Missing Brooklyn

Sharon and the Kings of Dap do well showcasing the borough that's thorough in their new video for "Tell Me":

Speaking of Sharon Jones ...

In the latest Harp Magazine, Andy Tennille, the brother of a FunkyPundit friend, has a feature on the Daptone Records' origins. In the beginning, label co-founder and Dap Tones bassist Gabe Roth struggled to find an audience for vintage soul and funk:

Obsessed vinylphiles were always looking for old, limited-edition pressings of rare funk and soul 45s, the more obscure the better. A few months later, Desco issued The Revenge of Mister Mopoji by an unknown group named Mike Jackson & the Soul Providers, heralding it as the long-awaited reissue of a soundtrack to an obscure ’70s kung fu movie.

“It was a fake reissue of a soundtrack to a kung fu movie that never actually existed,” Roth confesses with a sly grin. “We would go to record shops in New York to sell the album and store clerks would tell me, ‘I don’t want that. I got the original.’ There was no original soundtrack; there was no fucking movie to begin with. It was unbelievable. That’s when I realized how full of shit most of these people were.”

Should you have an interest, the whole piece is available here.

Funk's Video of the Day

Hot off the editing reels!

It's my hero, mentor and life-long love, Sharon Jones, with her hit "100 Days, 100 Nights" off their new album of the same title. According to the director, it was filmed with two vintage TV cameras purchased off e-Bay for $50 apiece.

Friday Funk

From prison guard to soulstress hero, a short CNN clip on Ms. Sharon Jones.

Completely unrelated but also worth checking out is this compendium of foreign movies nominated for Oscars.

Today's Funk -- More Sharon

Via Black20.com: Live at Southpaw, 2005.

'Queen of the Dap Kings'

One good thing about my girlfriend (Amy Winehouse) becoming all famous in America is that her back-up band on "Back to Black," the Brooklyn-based Dap Kings, are finally starting to get some respect. They served as the house band for the ESPYs and are set to do the same for MTV's upcoming video awards. But even better than that, the "Queen of the Dap Kings," Sharon Jones, is, at the tender age of 50, also finally starting to get her props. She's the soul sister who should be receiving the same media accolades currently lavished upon Ms. Winehouse, as her music is actually far better, and -- unlike Ms. Winehouse -- she can actually perform live without falling over or spitting at her fans. And perform she does. Only in a live setting is one able to truly appreciate just the sort of entertainer Sharon Jones is. Not only does she have pipes, she dances, too.

MTV, much to its credit, is starting to notice:


Here's another video, this one a behind-the-scenes look at Daptone Records headquarters in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Another note about Sharon: She's super nice. I once got kicked out of one her shows at Southpaw due to its draconian smoking policy -- and right as the Dap Kings were starting. My only hope of getting back inside before Sharon hit the stage was through the band's entrance. After waiting for someone to walk out, I snook in, only to be apprehended by a bouncer. Much to my surprise/delight, Sharon, who was waiting to go on, came to intervene, assuring the bouncer that my B.S. story was the God's honest. It didn't hurt that I'd chatted her up earlier at the bar, so she at least knew a little of what I was saying was true.