Artist Spotlight: PillowTalk

I know its only Wednesday but trust me, the weekend is creeping up fast! So grab your coffee or “5 hour energy drink” and float through the rest of today with some great tunes! I personally have the day off (yeah you can hate me now) and I am pretty excited for tonight. DPC’s very own Remote Ctrl will be dropping killer jams at U Street Music Hall. I will be playing the role of “hype man” and since he gave me a little preview during our Sunday Funday podcast I can tell you...don’t miss this! So after reviewing Soul Clap’s debut album EFUNK, I started to look into other artists that they are in some way affiliated with. I came across a song “Weekend Girl” which was featured on “Mixmag Presents: The Further Adventures Of Soul Clap”. I immediately jumped with excitement when I discovered the awesomeness known as PillowTalk. With releases out on Visionquest, Life & Death and Wolf + Lamb, 2012 is shaping up to be a huge year as they hit the road with the live band.

  ::cough cough:: U Street Music Hall, please ::cough cough::

PillowTalk is Sammy D, Ryan Williams and Michael Tello, the San Francisco trio blends a combination of R&B, Hip Hop, Soul, Funk, House, Techno, Disco...Ahem...I think you get the point. If you’re trying to pin down their exact sound you may have to refer to their motto of ‘D.A.G’ (destroy all genres - a term borrowed from a famed underground San Fran DJ). “Weekend Girl” is a funky little slow jam covered in 1990’s bliss. Starting with just simple piano chords, the song progresses with a rock steady hip hop beat (cowbell included). The lyrics have a certain “R Kelly” vibe, combining sex appeal and that creepy speak singing...is that rap?

 “Thursday night I can feel my heart pound because tomorrow night it is going down”
 

After the jump...



After I having “Weekend Girl” on repeat while getting ready for last weekend's debauchery, I felt the need to find every song they ever made and boy I was not disappointed! I started off by listening to their first track, “ Love Makes Parks“ released on Visionquest in the summer of 2011. This jam is more on the Deep house side but gives the listener a glimpse at the magic to come



 Recently, the trio released their “Soul Edits” on Wolf + Lambs offshoot imprint, Wolf + Lamb Black. If you weren't aware of this label before, you really need to check it out. It has edits by Soul Clap, Nicolas Jaar, MAM, and Jonny Rock to name a few. The point of these edits are to bring the artists’ favorite classic tracks and funk them up to make them more modern to play in their own dj sets
                                 
 The first on the album is “The Real Thing”, an edit sampling vocals from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrells’ “Aint Nothing Like The Real Thing”. Filled with a deep sexy bass and overlaying tamborine groove, it segues perfecting into the next track “Sunny”, a rework of another Marvin Gaye classic. If I had to pick right now, at this moment, a song I would love to hear on a rooftop party...this would be it! The song is appropriately named as it bring that warmth of the sun through Marvins’ stunning vocals and the wicked off beat percussion. Rounding off the three track Ep is a Mayer Hawthorne cover of the Festivals’ “You’ve Got The Making of a Lover”. This “horny” track goes deep and soulful while bringing you into the modern feel of solid Deep House groove by using solid distant drums and plucked guitars over luscious vocals.

 Pick up the Soul Edits album on Piccadilly Records; or if you are in the US, Sammy D told me you may be able to get a copy on Vinyl Dreams. They are going fast so I guess I need to get off here and find my credit card!

P.S. Be sure to check out DPC’s event page for upcoming events in the DC/Disco area. With the summer coming up there will surely be “too much to do/drink/dance” in the coming weeks slash already started (see: April). Tonight Remote Ctrl opens for Ben Browning (Cut Copy) and on Friday you may wanna check out Shenaniganz with Mr. Bonkerz and William DeVon (me!). I hope you guys rested on Monday and Tuesday (I didn't) because this week is going to be whiskey-filled madness!