The Album: Dreamgirls soundtrack (2006)
Former LA Times Editor and Out Magazine's Director of Culture and Entertainment Tre'vell Anderson, joined us to talk Jennifer Hudson and the Dreamgirls OST.
Dreamgirls won two Academy Awards - one for Best Sound Mixing, the other, Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Hudson's star-making portrayal of Effie White.
The single disc-version of the soundtrack spent two weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album. One of the songs, "Love You I Do" won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture or Television. The soundtrack, a certified banger, and Tre'vell's personal heat rock, was certified platinum.
A fan of Jennifer Hudson's since American Idol Season 3 (his favorite), the film and soundtrack resonated with him because of the all too familiar narrative of the most talented person in the room having to contend with implicit bias preventing them from living their best life.
We talked about the glory of Jennifer's journey from losing American Idol to winning at the Oscars, the difference between singers and sangers, Detroit vs. Chicago as a backdrop for the film, and what it sounds like when a Cadillac commercial get's "Pat Booned" (an Oliver Wang original saying).
Why did the film propel Jennifer Hudson to the stardom possibly meant for Beyonce (AT THAT TIME). Who knew Eddie Murphy had this sort of vocal range? Who's version of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" was better: the original J.H. or the new J.H.?
Tre'vell helped us answer those questions and more!
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Show Tracklisting (all songs from the Dreamgirls OST unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there.
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The Album: Curtis Mayfield's Back to the World (1973) In 1973, Curtis Mayfield had already become one of the biggest soul stars in the world thanks to the success of his Superfly soundtrack. He could have doubled-down with another album of lurid and cautionary street tales but instead, he wrote an album that many think of as a soundtrack to a movie never made, chronicling a returning Vietnam War veteran who finds America to be a different kind of war zone. Back to the World showcased Mayfield at his best — as a musician, composer, arranger, singer, producer, guitarist and songwriter — and decades later, we can still hear some of its influence reverberating in the dozens of artists who sampled from this album's lush music.
The Bay Area's Lyrics Born brought this album to us to talk about. As part of the Solesides/Quannum crew that dates back to the mid-90s, LB has represented a much admired indie hip-hop ethos and he's been embraced by fans around the world. In our conversation, we talked about Mayfield's commitment to social issues, his gifts as a songwriter and whether or not "Right On For the Darkness" is, in fact, about a blind person.
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Show Tracklisting (all songs from Back to the World unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there
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The next Heat Rocks Live! show is coming up on Saturday, February 9th at Zebulon Cafe in Atwater Village, starting at 6pm. This FREE event is part of our partnership with Voyager Institute who've graciously hosted our last two live shows.
This time around, our special guest will be comedian Guy Branum, host of Max Fun's Pop Rocket podcast! We're keeping his album pick under wraps so it can be a surprise. Come out and join us!
The Album: Bryan Ferry, These Foolish Things (1973)
Bryan Ferry first came to notice in the early 1970s thanks to the art rock group, Roxy Music, that he helped form. Most other artists would have focused their energies on their budding, hit band but Ferry, throughout his career, has never been one to be like "most other artists." Even as Roxy Music was blowing up, Ferry used time between those albums to record his own solo works and though his voice might bridge the two, his solo debut album, These Foolish Things was unlikely to be confused for a Roxy Music project.
Ferry, at heart, is a crooner and so it's only fitting that this album would inspired by his eclectic interpretations of different rock, pop and soul standards, including everything from Erma Franklin's "Piece of My Heart," to The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" to the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby." We talk about an artist trying to "make a song their own" whenever we discuss covers and it's hard to argue that when it comes to Ferry here, he's putting his own, distinct stamp on these hits.
These Foolish Things came to us by way of our guest, music critic Lindsay Zoladz, who's spent the last ten years stocking up clips for everyone from Pitchfork to New York Magazine to The Ringer, where she's been a staff writer for the last several years (alongside the likes of previous Heat Rocks' guests, Shea Serrano and Chris Ryan). Zoladz shared with us how she discovered this particular album (especially as someone who wasn't even born in the 1970s), what she hears in Ferry's interpretations and whether or not he lives up to the title of being a "bobby dazzler."
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Show Tracklisting (all songs from These Foolish Things unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there.
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The Album: Otis Redding The Very Best of Otis Redding (1992)
Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart is the son of a record producer and session player who blessed him with the gift of The Very Best of Otis Redding, the 1992 compilation of sixteen of the best songs from the late Otis Redding's catalogue. His father gave him instructions for listening - the charge to learn all about feel.
We talked about the nuances of jabs and riffs and Otis Redding's pathos, his restraint, Otis' use of "uncool words" his penchant for the word "lovely", and his wonderfully nuanced cover of the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction".
We discussed the sound Memphis music - Stax/Volt, the musicianship, the organic country friend soul sound of the label, and how that sound benefitted Otis Redding.
What Jamie Stewart learned most from Otis Redding was awareness, how beats affect emotion, awareness of feel and how rhythm and emotion impact singing.
It was a great conversation about a career and a life interrupted.
Xiu Xiu's newest album Girl with Basket of Fruit releases 02/08/2019 via Polyvinyl.
Check out the music video for their newest single Scisssssssors.
Editor's note: Xiu Xiu was formed in San Jose, but the band is now LA-based.
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Show Tracklisting (all songs from The Very Best of Otis Redding unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there.
If you're not already subscribed to Heat Rocks in Apple Podcasts, do it here!
The Album: Ol Dirty Bastard: Return to the 36 Chambers (1995)
"Ain't no father to his style." That's how Ol Dirty Bastard was introduced to the world on 1993's Enter the 36 Chambers by hip-hop's posse supreme, the Wu Tang Clan. At the time, we got an inkling of ODB's eccentricity but on that first Wu album, so overloaded with personalities, it was hard to pluck him out of the stream and think "he might be the Clan's most memorable talent" but two years later, sandwiched between a stream of solo efforts by Method Man, the GZA, Raekwon and Ghostface, ODB put the world on notice with Return to the 36 Chambers. Here was Big Baby Jesus aka Dirt McGirt in all his weird, wonderful glory, with a raspy, rumbling voice that was like no other, singing and rapping in a way that was either wholly unhinged, creatively brilliant or perhaps, both.
These are the part of the mysteries that we tried to unpack with the help of Open Mike Eagle. He's no stranger to Max Fun listeners as OME is half the team behind Tights and Fights, when he's not also helping host the Secret Skin or Conversation Parade podcasts. He also, of course, is a prolific MC himself, with well over a dozen EPs and LPs to his name including last year's What Happens When I Try to Relax. As you'll hear, Return to the 36 Chambers wasn't just OME's intro to Dirt Dog, it was how he discovered the Wu and he, and hip-hop, would forever be changed.
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Show Tracklisting (all songs from Return to the 36 Chambers unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there
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The Album: Cyndi Lauper She's So Unsual (1983)
She's So Unusual dropped October 14th, 1983, and introduced much of the world to Queens' pop punk tough girl Cyndi Lauper. She presented as a colorful character with colorful hair and colorful homies and charmed her way into pop culture with ten tracks recorded for CBS at the Record Plant, NYC.
The former front woman for rockabilly band Blue Angel took a demo written by Philly rocker Robert Hazard and retooled it to become an anthem for her and the Eighties. "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" was the hit single that launched She's So Unusual and Cyndi Lauper into fame and led the album to platinum success, with six singles, two Grammy Awards, and critical acclaim for days.
She's So Unusual was the pick of astrologer/activist Chani Nicholas, who joined us to break down the relevance and resonance of the album in her life, Cyndi's star appeal, the queer gaze present on the album, Cyndi's quirky Cancerian coolness, and the her impact on music and the masses.
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Show Tracklisting (all songs from She's So Unsual unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there.
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The Album: Parliament: The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (1976)
In the 1970s, no single artist was as influential in transforming the sound of funk as George Clinton. If the funk of the late '60s was embodied in the sparse, frenetic rhythms of James Brown, Clinton filled out and polished the sound across the '70s, with beefy banks of horns and raucous guitars. By the time The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein came out in the mid 1970s, the P-Funk sound was in full flower and that's when a young DJ from outside Detroit crossed paths with The P.
Mayer Hawthorne, back when, was still known as DJ Haircut but a move to Los Angeles in the 2000s lead to a transformation into the smooth crooner we know of him today. Besides the four solo studio albums he’s recorded, he’s also one-half of the retro boogie team known Tuxedo (alongside Jake One) as well as half of the post-punk n’ funk duo, Jaded Incorporated, (alongside 14KT). Fun fact: Jaded Inc’s 2014 album The Big Knock was released by Casablanca Records, long-long time home to Parliament’s recordings, including The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein.
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Show Tracklisting (all songs from The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there
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The Album: David Bowie Young Americans (1975)
Super cool Grammy winning writer and archivist Lynell George came to know David Bowie's music through celebrated Los Angeles radio station KGFJ. KGFJ blasted the sounds and she received them courtesy of a wrap around Panasonic radio. (Salute!)
She was attracted to the Philly soul sound ever present on David Bowie's Young Americans because Philly soul was in her DNA as she is the daughter of a Philadelphia Native. David Bowie's desire to pay homage to both the black soul music he was fond of and Aretha Franklin, was a shift that most critics weren't prepared for.
We talked about the title track as an ahead-of-its-time commentary on gentrification, UK artists and their love affair with R&B music and the thin line between festishization and fascination.
Sax solos, guitar solos, soulful arrangement galore, Young Americans was the sound of Philadelphia and the sounds of blackness.
Best quote EVER, "you feel like you're walking through humidity" (Lynell George)
She wooed us and schooled us. We'd expect nothing less from a historian and an OG member of David Bowie's fan club.
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Show Tracklisting (all songs from Young Americans unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there.
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The Albums:
Vince Guraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
Andy Williams' The Andy Williams Christmas Album (1963)
Stax Records' Christmas in Soulsville (2007)
Heat Rocks was hyped to have film critic Alonso Duralde (The Wrap), one of the hosts of Maximum Fun's movie podcast Who Shot Ya? guest with us to talk about our favorite Christmas songs, holiday fare, songs that should play when it's cold outside, baby.
We visit the canon of Christmas music over the years (Andy Williams 1963 The Christmas Album, Vince Guaraldi Trio's A Charlie Brown Christmas and Stax Record's 2007 compilation Christmas In Soulsville and across genres and styles - crooners, sweeping orchestral cinematic pieces, summer songs vs. winter songs, modern Christmas traditions, etc.
Alonso broke down the power of nostalgia as it relates to Christmas music and how our tastes in music are informed by tradition.
Don't be a grinch. Listen to this wintery wonderland of an episode about favorite Christmas tracks.
More on Alonso Duralde
Show Tracklisting
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there
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