Heat Rocks

Los Angeles' underground soul scene is full of talent. The scene's unique blend of soul, jazz, lo-fi, and electronica has helped to bring LA into prominence. Amber Navran is part of the community, first as a member of soul jazz trio  Moonchild , and now as a solo artist. Her debut project,  Speak Up was released to critical acclaim in 2017 and showcases both her musicianship and her buttery vocals...

Guest: Phil Yu The Album: Boyz II Men:  II  (1994) Phil Yu is better known to most as Angry Asian Man...except that he isn't actually all that angry (though he is Asian and a man). Phil started his titular site nearly 20 years ago and since then, it has become an indispensable news resource about Asian American culture, politics and related issues. Phil, along with Jeff Yang, also hosts his own As...

The Album: The Coup:  Steal This Album  (1998) Jesse Thorn, host of  Bullseye  and the MaximumFun podfather, has long been one of our biggest fans and we were delighted to have him come in to talk about one of his favorite albums: The Coup's stellar 1998  Steal This Album.  The Coup, by then made up of Boots Riley and DJ Pam the Funkstress, had already established a reputation as one of hip-hop's...

The Album: Prince:  Purple Rain  (1984) I was dreaming when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray. But when I woke up this morning and realized that Oliver and I spent an hour or so talking with Meshell N'degecello about Prince's seminal "Purple Rain" album, I was beside myself with hype. We spoke about the album's forward thinking musicianship and arrangements, Prince as a visionary, his Mes...

The Song: Francis Scott Key's "Star-Spangled Banner" (1814) For this July 4th week, Morgan and I wanted to do something special and tackle the Great American Heat Rock aka "The Star-Spangled Banner." As Oliver notes during the episode, this is both the oldest song that most Americans know (partly) by heart and the one that we'll hear the most versions of across our lifetimes. Some versions are tra...

The Album: William Onyeabor:  Who Is William Onyeabor?  (2013) Benjamin Booker rocks. His soulful blend of blues, rock soul and punk, together with hella honest lyrics and an inimitable voice has moved folks across his self titled debut and latest album Witness. He joined us to talk about his discovery of Luaka Bop’s  World Psychedelic Classics 5: Who Is William Onyeabor?  It was love at first lis...

Show: Heat Rocks Guest: Eliza Skinner The Album:  Pretty in Pink Soundtrack (1986) Actress and comedian Eliza Skinner is part of the brand new Maximum Fun scripted comedy show,  Bubble,   and  hosts her own music podcast,  Cool Playlist . For her guest spot on Heat Rocks, she wanted to revisit one of  the  iconic soundtracks of the 1980s:  Pretty in Pink.  The film is a key part of the John Hughes...

Show: Heat Rocks   Guest: Marcus Moore The Album: Mos Def's  Black on Both Sides   (1999) Writer Marcus Moore, currently a senior editor at Bandcamp, happened to be coming through to Los Angeles for his first time ever and we took advantage by inviting him to join us to talk about Mos Def's debut album,  Black on Both Sides.  Coming out just a year after Mos and Talib Kweli created a new generatio...

Show:    Heat Rocks Guests:   Adrian Younge The Album: Jeru the Damaja's  The Sun Rises In the East   (1994) Since he started putting numbers on the board with the soundtrack to  Black Dynamite , artist/composer Adrian Younge has become  the  hip-hop maestro for creative collaborations. Through the years, he's worked with  Souls of Mischief ,  Ghostface Killah  and  DJ Premier/Royce the 5'9"...

Guest: Taura Stinson The Album: Minnie Riperton's  Adventures in Paradise   (1975) 2018 has been a breakout year for this weeks guest, Taura Stinson. " Mighty River ", the song she co-wrote with Raphael Saadiq for Dee Rees' critically acclaimed film  Mudbound  was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. She is a singer's singer who understands the nuances of song creation...

Show:    Heat Rocks Guests:   Cut Chemist "Say go DJ, cause that's my DJ..." - Weezy Cut Chemist is nice with the wax, nice with the loops, nice on the decks. A central figure in West Coast hip hop (Jurassic 5, Ozomotli) and the art of turntablism, both he and his record collection are legendary. While he joined us to talk about British funk pioneer Cymande's 1972 self-titled debut, our...

Comprehensive analysis. Two words that describe Cole Cuchna's extraordinary podcast, DISSECT, which dedicates a season to unpacking one album, one song (per episode) at a time. His subterranean exploration of Kanye West's  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy  is one of the reasons we were thrilled to have him join us to discuss Kanye West's 6th album,  Yeezus . We covered Yeezy the persona vs. Kanye...

Ethnomusicologist Fredara Hadley had been on our wish list for a while and as luck would have it, she came to Los Angeles earlier this spring and things lined up nicely. For our episode, Fredara wanted to get into  the  queen of the quiet storm from the 1980s and early ‘90s: Anita Baker and her platinum-selling 1990 album,  Compositions . During our conversation, we got into the nuances of Baker’s...

Justin Simien, whose  Dear White People  is just beginning its second season on Netflix, came through to join us  live  for another  Voyager Institute  collaboration. By sheer coincidence, our last VI event took on Janet Jackson's  Rhythm Nation  and here we are again, working our way through another Jackson family LP. (Can  LaToya  be too far behind?) HIStory , as our crew points out, is an odd d...

Martín Perna of Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra wanted to revisit one of  the  formative albums of his childhood: Michael Jackson's  Off The Wall . For many MJ fans, this is the king of pop's greatest work, a clear statement that he was now fully out of the shadow of the Jackson 5 and, along with super-producer Quincy Jones, ready to remake American pop music as we know it. Perna not only brought his...

Guests: Egyptian Lover The album: Cameo:  Cameosis   (1980) Egyptian Lover is one of the pivotal figures in shaping the sound of Los Angeles funk and hip-hop beginning in the 1980s. As a teen, he became a core member of the all-powerful Uncle Jamm's Army party crew and by the mid-80s, he was an artist in his own right, releasing a series of key electro albums that would help pave the way for the e...

Guest: Nite Jewel The album: Kraftwerk:  Computer World  (1981) When we invited L.A.'s own Nite Jewel to join us, it probably shouldn't have been a surprise that she picked Kraftwerk's  Computer World ; after all, she's toured the world  performing the album .  In sitting down with us, NJ (aka Ramona Gonzalez) broke down how she first became obsessed with the album, walking the streets of Berkeley...

Guest: Brother Ali The album: Stevie Wonder:  Songs in the Key of Life   (1976)   As part of the two week MaxFun Drive, we wanted to save two of our best shows to share with you. This first week, it's rapper Brother Ali, a long time MaxFun favorite, and he picked one of the greatest albums of all time: Stevie Wonder's majestic  Songs in the Key of Life , recorded when the artist was still in his 2...

Guest: P.J. Morton The album: Brandy's  Full Moon  (2002) Grammy winning singer/songwriter and producer PJ Morton  knows  production. A keyboardist and vocalist for Maroon 5, PJ Morton also  knows  lyrics .  And vocals. PJ Morton joined us to share what he knows about Brandy's 2002  Full Moon  and why it is for him, a certifiable heat rock. We talked about the brilliance of producer Rodney Jerkins...

Miss Jack Davey's contribution to LA's alternative soul scene began over a decade ago with her work as one half of the group  J*Davey . Their debut project, " The Beauty In Distortion " a mix of punk, funk, synth and soul, was a must have for tastemakers and made a splash both in Los Angeles and around the world. When she's not writing songs and producing, she can be found at a myriad of cool spot...

Producer/MC Denaun Porter aka Mr. Porter is one of the founding members of the Detroit crew, D12. It was none other than ATCQ's "Bonita Applebaum" that inspired him to get into hip-hop and not surprisingly, when we invited him to the show, he wanted to talk about one of the all-time great hip-hop albums: ATCQ's sophomore effort,  Low End Theory.  During our convo, we discussed the production techn...

Brian Cross, better known to most as B+, is one of the most important photographers of the hip-hop generation to ever emerge out of the West Coast. A transplant from Ireland to California, Cross began documenting the L.A. rap community throughout the late '80s and early '90s, producing one of the great books about the region's hip-hop scene,  It's Not About a Salary . He's also a founding partner...

DJ Monalisa Murray is an O.G. on the L.A. scene, having made the transition from working in marketing and promotion for record labels to working for herself as one of the Southland's premier selectors, down with everyone from Umoja Hi-Fi Soundsystem, to Footlong Development, to the KPL All-Stars. For her album choice, she wanted to spin us back to the emergence of D'Angelo and his debut album,  Br...

Ishmael Butler aka Butterfly of Digable Planets aka one-half of Shabazz Palaces joined us to take us on a trip back to the blaxploitation era and one of the greatest soundtracks-in-search-of-a-movie:  Hustlers Convention , the spoken word/funk album by Jalal Nuriddin of The Last Poets. Backed up musicians that included Kool and the Gang, Eric Gale and others,  Hustlers Convention took listeners on...

MC extraordinaire Pharoahe Monch was no stranger to the trio known as Main Source (Large Professor + DJs K-Cut and Sir Scratch) back in the early '90s: Monch and Large Professor came up under the tutelage of the same mentor:  producer Paul C.  Though C was tragically murdered in 1989, both his proteges would go onto have banner years in '91 as Large Professor saw Main Source's  Breaking Atoms  rel...