Cat Empire Live in NYC!!!

Loving a band that hails from Australia ain't easy. On the plus side, they can rhyme Karma with Armor, which an American band can't get away with. After being a huge fan of these guys for a couple years now, I finally had the opportunity to see them on this North American Tour, but NYC was the closest they came to DC, so I made the trip up. I convinced Alex and Jon to go with me. The venue is right in Times Square, which is pretty amazing on a Saturday night. It's not much bigger than 9:30 in terms of the floor, but then they have a huge back area with seats. I'm not good at estimating seats, but I'd guess a couple thousand were packed in there. It was sold out. Oddly, they ran out of room in the coat checks, which just seems like bad planning for a venue in Northeast after all.

The show took a little while to get going, but around the fourth or fifth song, they did a Middle Eastern flavored song called The Darkness, where they just killed it for what seemed like ten minutes. After that, each song was better than the last, and the sweaty intensity of the show just went through the roof. Even though they don't have a guitarist, they make up for it in terms of rhythm with a DJ scratching around and one of their lead vocalists plays percussion. As for solos, the keyboardist is pretty damn good, but their trumpet players are outta sight. The lead trumpet also sings lead vocals and he blazed on both.

In terms of comparisons, they most reminded my of Ozomatli in terms of their sound and their live show experience. There was a lot of jumping up and down, hand waving, clapping and singing along. The energy was fantastic and no one wanted the show to end. It was good times.

If you're into latin jazzy, reggae, hip-hop influenced, high energy jam band-ish music, definitely check out the Cat Empire. Two Shoes is the albums to start with.

J Crew Plays the Good Tunes - Spearhead and The Lions

Mindless consumer that I am, I buy most of my clothes in one or two shopping frenzies each year at the outlet stores in Manchester, VT near my parent's house.

This summer, while in the midst of my lust to be liked by virtue of buying the right clothes, I was in the J Crew store and heard two great tunes playing in the store. I used my handy-dandy Midomi iPhone app to figure out what they were and later bought the songs. In my mind they're linked by J Crew, but they happen to be similar musically as well, so that's why I'm giving you a twofer here.

Michael Franti and Spearhead have a new album out called All Rebel Rockers, and this one is heavier on the reggae than their previous albums by far. The J Crew track on the album is Say Hey (I Love You) featuring Cherine Anderson. Anderson's island accent serves as a call-and-response partner to Franti's growling, earnest rap-singing. They trade turns at the mic over a reggaefied version of the Not Fade Away beat. As with the best Spearhead songs, the chorus is a catchy sing-a-long that sticks with you.

The second track is Think (About It) by The Lions, another reggae soul outfit, who hail from LA. Once again, the song features a female vocalist. In this case she's a neo-soul singer named Noelle Scaggs whose voice is a dead ringer for Beyoncé's. I kept wondering why Beyoncé would be singing on this small band's album with no credit. Finally I did some actual research and figured out that Mrs. Jay-Z was not slumming. I was pretty clueless about the origins of the song as well until a friend heard it and started singing along even though she'd never heard of it. You'd think when Scaggs sings, "It takes two to make a thing go right," something would have clicked in my head. As it turns out, it's a cover of a James Brown produced song performed by Lyn Collins in 1972. The original is one of the most sampled songs of all time, most famously in the dance-floor staple, "It Takes Two", by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock. The "woo! yeah! da-na-na!" is instantly recognizable.

The Lions' version is looser and jazzier, featuring the horns more prominently, and adds some reggae flavor while Scaggs belts out the classic soul diva's lament about the no-goodnik men she's forced to deal with. The original is tighter than tight as you'd expect from James Brown, and Collins' vocals sound subdued and prim compared to Scaggs' full-on attack.

PS - Jungle Struttin', the title track, is also a funk flex-fest that's worth a spin.