Stones Throw Party w/
James Pants (NYC premiere)
Mayer Hawthorne (NYC premiere)
Dam-Funk DJ Set
Bio:
James Pants is from Spokane. In Spokane there are lots of people with long fingernails and lots of dogs. In Spokane, rent is very, very cheap and so James Pants can afford to buy records and not work too awfully hard. A long time ago, James Pants started playing drums and marching in bands. After hitting cymbals for a while, James Pants bought cheap turntables and learned to scratch with Steppenwolf. James Pants’ turntables skipped so much that he lost many battles and was never a good DJ. Then James Pants started playing Showbiz and AG, but no one liked his rap, and he was never paid. Then James Pants started playing Cameo and his drums again and people danced a little. Now James Pants plays his new album and a few girls like it. “Mystical and enchanting,” is what people in Spokane say about it. Teenagers at the park like to dance and make-out to the new James Pants sound. “What a kaleidoscope,” said one lady with her dog. “I can feel the universe pulse.”
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Mayer Hawthorne grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, and vividly remembers, as a child, driving with his father and tuning the car radio in to the rich soul and jazz history the region provided. “Most of the best music ever made came out of Detroit,” claims the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, who counts Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson, Mike Terry, and Barry White among his influences, but draws the most inspiration from the music of Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, and the legendary songwriting and production trio of Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, and Eddie Holland Jr.
The “retro” tag is added to almost any contemporary work that sounds like it was originally recorded between 1966 and 1974, and Hawthorne, among the newest contributors to the genre, is aware of how trends come and go. After being introduced to Stones Throw label head Peanut Butter Wolf by mutual friend Noelle Scaggs of the Rebirth, even his current boss was skeptical. “He showed me two songs and I didn’t understand what I was listening to,” Wolf recalls. “I asked him if they were old songs that he did re-edits of – I couldn’t believe they were new songs and that he played all the instruments.”
And after meeting in person, it was even harder for Wolf to believe that Hawthorne was also the lead vocalist. Few expect such heartfelt sentiment to come from a 29-year-old white kid from Ann Arbor, but he has caught the ear of his family at Stones Throw, as well as BBC Radio 1 host Gilles Peterson and producer/DJ Mark Ronson. Expectations are high for the admitted vinyl junkie who never planned on taking his crooning public. Hawthorne’s hanging-by-a-string falsetto and breakbeat production on his first recorded effort, the tender “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out,” are simultaneously Smokey and J Dilla – equal parts “The Tracks of My Tears” and “Fall in Love.” “It’s soul,” he explains, “But it’s new.”
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You may know dãm-funk from his remix of Baron Zen’s “Burn Rubber” & his debut solo joint “Sidewayz” both out now on Stones Throw yet, he also throw’s one of the freshest Monday nite parties in L.A. called FUNKMOSPHERE which focues on rare joints via ‘original wax’ from the early 80’s based Boogie/Funk, Modern-Soul, & ‘current’ Modern-Funk sub genres respectfully. An L.A. native, raised in Pasadena, CA & now based in the Leimert Park section of Los Angeles, dãm is now currently recording his debut ‘EP’ for Stones Throw Records with full support from label president & friend Peanut Butter Wolf which promises to be the ‘Modern-Funk’ project everyones been waiting for to emerge from the left coast. “dãm-funk is a man that’s almost single-handedly brought the ‘Boogie’ scene to life here in LA.” – Ty G ~ HVW8.com
Video:
James Pants
Dam-Funk