Ah beloved vinyl sleeves! Portuguese crate digger and vinyl lover Joaquim Paulo has teamed up with German publisher Taschen to release – Funk & Soul Covers, a book that will portray over 500 Lp cover sleeves from the likes of Don Blackman, Bootsy Collins, Brass Construction and The Blackbyrds. The book will also boast some great interviews with the likes of Larry Mizell and Daptones Gabriel Roth for example and also feature artists such as Quantic and Andy Smith listing their favorite LP covers and why – Egon from Stones Throw also gets involved! This edition follows on from the success of their Jazz Covers book which was terrific so no doubt this will be of equal par. You can leaf through the book online or purchase a physical copy from this September onwards. Your coffee table needs this! On the topic of covers here’s my own personal favorite. Its of the Terry Callier ‘What Color Is Love’ LP….Whats your favorite LP sleeve??

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This coming May, the 4th to be exact Sharon Jones & the fantastic Dap Kings will release their 4th Studio Album entitled ‘I Learned the Hard Way’ on Daptone, and as you would guess it’s sounding amazing. The title track has been getting some air play recently and will undoubtedly be filling dance floors all summer long. Heres the tracklising for the Lp which is due on Sharon Jones birthday. Sweet indeed…

1. The Game Gets Old
2. I Learned The Hard Way
3. Better Things
4. Give It Back
5. Money
6. The Reason
7. Window Shopping
8. She Ain’t A Child No More
9. I’ll Still Be True
10. Without A Heart
11. If You Call
12. Mama Don’t Like My Man

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you like your soul music raw then be sure to pick this LP up as soon as it lands. We should have footage coming shortly of Sharon Jones debut performance here in Dublin soon so stay tuned but for the mean time this should keep you busy….

Click here to view the embedded video.

Get-It-Right by The Breakestra

Free download courtesy of The Breakestra, here is a new track from the recently released LP From Dusk Til Dawn (Strut Records)

Tickets are now on sale for our show on Sat November 28th at The Button Factory. Support is from The Candidates and it’s an early show.

The unique New Orleans piano player and singer Edwin Bocage has died at 79. A legendary blues, soul and funk artist, Bo has penned many classic singles and is only surpassed by Fats Domino for the number of singles released by an artist in New Orleans.

When his studio was destoyed in the recent Hurricane Katrina, he went about rebuilding it despite his age. His work has been sampled many time ‘Hook and Sling’ ‘Check You Bucket’ ‘Doin It’ ‘Love & A Friend’ are all classic soul and funk anthems and are still played on dancefloors by DJ’s the world over to this day. He wrote music for Etta James, The Vibrettes, Cuck Garbo and Mary Jane Hooper. He worked for 55 years in the entertainment industry and passed of a heart attack on Mar 18 2009….

R.I.P and thanks for the music Eddie.