Friday Concert: Ani DiFranco

Did you know that indie-rock superhero Ani DiFranco lives in New Orleans?

Originally from Buffalo, N.Y., she has bonded with the Crescent City... especially post-Katrina. New Orleans seduces people like that.

Next month DiFranco, the hardest-working babe in show business, will tour the American South. Check her MySpace page for dates.

Ani and her band performed in Amsterdam last October. The entire 20-song set is embedded below.

Living Colour in Amsterdam

Having blogged about this concert two weeks ago, I’m pleased to report that Living Colour’s complete Amsterdam show is now available for streaming at Fabchannel.com.

I’ve embedded it below.

If you don’t have time for the whole two-hour throwdown, just skip around through the set list. The band was on fire that night.

Friday concert: Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed

Wanna see somebody take it to the stage with the ’60s soul fetish? Embedded below is a concert by Eli “Paperboy” Reed and his group, the True Loves. (I blogged about Reed the other day.)

This Boston-based band played Amsterdam on July 16, and the complete 15-song set is free to watch via Fabchannel.com.

Groove at your leisure.

Friday Concert: Lightspeed Champion

A reminder for those who dig the “eccentric blackness” and the British indie pop:

Recording artist Lightspeed Champion will perform tonight on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

If you wanna see what Dev Hynes is about – besides rocking that sick fur hat at all times – there’s a complete 15-song Lightspeed Champion concert streaming on the Dutch website Fabchannel.com.

The whole thing is embedded below, and you can skip from song to song if you want.

Friday Concert: Carolina Chocolate Drops

Back in February, I blogged about the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a new-breed fiddle band.

Well, they did a concert in Amsterdam last month. And guess what? The whole show is streaming online, courtesy of my favorite Dutch website, Fabchannel.

I’m pleased to embed the entire concert – 18 songs! – right here, in high-quality video. You can watch it all or skip song-by-song through the set list.

Something throwbacky from Marcus Miller

Good thing I occasionally check in at Fabchannel.com, the Dutch concert-video site, to see what new concerts they’ve got streaming. Here’s one fresh from the oven:

Marcus Miller in Amsterdam, October 17, 2007.

The superstar bass player was in Europe last month promoting his new CD, “Free.” He’ll be in Japan next month doing the same thing.

Which is a drag for Miller’s U.S. fans... because “Free” hasn’t even been released here yet. Not even on iTunes.

(If you wanna buy it now, you’ll have to cope with the sticker shock of a European or Japanese import.)

Mr. Miller is streaming a few tracks on his MySpace page, including a pair of 1970s throwbacks, Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” and Tower of Power’s “What Is Hip?”

And we have this Amsterdam show.

To watch the whole thing, follow this link. The concert includes a couple more throwbacks (off earlier albums): the Philly-soul classic “People Make the World Go Around” and John Lennon’s “Come Together” – “like if the Beatles got together with George Clinton,” as Miller says. (Actually it evolves into a New Orleans-style stomp.)

The title track, “Free,” was a hit for Deniece Williams 30 years ago. In Amsterdam, it was sung by special guest Jean Baylor (formerly of Zhané). But on the CD, it’s sung by Corinne Bailey Rae.

To hear a 2½-minute portion of the album version, click here; I'm streaming it on my Vox site.

Marcus Miller offers this partial track among many free downloadable “sound samples” on his official website.

Friday Concert: Ani DiFranco

Since there are at least a few Ani DiFranco fans here, I’ll dip once more into the Dutch digital database called Fabchannel.com.

Fabchannel is streaming a 2004 acoustic concert by Ms. DiFranco, recorded at the Milkweg in Amsterdam. She’s a real interesting performer... a strong personality. And she can play the hell out of a guitar. Ani can even kick a little funk. The whole show is embedded below. Enjoy.

Friday Concert: Swamp Dogg

Here’s the last of my weekly concert-video embeds. Because I done squeezed all the funk I can squeeze out of that Dutch website Fabchannel.com. It was cool while it lasted.

Below is an Amsterdam gig from five months ago by Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams, an old-fashioned funky soul man with an eccentric vibe... plus a political edge.

Swamp Dogg’s been out there doin’ it for decades. My only problem with this concert is that he doesn’t sing my favorite song of his: “Surfin’ in Harlem.” (Click here to check it out on my Vox site.)

Friday Concert: Nona Hendryx

Who’s badder than Nona Hendryx? Not many people.

Embedded below is a clip of Ms. Hendryx as part of a May 2005 Amsterdam concert billed as Daughters of Soul.

Organized by Sandra St. Victor of the Family Stand, this gig also featured Lalah Hathaway (daughter of Donny Hathaway), Indira Khan (daughter of Chaka) and Simone (daughter of Nina Simone). Plus an appearance by Joyce “Baby Jean” Kennedy of Mother’s Finest.

(To watch the complete concert, follow this link to Fabchannel.com.)

Daughters of Soul have done shows in Europe and Asia, but not in the United States. Which is a damn shame. You’re telling me they couldn’t fill a 3,000-seater in L.A., Atlanta, Chicago, D.C.?

Friday Concert: Gail Ann Dorsey

Always ready to check out a black musician off the beaten path, I bought Gail Ann Dorsey’s debut CD, “The Corporate World,” way back in 1989... but I never gave it a good listen. (You know how that can go, when you’re on a music-buying binge?)

Well, since then, Ms. Dorsey’s reputation as a rock-’n’-roll bass player and session vocalist has soared, especially due to her long service in David Bowie’s band. Still, she kept trying to do the solo-artiste thing.

To support her last CD, “I Used to Be...,” in 2004, Gail Ann Dorsey opened for Ani DiFranco on her European tour. One of those gigs was at the Melkweg (“Milky Way”), an Amsterdam music hall.

Fabchannel.com has Dorsey’s six-song set in streaming video.

Alas, that video is not embeddable. You must follow this link to watch it. And you can’t skip between songs; it only runs start to finish. But you can see what this Philadelphia-born, upstate-New-York-based performer is all about.

The Melkweg show is an unplugged solo set; four of the songs are from the 2004 CD. To be quite honest, that introspective acoustic bittersweet singer-songwriter Lilith Fair womyn-with-a-Y type stuff isn’t my favorite kind of music. I like a little more swing, a little more zing.

But Gail Ann Dorsey can sing. And at least one of her songs – “Whether You Are the One” – is beautiful.

Friday Concert: Ice-T and Body Count

You might not have much desire to see Ice-T leading his ghetto-metal band, Body Count. Especially the part where he mock-rapes a female dancer (during “Bring It to Pain”).

If you do, Body Count’s complete 2006 concert in Amsterdam is embedded below, by means of Fabchannel.com. (Of course, it includes Ice-T’s performance of “Cop Killer.”)

Friday Concert: The Family Stand

Remember the Family Stand, who put out some nice soul music back in the ’90s? They’re still playing. Matter fact, their new CD – “Super Sol Nova” – was released in Europe last month. (It’s available on iTunes.)

Ever feel like Europeans got more love for American soul music than Americans do? Or is the Man just up to his usual shenanigans... making it hard on brothers and sisters who try to do something a little bit different?

Anyway... the Family Stand performed in February at an awards show in Amsterdam. I’ve embedded one song below – “Sweet Liberation.” If you’d like to see the complete six-song set, click here and enjoy it on Fabchannel.com.

Friday Concert: Michael Franti & Spearhead

I remember when Michael Franti’s first album came out in 1992, under the awkward name Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. He was trying his damnedest to sound like Gil Scott-Heron and Chuck D. I wasn’t impressed.

Even then, he was more alt than hip-hop, covering Dead Kennedys’ “California Uber Alles”... using words like “oxymoronic” and “agrarian”... rappin’ ’bout toxic waste and homophobia. But I wasn’t feeling his Bay Area hard-left vibe, even back then when I was sympathetic to such.

Well, Franti carved out his place in the music scene with Spearhead, a band with rock, reggae and funk elements that’s all about taking it to the stage.

I still wouldn’t call myself a Michael Franti fan. But he can put on a decent show. This December 2006 concert – uploaded by the Dutch website Fabchannel.com – took place at Amsterdam’s Paradiso.

Friday Concert: Amp Fiddler

I showed you a little taste of Joseph “Amp” Fiddler back in June. Now, thanks to Fabchannel.com, here’s a full concert!

Back when he was keyboarding with the P-Funk All Stars, Amp Fiddler didn’t call much attention to himself. But wow, I love the retro groove he’s got happening now. (Even though I’m not into labels like “neo soul.”)

To remind you about the Fabplayer embedded below, that’s the whole show right there. You can push play and let it roll, or you can click forward and backward through the set list.

This gig took place in October 2004 at Amsterdam’s Paradiso.

UPDATE (08/10/07): Oh hell... something’s screwy with the coding this time. All those repeated songs ain’t supposed to be there. So do this:

Push play and check out the first tune – “Waltz of a Ghetto Fly” (from Amp’s 2004 CD of the same name). If you’re into it and wanna see more, follow this link and watch the whole show on Fabchannel.com.

Friday Concert: Living Colour

Today’s throwdown features Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun – Living Colour, y’all – ripping shit up in Amsterdam in 2004.

I’m presenting the last third of the show on the embed below. You can see the complete gig here at Fabchannel.com.

Now, I hope I don’t fall out of love with this Fabplayer app as quickly as I fell in... but depending on my Internet connection, I’ve noticed some stop-and-start crap with the streaming video. Which sucks when you’re watching live music.

So if these concert embeds aren’t up to snuff, tech-wise, please let me know. I might go to posting one track at a time, which I just figured out how to do.

Anyways, this Living Colour gig... To my sensitive eyes, it looks like analogue video; it doesn’t have the crystal-sharp digital look of last week’s Brand New Heavies video. Still looks quite good.

But the music is fire!

I started with “Open Letter (to a Landlord)” for a reason. Corey Glover is in full-tilt showoff mode with an extended a cappella intro. Sick!

The band, of course, is tight as Dick’s hat band. I could watch Vernon Reid shred all day long. And I’m always up for some “Cult of Personality.” Ahh, the memories. Twenty years ago I thought black rock was gonna take over.

Friday Concert: The Brand New Heavies

Oh God, I’ve got such a buzz on right now. Because in the wee small hours of this a.m., I stumbled upon the coolest freakin’ blog app since YouTube went embeddable.

Matter fact, this takes the video embed to a whole ’nother level. It’s called Fabplayer, and it’s from the Dutch music website Fabchannel.com.

What’s so cool about it? Well, unlike the 10-minute time limit of a YouTube clip, the Fabplayer that you see embedded below contains a full-length concert... the whole thing, right there. You can push play and let it roll and order out for pizza.

Or, cooler still, you can click your way forward or backward through the set list; Fabplayer shows you all the song titles.

And the digital video quality is superb!

The Fabplayer application was launched six months ago, but I haven’t seen it embedded on any American blogs. Not one. Maybe we can stir some shit up with this thing... right here. Starting today, with the first in a series of Friday Concerts.

Fabchannel has an archive of 700 concert videos, recorded primarily in the Netherlands. Most of them are bands I never heard of. (Most of ’em are European, for one thing.) And it skews towards rock.

But I’ve found enough familiar artists with some groove to ’em that I can keep this concert series going for the next 12 weeks or so. (Talking about some Living Colour, some Amp Fiddler, some Swamp Dogg...)

Which brings us to the Brand New Heavies. Remember BNH? I was checking them out when they first put the funk back in it, in the early ’90s. Happy to see they’re still funkin’. And with N’Dea Davenport back in front!

This concert was recorded two months ago at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. It’s a hot show. Oldies like “Never Stop” and “Dream Come True” hit the spot, but I especially dig the current material: “Sex God” could’ve been a Kid Creole and the Coconuts track; “Right On” has the Heavies in full-on J.B.’s mode. And N’Dea wails and rocks the hell out of “I Don’t Know Why I Love You.” If your time is tight, make a priority of checking out those three tunes.

You’ll probably say, like me, “All praise is due to Fabchannel!” (Unless you encounter technical difficulties, in which case please let me know.)

Now, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado I bring you... the Brand New Heavies: