I want to get this one, unfortunately it does not seem to be out in Germany. Bummer. Let's check ebay.

beatz01 said:

Thanks! I have a Nikka Costa session from this show, too. Great!

I think this album starts off absolutely fantastic, then tends to be a little too soft neo-soul. All in all very good, I like it! Quite similar in parts to Bilal's new one, which HOPEFULLY will be released one of these days.

IT's a shame how his record company is treating this album. NO publicity at all! It debuted WAY down the bottom of the billboard chart. This album is good but obvious his label doesn't think so.

Like I said in my first post, Cree Summer's version of "Mean Sleep" pwns Hunt's. And he's horribly off key - I can't even stand to listen to the last two minutes of the song. Hey, did anybody else notice that on "Hot Stage Lights" his vocals are initially slowed down and then as soon as you notice, quickly sped up to his normal vocal tone? Take a careful listen to the first five seconds...it's interesting!

namepeace said:

What up, main? Cool - thanks for the validation. I think the singer Hunt's attempting to emulate is none other than David Bowie. I think Hunt has even mentioned that he's a big Bowie fan. It's a neat song - I see that it was co-written by Curtis Whitehead, Hunt's co-pilot, whose album I'd like to hear myself. He's got some great ideas.




I think I may have to disagree with you. "Character" is nothing but a "Seconds of Pleasure" rehashing, and further goes to satisfy Hunt's Mayfield jones. He's also got the soft, piano driven ballads that the first album had, albeit a bit more ambitious. The quirky musings we heard on his debut are heard here as well; this record did not find Hunt pushing the envelope as much as I think he may be capable of.


After more listens, I'm certain that On The Jungle Floor is about 3 or 4 songs too long. The last three, specifically, are dead on clunkers.

Thank you for the heads up ! In fact they have 2 shows with Nikka Costa in their archives: One from 2005 (pretty funky) and one from 2001 plus quite a number of other interesting artists, among them Barry White, Brian Setzer (with his Orchestra), Me'shell and what not.

Check it out:

http://www.kcrw.com/cgi-b...d_browse_1
or
http://www.kcrw.com/cgi-b...ind_search

Make sure to select the "Morning Becomes Eclectic" show in the search options.

As for the Van Hunt album, i'm still spinning it every day, can't repeat often enough how good it is...

Unfortunately i don't feel 3121 as much...it's just missing "that" vibe.
.
[Edited 4/12/06 14:57pm]
[Edited 4/12/06 14:59pm]

Frederick96 said:

No hot video. One video can make his career. He's facing two obstacles:

1. He's making music that's hard to categorize. It's hard to market if you don't emphasize the individual behind it, instead of simply referring to him as the "next Prince" or implying as such. The streets are littered with good musicians who couldn't meet that hype because no one is the next Prince.

2. He is a black man who is a musician, not a neo-gangsta crooner or hardcore MC. It's hard to sell black musicians these days. There's no reason a Me'Shell, a Maxwell, or a Van Hunt (stars or successful though they may be) shouldn't be megastars. Hit-pop killed funk and soul music as a viable force. When you toss in Van's pop and rock sensibilities, it makes it even harder for him to get the marketing dollars. So your question could be answered by finding out which hit-pop artists are on Van's label.

just guesses on my part.

namepeace said:

I noticed people had a hard time finding the album also. I went everywhere and nobody had it but Walmart. My brother still lives in chicago and he looked everywhere he could think of and he found it at boarders after looking around all night. What's up with that?

I was glad that the rap faded out at the end of mean sleep.. every album shouldn't have to have a rhyme on it, its really getting played.

Meloh9 said:

Chi-Town? The home of Dusty Groove and Supreme, didn't have it? Wow.

Does anyone know why this album isn't released in Holland yet? I loved his 'Van Hunt' album , so I wanna get it!

Btw,

in addition to the posted performance from a few days ago, i've found an earlier performance from 2003, also at KCRW (audio only) - including a great version of "Down Here In Hell":

http://kcrw.com/cgi-bin/r...19Van_Hunt

And here's a pretty interesting/funny interview from that time, funny because the female interviewer finds herself on the backseat of his limo after a while, including kissing...

http://www.nerve.com/scre...c/vanhunt/

Have fun !
[Edited 4/12/06 16:13pm]
[Edited 4/12/06 16:24pm]

namepeace said:

my brother lives on the southside so Dusty Groove is a long way.. he went up north to hit up all these different spots and it was still a hard find.

chuckaducci said:

THAT'S where I know the song from! The Cree Album is excellent

I'm checking this out on itunes. WOW. Who the hell is this guy? Wheres he from? Is he on MTV or the radio? Ive never heard of him...

DMSR said:

He got a lot of play on the independent radio station here in LA. they play lots of unknowns. they favor art as opposed to charts

His voice is just too one-dimensional for me... he really suffers from a lack of dynamic and tonal variation.

Problem is, his songs are quite good... I find it hard to get into his music because of his voice (which sounds too much like Curtis Mayfield, btw) even though I have both albums.

JPW said:

anything that reminds me of Curtis is not a bad thing.. like Jimi's guitar playing.

I don't think his voice is one-dimensional at all, and the Curtis-ish way of singing is one of the ingredients i like most about his records.

I think that's one reason why i like that cd so much: Because it's all about how the different aspects blend so perfectly together: songwriting,production,versality,voice, vibe.

It's the WHOLE package vs. just singing or just good songs.

Btw- there are quite some artists that are not perfect vocalists in the usual sense but are great artists nevertheless, amongst them ppl like Bjork,Tom Waits, James Brown, George Clinton, and even Prince at the beginning of his career wasn't your usual vocalist either..

Anyway, i'm so convinved it makes me wanna join the street team.

This record needs to explode big time.


[Edited 4/12/06 16:58pm]
[Edited 4/12/06 16:58pm]

beatz01 said:

I know I have been promoting it as much as possible. I wish I was in a position to get it heard on a wider scale. We need more artist like this.

Meloh9 said:

I would not have said this with his first album. I definitely agree on this one

beatz01 said:

thank you for this!!!!

dang this album is slammin just got done listening to it in the car for the first time (had been listening on my pc the whole week)

Van Hunt is a bad mutha**ka!
[Edited 4/13/06 18:05pm]

I checked out his first CD after reading all the hype on this massage board. I find it to be...OK, to say the most. As someone posted earlier his voice is just not that captivating and, for me, lacks character and passion. I'm willing to give the second CD a listen to see if he's progressed in a manner that I can fully relate to.

I love the new cd.Heres a nice article from people magazine...

I've listened to this CD for a week now and I have to say it's a cool disc. He rocks out a little more on a couple of tunes (that kind of remind me of Lenny Kravitz) but Van has his own thing happening. There are traces of P, Sly, and Curtis (who he claims he never checked out) but he does it his own way.

Okay, 'Peace. I'm goin to try to find this album in Chicago today. You better be right.

His version of Mean Sleep puts me to sleep (that was one of my fave's off of Street Faerie but I run Hot Stage Lights, that song is sweeeet! I also really like Ride Ride Ride, Being A Girl, Take You Home, At the Endof the Slow Dance. People better start paying attention...

namepeace said:[quote]"He is a black man who is a musician, not a neo-gangsta crooner or hardcore MC. It's hard to sell black musicians these days."

That is SO true. Matter of fact, I read an interview last week and Van said the EXACT same thing!
He said that he knows that he will be a hard sell because he's not a rapper..

that is SO SAD!!!!!

JackieBlue said:[quote]His version of Mean Sleep puts me to sleep


REALLY? I love MEAN SLEEP! Nikka's voice is so soulful to me on that song. I ordered Cree's STREET FAERIE CD and it came in yesterday so Ima go get it and compare the 2 versions of MEAN SLEEP. Cuz I cant imagine Van's reamke being the inferior version