The Dap-Tone record label and the Re-emergence of Real

[Gregg Juke]

OK, I admit it; I slept on Dap-Tone for quite awhile.

It's not that I was unaware-- I've seen the various artist videos online, I'd been to the website, and I've seen a few live apperances by SJDK on network television. I've read a lot of the articles about the label and studio, Gabe Roth's production techniques, etc. I even had a few nice conversations recently with the very-approachable label pres Neal Sugarman, regarding the great things that Dap-Tone has been able to accomplish over the last several years...

But none of that is the same as _really listening_. I had an opportunity to pick-up Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings 45rpm box set "I Learned The Hard Way" this week, so I did. I transferred the vinyl to digital, and have been listening almost non-stop to the 11 song collection.

Most folks probably already know how amazing this stuff is, but I'm floored. Great performances, excellent arrangements, and _real_ real mature reality (as opposed to the "X Factor" episode that my family was watching last night-- what an incredible dualistic dichotomy).

This stuff sounds EXACTLY like it should. It's soul music for a soul-weary world. Unbelievable.

I also bought a vinyl copy of the new "Super Heavy" super-group album. It's decently ok. Some good songs. It's better than you might expect, but not as good as it should be. Mick Jagger kind of sounds like someone doing an imitation of Mick Jagger. Joss Stone seems somehow "contained"/constrained by the musical surroundings. Damien Marley sounds great, but there's not enough of him.

I think I'll be listening to the Dap-Kings for quite some time!

GJ

[fossiltooth]

I loves me some Daptone. Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, Budos Band - It's all good. Really, really good.

I've interviewed their founder Gabe Roth twice, and I'd do it again at the drop of the hat. Tape Op also had a kickass interview with him ages ago where a more hardline version of his recording philosophy comes across. If you Google "Shitty Is Pretty" you still might find it somewhere. Someone here might have a link to it, and you can probably order the back issue or one of the Tape Op books, too.

In my own later interviews with him, he comes across as less dogmatic, but his #1 method is always simple: He listens.

FWIW, there's a lot of people making organic, unprocessed music today. The new Feist record is that way, and Bjork's latest record feels very natural as well, even if she used a lot of technology to help her generate her ideas. (Just starting to write about that one now!)

Anyway, check out the whole Daptone discog. I have yet to hear a lousy record come out of that camp. They're worth every penny.

[vvv]

Aiight, on the strength of this post I ordered the latest Sharon Jones CD.

BTW, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears is in this vein - fonky-butt, fonky-butt!

[Gregg Juke]

I've tried to answer this in-depth three times now.

&&^%#%#Y$%& Laptop.

Anyway, I'll get back to you guys; thanks for responding.

GJ

[joelpatterson]

Isn't there some kind of cliche that goes "Bad something-or-other blames his laptop?"

[Gregg Juke]

OK, now I'm responding on my iPod, which has its own set of issues (can anybody say "pain-stakingly slow tiny typing?"). But it's all good, because I can chat while listening to Tadd Dameron!

Anyway:

Vuv (heh)-- I've still got to find me some Black Joe...
Joel-- I'll deal with you later.
Justin-- I'd love to read your interviews with Gabe. He definitely sounds like an interesting guy.

I am digging into the Daptone catalogue, slowly but surely. I just picked-up some Lee Fields (on 45rpm, on the "Truth & Soul" label, which I believe is a Dap subsidiary). I like to hear this stuff initially on vinyl; I think it adds to the analog/anachronistic mystique. Lee sounds a lot more 70's, while SJDK sound like
60's to very early 70's.

I am interested in the production, and I'm sure that people like Bjork are making cool organic records, but the Daptone stuff is different. I'm not just talking about one-microphone-on-the-drums type of quichey production tricks, I just think that the whole vibe, the "gestalt" if you will, on the Dap stuff is amazing. I've had an immediate visceral emotional connection to this music (like fo real, like crying because I haven't heard anything this real in a long, long time). The songwriting, performance, and arrangements are all top-notch, not just the recording. But the whole thing comes off soultastically beyond belief. And I grew up listening to my sister and brothers hand-me-down Motown/Tamla 45's, and singers like Sam & Dave and Mel & Tim. So I'm really hip to not only what Roth and Sugarman are _trying_ to do, but what they are successfully _doing_, because even though the music sounds like it's 1962, and Hitsville is still in Detroit, and Curtis is still in Chicago, it's all happening NOW.

I went to the grocery store today. This brother that looked like a young Ice-T was pumping the latest synthesized rap joint from his monster 4X4 out in the parking lot, waiting for his groceries. I _almost_ went back to my car, to knock on his window and give him my copy of "I Learned The Hard Way." I thought to myself, "he NEEDS to hear this," so I almost did it.

Almost.

GJ

[tony_tomlinson]

I can completely relate to how those of you who have posted feel. A few years back I heard this record by Little George Sueref that crushed me. I am a huge fan of the Excello label and have spent much of the last decade searching for or recording music that captures the feel of those Lightning Slim cuts. Back to George's record, it was recorded by Liam Watson at Toerag Studios in London. Yep, that Toerag. Like GJ, I couldn't believe that people were making records that were so hip... today!

When I heard Sharon Jones' 100 Days I was absolutely giddy over the production style and arrangements. Gabe Roth and Liam Watson aren't alone in their ability to make this hip, organic sounding records. Mark Neill has made a number or them with bands like Big Sandy and the Flyrite Boys, Los Straitjackets, the Paladins, the Fremonts (shameless plug for my band), and the Black Keys. Still, guys like Mark, Liam, and T-Bone Burnette are producers and brilliant as they are. They aren't labels. I think the big difference is that Daptone has a sound. It's been a long, long time since a label has had a sound. Motown had a sound. Sun had a sound. Stax had a sound. What's the ingredient those labels have in common? They were all essentially independent labels ran by folks with a vision. Daptone seems to be one of the few remaining beacons of creativity in an industry that's run afoul of good taste.

[Gregg Juke]

Maybe Toerag will start a label too(?). It would be cool to hear what he could put out on a regular basis. I've seen the videos of the studio; it looks amazing.

GJ

PS-- Hey TT, we do "Tina-Nina-Nu," and we might be picking-up Slim's version of "Folsom Prison."

[CedarSound]

LOVE the Dap Kings... and the production style... Dap Dippin has some of the most low-fi bad ass funk I have ever heard.. Gabe's bass lines on that album alone are worth the price of admission..

I saw them live in Indianapolis last year and am going to see them in Cleveland at the end of this month. If you want to see a crowd have an amazing time at a show in 2011, SEE THEM LIVE. Unbelievably, gave me goose bumps.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

^^^^^^^ what he said.

I saw Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings last year and it was one of the best shows I've seen in years and years. If they come anywhere near your town you should go see them. You won't regret it. When I saw them they did a 2 hour + revue where all the songs flowed together. The band never stopped and the drummer had sweat through his suit ten minutes in. Their dry cleaning bills must be huge.

[themagicmanmdt]

perhaps i'm a harsh critic -

it's good, as in it sounds very much in 'that old style' influence, and she's got the mixed soulful/pushing voice, good tone, tonal recording quality is rembembering the old soul stuff -

but it just doesn't take off.

to me, it's a great homage to people who have an extensive record collection of that stuff, but it don't feel like the old wave did.

now, why?

i don't know. drums are restrained, i hear 'production' in the way that there's a lot of thinking going on with 'making' this sound. i mean, listen to 'higher and higher' by jackie wilson. listen to how the WHOLE BAND is nearly jumping out of their seat. nothing comes close to the feeling of EXCITEMENT that comes through the old age.

i feel that's a very big thing missing - the difference between 'singing and playing' like a soul band and then BEING and DRIPPING soul, like Brown and Redding.

it's like early-mid 70's transition soul, and just because it's got all the ingredients and tastes like apple pie doesn't mean it's like grandma's.




i wish i could have that group to produce a single, though. i could guarantee that once i piss that drummer off, add more sag, up the tempo a smidge and get sharon to feel a bit more true fire in her veins, then something legendary just might come of it all -

[Snarl 12/8]

Man, I wasn't going to say it, but I feel the same way. After reading Roth's "shitty is pretty" thing I wanted like crazy to love this band. But I saw them on ACL or Soundstage or something on TV and I couldn't even watch the whole thing. The lack of energy was driving me crazy.

I feel there are lots of "taste" things that are just inexplicable and one taste that I've noticed certain people have (a lot of people apparently) is for music that absolutely refuses to take off. When I saw the Greatful Dead I felt the same way, every opportunity they had to "pump up the groove", give a satisfying payoff, etc., they would turn the other way. I think it has something to do with a certain idea of what "tasteful" is, but I didn't think I'd be hearing [or feeling?] that from the DapKings after reading that Roth article.

PS, in all fairness to The Greatful Dead, there were two songs that had great energy and big buildups to satisfying payoffs, they were the two songs that Jerry Sang on.

Can someone who has that taste for not having songs "build up" explain that to me? What's the attraction to it? Is it like watching one of those Victorian English "romance" movies where nothing [sexual] ever happens between the two lead characters even though everyone wants it to? Like anticipation without release leaves you really pumped or satisfied? I don't want to diss this, it's just something I can really get, at all.

[Gregg Juke]

Well, all I can say is that I disagree with you guys, but Carl, give them a little more time to grow on you, because I didn't catch it the first couple of times either.

As to the Grateful Dead, I never got them either ( but I dug "Truckin'" and "I Will Survive," probably the two songs any real GD fan hates the most).

GJ

[fossiltooth]

To each their own, for sure!

Personally, I think it's always fair to judge a band on one great performance, but it's less fair to judge a band on one bad one. But maybe I'm just biased toward giving good musicians some credit when I can! Not every show can be the best one ever.

As for the specific criticisms, I'd agree that SJDK play more consistent mid-tempo soul tunes than some of the old school guys. If you really check out an old James Brown or Otis Redding show, they do all these whispery soul ballads contrasted against these total balls-to-the-wall soul screamers. I would say SJDK provide less of that kind of dynamic ride. Maybe what's what you guys are missing?

Instead, the Dap-Kings just lay out a solid foot-tappin rhythm and just never let up. There's something to be said for that too. Their show is almost more like a high-octane Al Green, where many of the songs exist on the same general dynamic plane.

If you want to hear a little more build, you might want to check out Daptone's instrumental act, Budos Band. They play this rollicking dirty funk music that sounds ready-made for the Quentin Tarantino soundtrack you wish existed. In any event, I still think any of their artists are totally worth seeing live if you get the chance. The energy coming from the stage is usually pretty incredible.

On a closing note, sometimes I like to remember that I didn't love all of my favorite artists the first time I heard them. I'm talking about my very favorites: Tom Waits, James Brown, Blonde Redhead, Django Rheindhardt, Bjork, Neil Young. A lot of these guys inspired little more than a "meh" from me before what they were doing really sunk in. Now, I can't imagine not being in love with any of them.

[Gregg Juke]

Hey Justin,

I just picked-up a nice old 45 7" of Django Reinhardt; a couple of nice versions of "Impromptu" and "Double Whiskey." The record was beat-to-snot, however, and I had to spend quite a bit of time in Sound-Forge extracting some music off of that platter!

GJ