Hideo

So with Jamie Lidell (featured with the awesome Señor Coconut Mix of "Little Bit Of Feel Good" on Summer Hump) and now Nomo under my belt, my live music-going days in Chicago are officially off to a pretty, pretty, pretty good start. For those not in the know, Nomo is a modern afro-funk ensemble whose new record Ghost Rock drops on Tuesday. Last night, they played the new record in its entirety for the lucky few (including me) bold enough to venture out on a Sunday night. To spread the good word about Nomo, here's their incredible take on one of supreme space commander Sun Ra's tunes.

Nomo - Rocket #9

No One Ever Really Something Something

After Monday night's show at the Vogue, N*E*R*D's third record, due out this summer, officially reached most anticipated status. From the new stuff they played, it sounds like they managed to break out of the slightly AOR-rut of Fly Or Die and got back to the sense of adventure that made In Search Of.. one of my favorite albums of all time (hopefully lead single "Everybody Nose" is just a bit of an outlier trifle). In fact, I would argue that in some ways In Search Of... was a fairly prescient album for the naughties, what with its obsessions with fame, sex, sex tapes, and politics, all of which are coalescing nicley as we near the end of the decade. In any case, I unfortunately wavered a bit on whether or not I really wanted to go, then thought WW22YOJDD? And I knew 22 year-old JD would have stopped at nothing to see this show. All in all, I was rewarded as these guys put on a heck of a show (Chad was even there in appropriately goofy sunglasses & hat), and the live version of "She Wants To Move" is the truth. To commemorate, here's my favorite N*E*R*D non-album track as their big hit "Maybe" gets remixed by funky-electro-space-pirates Sa-Ra Creative Partners. Now if the band had busted out this version, my mind would have truly been blown.

N*E*R*D - Maybe (Sa-Ra Remix)