OK, finally more good stuff on Spinner

I don't know if it's just been a bad year for releases or if Spinner has been missing them but sadly, it is my main source of hearing about and listening to new stuff. Well, I guess it's sad. It has really been a great source for me for the last 3 or so years. I used to work in record stores (circa '95-'98) and we got all of the new releases to play on the store speakers. I think it really developed my ears to hear the good and bad in all types of releases whether they would normally hit my radar or not. Now, I have Spinner.

I just browsed through this weeks offerings and saw 3 albums I am already really excited about.

I Learned the Hard Way by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

Go by Icelandic band Sigur Ros front man Jonsi.

Shame, Shame by Philly rock band Dr. Dog

I am currently listening to Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. I love love this band. They lay down an only slightly modified for modern version of old school R&B and Funk grooves that I could hear behind anyone from early Motown to Curtis Mayfield to Fela Kuti. Her vocal style fits somewhere between that early Motown sound and a version of a sorta raunchy and almost campy female blues usually backed up by a Chicago blues style backing band... something I can appreciate but am generally not much of a fan of. In this case the Dap-Kings are good enough to keep her in business.

I spun both of the others mentioned above today but didn't get a good enough listen to comment at any length. I will say Jonsi started off strong and I heard much there worth revisiting. Likewise with Dr. Dog, I will have to listen more. One of my gripes with them has always been their lack of diversity and I don't quite know where that comes from but I believe a couple of subtle changes on this one might have eased that issue a bit. I'm excited to dig deeper.

also sounding good here is:

And Then We Saw by Tunng