Day 7 of our 2019 charity Advent Calendar, in aid of War Child.
After his passing on 25th December 2006, Christmas Day will forever be infused with a touch of James Brown. In honour of Soul Brother Number 1, Melbourne funk four-piece and cover specialists Karate Boogaloo are releasing a two-track 7″ featuring J.B.’s classic ‘Doing It To Death’ and a dark, bubbling original ‘Booger’s Season’.
Christmas 45 is released on Northside Records, who are hosting a James Brown tribute on Christmas Day featuring Karate Boogaloo live. Melbourne gang, it’s also available now to purchase in-store.
“Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings from KB. We landed on ‘Doing It To Death’ pretty naturally. It got thrown up with a heap of other stompers and in retrospect we chose this because it is emblematic of The JB’s beautifully considered simplicity, and James Brown at almost his most outrageous, evidenced in the key change halfway through. The band on the original is The JB’s maybe at their peak – big, big, massive call we know. Fred AND Maceo AND St Clair, Jimmy Nolan, Cheese Martin, Fred Thomas and Jabo Starks, goodness gracious. How we convinced ourselves we thought we could do it justice we’re not sure. It just had the right amount of material for us to flip, freak and put our own fruity flavour on. The title and the lyric, “gonna have a funky good time” would slot right into our ‘KB Manifesto’ were we to ever pen it. Hope all the Boogers out there enjoy it, and if not please be unbridled in your vitriol and hate mail. Lots of love, The KB’s.”
Our featured charity for 2019 is War Child, whose work in post-conflict zones is done a bit differently. They recognise humans need more than just food and shelter to flourish after a war, breaking the cycle that leads to repeated conflicts by giving them purpose, education and cultural enrichment.
The dance floor has long-since been a safe space for the displaced, marginalised and persecuted to find community and expression. Safe Spaces represent the core of War Child’s work, providing vital refuge for young people to play, learn and regain their childhood.
Check the below playlist for all tracks in our Calendar.
Artwork across the series by Jodie Haines.
