Catch me at LAGOS DISCO INFERNO!!

Brothers and sisters, things have been a bit quiet on the Comb & Razor front of late, but believe me--they've stayed cooking in the back!

It's been well over a year since Brand New Wayo dropped (and what a year it has been!) and a lot of you guys have asked me why there's been no followup… There are reasons for that and we will deal with them soon enough, but more importantly, I am excited to announce that there will be a new Comb & Razor record out next month! (Details to come…)

But in the meantime, we're getting into another thing that I haven't done in the year since Brand New Wayo, and that is hitting the wheels of steel to spin some hot 'n' heavy choons for my people!

If you've ever hit attended the Voodoo Funk or Lagos Disco Inferno sessions at Zebulon Cafe Concert, scored by my pal Frank, you know that they're some blazing seances of marathon funk! Well, Frank (ever the traveler) is moving on to other things now, and passing the mantle to yours truly…

So starting on Friday, June 22, 2012, I will be doing my damnedest to fill Frank's formidable shoes with LAGOS DISCO INFERNO AT ZEBULON!



Zebulon is located on 258 Wythe Avenue just a few steps North of Metropolitan Avenue. Directions can be found HERE.

Do be there... You don't want me leave me all lonesome, do you?

The Needle Drop reviews Brand New Wayo!

The very keen and always entertaining Anthony Fantano weighs in on BRAND NEW WAYO (still on sale everywhere!):



So he said it's "decent"... Could be better, I guess, but it's still better than sucking.

Thanks Anthony!

dubya dubya dubya combrazor dot com/C&R on NPR and other odds and ends

I've been largely computer-impaired for the past two weeks, but even before that I had started slacking on the upkeep around here for a while. I've been too busy working BRAND NEW WAYO (still on sale everywhere) and I will not rest until every man, woman and child on the face of the earth has a copy!

(And I guess this is as good of a time as any to throw a shout to everybody who has shown support so far... I am so grateful for all the positive vibrations. And very special kudos are due to all who stormed Amazon last week and made BRAND NEW WAYO the #1 BEST-SELLING AFRICAN ALBUM ON AMAZON.COM!!! (click on image above)* I feel like I should come over and clean all your houses or walk your dogs for you or something. But for now, please just accept my deepest heartfelt thanks.)

The whole promotional circuit can be pretty exhausting and, truth be told, kind of monotonous, but it's part of the game and it's got to be done. Anybody can make a record with relative ease (especially these days) but it's working that hustle muscle to win it a spot on the map that separates the boys from the men! What sucks about doing promotion in this brave new social network-centered world is that so much of it ultimately becomes a long series of distractions from the actual production of your work. As such, the second Comb & Razor Sound release that I was hoping to get out by the end of the summer probably won't hit the shelves until October or so. I think it will be worth the wait, though...

(Believe me; I know that a lot of my readers are not necessarily into the glossy boogie sound that I chose to spotlight on my first release but have still decided to show support. To them I say, hang in there a little longer; I think the next release might be more to your taste!)

I've been doing my little thing, though. I guess many of you may have heard my appearance (alongside the brilliant Gbubemi Amas) on NPR's esteemed All Things Considered program? That, at least, was a joy to do rather than a grind... even though through some freak mischance (and my own boneheadedness) I missed the original scheduled taping of the show, and then while I was trying to reschedule I got the news that Christy Essien-Igbokwe had passed away, which broke my heart in ways I still can't fully verbalize.
 
But alas, life marches on... and I think you'll agree with me that it's about time I get this blog back in shape. All my recent--and far too infrequent--updates have been about plugging BRAND NEW WAYO (still on sale everywhere) but I need to get back to doing what brung ya here in the first place: delivering fresh music on a (semi-)regular basis and blissfully free of charge! As I explained before, my old hosting service expired and we lost all the files that had been posted in the past but I'll try to re-up them on the new one.

That reminds me: The sleeve liner of BRAND NEW WAYO (still on sale everywhere) and a few other promotional materials (including the commercial spot) list the website of Comb & Razor Sound as being dubya dubya dubya combandrazorsound dot com. However, I I'm going to have to ask you all to ignore that.

I registered that domain (or thought I did) in a period of protracted sleep deprivation, while scrambling to finish the liner notes and get them off to the printer. After the vinyl hit the market back in January, I went back to start building the CombandRazorSound site to discover that (silly me) I had made a typo that resulted in me actually registering a slightly different domain name. And someone else had grabbed CombandRazorSound dot com.

Now, I'm assuming that whoever bought that domain name is someone who saw it in the Brand New Wayo liner notes, since that was one of the only places it was published at the time. As such, I'd think they're probably a fan (like Prince, I prefer "friend") of the blog/label. So I'm telling myself that such a "friend" probably went to check out the site, found the domain unoccupied, and secured it for me to prevent it being snatched by predatory domain hijackers.

That's what I choose to believe. Because I prefer not to think that such a "friend" would buy the domain name in order to extort me. Because if I thought that was what happened... Well, I would I guess I would tell that "friend" to enjoy the domain and pack a hearty lunch if they're waiting for me to pay up. Because they're going to be waiting for a long time.

So. Onward and upward. CombandRazorSound.com is dead and from now on the official site of Comb & Razor Sound is www.combrazor.com. That URL redirects to this blog for now but in the coming months, a new site will rise from the ashes. (CombRazor is a lot less cumbersome than CombandRazorSound too... Don't know why I adopted that in the first place.)

Okay, I've rambled enough for now. Y'all have a good weekend and next week we'll get into some music and other stuff.

EDIT: If you are on Facebook, please "like" the Comb & Razor page, which replaces the old Comb & Razor Sound group. (I remember mentioning this before, but somehow it didn't show up in the post... Did I delete it by accident? *shrug*)

*for like two full hours!!!

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!

Check it, I'm blowing up on Facebook.

I'm a private person, so I have no interest in throwing wide the gates on my personal life, supplying the world with that much-needed minute-to-minute update on my mood and ephemeral thoughts or announcing the details of my lunch. As such, while I've been an early adopter of pretty much all the social networking sites as they've come out, I've generally had little use for them beyond keeping in touch with (while still maintaining a respectable distance from) a few high school friends and Internet acquaintances and occasionally trading a few yucks while watching award shows or some other trivial mess on TV.

I never understood the speculation that these sites would eventually become the future of all communication, eventually supplanting email, newspapers, magazines, blogs and even the more intelligent message boards; in fact, I actively resented such an idea. I still smh at the thought that something like a well-articulated, multi-dimensional album review could so easily become superfluous and obsolete amidst a torrent of hastily-ejaculated, 150-character blurbs.

(Wait... Did I just type "smh"?)

But on the real... I'm starting to get the appeal. Through a somewhat serendipitous series of events, my Facebook page has over the past few days become a rather exciting hotbed of activity. Short version: I posted a few vintage Nigerian music photos as a lark, but the comments section on them soon went completely mad with all sorts of people posting memories and stories and with several veteran musicians like Tee Mac (AfroCollection, Tee Mac Connection), Jerri Jheto (The Mebusas, Ozziddi), Micro Mike (The Sunflowers and "The Black Mirrors"), Soga Benson and Skidd Ikemefuna (Grotto), Gboyega Adelaja and others chiming in to share interesting tales from their careers and commune with peers they've not spoken to in aeons.

It's been a lot of fun and I have to admit that I'm almost tempted to give up on this blog and shift operations to Facebook fulltime (I said "almost")! The only problem is that tending to the increased traffic on my Facebook account--processing an endless stream of new friend requests, moderating comments, replying to inquiries, tagging photos--has become pretty much a 24-hour job... At first I tried to herd it towards my Comb & Razor Sound group page but I found that it took away some of the interactivity as Facebook (ridiculously) does not notify group members--or even the group admin--when content on group pages is updated.

So I'd say just go to my (fairly impersonal) "personal" page and check out the "Random" album in the Photos tab, as well as the Videos tab where I have been posting some content as well. Also, scan the past few days' entries on the Wall as there have been some interesting discussions there, too. While I have tagged this post "shameless self-promotion," it's really not about that at all... I'm not trying to become a Facebook star or anything; I just feel there's been some pretty cool interaction going on there and I suspect some of you might want to join in.

If I'm right in thinking this, then go to Comb Razor on Facebook.



ps. I *might* soon be migrating this blog to Wordpress, so prepare to change your bookmarks, okay?

C&R on PRI

Some of y'all might know that I wrote the liner notes for Soundway Records' The World Ends: Afro Rock and Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria. For that reason, Public Radio International's Global Hit program thought I might be a good person to chat with a little about the cultural context that informed the music.

Listen HERE.