Home of the "Cure For the Mondays" mixtape. A weekly mixtape available for free download every Monday, of mashups, remixes, covers and more! Also a resource for good music and occasional personal rants.
Music with substance. 'Cause it doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be good.
Wonky Pop supports Indie artists. Send your songs to wonkypopp@gmail.com for posting submission.
Amy Winehouse looks happy and healthy in the video premiere for her duet with Tony Bennett. Today would have been the Rehab singer’s 28th birthday. She will be forever missed.
Obsession of the week: Emeli Sande´ - new singer from the UK. She’s a true combination of the soul of Jill Scott, the smoothness of Leona Lewis (who she is writing songs for her next album) and the rawness & honesty of Adele. Truly talented. I’ve got Heaven (available on iTunes) & Easier In Bed (demo) on repeat currently, but her song Maybe is a true testament of her beautiful vocals and intense soul and transparency. It’s rumored that Easier In Bed was written for Christina Aguilera’s next album, most likely to drop sometime in 2012. Emeli’s first studio album, Our Version of Events, is anticipated to be released sometime in November of this year.
We lost yet another incredible artist & musician over the weekend. In honor of the great Amy Winehouse, I dedicate today’s song of the day to her. You will be missed. You opened the pathway for so many other artists in your genre (Jessie J, Adele, Lily Allen…). Thank you for gifting us with one of the best albums of the past decade. RIP Amy.
The music industry suffered a tragic loss when news broke out on Christmas morning that The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, died of complications of pneumonia. The industry knew they had to pay tribute to him in a very big way but who they would ask to pay tribute to the legend himself was on everyone’s mind. Well, none other than Christina Aguilera was asked to step up to the plate and I must say, she hit a grand slam with her performance.
In a music world that feels it’s been dominated by auto-tune lately, it’s hard for some people to really recognize soul anymore. But nonetheless, her performance received great recognition and was voted in the Grammy books as the 3rd best performance of all time. ALL TIME! To sum up her performance I’ll quote an ad that I saw for the Grammy’s the following year: Thank you, Christina, for reintroducing our jaws to the floor.
Where the hell did all the music go? When did music suddenly become a theatrical display of shock value shiz? Though right now, Christina Aguilera is my “girl crush” (sorry Alicia!), when it comes down to it, my favorite style of music is any singer-songwriter. Artists like Bebo Norman, Ray Lamontange, Damien Rice, Plumb, Lauryn Hill, Sarah McLachlan, Norah Jones, Alanis Morrisette, Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox, Marc Broussard, Cary Brothers, The Ting Tings and Sam Sparro to name a few. They don’t focus on the shock value, the fashion, the stage props, etc. They are 100% focused on what they are best at: singing the music that they’ve written. I’ve seen most of these artists live and there is just no comparison to a big pop concert. I prefer the smaller venues, the ones with the concrete floors where 60 people are crammed into a small space, and no matter where you stand, you are in great eyesight of the artist performing (unless you’re standing directly behind my 6’4” ass, sorry!). It’s when you go to one of these smaller venues, the artist can pull you into their world, tell you the story they’ve written and why. I’ve seen more than 200 lives shows in my life so far, and it is definitely my drug of choice. Live music. There is nothing else on this earth like it that can get me that high. Music is what makes the world go ‘round.
I’ve listened to this Leela James song “Music” almost 5 times in the past half hour, because I can’t get enough of the soulfullness of the song. And the R&B vibe is just perfect for this (L A Z Y) Friday (I am definitely anxious for the 3 day weekend that lies ahead of me!). The video which is a collaboration of years of soul music, is so well done. It really expresses what Leela is singing about. Where did all the music go? Lauryn Hill, please make a comeback - if anyone can bring music back to its roots, its you!
