Joe S. // Blog

I lived in Minneapolis during "Flyte Time" rise to fame. The songwriter/ producer team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were in The Time and had begun producing some major acts. Their sound became synonymous with the "pow pow bang" beat of the 80's.

The pair met in high school in Minneapolis and formed a band called Flyte Tyme which evolved into The Time. In 1981, they were joined by Morris Day and toured with Prince as his opening act.

As members of The Time they recorded three of the group's four albums (The Time, What Time Is It?, and Pandemonium. The first two albums are said to have shaped early eighties R&B music (featuring "Cool","Get It Up", "The Walk", "777-9311", and "Gigolos Get Lonely Too"). The pair were fired from the tour because a blizzard left them unable to rejoin after a short break to produce The SOS Band. However, one of the tracks they were producing, "Just Be Good to Me", became a big hit and made their reputation, as well that of the SOS Band.

After working with other artists like The SOS Band, Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal, Jam and Lewis were introduced to Janet Jackson and produced her breakthrough album Control in 1986, for which the duo won a Grammy Award. Their collaboration on her next album, 1989's Rhythm Nation 1814, was even more successful.

Since then they have produced hits for Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stephani and Boyz II Men to name only a few.

This video set features The S.O.S. Band's "Just Be Good To Me", Human League's "Human", and an instrumental of Usher's "U Remind Me", all Flyte Time productions. I've also included a cool radio interview of a very casual Jam and Lewis on The Amie Jo Show.

Enjoy.

Another tragic love story involving a girl and a boy...robot!

The Hysterics were discovered in 2004 by an MP3 blog called Music For Robots and were bolstered by a mention on MTV News. Fitting I'd say.

Happy Monday! Enjoy!

There were many musical firsts in the 80's that seem to revolve around friends of producer Trevor Horn (who shows on the last "cry" in the video). Whether it is Yes and the Art of Noise with the use of sampling, or being the first video on MTV, Trevor and his friends were innovators. In this post we have his friends Godley and Creme (of 10cc) and their video "Cry". It was the first to explore morphing as a visual effect.

Being talented and successful songwriters Godley and Creme were also responsible for producing some of the 80's best music videos, including The Police's "Every Breath You Take", "Wrapped Around Your Finger", "Synchronicity II", Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", Duran Duran's "Girls On Film" and "A View to a Kill", and George Harrison's "When We Was Fab".

Their experiment in morphing inspired and culminated in Micheal Jackson's masterful "Black and White" . I'd love to have it in the set but the Jackson Mafia has disallowed embedding on all of the video sites. I think Michael takes morphing waaaay too personally anyway.

You've heard of seeing stars right? Well I was seeing them sing this morning. This video set is about a group of actors who are also known for their ventures into music. Here are Zooey (from Elf. The New Guy etc. with She and Him), Jack (with tenatious d), Adam, the Hasselhoff, and a live one from the Shat.

Enjoy!

CAUTION: Some language from the comedians. Why is that? At any rate it's hard to tell who the comics are in this set.

Call me a multi-culturalist or just a tad obsessesed but every now and then I find myself watching the elaborate and often accidentally comical Bollywood numbers.

This video set is from a movie called Jab We Met. From what I can gather this is in Punjabi but how would I know?! I've not seen the full movie, and I don't think it would do me any good without subtitles. But the songs are very well done.

Here is "Ye Ishq Hai", "Tum Se Hi", and "Nagada Nagada". Enjoy!

Happy Wednesday.

Here's a feel good song by The Magic Numbers. Every now and then it is good hear such a song especially when you are stuck in traffic and think you are "going it alone". I enjoyed it!

I also enjoyed the comment on this Youtube video:

"I love the fat, long haired gits- can't help but think they represent the rockin' side of the Beach Boys for this generation...sublime harmonies and unnatural talent for rock/pop sensibility..."

I hope you enjoy this too!

I've been jamming with a group whose drummer is an old jazz drummer from DC. Of late he is showing his distain for technology with each gizmo I unveil. I chuckle at his attempts to "wet blanket" me and kind of just go on about my bid'ness.

I was checking out some Kraftwerk music when I ran across some interesting mash-ups. I was thinking of how it is odd to hear these things mixed together. I guess I kind of get where he may be coming from. Fresh ideas and the newness of change and invention take some getting used to I guess.

While I've spared you from the KraftwerK vs. The Beatles [gasp!...how dare they ;) ], this video set features 2 Timbaland songs matched with some old school synthpop. Included are "Timbaland vs Kraftwerk: The Way Models Are" and "One republic vs Eurythmics-Apologize vs sweet dreams". And because I'm a vindictive Scorpio, I've been told, I've added Janis Joplin's Mecedes Benz mashed with Kraftwerk's Autobahn. It's all in fun...really! Enjoy!

Marsha...Marsha...Marsha!

School is out so it is only natural that my house is filled with the sounds of kids, iCarly, Hannah Montana and Drake and Josh, and Camp Rock! It seems that the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon have a lock on my TV. Being that I work from home it is sometimes NOT "the best day ever"- in the words of Spongebob Squarepants.

I was thinking about where these shows are going to land these kids in the future and what happened to  the child stars of my past.

Well apparently they are doing well making movies and rock songs about themselves.

This video shows them poking fun at themselves and their fans crazy reactions to them now that they are all grown up. From "Dickie Roberts Former Child Star", here are the Brady Bunch, the Cunninghams, The Eight Is Enough gang and others you may recognize singing "Child Stars On Your Television".

Enjoy!

This set starts with a fan video of one of my favorite tunes from Acoustic Alchemy called Catalina Kiss.

Acoustic Alchemy is a British contemporary instrumental and smooth jazz band formed in England in the early 1980s , originally fronted by acoustic guitarists Nick Webb and Simon James. The band is currently fronted by Greg Carmichael and Miles Gilderdale.

This video set also includes a four part documentary on the band with interviews and performances tracing their influences and musical history.

Enjoy!

I'm a little late on my happy Monday post. The 4th of July weekend got me a tad behind all the way around. I had carnivals, fireworks, and a live jam in the garden.

This video set is a group of songs tweaked by producer Axwell. Axwell (born Axel Hedfors) is a DJ, remixer, record producer and record label owner from Stockholm, Sweden.

Although his years behind the decks began in the late 1990s at many gay clubs, his profile got larger when he teamed up with Robbie Rivera and vocalist Suzan Brittan to record "Burning." The collaboration went to number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 2004.

In late 2004 Axwell released another global hit, "Feel The Vibe", which was re-released under Ministry of Sound in 2005 with added vocals from Tara McDonald as "Feel The Vibe ('Til The Morning Comes).

Axwell has been producing remixes for other artists - recent mixes have included Usher's "Burn" (BMG), Room 5's "Make Luv" (Positiva), Clipse & Faith Evans "Ma, I Don’t Love Her" (RCA), Stonebridge's "Put 'Em High" (Hed Kandi), N*E*R*D's single "Maybe" (Virgin), and more recently Hard-Fi's "Hard To Beat", Deep Dish's "Dreams", Pharrell Williams' "Angel", Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous" and Madonna's "Jump".

This set includes Axwell's "I Found You", "Feel The Vibe" and his remix of Sunfreakz "Counting Down The Days".

So now that it's Monday evening and we're all limbered up, maybe we can keep up with Axwell's dancers. Uh right....

Happy day.