Fri. April 10th God Made Me Funky w/ Miles Tackett (of Breakestra) @ Revival

[Jay Funk Dawg]

NuFunk Concerts Presents

Friday, April 10th, 2015

God Made Me Funky CD Release Party

with special guests Miles Tackett and The Three Times & DJ Farbsie

Revival Bar - 783 College St. 

Facebook / Online Tickets

 

With the release of their 2015 album, Funky, Fly n’ Free (New Empire Records), God Made Me Funky expand substantially on their signature blend of funk, soul and Hip hop while taking a direction, musically and lyrically, driven by a question the band has been mulling over collectively for years.

“What is Funk? Ask 40 different people and you’ll get 40 different answers,” says GMMF MC, PHATT al. “But, for us, Funk is freedom.”

That definition was reinforced when GMMF opened for George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic at the Montreal Jazz Festival. “Watching them play, their mastery, the freedom of expression they were sharing… It was like being transported to a different dimension.”

On Funky, Fly n’ Free, GMMF express themselves just as freely and encourage listeners to do the same: “To go into their own dimension, into the Funk zone,” PHATT al says. “To be who you are. Free yourself of hate. Free yourself of the haters. Have an opinion. Think. Make your own decisions.”

Nowhere is that more evident than on the title track; a take-no-prisoners dance tune fueled by badass beats, chunky synth grooves and singer Dana Jean Phoenix’s soulful vocals that sets the tone for the entire album.

It’s the first song GMMF wrote for the record, one inspired by a 2013-2014 New Year’s gig at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square where they found themselves counting down to making a change with 20,000 other people. “Basically, we got talking about what New Year’s means and how it’s about choice and wanting to evolve and we just knew what we wanted to say on Funky, Fly n’ Free,” Phoenix says. “That was the energy that got us back into the studio.”

Like GMMF’s past records, Funky, Fly n’ Free is inspired by a huge range of influences, from 80s icons D Train, Sheila E and Donna Summer to outspoken artists like Public Enemy, Queen Latifah and KRS-One. And while GMMF’s sound remains a seamless fusion of sweet soul, Hip hop and R&B, Funky, Fly n’ Free mines a slightly different, but equally rich, vein of Funk.

Scheduled for release on March 10th 2015, "Funky, Fly n’ Free finds GMMF coming full circle,” PHATT al says, going back to their independent roots by releasing the record on his own imprint, New Empire Records. “Doing everything independently we can move at our speed and the speed of our audience,” he says, and, by extension, express themselves more freely than ever, which, ultimately, is what Funky, Fly n’ Free is all about.

 

Also check out opener Miles Tackett (of Breakestra, LA)

 

 

Miles Tackett (aka Music Man Miles) is known best for the Breakestra, a funky soul-jazz project he founded in 1998 as  multi instrumentalist, producer, engineer and songwriter.

Breakestra has four analog recorded albums, a handful of singles and has toured the world extensively. Tackett also runs and DJs Funky Sole, L.A.'s longest running weekly all vinyl funk and soul party at the Echo in L.A.'s Echo Park neighborhood.

 

Between Breakestra and funk DJing, he has been at the center of the underground funk scene in LA and around the world.

After years of focusing on a purist sixties/seventies funky soul style and sound with the Breakestra, Tackett has finally taken some time to marinate, write new songs and return to his original instruments electric guitar and voice where he can really stretch out. With influences that draw from vintage soul, psychedelia, folky-jazz and the oh so wide genre of "rock" this new music brings much of Tackett's many musical travels on home.

Speaking of home, Topanga Canyon is the Santa Monica mountain community where he grew up around an ever colorful group of artists, actors and musicians including the 70s americana rock band Little Feat of which his multi instrumentalist father, Fred Tacket, is a current member. Despite his adopted home on the east side of L.A. the mountain still calls his name as his ode "Out in the canyon" attests.

On The Fool Who Wonders, Tackett takes the one man band road as producer/engineer and keeps it analog tape warm and dirty at his New Tilt Studio.

The new single "Just What I Need", is the first recording to rise from Tackett's latest collection of songs which features him on vocals, guitar & keys. Also featured is a soul psyche reworking of a Byrds era David Crosby song "Everybody's Been Burned."