Karate

Song: Karate
Artist: Kennedy
Album: Life is a Party







Okay, this is gonzo.  And a bit of a story...

So Wednesday night I went to see Robyn at Terminal 5, she was amazing.  Great show, good crowd, and just made me fall in love with her.  If you haven't done so yet, order her new album "Body Talk" now.  (P.S. its better than "Aphrodite.")  Anyhow, about mid-show my friend Mel actually found me in the crowd and we got to hang and dance a bit.  She has recently started her own music blog which I urge you to all check out, it's called My Music Mission.

So thanks to her blog I recently discovered Kennedy, and his song "Karate" which I can't get enough of.    I didn't understand her post as I thought this was actually a "70's Disco Funk" track that I'd somehow missed.  Sure, there is plenty of underground disco that I don't know from that era... but one-off golden 70's Lite-FM tracks seem to have ingrained themselves into my consciousness... how did I miss something like "Karate?!"  (No doubt it would have been placed in the same breath as Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting" right?)

Well it turns out that Kennedy isn't from the 70's... he's a tongue-in-cheek hipster from Silverlake with a penchant for goofy lyrics, disco, and glam rock, who's been at the game since all the way back in... 1999.  So this is not some golden oldie I've somehow let slipped by... but yet slipped by it has.  It turns out that Kennedy has been pretty prolific, but finding complete info on the dude is a little dicey.  His Wikipedia page shows a handful of early albums, though excludes the latest "Life is a Party" which includes tracks from the 2006 EP "Special K" (which "Karate" is from.)  A look on iTunes shows this dude is nothing put prolific, with several other singles and EP's listed.  You can read/hear more from this goofball on his MySpace Page.

"Life is a Party" is a fun mix of goofy disco and glam rock nuggets that actually has some killer songs included, and a handful of filler.  "John & Yoko" is a crunchy electro rock duet with French singer Yelle.  "Oh Yeah" is full on glam, and quite good.  And Euro-house jam "Let it Out" is a kicker... very very good.  Final track "Your Mama" returns the straight-up disco, albeit very goofy wink-wink knowing disco.  All you need to know about the dude is in the video for that track, see below.  All-in-all the album reminds me a bit of Simple Kid, Beck, Mickey Avalon, Har Mar Superstar, and The Hues Corporation.  Kooky for sure... and yet I totally recommend.

Well a big thanks to My Music Mission for introducing me to Kennedy!  This one will start your weekend off right.

Enjoy.

Karate


Your Mama


John & Yoko (feat. Yelle)