THE NEWNESS







Nostalgia 77: Seven Nation Army

From 12" (Tru Thoughts, 2004) and Songs For My Funeral (Tru Thoughts, 2004)



Soul Village: We Gettin Down

From 7" (Jazz Makossa, 2004)



I came upon both of these on my weekly sojourn to S.F.'s Groove Merchant (act like you knew). As is well-documented, Soul Sides is a straight sucker for covers and remixes and I couldn't pass up either of these. The first remixes the White Stripes' bass-chomping "Seven Nation Army" but switches out the cold, cold vocals of Jack White and replaces it with Alice Russell's searing soulistics. I'm not saying this is get a bunch of emo kids into the mosh pit but I'm feeling how this just rips things up a bit but keep the mood very tense and controlled.



As for Soul Village, we think this group is out of Sweden France or somewhere else suitably Nordish European. This 7" was initially released in Japan (but has managed to crawl out to other places) and an astute Soul Sides reader notes that the Village's Dela also remixed a version of the Neptunes' "Frontin'." Soul Village have two covers on this one: the A-side remakes Roy Ayers' all-time picnic classic, "Everybody Loves the Sunshine," but Soul Sides couldn't pass up the B-side, which covers one of our personal favorites, the late Weldon Irvine and his "We Gettin Down" (ATCQ fans know what's up). Soul Village stays pretty close to the original and just lets the composition shine.