Meshell Ndegeocello: RFI

ha :D

Tim F -- i just hung out w/ her tonite -- shes flying to melbourne tomorrow & doing a show with sinead o'connor soon -- if u dont go i dont think we can be cool any more

ummmm also her show tonite was uhh incredible?? the covers were fantastic -- im not gonna say any more itll ruin it.

also her drummer!! ftw

envy envy

Yeah, lucky you! I hope someday she'll have a gig in Helsinki.

It took me some time to get used to the sound on Devil's Halo, because it was so bare-bones and, er, "rock" compared to the previous three albums, but now I've began to like the sparseness and bare emotionality on it. I still think The Wold Has Made... is her biggest masterpiece, but Devil's Halo is not the sort of disappointing follow-up I first thought it was.

[Tim F -- i just hung out w/ her tonite -- shes flying to melbourne tomorrow & doing a show with sinead o'connor soon -- if u dont go i dont think we can be cool any more

Um this show is with Rickie Lee Jones as well, I would totally be there except we're talking insane baby boomer prices. Maybe I'll get a loan.

ok well her covers of 'home is where the hatred is' & 'love you down' are A++++

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcSDUjDS0Fs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usFRiZrYsmo

ummmm.... Devil's Halo is brilliant!

Based on the reviews and Tuomas' comments above I was expecting something much more stripped down than The World Has Made Me The Man of My Dreams, and I guess relatively speaking it is, but not nearly as much as I expected. It's more like, this lovely balancing between lush intercelestial stuff and confessional emoting.

ummmm.... Devil's Halo is brilliant!

― Tim F, Thursday, April 21, 2011 8:49 PM Bookmark

I DONE BEEN SAYING THIS GOD DAMN

^^

Look, I can't be up on all things at all times.

Anyways neither of you have perfect records on timely acknowledgment of the brilliance of Me'Shell albums. She seems an artist particularly suited to tardy genuflection.

Naw, sorry I was up on this one with the quickness.

this one.

Anyway let's talk about how good she is rather than try to register priority charges.

I didn't know who she was until a few years ago.

Ugh, sorry about the pissing contest.

I didn't know who she was until a few years ago.

This is what i mean (in a good sense) - Me'Shell seems to get this "wow have I not been aware of this artist" reaction more than just about anyone. She's one of the few artists who actually strikes me as potentially meriting the phrase "iconoclastic" / "ahead of her time" etc. etc.

I loved Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion when I was 14, forgot about her for like a decade or more, then got back on board with The World Has Made Me..., and am still scratching my head as to why (a) stopped paying attention in the first place, and (b) didn't check out Devil's Halo 'til now.

Mostly I was vaguely feeling demotivated to check out a rock album from Me'Shell, but of course it's really really really not a rock album.

"wow have I not been aware of this artist"

"how have I..." etc, but the above also works.

her band is amazing. see live if at all possible

Gett Off: Meshell Ndegeocello Covers Prince -- June 16 at the State Theatre in Falls Church, VA near Washington DC:

This could be fun

!

GO.

Is Martin Luther McCoy still opening? If so, GO and do not miss the opener.

The club's website does not list an opening act.

A bunch of videos of this are on the youtubes and they are amazing. And now I am downloading her albums and wondering what the hell I was thinking having never checked her out before.

The musical firepower on that stage is insane. Watch for Deantoni Parks on drums to go absolutely jaw-droppingly next-level on "Something In The Water..."

Video is great but doesn't really capture the full effect...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-G1irLrhFM

from a recent LA Times review:

Accompanied by guitarist Chris Bruce, keyboardist Keefus Ciancia and drummer Deantoni Parks, Ndegeocello only occasionally stuck to Prince’s original arrangements. More often, she’d retain a single identifiable element — the slap-bass line in “Pop Life,” for instance — then adjust everything else around it. For “Little Red Corvette,” she played the verses fairly straight but introduced a fresh chord progression in the chorus. Several songs received comprehensive makeovers, including “Dirty Mind,” which the musicians reconfigured as jittery, Devo-style post-punk, and “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” presented Thursday as a lovely acoustic reverie.

For all the liberties she took, though, Ndegeocello seemed in communion with the deeper currents running through Prince’s songs: the open-ended questions about faith and romance and sex, and about the intersections between them. She closed with two moody avant-soul readings of tunes from the “Purple Rain” soundtrack: first “I Would Die 4 U,” then “Purple Rain.” As she sang both, you could hear her still making decisions about music she’d already loved for decades.

-- Mikael Wood

Bitter is one of my favorite's of anyone, a top-5 desert-island one for me. So if Devil's Halo is anything like it, I have to get that.

"favorites"

http://therickeyvincentblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/meshell-ndegeocello-does-prince.html

Funk book author Rickey Vincent liked the show too:

I have never bothered to listen to Ndegeocello but the clips of her and Jason Moran's "new project that transforms (Fats) Waller's rollicking stride piano style into contemporary dance music" on this NPR segment sound intriguing:

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/13/136274480/jason-moran-takes-fats-waller-back-to-the-club

is she going to release an album with prince covers ?

I haven't read that anywhere yet

great live performer. great great great great

note that i may have already said that itt

came to post some prince cover videos

at one point she says something like "he was better before he found jehova" to a mixture of boos and cheers, haha, brilliant

can't wait till she comes back the UK, easily my best show in recent memory

my favourite, i think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJRpsUasUjI

i think this is officially the summer of prince

Apparently she's doing a Gil Scott-Heron cover show in NYC on the 6th!

New album coming out- press release excerpt below:

Produced by Grammy-winner Joe Henry (Aimee Mann, Solomon Burke, Ani DiFranco), Weather is the latest addition to Meshell’s diverse catalog. A strikingly organic record, the album finds Meshell experimenting with the sparse, orchestral melodies paired with thoughtful lyrics, all performed by a band of fearsome musicians. The album opens with the title track “Weather,” a spacey, soulful groove that sets the stage for the rest of the record. Tracks like “Oysters” and her cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel” find Meshell constructing hushed ballads, centered around mournful piano. These tracks are juxtaposed with Meshell’s defiant, soulful stomps on songs like “Rapid Fire” and “Dirty World.” The album also features all-star collaborations with the likes of Chris Connelly (ex-Revolting Cocks, Ministry), Benji Hughes, and Joe Henry.

I'm not a fan of Joe Henry's staid, antiseptic NPR-safe soul production efforts. Hopefully this will avoid those production technique straightjackets

there was a possibility cee-lo was gonna be on this..

hope it's got a lot of chris dave or at least deantoni parks...

http://www.hardcandymusic.com/2011/08/meshell-ndegeocello-dirty-world.html

new track available

this is gooooood

very promising

This isn't doing a lot for me right now? Maybe just cause I want good summer vibes at the moment. Might grow on me tho.

I'm diggin' it. Initially wanted it be more straight-forward, but it's cool.

I'm not sure about Dirty World. I still love her voice and that bassline is like wow but the rest of the song doesn't really hang together around it. Especially the chorus. But that bassline...

She seems an artist particularly suited to tardy genuflection.

LOL. Am listening to Comfort Woman and Man of My Dreams for the first time tonight, and both are Terrific!!! Man of My Dreams seems esp. well done!

Article 3!