{"id":388,"date":"2010-03-23T17:22:55","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T22:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=388"},"modified":"2015-02-04T08:41:24","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T13:41:24","slug":"gemini-brass-rock-the-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=388","title":{"rendered":"Gemini Brass – Rock the Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download -The Gemini Brass – Rock the Boat <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Greetings all. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The tune I bring you today is something I picked up a long time ago at one of the Asbury Lanes Garage\/Record sales. I\u2019d been wanting to blog it for a while, and had it digimatized, but every time I wanted to write about it I realized that I had forgotten to photograph the label, after which I promised myself that I\u2019d dig it out, and then \u2013 as is often the case \u2013 promptly forgot about the matter, sending it right back to the bottom of the heap.
\nIt\u2019s just like that sometimes.<\/em>
\nFortunately, my brain is like a sweater fresh out of the dryer, i.e. full of static and as a result covered with the stray socks and lint of memory. When I sit down to go through the crates, whether to work up a new mix, or pull some 45s for a live DJ set, the fragments of memory often shake loose as I see a record in passing, and I create a whole separate pile of stuff, filed under \u2018things I need to record\u2019, \u2018things I need to photograph\u2019 and more often than not \u2018records I thought were lost for good\u2019 (with today\u2019s selection falling into the last two categories).
\nThe record in question is \u2018Rock the Boat\u2019 by the Gemini Brass.<\/strong>
\nA cover of the 1974 Top 20 hit by the Hues Corporation<\/strong>, this 45 sent up all kinds of red flags when I pulled it out of the box.
\nWeird label I\u2019d never seen before: CHECK<\/em><\/strong>
\nCover of a funk and\/or soul tune: CHECK<\/em><\/strong>
\nIndication that said record is from a foreign country: CHECK<\/em><\/strong>
\nPossible to procure said record for less than a dollar: CHECK<\/em><\/strong>
\nWhen I got the record home and gave it a spin I was pleasantly surprised. It starts at an absolutely speeding tempo with all kinds of percussion and shouts from the band before the horns and some kind of cheesy combo organ fall in to state the theme. There are vocals, but they don\u2019t really take the lead, serving more as accents to the instrumental track (it\u2019s almost as the lead vocal had been removed, leaving the backing vocalists by themselves). The whole thing is kind of frantic
\nThe little I\u2019ve been able to discover about the Gemini Brass indicates that they were a working brass band from the Caribbean island of Trinidad. They recorded several 45s and at least two albums (the latter of which appears to have been recorded\/released in Canada), playing both traditional calypso as well as covers of contemporary funk\/soul material. A couple of their tracks have been comped, with their version of the African Music Machine\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Black Water Gold\u2019 appearing on Kon and Amir and DJ Muro\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Kings of Diggin\u2019, and \u2018You Don\u2019t Love Me\u2019 on the Strut comp \u2018Calypsoul \u201870\u2019.
\nThe issue of \u2018Rock the Boat\u2019 presented here is the Trinidadian OG, and the record was also released in the US on the Brooklyn-based Calypso label Charlies.
\nThe Gemini Brass version of \u2018Rock the Boat\u2019 is frantic to the point where only the most athletic (or most intoxicated) folks on the dance floor would be able to keep up, but the record is so infectious I can imagine most people at least giving it a try.
\nI hope you dig the cut, and I\u2019ll be back on Friday.<\/p>\n

Peace<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg for some sophisticated pop from an unexpected source.<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/strong>PSS Check out Paperback Rider too.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

PSSS Don’t forget to hit up Funky16Corners on Facebook<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

You can also follow Funky16Corners on Twitter <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen\/Download -The Gemini Brass – Rock the Boat Greetings all. The tune I bring you today is something I picked up a long time ago at one of the Asbury Lanes Garage\/Record sales. I\u2019d been wanting to blog it for a while, and had it digimatized, but every time I wanted to write about it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,12,18],"tags":[166,47,164],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funky16corners","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funky16corners","tag-island-soul","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-6g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5417,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions\/5417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}