Rock For the Non-Mulleted, Non-Indie

Rock is like a box of chocolates

Blackrock - Yeah Yeah

Who says you can’t dance on a Monday morning? Certainly wasn’t me and it certainly wasn’t this morning. I got into the office this morning and decided that the perfect compliment to two crappy cups of overpriced 0.25$ office coffee was a little Blackrock. That’s right, hideawayheads, rock wasn’t always just for the mulleted and the indie among us. I’m talking about ghetto rock, black rock, funk rock, soul rock, or whatever label you wanna give it. (And, no, I’m not talking about Fishbone, Funkadelic, Living Color, Thin Lizzy, or that mohawked fellow from INXS’ Rockstar.) Mos Def ambitiously attempted it on his last album, but people were hatin on him and that album didn’t get the attention it deserved. People weren’t ready for that album. Andre 3000 came with some radio-friendly rock and people slurped it up with ladles and spoons. There used to be a time when rock of all colors and styles was blanketing the airwaves. But, you probably think that you already know all this, don’t you? You’re probably wrong. See, I'm telling you stuff that you "know" but you don't "know". My not-so-profound-or-groundbreaking theory on knowledge is that the only way to really know something is to experience it. Then, you REALLY know it, ya know. I don’t know. But, what I do know is that my knowledge theory goes counter-intuitive to our internet age. (Let me know if you know what I mean, or, if you already knew all that, you can let me know that, too.)

Blackrock is a pretty ungoogleable, little-known funk/psych/r&b group from the late 60’s and early 70’s. I downloaded the mp3 from Fluxblog, who picked it up off the out-of-print bootleg comp, “Chains + Black Exhaust”. And, no, it’s not one of those anonymous, boring James Brown or Meters soundalikes, thank goodness. “Yeah yeah” is a freakin jam. Funky piano, bangin drums, soulful guitar. Great guitar riffs. And, as an educational tool, they let you know at the beginning of the song exactly what you’re about to hear. Black rock. Dig it.