Have You Seen Them?: What Am I Doing Here? What Are You Doing Here? (The Tanika Charles Post)

Let's get a couple things straight: 1) There will not be any politics here. The music may be political/topical but I won't be discussing politics for the sake of politics. 2) You may not like all the music you find here and that's fine. However, like finding a new favorite vegetable or cuisine, you will never find anything new to like without sampling as much as possible.

Got it?

Good.

Moving on.

My musical leanings are best described as punk. Loud, fast, obnoxious, and sometimes neurotic. But it's not all punk all the time. I'm not going to say "I listen to everything" because that is the biggest musical cop out of all time. It's okay to have musical tastes. It's okay to not like some music. I think Nashville country is currently awful disco-esque tripe that has more in common with Top 40 music than the soulful, if sometimes too twangy, music of Nashville's past. But that's just like my opinion, man.

Music evolves for better or worse. One can take it as a challenge to continue to find new music or one can hide in the music from their formative years. I long ago made the choice to continue to search for new bands inside and outside my usual comfort level. In introducing new, to you, artists or bands, I will try to give you a sample of their work and usually a way to find more by that artist.

There's the preview of what you can expect or not expect.

Anyway, here we go!

A couple years ago, I was listening to the Bandcamp Weekly podcast while cooking dinner. The host plays music from artists on bandcamp(duh) from all over the world and sometimes conducts short interviews with them during an approximately hour long show. Sometime in the middle of chopping an onion or something he played "Soul Run" by Tanika Charles. I pretty much started shaking my ass right then and there.

Ms. Charles has a Motown sound that will remind you of Aretha Franklin or The Supremes but with a more modern tempo. Her voice can hit the dusky lows and super highs that make you feel the words while scooting in your chair or shuffling around in your kitchen. The backing music varies from uptempo jazz/R&B to soul. And like any good Motown type music, there are some solid backing vocals adding to the atmosphere.

If you like this, you can purchase or stream the album here. It is available in mp3, vinyl, and CD formats.*