MENAHAN STREET BAND: GO HOME AGAIN

Menahan Street Band: Home Again!

From Make the Road By Walking (Dunham/Daptone, forthcoming 10/14/08)

This has to be one of my favorite songs I’ve heard all summer, a beautiful mid-tempo ballad off the new Menahan Street Band. The MSB is the brain child of Tom “TNT” Brenneck, the guitarist for the Dap-Kings and a rising songwriter/producer from within the Daptone’s deep camp. I wrote about MSB last fall after their single, “Make the Road By Walking” was sampled for Jay-Z’s “Roc Boys” and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of their full-length album.

The MSB sound is less like what the Dap-Kings themselves turn out and more on what I’d call “soul meets cool jazz” tip, not unlike what Leon Michels has done with the El Michels Affair over at Truth and Soul (and not surprisingly, many T&S players are featured in the MSB. I’ll have more to say about the album as a whole once it drops but did want to at least tease people with “Home Again!”, which I’m finding sublime, especially with that opening guitar melody and the horn arrangements. Enjoy this and make sure to pick up the album when it drops October 14th.

(Also, Daptone is about to put out another single from the album, feat. the vocals of Charles Bradley).