Ropeadope

From ropeadope man on the streets tommy williams: The Menahan Street Band is a collaboration of musicians from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, El Michels Affair, Antibalas and The Budos Band, brought together by musician/producer Thomas Brenneck to record hits in the bedroom of his Menahan St. apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. With influences reaching…

If you need to act cool when folks ask you for your favorite album of 2008, paste magazine has the ultimate list. dig it.

A new Nat King Cole album entitled “Re:Generations” will feature guest appearances by The Roots, Just Blaze, Cee-Lo, Nas and more.  The goal of the album is to construct a tuneful bridge between generations, cultures and races. “RE:Generations” honors Nat King Cole’s cultural influence around the planet, 90 years after his birth. more info here.

Not content to merely follow in his father's footsteps, Femi Kuti continues to expand his musical palette with his latest studio release,Day By Day, a hybrid of Afro-pop, jazz and urban influences. The album has been a long time coming: seven years since his last studio album Fight To Win and four years since…

Big Boi is getting his second solo album, Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty, back on the good foot. The street-embedded member of Outkast says that despite a delay, his record is still coming.  “The South got something to say, and we gonna keep on talking,” he told us recently in Atlanta. The roll-out plan for his LP seems…

This shit is so strange, but you're gonna click here anyway to see a random photo documentary of swedish dance bands from the 70s. (seriously). 

Soulive will once again embark on their annual holiday run in the Northeast, culminating with two nights at Boston’s Paradise for New Year’s Eve.  Soulive has had a busy year; they have unveiled their Royal Family concept which unites all the projects in the Soulive realm, performed as a trio and a quintet with horns and recorded two…

If the violin sounds good, it might be the mushrooms. A Swiss researcher announced Thursday that treating maple wood with a certain mushroom improves its sound quality. Speaking at a conference in Basel, Switzerland, Francis Schwarze said his maple violin, a replica of a 1698 instrument made by the Italian master Antonio Stradivari, has a sound comparable to the elusive timbre of…

Ben harper is boss. can't front on him and he is also one of the most underrated guitarists on the scene.  taking a break from his band the innocent criminals ben's got a new bag called relentless seven and they don't suck at all.