TOMORROW ON THE MORNING JOLT: FUNK!

Two weeks ago, I returned to SiriusXM OutQ's The Morning Jolt With Larry Flick after being on the disabled list for a while.  Last week, I had to miss it again (for scheduling reasons, not heath ones). Tomorrow I'm back, and I'm bringing the funk.

Well, maybe not funk by the strictest definition of funk purists. But all the music I'm bringing in will be funky.

First up, is the Red Hot Chili Peppers' new album, I'm With You. I wrote about it recently, and I wish I liked it more than I do. That said, it has some great moments, like "Monarchy Of Roses" and "Brendan's Death Song."  More importantly, the new lineup, featuring guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, does show a lot of potential.

Primus is one of my favorite bands, and I really dig their new album, Green Naugahyde, which I just wrote about.  "Tragedy's A'Comin'" is one of my favorite songs of the year.

Fishbone is one of the most underrated bands of the past few decades.  But I haven't enjoyed much of their new music since 1993's Give A Monkey A Brain... And He'll Swear He's The Center Of The Universe.  They've just released The Crazy Glue EP.  I like it.  I'm really looking forward to the documentary about the band, Everyday Sunshine. Anything that gets them to a wider audience is cool with me!

When it comes to Lenny Kravitz, I'm a singles guy.  I have his best-of, and I'm cool with that. But the songs I've heard from his new album, Black And White America (the title track and "Superlove") are pretty cool and very funky. I may have to check this one out a bit more.

I wrote about Trombone Shorty about a year ago, and now he's got a new album, For True. I recently filmed a performance by him at the SiriusXM studios, and he was great (see it here).

Sly Stone actually has a new album, but sadly, it's mostly his old hits re-recorded.  There's no point to doing that: they were perfect the first time, and frankly Sly doesn't sound as good as he used to. There's a good new original song though, "Plain Jane."

I think that a lot of today's funk music is done by DJs, not bands, and David Guetta is one of the biggest DJs. I produced this shoot at The Electric Zoo festival in 2009 and I kind of "got" it.  Although dance music isn't my thing as much as rock and roll, I get it.

I haven't written about Superheavy yet, but any band with Mick Jagger, A.R. Rahman, Damien Marley, Joss Stone and Dave Stewart is worth paying attention to. Also worth paying attention to is the Jay-Z/Kanye West album, Watch The Throne.  So, if time allows, we'll discuss all of these albums tomorrow on the show!

WATCH: SLY STONE MOVIE PREVIEW

This year will see the release of a documentary on Sly Stone. That should be interesting. Sly & The Family Stone have a new record supposedly coming out this year as well. Interesting stuff.

SLY STONE INTERVIEW

The popular radio show Morning Becomes Electric interviewed Sly Stone. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but you can check it out here. 

SLY STONE: DON'T CALL FOR A COMEBACK

I occasionally read reviews of shows by Sly & The Family Stone -- with the reclusive Sly Stone on stage with the group. Sly even played B.B. King's in NYC recently, but I couldn't bring myself to go. Anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm not an ageist, and I love to see great artists thrive, regardless of how old they are. But I just don't think Sly is in the right condition to rock the stage. I still love the records though.

GEORGE CLINTON'S NEXT ALBUM

I'm a big George Clinton fan. I got into the whole Parliment-Funkadelic thing I guess in the late '80s and early '90s, mainly through hip-hop groups who sampled them (notably Public Enemy - I still remember a special issue of Rolling Stone where then-current artists posed with their influences, and there was a cool picture of Chuck D and Flavor Flav with George), but also The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who cited him as a huge influence, and who used him as a producer on their Freaky Styley album.

Things really took off for him again when Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg started sampling his music in the early '90s, and it was great to see so many younger people showing up at his shows. At the same time, he was starting to get a Deadhead/hippie crowd. The thing about George is, he's done too many albums that were billed as his "comeback," and done too many tours where people thought that Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell were back in the band. And his shows are a bit too Deadheady these days, the last few times I went, it was very jammy. I mean, Funkadelic always jammed, as did Parliment, but I felt it was getting a bit unfocused, and I stopped going.

So, Billboard reports that George's next album will have a big guest list, including the Chili Peppers, The RZA and Sly Stone, among others. I wonder if that will do anything for him - if the public will pay attention. I'll check it out for sure

I don't mean to sound down on George. If I was going to describe myself with a mixtape, it would have to include Funkadelic's "Who Says A Funk Band Can't Play Rock?" and "One Nation Under A Groove." The early Funkadelic and Parliment records can improve your life. I hope this new record is good; maybe it will get me to go to George's shows again.