thefreethinkingmovement
Gil Scott-Heron. I feel almost ashamed that it’s taken me until now to write about him. His is a singular talent. He is almost the dictionary definition of a freethinker. Let me start with his latest album. A liner note asks that you listen to the album ‘for the first time under optimum conditions’. I […]
The King Blues. Heard of them? No, I hadn’t either until a few weeks ago. So much music, so little time… I was recently put onto The King Blues by a mate of mine who was visiting from the UK (cheers, Mark). One listen to ‘What If Punk Never Happened’, and I was taken. The […]
Loud concerts can sometimes be bloody wonderful. Case #1: the Happy Mondays during their ‘we reformed for tax purposes’ gigs at the Brixton Academy. Bloody marvellous. They were a complete shambles on stage. Never ones to be known for their musical prowess – it didn’t matter. They made up for it – as they did […]
The freethinking ethos was loud and clear during volume 3. Genuinely, I don’t know where else you would hear Run DMC, Heaven 17, Sade, Dizzy Gillespie, Friendly Fires and Delphic all in one night. Throw in a Nat Cole tune to close the evening, and I think you’ve got something special. Nat Cole’s ‘Sweet Lorraine’ […]
I really didn’t like them at first. This is quite a big thing to admit, and looking back, I simply can’t justify it at all. Every now and then, you’re just plain wrong. And here I am admitting it, in a big way. Supergrass is no more. The end of monkey pop. The end of […]
You’ve probably missed this. My guess is that the music press is barely going to take notice. The NME won’t be screaming a headline, celebrating the tenth studio album of one of the most outstanding contributors to British music over the last 30 years. It’ll go without note – just as the majority of their […]
‘What kind of music do you play?’ A common, and completely understandable question from people hearing about freethinking nyc – our Thursday club nights at Kush. It’s actually a really tough question to answer. Saying ‘good music’ really doesn’t capture it. Likewise, a straightforward genre response only scratches the surface. We’ll play 80s electronica up […]
It’s no secret that my moving from the suburbs in NJ to the Eastern Shore of Virgina during my 8th and 9th grade years at school shaped my music taste, as well as opened me up to everything Funky. From Funk to Soul to Reggae to early Hip Hop, the record store off of Market […]
1993. I scarcely believe that it was that long ago that I was dropped off by my parents at university. A naïve, fresher-faced, significantly slimmer (a ‘lanky streak of piss’ is one way of putting it) version of me. And I had bad jeans. I envy this streak of piss on a regular basis. Yes, […]
I just wanted to further “big up” James previous post about our last installment of freethinking NYC. Top night all around. To go a bit farther on this thought, I wanted to talk about a DJ mix I heard that sort of pushed me to the freethinking attitude even more. My DJ attitude from the […]
Volume 2 of freethinking nyc took place at Kush last night. The idea is simple: 2 DJs playing a genre-spanning set of music that you would not normally hear in a club setting. It’s not just about the same thumping hip hop, or chart pop. There’s some great music out there, that if given the […]
Manchester. I’m not from there, but I still feel a tremendous sense of pride towards the city. Yes, it’s a great place to live, it’s got more decent pubs than an alcoholic could get around in a week, and it’s cheap. But it’s the music that counts. Last night I DJ’d at an event in […]