Just when you think you’ve wrung every last drop of sonic delight from the melodic gems served by a single Bongo Boy Rock n Roll TV Show episode, another one rolls into view with all the grace of a majestic ship on the horizon. That’s par for the course. This is a show designed to be your musical compass, sparing you the toil of scouring for the cream of the crop. It’s the heavyweight champion of curation, doling out a handpicked selection of prime sonic cuts ranging from the grassroots underground to the ascendant stars and even the tried-and-true legends of the scene.
The Bongo Boy Rock n Roll TV Show is like a return to the golden era of MTV, back when music videos reigned supreme, and the fusion of sight and sound was at its zenith. For over a decade now, this powerhouse program has been gracing national television during prime time slots, serving up an array of the freshest sounds from every corner of the globe and spanning all musical genres. This episode will premiere on Tuesday, April 2, on Ch. 29 in Portland, Oregon, and follows with heavy rotation on 72+ terrestrial TV channels + on Bongo Boy TV ROKU Channel.
We start with a nice Americana slice from The Paula Boggs Band. King Brewster is a tragic tale from the Jim Crow era of a man whose only crime was being born black. The music lilts and weaves, a jaunty number that belies the dark and poignant tale at the heart of the song. It is a stark and startling way to kick off and a gentle reminder that music can be more than mere entertainment.
Kimberly Ward sets a more celebratory tone with Just Want To Be Free, a modern, acoustic-rock-gospel song that advocates freedom through faith. Faith is a very personal concept; however, music is universal. It is the most natural thing in the world to use music to celebrate it, express your adoration and adherence and spread the word you hold dear. It is safe to say that it is one of the main reasons music even survived and evolved through the ages, most early music being devotional in nature and sacred in purpose. So, it is fair to say that Kimberly Ward is following in the footsteps of the most ancient sonic traditions.
You Been Sayin’ Remix comes straight outta Kansas City, MO, courtesy of Feddie Scrillz feat. Rekka & Exurt Beatz and is as good an indication of where the urban sound is today as anything that you might stumble across. Dexterous, lyrical salvos, cool neo-soul-infused grooves, and a wilfully lazy pace that gives the track the right amount of sway and swagger, attitude, and understatement. It’s got it all.
And, as if to bring the previous two songs together, PTtheGospelSpitter’s Kingdom (Dance Therapy) blends cool urban dance vibes with a higher purpose. This is the sound of the mission to spread the word hitting the club floor, where the good book and the great groove work in unison, where the beats become beatific and the dance divine.
Now, I don’t want to take anything away from what has gone before, but I’m always pleased to see the name The NEW Bardots featured on these funky rotations. I’m old school, love a neat slice of rock ‘n’ roll, and if you like your fist-in-the-air, foot-on-the-monitor, kick-ass music, then it doesn’t come better than these guys. Little Left Behind is the sound of the original rock and roll spirit inhabiting the modern age and a song that sums up everything that the band is about. Groove, swagger, attitude….not to mention great songs.
I’m still trying to work out how Spoken Life, a band, or more a solo player who can do everything that a band can do, from Pennsylvania, sounds like a band from early 90’s Manchester, UK. But that is one of those strange things about music; the sonic spirit of the past can resurface in the most unexpected places. Still, Here and Now sounds like precisely the sort of indie anthem that saw the 80s out and paved the way for Brit-pop. Which I’m sure is not really what you want to read in a review of the best of, mainly, US music, but there it is. Suffice it to say, as reference points go, that is a good one in my book.
Chris Dunnett takes a more cinematic approach with Fly High, a sweeping, soaring song (and a literally soaring video to match). It’s a lush instrumental piece that incorporates vocals as instruments rather than lyrical devices, in much the way that classical composers such as Karl Jenkins does on his Adiemus pieces or Enigma do on their world music-pop crossovers. Gorgeous, warm, and meditative music indeed.
And finally, cozymobetta asks us Do You Feel? It’s a modern take on old-school soul. It takes the style and structure of that classic sound but builds it through more digital delicacy and gentle electronic energy. The result is a song that echoes the past, is perfect for the present, and sets a tone for the future. What an ideal way to end.
Bongo Boy TV, because music never stops, and so neither should you.
Bongo Boy TV www.bongoboytv.com
Bongo Boy TV – submit your music video to submit@bongoboyrecords.com
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