JDub Records

Here is some footage from DeLeon’s performance at the Knitting Factory during the Sephardic Music Festival.  If you’re in New York, you can also check out Dan from DeLeon performing 1 night only with Dan Saks & The Funkadeli All Stars at JDub & Jewcy’s XMAS Eve Jewltide party. Details Here

The Brooklyn afro-beat kingpins, hardest working band in the industry and not to mention members of JDub’s The Sway Machinery, Antibalas are back! Er, sort of. Antibalas is temporarily bringing the party back to Brooklyn for a weekly residency at the Knitting Factory. The concerts—to be held December 3rd, 10th, 17th, New Year’s Eve, and extending into January, 2010—promise to hearken back to Antibalas’ legendary Africalia! dance parties at Tribeca’s now-defunct No Moore club, and further cement the band’s’ irrepressible reputation as an unstoppable live music juggernaut.

Flower Travellin’ Band - House of the Rising Sun (Cover) -

Friday night I had the pleasure of heading over to The Knitting Factory (or what’s left of it) and seeing Japan’s Flower Travellin’ Band play their very first US show. The killer opening set by Knyfe Hyts (Oneida, Ex-Models) lent the room a sort of dark, trippy tension that I rarely see anymore outside of metal shows. By the time FTB took the stage, I was ready to have my mind blown.

You see, FTB has been playing since the late ’60’s, and though they were set to open for The Rolling Stones during their 1973 tour, visa issues prevented them from entering the United Sates until now. Their particular brand of psychedelic rock is delightfully heavy and strange, emphasized by the fact that they have abandoned the electric guitar in favor of the hugely complex, wide-necked sitarla. Vocalist Akira “Joe” Yamanaka’s voice is jarring and alien, but somehow suits the band’s style quite well. I don’t often think of this sound as having thrived across the world in Japan, but FTB’s extensive discography says otherwise. I’ve included their cover of (the infamous) “House of the Rising Sun.” Take a listen!