Song of the Day

Song of the Day > All Episodes

September 26, 2022

Scone Cash Players: “Cold 40s”

By: Jack Anderson

Contemporary curators for some of the best instrumental genres (namely jazz) seem to be fearless when it comes to digital hi-fi production. But thankfully, some of the finest facilitators of the funk-soul sound still prefer the “authentic” old school character of analogue techniques. Amongst them is Hammond organ extraordinaire Adam Scone. Scone and his magic hands made a pretty big name for themselves up in Brooklyn as part of the Daptone Family and The Dap-Kings, which eventually led to his locally-sourced collective Scone Cash Players. Although there was a near-full decade gap between their debut The Mind Blower and 2018’s Blast Furnace!, Scone Cash Players have maintained a retro personality across their discography, like well-preserved remnants of a bygone cocktail party recently unearthed from a time capsule. For their latest LP, Scone’s trek from Brooklyn, NYC to Brooklin, Brazil inspired a jet-setting piece of South American magic – Brooklyn to Brooklin. Brooklyn to Brooklin evokes the likes of Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 for a ten-track instrumental masterpiece that goes down smoother than a caipirinha. But if cachaça’s a little too exotic for your tastes, Scone made the atmosphere-setting album opener plenty accessible for us relatively-uncultured Olde English-guzzling Americans, “Cold 40s”.

Episodes

April 24, 2024

Viben: “Pablo Picasso”

Lyrics are a fickle field. You can be wordy as hell, hoping that at least one line sticks in listener’s minds. Or, you could just loop the hell out of some barebones sentences – guaranteed to have a lot more hypnotic staying power through sheer repetition, especially in the realm of dance music. Now let’s […]

Listen

April 23, 2024

Ruel Thomas: “I Am Today”

Any profession requires quotas…whether that’s how many tickets you write or how many kids pass your class. And when music is your source of income, the obvious metric to measure by is quantity of shows played. But as with any creative endeavor, there’s an opportunity to move the needle in many directions, which makes “success” […]

Listen

April 22, 2024

Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors: “Suffering”

The very nature of Americana is rooted in traditional music. But it also lies at the crossroads between folk, country, and rock. So if an Americana act decides to veer into new lanes, the choices are limited and somewhat predictable. And yet it’s still such a joy to hear an artist explore new sonic territory, […]

Listen

April 19, 2024

Melotheory: “Breathe”

When you have roommates, at least good ones you get along with, group activities naturally arise around the house. For most folks, it’s watching TV, recreational smoking and drinking, or maybe the occasional board game. For musicians, however, having a practice space within eyeshot of your bedroom door is too good of a scenario to […]

Listen

April 17, 2024

Rhythm&Truth and Sakari: “Bring It All Back”

We won’t say that successful collaborations should mandate a solo artist’s trajectory. But if something built together leaves people wanting more, it’s not a bad idea to get back together and sate those desires, right? Because what’s unachievable on the individual level often just needs to get catalyzed by some good collabo chemistry. So let’s […]

Listen

April 17, 2024

Myia Thornton: “Never Good 4 Me”

Unlike the legendary machines of Stax and Motown who relied on a ton of well oiled cogs to make any R&B singer into a star, these days the new blood has to do everything themselves, talent agent or not. And while not everyone can be Prince or D’Angelo in terms of multi-instrumental discipline, bringing something […]

Listen

April 15, 2024

Felt Out: “Crash Inside It”

When we last geeked out over Austin’s Felt Out, we broke down their foundation as that of auto-tune innovators on the cutting edge of alt-pop. And following the first anniversary of their second full-length Until I’m Light, that’s clearly still the case for these multi-instrumentalist-producers. They still sound like a next generation Imogen Heap. Their […]

Listen

April 15, 2024

Tone Royal: “Alone” (feat. Daddy NAT)

When rappers claim to be “the best on the mic”, they’re talking about verbal skills, not their technical prowess with any specific equipment. Clearly that’s the case, since you’ll see those same people spend a whole set cupping the SM58 ’cause it turns out their mic technique actually sucks. But in terms of intimate familiarity […]

Listen