I feel like a lot of folks don’t “get” Reggae, but I really believe that it is one of the most compelling musical forms to hit planet Earth in the last century. It is a unique amalgam of Caribbean, African, and European rhythms and melodies. When listening to Reggae one can hear the musicians summoning the whole of those various musical cultures and melding them together so succinctly. On top of that, and this is the kicker, you had hundreds of musicians in on this tiny little island (4,444 square miles to be exact) in the 60’s and 70’s who had all mastered that melding. That melding became the baseline – the standard. So, then they did something truly magnificent and somehow collectively pushed each other even further. And as if that wasn’t enough, then you had the genesis of the entire DJ culture and the fascinating advent of “studio as musician” with the introduction of technology to capture and more importantly manipulate sound. Perhaps it’s easy to take all that for granted if your under fifty or for it to go over your head if your over fifty, but I can’t stress enough how significant this movement was/is to human’s relationship to music and sound.

So yeah, I hope you’ll come out if you live in NYC or Dallas. Dance a little bit and rejoice in that revolution in sound. Although if nobody shows up to Matt’s night in Dallas that will just be one more arrow in my quiver proving that he should move to NYC.

Foundation Rockers Soundclash
DJ Franco Nero & The Diamond Age
@ The Doublewide
3510 Commerce Street
Dallas, TX
Tuesday, July 27th 2010
10-2 *Free*

More info here: http://thediamondage1.blogspot.com/2010/07/foundation-rockers-diamond-age-mix.html

And then on Thursday, I’m going to be continuing my DJ residency at The Counting Room with one of the guys who really turned me on to the whole of Reggae, Jon Bless.

DJ sets by Jon Bless & Brad Loving
@ The Counting Room
44 Berry Street
Brooklyn, NY
Thursday, July 29th 2010
9-2 *Free*

Diamond Age – JAMAICAN RECORDs 2:

1. Sir Lord Comic, Skatalites – Four Seasons
2. Upsetters – Night Doctor
3. Eric Frater – Venus
4. Roy Shirley – Dance Arena
5. Larry Marshall – Run Babylon
6. The Revolutionaries – M.P.L.A.
7. Toyan – Spar with Me
8. Mikey Murta – Rude Rock Dubplate Mix
9. Big Youth – Screaming Target Version
10. Barry Brown -
11. General Echo – Follow Fashion
12. Shinehead – Billy Jean
13. Leroy Wallace & The New Establishment – Far Beyond
14. Jackie Mittoo – Juice Box
15. White Mice – Tallawah
16. Prince Jazzbo – Pepper Rock
17. Ranking – Chatty Chatty People
18. The Gladiators – Tallawah

I included a track from my forthcoming Lobisomem LP, Onze Pedras, on the mix. Have a listen and please let me know what you think. I’m geeked about that LP. I’ve been listening to it on the train a lot. I think that’s my favorite context. It’s going to be coming out some time this summer. A bunch of really good people were involved in making the music come together. I think you’ll be into it.

Speaking of Lobisomem and summer, I’m going to be playing some shows opening up for Bear in Heaven next month! How cool is that? If you know some people in the following towns, please send them our way. Big shout to out to Peter at Panash and Shannin at Billions for helping to bring that together.

June 24 – Portland, Maine @ Space
June 25 – Winooski, Vermont @ Monkey House
June 26 – Buffalo, New York @ Sound Lab
June 27 – Hamden, Connecticut @ The Space

I’ve been working intensely on the recordings I made of my dear friends Jah Youssouf & Bintou Coulibaly last May in Mali. I’m really proud of the recordings. It’s such a wonderful sensation to listen back to the music. I feel very lucky to be able to tap back into that state of mind. It almost feels like a different life. I have my fingers crossed that the music will speak to others as well, and a label will pick it up. If you know of anyone who releases traditional African music and might like to help me put the music out, please get in touch.

I have two DJ gigs at Zebulon on the horizon. One on the 16th of May in support of Warm Ghost. I’m doing a short early slot for that one (I think I’ll get started around 9pm). Then again on the 21st of May in support of the French group, Dièse 3. I’ll be doing my normal long late night slot for that one. Probably get started around midnight and go till 3 or 4. Please come through.

I forgot to mention this previously, but I wanted to give a nod to Dominic Umile for his nice review of my EP on Pop Matters. I was kinda bummed/surprised to see how many journalists just copied and pasted the one-sheet information that we sent out with EP press kit. I felt like Dominic really spent some time with the music and took some time to look into stuff — even browsed around on old Bird & Whale. Just wanted to say thanks.

If, for whatever reason, you haven’t been paying attention to what’s going on in the Gulf Coast with the oil nightmare please do so. It’s such an atrocity on so many levels. Each new thing I read feels like I’m drinking acid. Makes that ticket I got for my riding my bike on the sidewalk two blocks from my house in Bushwick at 11:30 at night all the more insane.

Brad Loving – Bird & Whale 006

1. Nochexxx feat. Sensational – Sinbliss
2. Pens – Freddie
3. Sonny Charles – It’s Alright in the City
4. Etienne Jaumet – Mental Vortex
5. Marguerita – Woman a Come
6. Redshape – Globe
7. Micachu & The Shapes – Turn Me Well
8. King Stitt And Clancy Eccles – Fire Corner
9. Robert Loison – Jean Fouillé, Pie Fouillé
10. ONRA – Smoking Buddha
11. James Brown – There was a Time
12. Os Brazões – Tão Longe De Mim
13. Lobisomem – Zinc
14. Lucho Bermúdez – Gaita De Las Flores
15. Os Originais Do Samba – Tenha Fe Pois Amanha Um Lindo Dia Vai Nascer
16. Disrupt – Doobee Version
17. Eduardo Mateo – Amigo Lindo del Alma
18. Teebs – Untitled
19. Masai Women (Kenya) – Masai Women (Kenya)
20. Ahmed Janka Nabay – Top Sul Bah
21. Actress – Hubble
22. Techniques – It’s you I love
23. Acetone – So slow

You can download one of the tracks from XLR8R:
http://www.xlr8r.com/mp3/2010/02/plasma-lovers

And also hear another song here.
http://www.birdandwhale.com/2010/02/17/dhegiha-group/

You can pick it up (Vinyl or CD) directly from Tall Corn via mail order here:
http://www.lobis-omem.com/

or you can get it digitally from iTunes from here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/brightest-solids-ep/id355635040

or Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Brightest-Solids-EP/dp/B00383VN2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1266340219&sr=8-1

I’ll update this page as it starts to get into record stores and various other digital stores.

If by some miracle of God you are a record store owner and are interested in carrying the Brightest Solids – EP, please get in touch with gmkenny@tallcornmusic.com.

I was gonna post the HD flash video directly on Bird & Whale, but it was buggin’ out. If you wanna download or watch a super high quality version, you can grab it here. It’s a 116 MB M4V file. If you don’t know what a M4V file is or you have a slow internet connection, I’d suggest clicking the play button the Vimeo screen below and watch it there.

Hope you enjoy it.

Lobisomem – Dhegiha Group from Brad Loving on Vimeo.

DJ Set by Brad Loving at Zebulon
Saturday February 5, 2010
10PM-4AM
258 Wythe Avenue
Brooklyn, NY