The Summer of Orgone

We make no mistakes about it, we love Orgone. They've given us yet another reason to jump on their bandwagon, with their latest offering Cali Fever.

The 12 track offering is dirty funk at its finest. For a city known for its indie rock, electro fantastic kids, DJs and formerly for its thriving South Central hip-hop, Orgone is putting Los Angeles on the map as a funky town too. The 9 piece band helmed by the charming, soulful and beautiful Fanny Franklin on the vocal tracks and powered by Stewart Killen's pounding percussion on their pure instrumental cuts delivers fire on their latest Ubiquity release. (On a side note, this album will certainly satisfy the Ubiquity guarantee, as do all Orgone releases; the Ubiquity Guarantee, which allows you to return a CD to the label in exchange for a new one if you are not satisfied with your purchase, is one of the reasons it is my favorite record label and the reason I actually purchased my first Orgone disc on pure speculation).

The catchy and soulful "Give It Up" is funtoxicating, and "Cali Fever" and "The Cleaner" are two others that are just phenomenal live. Those songs, which are reminiscent of some of my favorites of their earlier works, like "Funky Nassau," really drive the album.

The nostalgic "It's Time Tonight" is like a 60's soul throwback meets the electro-dance generation - like Martha and the Vandellas took some ecstasy, partied in the tents at Coachella, and went to record a song. It is straight funk disco. It epitomizes what LA funk should be and represents quintessential Orgone - dope ass funk influenced by the upbeat dance indie scene that thrives in the sunny streets of Los Angeles, but nonetheless keeps true to funks roots and the rhythm that is its foundation.

Songs like "Doing Me Wrong" show the versatility of the band and Fanny's fantastic vocal skills. Wrong also provides a good window into their storytelling songwriting nature. On the flipside, the band also delivers a handful of spectacular and equally funky instrumental jams like the melodic and laid back "The Only One" or the slow-rolling chill afternoon cruising jam "Lookout."

While I could dissect the album some more, you'd best be served to just watch what the band is capable of and go purchase the damn thing on the strength of my endorsement and/or specualtion. That said, here is a taste of their funky jams from Bonnaroo 2010:



Although the below videos are not of their new material (they are actually covers), they nonetheless showcase the talent and cohesiveness of the crew. Here is "Brothers on the Slide" and "Ain't No Use" from their late and early Bonnaroo performance respectively.





Having just wowed newcomers at Bonnaroo and recently turned heads at The Roxy and Spaceland, I'm vying for them to come westside and play at the Dakota Lounge (formerly The Temple Bar) on August 11th. As of this blog post they haven't confirmed - so go give them some shit on their myspace and facebook pages encouraging them to accept the headlining position for the SUPERGOODMUSIC party and we'll make sure you all have a supergood time!