button, and see what happened.
What happened in this instance is "Funkadelic's 'A Love Supreme' " (in the words of Greg Tate), the title track. For those of you who have never heard of Eddie Hazel, this is where his rep was made. It's essentially 10 minutes of Hazel jamming out with minimal accompaniment, and it's freakin' brilliant. I'm basically putting this album in so all y'all HAVE to listen to that....
....not that the rest of the album lacks merit. For me, the "best of the rest" would be "Super Stupid" - Eddie Hazel singing and jamming out over an uptempo, near-hard-rock groove. "Back in Our Minds" is delightfully off-kilter with some proto-Biz Markie vocal stylings. "Hit and Quit It" is a slight departure in that it's more acoustic than electric, but still 100% P-Funk.
The album closer, however, bears special mention - if "Maggot Brain" is can be described as a psychedelic guitar freak-out, "Wars of Armageddon" is just a general freak out. I have no idea what the hell is going on here, and I doubt that anyone in the band did either. Over it's near-10 minutes, they manage to squeeze some solid R&B jamming in amongst the shenanigans. Bonus points for topping Blue Oyster Cult - "Cowbell? Fuck that, we'll put the damn cowbell along with the COW in our song!"
P-Funk strikes me as being almost a "singles" band these days - people know their "Greatest Hits" but don't really get that deep into the discography. Hopefully you guys find the effort rewarding.
Daft Punk - Human After All
Another one of my favorites; a bit less to say here because, well, DP are significantly less interesting than Parliament....but then again, about 99.5% of the world's population is. But the album is also a lot more homogenous compared to the various directions Maggot Brain heads off in.
What IS interesting to me about Daft Punk is that their 3 studio albums all "feel" significantly different - these guys aren't going to stand in place and just do what's expected. In this case, they followed up the slick, synth-poppy Discovery with the raw, repetitive Human After All...at least most reviews thought it was overly repetitive and primitive. DP said they regarded HAA as "pure improvisation" and the bulk of it was recorded with "two guitars and a drum machine," not to mention minimal production.
The album doesn't have any real standout tracks - though I don't mean that in a bad way. The album is consistent; nothing hit me as particularly weak, but all 10 songs just kinda grab onto a groove early and run it into the ground. In some cases the homogeneity could be a weakness; in this case, I think DP are trying to create a mood and a listening experience - taken one by one, the songs are just fine. Listening to the whole album in one sitting there's a cumulative effect that builds up.
My personal faves were "Steam Machine" and "Prime Time of Your Life."
I think after Discovery, they got very much into developing their concept, and they've become masters in it. I got to see the pyramid show live, and it's a marvel. But it made them treat the music almost as an afterthought, and HAA suffers because of it.
