Introducing . . . Erasmo Carlos!

When talking about a musician from another country (excepting the U.K.) it is common to refer to them as the French/Japanese/Russian version of some famous anglo-american musician. Therefore, Caetano Veloso is the Brazilian Bob Dylan and Roberto Carlos is the Brazilian Elvis and so on. Using that recipe, I'm trying to think of how to describe Erasmo Carlos. He's of the same vintage as Roberto Carlos (unrelated), but his output has always been more daring, more creative and more consistently listenable, especially his golden era spanning the entire decade of the 1970s.

Erasmo was one of three pop idols that dominated the Jovem Guarda scene. Roberto was the King and Wanderlea, the queen, but where did that leave Erasmo? He didn't have the heartthrob looks of his songwriting partner Roberto, but he did have the rock credentials and when the poppy Jovem Guarda scene of the mid-to-late sixties gave way to the experimental styles of Tropicalia and roots-based MPB he was better suited than either of his pop-idols companions to whether the storm with his dignity and reputation intact. I think it was his position in the heart of the pop world, but slightly in the shadow of Roberto that allowed him the freedom to be a pioneer in Brazilian rock.

I'm not sure who I would compare Erasmo to from the available universe of Ango-American pop stars. He rocked as hard as the Stones, but had pop-chops as infectious as the Beatles. He was as Brazilian as the Kinks were British. He was as groovy as Sly Stone and with his song-writing partnership with his brother-from-another-mother, Roberto, he was as prolific and as oft-covered as Lennon & McCartney. Here it is: Erasmo Carlos is the Brazilian Erasmo Carlos.

The following song are by no means Erasmo's only songs or even his best ones. I actually didn't include some of my favorites of his as I wanted to save some goodies for later. I did try to diplay a wide ranging selection that gives you all a understanding of Erasmo's depth and breadth during his "golden era."


Download: Coqueiro Verde
His open ears took him a variety of directions beginning with his 1970 album, "Erasmo Carlos e Os Tremendoes" from 1970 where he pioneered the "Samba Rock" sound with the groundbreaking hit "Coquiero Verde". I believe it is the legendary Samba Rock group Trio Mocoto backing him up on this genre-defining tune. Anyone out there know if this is the first recording or if that honor belongs to Trio Mocoto?.

When I had the chance to interview Sergio Dias of Os Mutantes I asked him about Erasmo as I knew he had recorded with him on Erasmo's following record, "carlos, erasmo." This is what Sergio had to say:

"Erasmo is a hell of a guy. He is the rocker behind Roberto. He is the real spirit of rock and roll. He was the guy who always has been the rocker. He is a real icon. He had so many hits, and he was responsible for so many of Roberto’s hits also, because he shared the composition. And he is great. With Erasmo, what you see is what you get, which is just fantastic. A lovely guy, full of heart, like his music."



Download: Cica, Cecilia
The following song, "Cica, Cecilia" is from Erasmo's next album, "carlos, erasmo" from 1971. This along with his following album, "Sonhos e Memorias 1941-1972" are his truly great albums, both nearly flawless. This is the rockier of the two and features guests like Arthur Verocai, Sergio Dias, Lanny Gordin among others. I'm pretty sure the arrangement on this song is by Verocai.



Download: Mundo Cao
And here is the true masterpiece of Brazilian Rock, "Sonhos e Memorias 1941-1972" from 1972. This album rivals anything released anywhere else in the world during the 1970s, therefore of ALL TIME! I admit, I'm a bit biased, but for this kind of melodic pop music, Erasmo Carlos is untouchable. Get the album. You can find it here on J Thyme . . . . Kind
. Scroll down to find both classic Erasmo LPs as ripped by our dear friend Gregzinho.



Download: Dietar e Rolar
Next up we have my all-time favorite song of Erasmo's from his 1974 LP "1990 Projeto Salva Terra." The album is a step down from his previous two, but is still quite good and includes this beautiful song with some excellent jazzy chord changes and transitions: "Deitar e Rolar"





Download: Triângulo dos Biquinis
And finally we skip one album "Banda Dos Contentes" for his excellent 1978 album "Pelas Esquinas da Ipanema" with this jazzy-funk nugget: "Triângulo dos Biquinis" which I'm sure all of you can translate without any help. I just love the horn-driven outro.


I love the picture below of Erasmo and Roberto on a break from shooting a movie, chilling in Japan. If I'm not mistaken that looks like Shibuya.

Ain't nothing wrong with a little bit of K.C.

I'm waiting on an MP3 disc and some pictures to be scanned before I really introduce you all to the Caruthers Street paradigm, but I loaded a video this morning and felt like it needed a proper introduction. Caruthers Street is where my brother, Charlie, and his then (and current) housemate, Morgan, lived in the early 2000s. This was home to many a sweaty dance party and also the spring from whence my love for disco, funk and soul emerged. One of the many associations with this place is the mental realignment that took place there that transformed my understanding of K.C. & the Sunshine Band as a cheesy disco band to my appreciation of the same band for their party-rocking prowess.

The story all starts at a video store in Portland, OR called Movie Madness where my brother found a VHS tape of K.C. & the Sunshine Band live from 1975. He and Morgan watched this video on repeat for weeks before tuning me on to it and then I watched it over and over before dubbing a copy for myself. My copy sucked and I recently found a better copy on eBay and ripped a DVD of the whole 45 minute show. The performance is just top-notch and unlike most soul or funk videos from the era, this is a multi-camera job filmed live in concert with no lip-synching whatsoever.

Head over to Soul Spectrum Videos to watch "I Get Lifted"

Charlie and Morgan as friends, roommates and bandmates make a good team and watching this video I can't help but think of Charlie and Morgan as modern-day Henry Wayne "K.C." Casey and Richard Finch. Not that Charlie & Morgan are sequined suited sweaty white dudes playing funk music, but given the chance I doubt they would pass on that opportunity. Partially, it's just an appearance thing and they both really like this video, too.

K.C. and Finch were the songwriting team that wrote most of the Sunshine Band's output as well as a good chunk of the catalogue of George McCrae as well as Jimmy "Bo" Horne. These were some funky white boys. The way I see it, they took the TK sound as pioneered by Little Beaver, Clarence Reid and Steve Alaimo and made it safe and acceptable for white audiences. I mean, the first three K.C. & the Sunshine Band albums are straight up Florida funk albums, but they also sold tons of copies and made K.C. a household name while pioneering the disco sound. I think the appeal for me is that their songs are basically southern-friend funk songs with a more steady disco-ready beat and they avoided the a la mode string section that ruined so many songs of the era. Their songs were simple; they were about dancing; and they made you want to move your feet. It's a simple equation and it worked well for them and their bank accounts. It didn't hurt that they were white either as evidenced by George McCrae and Jimmy "Bo" Horne's relative lack of fame despite the same songs and same band and arguably better vocals.

I first remember paying attention to them (I must have heard them a million times before) when I got the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack which had the song "Boogie Shoes" on it. The song didn't sound like the Bee Gees tracks on the same album because it had more of a soul sound, a swinging horn-based groove that was made for strutting instead of disco-finger popping; compared to other music that I knew of as "disco" K.C.'s sound was funkier, looser and more soulful. It's hard to disassociate the band from all of their ubiquitous disco hits, but a quick listen to some album tracks like this one from the live video shows that the band could get hella funky as evidenced by the polyrhythmic breakdown at the end of the song: "I Get Lifted" video

I got to see K.C. and the sunshine band back in the late nineties as one of the zillion bands that played Portland's "Last Chance Summer Dance" alongside some more contemporary, yet forgetable ("Color Me Badd" anyone?) bands. They were the highlight of the show for me, though K.C. has not aged well as evidenced by the above photo.

There will be some more songs from this video posted soon as this is not even the best one. There is one super-long version of "Get Down Tonight" just now posted where one of the horn players pulls out some pretty crazy dance moves.

On a side note, when looking for some K.C. picks I found this one and couldn't help but think that Mark Wahlberg needs to star as K.C. in a biopic.

Marky Mark in Boogie Nights



K.C. without the Sunshine Band

Rolling Down Disco Mountain

I'm on a bit of a disco kick today, but after the lengthy K.C. post, I'll keep this one short and to the point. I've been digging this new Glass Candy tour CD which has some songs of theirs as well as other related side-projects and the like. The first song on the CD is this one:



Download: Rolling Down the Hills (Spring Demo)
Glass Candy is yet another band from Portland, OR and they have really tapped into a nice combination of nostalgia and contemporary production and aesthetics. The song's a bit too slow to dance too, but you can't be dancing all of the time. I hope to post more of their stuff here soon.



Download: Rolling Down a Mountainside
The Main Ingredient has been a recent favorite of mine. Did you know that Cuba Gooding Sr. (yes, the Sr. to "Show Me the Money"'s Jr.) was one of the singers? Their sound is different than a lot of vocal groups as they always picked (or had picked for them) off-kilter arrangements and complicated songs that seemed like they almost didn't work. It's that unusual quality that I like so much about their discography. This song was also recorded by Isaac Hayes, though I can't say I'm familiar with his version and it was written by Leon "I Want You" Ware.

Rollin' . . .

Tim Maia, Roger Bruno and The Ideals, part II

Last Thursday I drove up to Tarrytown after work to meet with Roger Bruno, musician, songwriter and former friend and band-mate of Tim Maia. Roger and his partner, Ellen, met me at a really chill coffee shop on Main Street Tarrytown, called Coffee Labs. I was happy to see that it's a hard-core coffee roaster, with a roasting machine in the middle of the room and they also are also fellow travelers on the Fair Trade bandwagon.


















I recognized Roger and Ellen from their website. We talked for over an hour and a half about Tim and the music scene in Westchester, NY in the early sixties. I'm gonna save the good quotes for the Wax Poetics article I'm scraping together, but I will share the best part about the meeting . . . seeing this photo:

from L-R: Roger Bruno, Felix DeMasi, Tim, Paul Mitranga, Bill Adair

This photo was taken during one of The Ideals' recording sessions in New York City, most likely for the song "New Love." This brings me back to the original motivation for contacting Roger Bruno. This is what Roger told me in an email recently, "I tracked down the original acetate of the Ideals recording of "New Love," although I don't have it in hand yet." Turns out a past girlfriend of Roger's is in possession of the acetate and is happy to share it with Roger along with some other photos and memorabilia from the time. The song was never released commercially. The Ideals were planning on shopping it around to different labels, but Tim got arrested and deported before they had a chance! Roger confirmed that the famous Brazilian drummer Milton Banana played on the session as did well-known jazz and rock bassist Don Payne. Roger said that the song was an attempt to explore the then burgeoning Bossa Nova sound and sweetening it with some soulful five-part vocal harmony.

The craziest thing about this whole adventure is that Roger was not aware of his former song-writing partner's history after being deported from the U.S. It was my email to him a few weeks ago that started this whole process of rediscovery and excavation of long-forgotten memories. I'm so thrilled that Roger is up for the journey down memory road.

A curious side-note to all of this is that some friends of Roger & Ellen's from when they lived in Boston in the early seventies also have a connection with Tim Maia that Roger and Ellen only just recently found out about. After Paul and Sheila Smith left Boston they wound their way to Brazil, where they stayed for seven months and somehow ended up meeting Tim Maia and even singing back-up vocals on the song "Reu Confesso" (see this earlier post on Soul Spectrum to listen to this song) from the very same album that features the re-recording of "New Love." Neither Roger, nor Paul or Sheila knew that the other had ever known Tim and all three of their names appear on the back of the same album! Paul agreed to talk with me about his and Sheila's time in Brazil, so more updates to come!

El Año Pasado en México

Download: Gloria
It was this time last year that I had the good fortune to travel to Mexico. The trip was for my job (Fair Trade handcrafts, etc), but I managed to sneak in some leisure time as well and even got to dig for a little south-of-the-border vinyl. The one Mexican record that I was pleased to get was a 4-song EP from Los Rockin' Devils which featured a couple covers and some originals (I think). Actually the only passable song on the EP is their cover of the Them's "Gloria" which we have here. Sadly, my copy is pretty beat up and the only song that cannot play through is this one.
Los Rockin' Devils



Download: Cambia, Cambia
The band I was desperately hoping to track down was Los Dug Dug's. I got pretty damn close, but the one day I was searching for records in Mexico City was a national holiday (the inauguration of the new president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon. In addition to getting to know the netherworlds of Mexico City by way of the used junk stalls, I got to witness the tail end of some massive protests opposing President Calderon's ascension to power. Some of you might remember, there was a very populist candidate who still claims that the election was his. Another souvenir from this trip was a T-shirt with Obredor's charicature on it saying "Presidente Legítimo."
Back to the records . . . the only stores I could find during my day of digging were all closed so I settled for some Mexican pressings of New York Salsa and the aforementioned Los Rockin' Devils EP. This is what I wanted to find though. Read more about Los Dug Dug's here.



Download: Amor
While, we're diverging slightly from typically "soulful" sounds here, I thought I'd throw in some Brazilian glam. Secos & Molhados are the kiss of Brazil, before there was a Kiss . . . ponder that. Actually, they're more like the inheritors of Os Mutantes' freak-rock crown. When the Mutants lost some steam around 1972 or so when lead singer Rita Lee went solo, the Mutants moved into a very proggy direction. They very well may have been forging new ground in Brazilian prog, but to be honest I don't care that much. Secos & Molhados, meaning "Dry & Wet" as in wet and dry goods for sale, picked up where Os Mutantes left off and in place of a female lead singer, they had Ney Matogrosso, who just sounded like a girl. S&M, no coincidence I'm sure, lasted two studio albums and one live album before Ney went solo and became a gay diva, not that he wasn't one already . . . think "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" in Portuguese. Their first two albums are superb Brazilian rock with no small share of funky moments like the "Assim Assado" which translates to "Thus Baked" according to Babel Fish . . . so I think you get my drift.

Two-Wheeled Low Riders

My friend, Paulo, sent me this article this morning and I thought it was fitting to put on the ol' Soul Spectrum blog seeing how it's kind of an extension of Josh's wheelbarrow sound systems from one of my first posts. More props to these guys for tricking out their bikes like this. And I though I was fly when I successfully mounted a cup-holder on my handlebars.

make sure to view the slide show for the New York Times article
Thanks for the heads-up Paulo.

PS - peep the redonkulous new Snoop Dogg video on Soul Spectrum Vidoes

A Slow Jam Dedicated to Israel

A man by the name of Israel has been instrumental in opening my eyes to the joys of a soulful slow jam. Israel owns a "hole-in-the-sidewalk" record store in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. His shop, if you happen to figure out his unconventional hours, is a diamond in the rough full of some common and uncommon records at reasonable prices. One thing I love about going into Israel's shop is the music that he plays on the house stereo, which is often some sweet soul dating from the 60s to the 80s. Israel loves his slow jams and digging through his dusty records in a dimly lit basement below the street, I've gained a real appreciation for some sweet harmonies sung over a sinewy syncopated beat made sweeter by some sensuous strings. Thanks Israel.


Download: Touch Me (Reaching Out For Your Love)

The songs we have here are from a 45 I found at Israel's. I first found his spot walking down Fulton Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. There has always been a Clinton Hill, but when real estate wasn't as desirable as it is now, this same neighborhood was easily mistaken for Bed-Stuy. In fact the Notorious B.I.G. used to live with his mom on my old block (St. James Place between Gates and Fulton) but you never heard him rhyming "Window Sill" with "Clinton Hill."

One day I was trying to find a hardware store open on a Sunday and cruised down Fulton moving further and further away from the nearest latte stand when lo and behold I saw a corrugated plastic sign written in black sharpie that read "Jazz, Soul, Disco, Reggae Records LPs and 45s." The sign was was propped up on the sidewalk just above a metal trap door leading to the basement of a building. The metal door was closed shut and the man in the Jamaican restaurant upstairs didn't know if the owner was around or if he'd open his shop that day. He suggested I come back in a couple hours. I did and no one was there. A couple weeks later I came by to find the metal doors open and a 2/3 sized knight-in-shining-armour on the sidewalk with the same sign hanging around his neck. I headed downstairs, careful not to hit my head on the low ceiling jutting out with a sign reading "watch your head." Inside I met Israel, who's been running this record shop out of the basement for years selling used records and tapes and the occasional stereo or turntable.

There is some order to the shop, but nothing is labeled and you'll still find piles of records that defy any attempts at organization. It's in these piles where I usually find the good stuff. You have to spend at least an hour here to find and listen to some records on the crappy-sounding "listening station." Nothing is priced so you have to ask Israel for prices, which usually fall in the $3, $5, $7, or $10 category unless you have access to his special pile from the back which could you run you up to $85 a record (for a mint, promo Roy Ayers "Coffy").

The 45 we have here is a $3 find if I'm not mistaken and had me initially sold on the Stevie Wonder cover tune, but its the Johnny Bristol tune on the A-side that I listen to the most. The album is not too rare (pictured to the left), but I can't say I've seen it that many times and the cover probably turned me off before I knew there was gold buried within.


Download: Creepin'

It ain’t cool to be no jive turkey this close to Thanksgiving

Download: Guitarra

So, I've been a bit AWOL lately because of the turkey-day festivities with my family in town and all. Well, all but a visiting friend have headed back to the best coast and instead of getting back to posting and other more pressing duties, I've been passing out at any moment of downtime, like last night immediately after dinner. So, here's a quick post to whet your aural pallate until I can get a full post up.

The song here is the one killer jam from a ridiculously obscure Brazilian soundtrack. The soundtrack is to a homegrown rip-off of Jaws, called "Bachalau" which means COd, but to give it a more snappy feel they called it "Bacs." Peep the description here. They did manage to release a rip-off movie in the same year that the original came out. That's not bad.

Beto Strada is a professional musician that has worked on over 40 feature length Brazilian films. This record sells for some serious cheddar, like 150 euros according to this site. I saw this record on one of my very first record digs in Brasil. I was living in the neighborhood of Pinheiros in Sao Paulo and came across a record store called "Eric Discos." Once the store attendant released there was a gringo looking for rare records in the store, Eric was called over from his house down the block. Eric, an older British gentleman has been living in Brasil for decades and has owned this shop for over 28 years. While I was down there he had just opened a used book store further down the street. Eric invited me into his home and showed me some records he had for sale. The "Bacs" record was not for sale, but part of his expansive collection of soundtracks, Eric's personal passion. Check out this podcast about 9:30 in to hear some british dudes (not sure who, but they all sound like Gilles Peterson) talking to Eric.

The track here is courtesy of Zeca over at Loronix who sent me this album after simply asking if he had it. The album has never been posted on Loronix, nor should it because aside from this track, it's pretty crappy. Thanks Zeca!

Another classic Brasilian LP up on Loronix

Dom Salvador is an important figure in Brazilian music despite his relatively small output as a band leader. At first he came to prominence as a bossa-jazz trio leader, releasing a handful of firey albums during the mid-to-late sixties. What happened next was a bit unprecendented. His self-titled album from 1969 (pictured below) was still a small band album, but the songs on this album belied a strong R&B style, but still retained some jazzy touches. The next album, which featured reworkings from Dom's previous album, would find Dom diving deep into the R&B scene not only in sound, but in style. Check the picture of Dom on the cover of "Som, Sangue e Raca." He's the one on the far right looking like a psychedlic farmer. This next album is one of the keystones of Brazilian Soul and Funk music. It's a monster. Oberdan Magalhes, later to gain fame as the leader of Banda Black Rio, is one of many young Black Brazilians playing on this landmark album. This would be the last album Dom recorded under his own name in Brazil. He recorded one solo album for Muse in the US in 1976 and has guested on many others and only recently started recording again under his own name. You can find his newest recordings and his website here.

Go check it out at Loronix, drop a note to thank the unstoppable Zeca who runs the site and if you're in New York you can even stop by and catch Dom Salvador playing piano at either the Water Club or at the River Cafe in Brooklyn. I went by the Water Club for a drink in the past year and sure enough, Dom is there playing standards and originals for the people at the bar and the tables near by. He's a really nice guy and was a bit shocked for me to be talking to him about his old Brazilian albums.

Visit Loronix here to download Dom Salvador's classic "Som, Sangue e Raca"

I Can't Wait . . . For My Family To Get Here

Play this, then read on . . .
I Can't Wait - Nu Shooz

Download: I Can't Wait

I'm from Portland, Oregon. Born and raised and darn proud of it. I've been thinking in the past couple years, when the idea of "settling down" rears its head that I'm glad I'm from a place that I have no problems returning to. No offense to every other city, town or rural landscape, but Portland is pretty darn ideal and an even mix of small town, greet a stranger on the street charm and big city cultural creativity. Some have even said its where hipsters go to retire. I'm not gonna even get into whether or not I'm a hipster and the implications for my impending "retirement," but basically, it's all true.

My mom and two (of three) brothers will be coming to visit me in NYC for Thanksgiving next week, so I'd like to take this time to share a little bit of Portland's musical heritage. Who is from Portland you ask? Well, aside from any number of recent indie -rock transplants whom I'm woefully ignorant of (excepting Stephen Malkmus, but back when he was in Pavement), Portland is the home to two legendary one-hit-wonder bands: The Kingsmen and Nu Shooz.

Naturally, both bands are white, but both of their immortal hits "Louie, Louie" and "I Can't Wait" are clearly inspired by genres a wee-bit darker than blue. I'm now gonna make a left-field pronouncement. Are you ready? Portlanders love to dance and they are funky in their own jerky, caffeine and micro-brew addled way. I'm sure somewhere down the way there will be a "Louie, Louie" post if only to publish the x-rated lyrics that my mom remembers from back in the day as passed to her by her girlfriends' cousin or something who was in The Kingsmen.
"I Can't Wait" is a perfect song. With John Smith's James Brown-esque chicken scratch guitar licks and its ubiqitous 80s synth beat. But really it's about Valerie Day's vocals and the HUGE hook. The song had a long history that seems pretty unfathomable today when pop-songs have shelf-lives of a couple weeks before they work their way to the MP3 scrap-heap.

On a recent trip back home I found this 7" single from 1984. I first I though it was just the 45 single of the famous song, but unlike the album (a copy of which I picked up in Brazil, not that you can't find it at any thrift store) it was released on "Poolside Records" where as the 12" single and the album were released on Atlantic Records. I gave it a listen and indeed its a very different version.

I Can't Wait (Poolside version) - Nu Shooz

Download: I Can't Wait (Poolside version)

I think it was this version that featured some horns from members of another local band, The Crazy 8's. One of my school buddy's older brother was/is a member of the band it wasn't until my 10-year high school reunion that I figured this out and realized that he played on the original "I Can't Wait."

It took Nu Shooz nearly two years to go from this Poolside version to their chart-topping album. I found this timeline of the Nu Shooz story on this website:





June '79 - John Smith founds Nu Shooz in Portland, Oregon.
May '83 - Percussionist Valerie Day becomes lead vocalist.
Summer '84 - Nu Shooz records "I Can't Wait" with Fritz Richmond (Jim Kweskin Jug Band) as engineer. Smith and band manager Rick Waritz co-produce.
April '85 - "I Can't Wait" breaks on Portland's #1 Top-40 station, KKRZ FM (Z?100), and quickly becomes a regional Top 10 hit.
Fall '85 - Warner Brothers Records extends a demo deal to Nu Shooz, but passes on the band soon afterward, stating "We've already got Madonna."
Winter '85 - Dutch producer Pieder "Hithouse" Slaghuis discovers "I Can't Wait" on Hot Trax. His re-mix on Dutch label Injection Records becomes a hot-selling import in the United States and tops dance charts around the world.
January '86 - Atlantic Records signs Nu Shooz. Recording sessions begin at Atlantic Studios in New York and the Sunset Sound Factory in Los Angeles.
March '86 - The band's first album, Poolside, is completed after just 6 weeks. Fusion legend Jeff Lorber co-produces with Smith and Waritz.
Summer '86 - Nu Shooz tours 70 US cities in 73 days.
September '86 - "I Can't Wait" reaches #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
October '86 - Nu Shooz earns a Gold Album with Poolside.
November '86 - Shep Pettibone's (George Michael, Janet Jackson) re-mix of follow-up single "Point Of No Return" reaches #28 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Winter '86 - The band is nominated for a "Best New Artist" Grammy Award (Bruce Hornsby and the Range later win the award).

It might take awhile for a song to hit, but once it does it's inescapable. Next, if they song's beat is sufficiently funky and has some instrumental passages long enough to double-up and rhyme over, then you have the ideal recipe for an old-school hip-hop jam:

I Can't Wait (To Rock the Mic) - Spyder-D

Download: I Can't Wait (To Rock the Mic)

and the flipside of the 12":

Download: I Can't Wait (To Rock the Mic) Instrumental

If these four versions of the song aren't enough for you, last year Nu Shooz reunited and recorded an unplugged version of the song that you can here on their website here. The unplugged version is pretty nice, showing off Valerie's vocal chops. The remix that is also available sounds like Nu Shooz meets Portishead, meets Dr. Dre . . . see for yourself.

keepin' it real in the 503