SONG OF THE DAY: Cry My Tears Away

This is such a great song. There’s so much good modern souldies music happening nowadays, that it makes me wonder why the fuck I don’t have a ’63 Bel Air painted purple that I’m saving up for nice rims for that I just ride around in blasting shit like this, driving nowhere in particular and everywhere at once, one finger waving at strangers and doing the solemn head nod sideways arm to those I know. Wherever Raven is doing that in the multiverse, I’d like to venmo money for a tank of gas.

SONG OF THE DAY: Learned the Hard Way

Thought I lucked out and snagged this from the Mango Hill bandcamp a while back, but they were actually out of it. The plate tectonics of physical music trickle down into used bins means there’s a lot of stuff I love that ain’t gonna show up nearby. That’s good though. No matter how global and know-it-all we think we’ve gotten, the physical world still depends on physical movement of matter. The revolution will not be digitized.

SONG OF THE DAY: Left With A Broken Heart

I really need an ’85 Buick Regal to sit around in and listen to stuff like Joey Quiñones. It doesn’t even have to be a working Regal, and in fact, I don’t even have to own it. There could be a wrecked one down in the woods that I just go sit in and play a Bluetooth speaker. That’s actually preferable. Personal property taxes are way cheaper when shit ain’t your personal property.

SONG OF THE DAY: Stop Taking Me For Granted

Puppet souldies jams are the best. Keep ‘em coming, Universe.

SONG OF THE DAY: I've Never Found a Girl

Cultural mainstream is still pretty strong, even in these faux quirky digital times. Folks like to think we have access to everything and know about more stuff that ever, but the algorithm is still driven by pre-conceived biases, and so much shit exists outside the mainstream. There's all these non-mainstream living legends who exist, and do their thing to a big successful scale, and it's integral to certain scenes, but the mainstream still has no clue. Sunny Ozuna is an example. Dude has been making the brown-eyed soul bangers for decades, probably most famously with Sunny & The Sunliners (or Sunny y Los Sunliners, depending on your heritage). A lot of his classics have been reissued through some modern souldie labels, but Sunny himself is still out here, at age 80, playing big Chicano car shows and regional festivals, and pretty much still a staple wherever there's a large Mexican-American population.
It's summertime cookout season, and I remember being at the neighbor's cookouts back growing up, blessed to have experienced a non-white majority environment at an early age (to learn humility and how to shut the fuck up and get along better), and I think about this cultural mainstream vs non-mainstream norms with cookout season, because Frankie Beverly & Maze feels like cookout music to me. Just hearing certain Maze songs just bring those vibes, completely, like I can imagine the potato salad and barbecue chicken in front of me lol. But the mainstream (meaning, white culture) doesn't even know about that shit. Even in all the genres that the mainstream has Christopher Columbused over the decades, certain things like Maze or Sunny seem to somehow still escape the nets.
Anyways, Sunny is a classic, and for the most part, I've ended more DJ sets I've had than not with the 45 of Sunny & The Sunglows "Smile Now Cry Later" played at 33. It's my "turn out the lights, the party's over" song. This ain't that song, but it's still a banger. Sunny's got a deep discography of them.

SONG OF THE DAY: Standing With You

Man, I had heard this song on a souldies mix I got off a blog, and I thought it was legit oldie from like the 60s. I was shocked to see it was Colemine and I’d never gotten the 45, since I do regular “better get all the shit I missed” orders from them and Daptone and Big Crown. Hadn’t even played the 45 slow yet, just got it sitting in the stack, because I know it’s gonna be a mind blower, and probably pair really fuckin’ well with Aaron Frazer’s “My God Has a Telephone” (also on Colemine). Already up to 3 copies of the Frazer song, and I know I’m gonna need more than one of this track, too.

SONG OF THE DAY: Pot of Gold

Just vibing man, just vibing. I could rock shit like this all day. Ordered this 45 from a dude in California but it never showed up, I guess the media mail got lost. I was being chill about it, because I know he does a lot of shit where he's at. The Power of Lounge worked, because the errant media mail package showed back up with him and he mailed the shit again. Good shit happens for those who lounge.

SONG OF THE DAY: Real Connection

I regret to inform you I have become a “souldies” guy. Maybe it’s because I have a radio show where all I do is play 45s at 33 speed, and the vast bulk of new 45s released are from the rapidly expanding souldies scene. Bobby Oroza is a dude from Finland who dropped Get On The Otherside this year on Big Crown Records, and that shit slams. Sadly, Big Crown Records has not released “Real Connection” on 45 for me to play at 33 speed. The fun thing about souldies is it’s the strangest multicultural scene ever, that has scenes pop up in expected places (like Brooklyn and Northern California) but then Finland. Anyways, I want to start a record label now, with no money and no experience. That’s what happens when you start to listen to too many 45s.