Whap A Dang

Gonna groove yr argyle socks off in a minute.

Bur first, we'd like to to draw your attention to a new festival coming up this Spring/Summer (May 28t-30, to be exact).  It's called The Muddy Roots Music Festival, and if you missed the bus on the Deep Blues Fest, then here's your chance to make amends.  Featuring, so far, such artists as Billy Joe Shaver, Wayne Hancock, Dexter Romweber, Reverend Deadeye, and the Ten Foot Polecats (amongst many, many others), this'll be sure to scratch yr Country/Punk/Blues itch all in one weekend.  And it's dirt cheap (currently $30, with camping free...so thirty bucks total, consarnit!  Beer (and...whatever you're smokin')'s  up to you, but you really can't beat that deal).  We'll be there, and who doesn't want to party and listen to great tunes with us?  We'll have more about this coming up.  Again, it's The Muddy Roots Music Festival.  Just check the link and tell us you don't wanna go.

Convenient then, that The Muddy Roots Music Festival is taking place in Tennessee.  'Cuz Tennessee is home to Memphis, and Memphis is home to so many great bands, including today's cover stars, The City Champs. 

We got a chance to see The City Champs a couple of weeks ago, opening for The North Mississippi Allstars (how's that for a vote of confidence?), and they spun us on our ass-over-heads.

An organ trio (yep, we love the guldarned organ), The City Champs hearken back to a time of the house party and the song/performance as venue for the hottest sound un-pressed on wax, where the drinks were flowing and the dresses were hinting, the sweat was dripping and the devil was rising.  The drone and groove played host to the carnal whims of the whispered "yes",  or the twirled dance floor was a "maybe" to the heady push of need and lust.

Now the City Champs aint retro.  Sure, they pull from the tradition of Booker T. and the Bar-Keys, amongst others, but they've got their own kick goin'. Organist Al Gamble (from Muscle Shoals!) has played with Rufus Thomas, Syl Johnson, Alex Chilton, and the The Memphis Horns.  He brings a delightfully greasy element to the shake-a-boogie proceedings, while guitarist Joe Restivo and drummer George Sluppick kick out some slimy, slinky tones complementing the sleaze.

When I get that feeling, I get sexual healing, then.

'Cuz the band has sex appeal, dontcha know.  Cover your eyes, and imagine the go-go glory of yr favorite jukejoint, sweaty and all wound-up, ready for late-nite love, beer googles be damned, and the lady by yr side and the pulse of the rhythm rocks yr world and shakes yr shaker.  Booty and stomp, baby! 


The best party record of the year, so far.  Whether you're night involves a sexy evening at home with yr lady or fella and a shaker full of martinis, or a night on the town, cutting the rug and gettin' down(!), goddammit, the City Champs are your soundtrack.  So sayeth the Mountain!

The City Champs: The Whap-A-Dang (mp3)



Yup, here's the part were we ask you to support your local, independent record store of choice, or at least get yr funk on at a place not called "apple beeeeees".