Eclectic Grooves

It is once again time for me to reach back in the refrigerator for some "choice cuts". Each time, I will be featuring sizzling and succulent morsels that are grabbing my ear right now that range from funk to country, from afro-beat to garage rock, etc. Sometimes there will be a theme to these songs that ties them all together in a nice bow, but other times the songs featured will just be a musical hodgepodge of eclectic delights. Without further ado, lets see what "choice cuts" the vinyl butcher has prepared for us today. Today's edition of Choice Cuts features a track each from the latest releases on Tompkins Square: This May Be My Last Time Singing- Raw African American Gospel on 45 RPM 1957-1982 and To What Strange Place- The Music of the Ottoman -American Diaspora.  R. Jenkins and the Dayton Harmonaires: Put Your Hand in the Hand From: This May Be My Last Time Singing- Raw African American Gospel on 45 RPM 1957-1982 ...

With the recent news of Megaupload going down, I have been reminded to check my own links. Unfortunately, I hadn't been paying close enough attention to this and have found that many of my links are no longer active. My plan is to start from the oldest posts and work my way up to check that each link has been re-upped, so it will take some time to complete this task. I don't know how many of you actually check the archives of the blog, but I would imagine that there are a fair amount of people who do. If you notice something that is no longer active, please let me know so I can re-up that link for you. There are some links that were taken down because it was requested that they be taken down by the label or artist. I will not be re-upping these under any condition, in respect to them. Over the past two days, I have re-upped all links from October- November of 2006. Please click on the links below for easy access to these posts. October 2006 Los Comadrejas Free Jazz F...

The recent news of file-sharing site Megaupload being forced to shut down its operations is stirring up quite a frenzy in the music blogging arena. Many blogs have closed down due to the fact that their entire music collection has been uploaded on Megaupload, and it would be an incredible undertaking to re-upload these files onto a different file-sharing site. Thankfully, most of my files were uploaded onto Mediafire, so I won't have nearly as much work to do in getting my blog back up to speed. With that being said, if any of you find any links that are no longer working, please let me know as soon as possible so I can get them uploaded to a new file-sharing site. On the brighter side of things, thanks to the countless blogs and websites who went dark the other day in protest to the PIPA and SOPA laws, Congress has decided that they are not going to pass either of these laws based on their blatant censorship and attack on our basic human rights. This is a consider...

I was going to make my site go dark today due to the protest of new bills in Congress called SOPA and PIPA, but I decided to raise awareness about this in a different way. For those of you who don't know what these bills are all about, please visit this site for an in-depth overview of what the passing of these bills could potentially do to our freedom of speech on the internet. Most websites would be affected by this, so each and every one of you who doesn't want their freedoms taken away should contact their congressman to protest the passing of this bill. In a nutshell, they want to stop piracy and copyright infringement from foreign sites, but they haven't clearly defined what constitutes a criminal act or what defines a foreign site. This will severely impact social networking sites, blogs, music sharing services, etc. The bottom line is that the government doesn't have any business censoring the internet and we need to all take a stand to figh...

As I sit here all warm and cozy inside my four-walled world, heat cranked up to the max on this blustery night, I feel like giving thanks for some fundamental things in my life. I am thankful that I don't have to sleep on a downtown street corner in the bitter cold , that I have the love of a beautiful woman, clothes to wear, medicine to keep me healthy and especially that I have amazing friends and family who are there to help me through the challenges that life poses for me each and every day. Most importantly, I am thankful that I am living and breathing today, because not everyone is so fortunate. In the past month, the music world has lost three stellar musicians: Hubert Sumlin, Howard Tate and Sam Rivers. Hubert Sumlin, the masterful guitar player for Howlin' Wolf's band, died of heart failure in a hospital in New Jersey at the age of 80 on December 4th. He left behind a musical legacy that will never be surpassed, and his signature playing style h...