New (to me) Music

I think I might make this a recurring bit.

I don't keep up with new music, nor do I want to. I don't need another chore. I can barely remember if something is new, old, or medium old anyway. It's all a jumble.

But I do love when I "discover" some artist that's already well established and has a catalog of stuff to listen to. This happened to me two days ago while I was driving. I used my phone to identify a funky instrumental guitar song playing on WBGO, the jazz station.

The track was "A Shade of Jade" from Steve Khan's album Patchwork. 

The album is pretty mellow, but up my alley. It turns out Khan is an accomplished veteran jazz guitarist, and he also made this awesome funky 70's album "The Blue Man."

It sounds like super-funky Satriani. Very fun. Listen to the whole album.

Anyway, I was talking about Steve Khan with my musical friend Bob, and he recommended that I listen to Vulfpeck, which I thought was odd. I don't really like German hair-metal. 

But it turns out that Bob had me pegged. Vulfpeck is not German hair-metal. The band is a bunch of music theory guys from Michigan who formed a rhythm-section which they imagine to be the fictitious German version of backing bands like Muscle Shoals and the Funk Brothers. Weird. But really good.

I don't like their songs with lyrics, but their instrumental stuff is fantastic. Whacky keyboards, wild solos, and amazing bass and rhythm. "Vollmilch" is my favorite album by Vulfpeck. Give it a shot. They've got a whole catalog of stuff, dating all the way back to 2012. Which is new to me.