Not long ago I sent an e-mail to a friend extolling the virtues of Bay Area skateboarding legend and solo musician Tommy Guerrero. I’m a big fan of Guerrero’s From The Soil To The Soul and Return Of The Bastard albums, and had suggested them as reference material in the art of making dynamic (mostly) solo music. Not 20 minutes after sending that e-mail, I received an e-mail from another friend (Ovipositor bandmate Mark) insisting that I seek out a band called Lord Newborn & The Magic Skulls, featuring none other than Tommy Guerrero, with keyboard legend Money Mark Ramos-Nishita and musician / producer Shawn Lee. The group put one album, on Ubiquity, in September of ’09.
It took a split second to find this trio on the interwebs, even less time for me to decide that I like what they’re doing. Most of the songs on the record ride on amazingly dope bass lines — fat and juicy, effortlessly funky, addictively head-nodding, tastefully and deftly accented — with dynamic yet mystic, almost murky percussion and super funky organs and synths. The general vibe is rare groove, but there’s also a whimsical, slightly Stevie Wonder-esque pop-soul tune, as well as stuff rooted in more experimental sounds and left-of-center songwriting approaches. The music is informed by a mash of styles (soul, rock, pop, electro, punk, hip-hop, etc.) but it’s the subtlety and nuance through which those elements are applied that makes it work — a canned percussive element straight from a groove box drum machine stereotypical of classic hip-hop, a fuzz pedal added to bass line to take it from lowdown and dirty to shaggy and nasty, the punctuation of a few precisely placed scratches, horn stabs, percussive accents or weird synth washes. There’s a lot to dig into, but nothing is done to death on this record, and the result is a collection of great songs that beg for repeated attention.
Lord Newborn & The Magic Skulls’ debut is an infinitely hip record, endearingly odd and supremely funky, and masterfully produced. Frankly, I’m a little surprised that this came out back in September of ’09 and I wasn’t aware of it — it surely would have made my Best of ’09 list — but, hey, these things happen. I’m just glad to know about it now.
You can (and should) cop this album from AmazonMP3, iTunes or Ubiquity Direct (where I picked up the 2x vinyl LP). While you wait for your purchase to arrive or finish downloading, check out this video for the album’s lead track, “A Phase Shifter I’m Going Through”…