Since Luv4U stickified this thread, I'm gonna use it to update it once a week, announcing the next topic of our Midnight Soulstice radio shows. For the new themes topics and DOWNLOADS, please scroll down.
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Funk in the 21st Century is an often debated topic in this forum. Some argue that Funk is dead. I would passionately argue against that. In fact, I claim that Funk has never been more widespread than today.

Granted, the big Funk revival is an underground phenomena. Funk does not dominate the charts today, and it probably never will. But let's face it, back in the 1960s, when Funk was born, it was deeply underground as well. While some artists, like James Brown and Dyke and the Blazers made into the mainstream, it rarely made it outside of the R&B charts. Hundreds, if not thousands of small and unknown bands recorded 45s on small, independent labels, often pressing no more than 200 records. Nobody cared for those records back in the day, but today they are being played in clubs and traded on Ebay for a lot of money.

But let's have a look at new Funk artists. Because of the Internet, Funk has spread all over the world. Even most smaller towns have their own Funk bands these days, mainly consisting of rather young musicians, who started off by collecting rare Funk records before actually playing the music. This new Funk is the nitty gritty, dirty, lowdown, gutbucket Funk. These young groups release vinyl 45s before they think about putting out a CD. And these bands are from all over the world - Europe, Japan, Australia, even Russia. Back in the day, most Funk acts were American.

On this Friday's edition of our radio show Midnight Soulstice, we'll play two hours of the finest New Funk! Tune in from 11 pm - 1 am EST and listen live at www.wrir.org Let these new bands blow your mind.

We've already had a New Funk special on our show last December, which you may want to revisit if you want to get a taste.

Here the link to the download:

http://wrir.org/x/modules...oryid=8587



Here some more clips:












[Edited 8/14/09 21:43pm]
[Edited 8/15/09 12:13pm]

Sticky time

Same funk time..... same funk station.,....

A few from some current day FUNKY younguns.


Lettuce...



The Dump - LIVE


Soulive...





...Steppin', Uncle Junior, Got Soul


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431
[Edited 6/17/09 13:27pm]

Wow. Sooo cool! god bless and thanks. shows him up. Prince are you listening? real 21st century funk, and you aint got it!

theAudience said:

As always, excellent choices, bro!

Marrk said:

True, Prince isn't really a Funk musician. He has released some great Funk tracks, and there was a period in his career (late '85 - late '87), when he truly focused on Funk. After that, he got pretty boring - at least on the Funk level. He picked it up again with The Rainbow Children, which had some funky tracks on it ... but then he went mainstream again. And when you water down Funk to appeal to the mainstream - well, that doesn't usually work out very well.

I prefer this new Funk movement over Prince any day. These guys do the real thing, just like back in the day ... and many times you wouldn't even hear the difference. I know, this may not be everyone's bag in the mainstream (as you can see from the lack of responses to this thread ), and you can call me stuck in the late 1960s. That's fine with me.

MrSoulpower said:

60's/70's is all you need to know, i woke up to 'War' in the last couple of weeks, that feels fresh to me, i just love and need that kind of instrumentation and playing in general. it just follows my Motown/JB/Sly/Parliament 'Scratching the surface' kind of soul/funk education that i've grown up on, i need to go deeper and posts like this really help.

again, thanks!
[Edited 6/17/09 13:52pm]

MrSoulpower said:

Just trying to do my part to help fill the "Old School" FUNK void (heavy reverb on void).


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

MrSoulpower said:

Me too...



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

You wear flowers in your hair??

Marrk said:

You're welcome. Check out our radio show downloads, they'll be right up your alley.

MrSoulpower said:

Those are LSD trails foo! Don't act like you don't know.



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

I wouldn't know ..

MrSoulpower said:

Alrighty then...



...Will it be the RED one or the BLUE one?



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

I'm with that movement

Oh Man I cant wait to see this thread @ home (Im at work). alot of older people dont realise there is a mass amount of underground 80's 70's 60's sound coming back to life.

paisleypark4 said:

Older people ... and a lot of black folks, too. This is kinda off topic and would deserve its own thread, but I think that even though Funk is alive and kickin' worldwide, it's pretty much dead in the African-American culture. Most of today's Funk DJs and Funk musicians aren't black (they are either white, Asian or Hispanic), and the majority of people on the dancefloor at Funk parties are white as well. I'm still tryin' to figure out what happened to Funk, which is after all the possibly most influential black music form out there.

MrSoulpower said:

Yeah it's kind of like the Asian culture picking up breakdancing and pop locking after African Americans seemed to abandon it when gangsta rap came out..which also killed real funk music in general. I'd say funk really had its passing about 1990 when Teddy dropped Groove Me...that was it.

Other cultures really seemed to pick up on the greatness of past African American music because they actually do appreciate their older artists...something that is wrong in these days. Especially with the likes of radio stations not playing old favorites..BET dont play videos more than 5 years old....Young african americans end up not appreciating older music..unlike rock fans who still to this day consider the older artists as the greats.



Ok back to the music

paisleypark4 said:

I can dig that ...









and something so sweet ...

theAudience said:

Thanks, man, but no thanks. I've never been hip to psychedelic drugs. I even quit smoking reefer some years ago. It's water, wine and beer for me these days.

MrSoulpower said:

Well, I did my time ("Like a true nature's child") and now i'm the same (scotch preferably), so here's one on me...


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

I'll accept the drink if you promise to buy a real one when I'm in L.A. next.

MrSoulpower said:

Just one? What are you some kind of lightweight?


It would be my pleasure.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

Hey, if you want to buy them all, that's cool with me. Make sure to have a good balance on your credit card.

MrSoulpower said:

I pay it off every month...like clock work.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

paisleypark4 said:

Great post MrSP and great response P4.
And yea that's weird and sad about the appreciation thing. Comes down to exposure to a certain degree.
Each one teach one. One of my many mantras.
[Edited 6/19/09 19:06pm]

New Funk show airs tonight from 11 pm - 1 am Eastern. Listen live at www.wrir.org

Listening now.