First of all, if you are into funk at all, download Sweet Nasty. Period.
With Earphunk, the long and short of it is this from George Clinton’s quote, “Y’all ain’t your average white band.” Taking it a step further, James Brown, bless his stage hopping, foot shuffling, sweating balls, getting his moves ripped off from everyone from Mick Jagger to Michael Jackson who sang of getting on one’s singular good foot; Earphunk may have you come to the realization of each of us having two good feet to get on. They’ve criss-crossed the land perfecting their sound, appreciating their people and after one listen Earphunk you will know they are something very special.
Dripping with the “Nawleans” soul and spirit that makes even the most hesitant dancers shake whatever they are bold enough to shake, Earphunk combines the old school James Brown of Parliament Funkadelic and gets ALL up all up in your grill with a unique funk sound of their own. You might even find a little Teddy Pendergrass or Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King vibe happening as you listen. For you real funk fans, Earphunk even revives the Roger and Zapp sound. If the name Zapp means nothing to you, you’ve got to get out more. “More Bounce To The Ounce” needs to be in your funk vocabulary as much as “Atomic Dog”. BOW! WOW! WOW! YIPPIE! YOOOOO! YIPPIE! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Yall!
Their 3rd album, Sweet Nasty, features 11 tracks that cover all aspects of funk and is about as appropriately named as an album can be. From sweet, thick and soulful to downright nasty as you want to be, or wish you weren’t too inhibited to be, the guitars are prevalent with riffs that will stick in your head, a bass line in every song that will get your hips swaying and your mind wandering what that sweet thing across the room has going on including some love ballads that will make you completely satisfied with the sweet thing that is laying within arm’s reach of you in your bed, the Nawleans horns we’ve all come to love and keyboards that will make Stevie Wonder proud. Sweet Nasty is funky and freaky, telling ya. Might even make some of yall that are prone to blush, blush really hard.
One aspect of Earphunk that will surprise you is that not only do they have the funk on lock, they also throw out some jams that would catch any jamband fan’s attention and hold it. As jamband similarities go; they have a Umphrey’s McGee@Trey Band spacey noodle sound happening as well as a touch of Government Mule’s power. They also tap into the funk that Widespread Panic mixes in their shows. No joke and no exaggeration. Having been wanting the funk and going where the funk is to be found for a few decades now, there is no exaggeration in this review about Earphunk.
Having thrown some of the biggest names of a few different genres at you in this review may have you a little skeptical. Don’t be. Earphunk takes funk to a new powerful, jam filled place where you’ll enjoy spending time; day, afternoon, night and really late night. Being Halloween and all, considerable time was spent channeling the spirits of Pigpen and Rick James during the writing of this review and they give Earphunk and Sweet Nasty 2 thumbs up. How can you go wrong with their approval?
