Last Saturday night at Zebulon... (updated with download links... AND VIDEO!!)

...was the business!

The turnout was great, the energy was through the roof and the music (if I may say so, myself) was firing on all cylinders! The interesting thing to me with playing this Nigerian boogie and disco stuff to crowds is how fresh and new it is to so many people... A lot of times, the crowd would stop dancing to applaud at the end of a record! Thanks to everybody who showed up and showed love! And for everybody else who wasn't there... you missed out on a sweaty, jam-packed, ol'-fashioned, get-down good time... but no worries: hopefully you'll make it next time!

On Friday night, Frank and I paid a visit to WNYU to do a tequila-fueled spot on the A Downtown Affair radio show with Alex and Mike.

Check it out here:

A Downtown Affair Part 1
A Downtown Affair Part 2

BRAND NEW WAYO in stores... GET YOUR COPY NOW!!! ... BRAND NEW WAYO in stores... GET YOUR COPY NOW!!! ... BRAND NEW WAYO in stores... GET YOUR COPY NOW!!! ... BRAND NEW WAYO in stores... GET YOUR COPY NOW!!! ... BRAND NEW WAYO in stores... GET YOUR COPY NOW!!!

phew... Promoting is hard work!

UPDATE (5/29/11): If you want to download the FULL show (the two streaming links above offer a slightly abridged version), then get thee to the incredible LET'S GET SERIOUS site... which by the way offers hours of good listening by way of archived A Downtown Affair shows.

(I'm probably going to update this post yet again tomorrow... I'm into recycling!)

UPDATE (5/30/11): Okay, this is the last update on this post. I had to add some video from the night, captured courtesy of the awesome Aja & Fre! Dig those hallucigenic video projections... Frank created those and they drove the crowd into a frenzy!

Brand New Wayo, ça dechire en France!

pub radio de BNW by combrazor


BRAND NEW WAYO est deja dans les bacs et les bons points de vente en ligne... disponible en CD et double vinyle! ACHETEZ VOTRE COPIE AUJOURD'HUI!!!

(Merci à Differ-ant)

Believe the hype: BRAND NEW WAYO out NOW/Launch party this Saturday!

So, as I was saying...

(or as I meant to be saying yesterday but didn't get a chance to come back to it)

...I had to insert a break and start this up as a new post so that you all can share this on your social networks without forcing people to slog through my emo rambling about why I took a break from blogging. So I should get right to the point, yes?



Yes! The first release from Comb & Razor Sound, BRAND NEW WAYO: FUNK, FAST TIMES AND NIGERIAN BOOGIE BADNESS 1979-1983, is out everywhere!



uhhhh... Don't bother going to www.combandrazor.com just yet, though... There's nothing there right now, but it's coming soon!

Alright, people... what else do I have to say? Is there any point in saying anything else at all since I know you've already stopped reading this, having rushed out of the house to your local record emporium to cop it? Or opened up a new browser window to visit Amazon, Dusty Groove, Sounds of the Universe, Turntable Lab, Juno, Tower, Best Buy, Light in the Attic, Rush Hour, or any other online store of your choice and are giddily typing in your credit card number right now?

Yeah, I know I'm totally talking to myself at this point, but if I thought that you were still reading this I'd probably want to gush about how this compilation is a loving tribute to Nigeria's Second Republic of 1979-83--a period when the country was still riding the highs of the oil boom and the music industry expanded exponentially, attracting some of the finest musicians from across the African continent, and about the lush, celebratory music they produced.

If you were still here, I'd mention that this all is explored in a big, 80-page magazine-stye booklet full of rare photos and vintage advertisements illustrating the prosperous, almost decadent zeitgeist of the era. Hell, I might even drop a few sample pages:



But you're already gone, so there's really no need for me to go blathering about any of that stuff. You'll have to find out for yourself when you get your copy!

Even though you're not here now, I'll tell you where you should be this Saturday night, May 21st... You should be at Zebulon at 258 Wythe Ave. in Brooklyn for the BRAND NEW WAYO release party featuring yours truly spinning alongside the legendary DJ Frank Gossner of Voodoo Funk fame!


As I'm sure you are well aware, Jesus is scheduled to return this Saturday, so if this is going to be our last night together, why don't we spend it getting down to some bad-ass African boogie funk, disco and modern soul?

Alas... I feel like the Rapture has occurred already because here I am all alone, while all you gentle readers have mysteriously disappeared into thin air! But at least I know that you've just rushed off to get your BRAND NEW WAYO... and unlike the Rapture, which will be followed by five months of torment for those left behind, you're looking forward to enjoying endless hours of fun(k)!

*Oh yes, I almost forgot: Frank and I will be featured on WNYU's A Downtown Affair on Friday night. Check it out!

Truth crushed to earth will rise again

And because Comb & Razor is the truth (and I mean the whole and the nothing-but): STILL WE RISE!

Okay, I'm getting some Maya Angelou in my William Cullen Bryant, but I'm pretty sure you all get the gist of it: We're back!

Why did we go away in the first place, though? Man... I can't even give you a straight answer. Life catches up with you sometimes. As you all know, I had just returned from an extended sojourn in Nigeria and there were a lot of odds and ends in my personal life that had to be attended to. Also, a few experiences I had in Nigeria made me feel ambivalent about continuing to do this.

(For example, if you look through the archives here, you might notice all posts on a certain Mr. William Onyeabor have been crossed out. There is a reason for that. I won't get into details right now but let's just say that that man damn near killed my spirit.)

Actually, you might have noticed that pretty much ALL the old links on this blog are now dead. That's a bummer, I know... I had some trouble renewing my hosting subscription while I was away so my service was interrupted, pulling the plug on all the links. That was a big part of why I stepped away, really... The idea of renewing all the links was just overwhelming and I contemplated just starting the blog from scratch somewhere else.

But hey... this page is home. This is where we've had so many good times, and I'm not going to be chased out of here that easily! So pardon the dust while I try to get things back to shape around here... You might have to bear with some Divshare links for a while (if they stop suspending my account, that is!).

Of course, another reason for the long hiatus is that I've just been busy. Among other things, my time has been taken up by my decision to throw my hat into the record industry. (Which I am sure we will all agree was a very wise move to make now in the second decade of the twenty-first century, as the imminent death of the industry is forecast on a daily basis. I'm having fun, though!) So although I am sure most of you are already aware of it, allow me formally debut my fine record label, COMB & RAZOR SOUND.

I'm quite aware that fewer and fewer people these days buy records or CD or any other kind of physical media, but the goal of Comb & Razor Sound is to create packages that hopefully you will feel are worthy of your hard-earned pfennig. I'm talking about dope music, packaged with loads of information and photos and other stuff related to the world that produced the music you're listening to. I'm talking about stuff you can put on your shelf or display on your coffee table so you can look all cultured in front of your friends.

We already did a vinyl-only "pre-release" of sorts on the first compilation but it comes out officially on... *looks at calendar* Wait a minute... It comes out on May 17th. That's today, isn't it? How serendipitous is that?

You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make a separate post about that in a little bit...

In the meantime, enjoy this video I uploaded like six months ago and planned to post before everything went pear-shaped: