T-BIRD: Mr President (2017) + video

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T BIRD + GREYHOUNDS: Your Favourite/ Hold Out Your Hand (2016) Free download

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HOOKY: Rocket Science (2015)

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T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Waxin b/w No Diggity (2013) Free download + video

It’s summer, it’s hot and here’s consistently dope Texan funk crew T Bird & The Breaks to send the sexual temperature rising too. Waxin’ turns on an insistent pulsing b-line and is ostensibly (not to mention ironically, since this is a digital single) all about T Bird’s old lady’s obsession with records. But with a hook like, “I wanna go waxin daddy” it’s clear she’s after more than vinyl inches. The ‘flip’ is their dirty low n slow take on …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

FORT KNOX FIVE: 10 Years Of Fort Knox Five (2013)

Has it really been ten years of Fort Knox Five? I had to dig out my 12″ of Radio Free DC (which features on this) to see how old it was and even that’s eight years old. So, yes a decade since the spy funk breaks of The Big Score. If another record company had signed the four of them (yes, I know) back in 2003 you can imagine they might have …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: I Gets My Boogie On (Mako & The Hawk remix) (2013)

(PRESS RELEASE) Ladies and gentleman, fetch your dancing shoes – it’s the brand-new, debut official remix from dj/ production duo Mako & The Hawk who rework I Gets My Boogie On by Texan funk crew T Bird & The Breaks on a grand scale. Evoking shades of Coldcut’s version of Eric B & Rakim’s Paid In Full and Primal Scream’s Loaded, the reflective gospel-tinged soul of the original becomes an epic slice of dancefloor gospel-funk driven by a monster old school breakbeat with a …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: The Big EZ (2013)

T Bird & The Breaks‘ latest is their tribute to the Big Easy. Ahhh – the Big Easy. New Orleans. Funk city. While Detroit had Motown, Memphis had Stax and Chicago had Chess, New Orleans had…er…oh. Actually it turns out it didn’t have a big label to promote its wealth of funky talent back in the day. Not that a little thing like that stopped the Big Easy from becoming one of the most influential cities in the history of funk – The Meters, Lee Dorsey, Eddie …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

THE CALVIN OWENS SHOW: The Cat (Sammy P edit)(2012) Free download

Sammy P (a.k.a. Sam Patlove of Texan chunk-funk crew T Bird & The Breaks) gets in on the edits business by reworking The Cat by big band funk man Calvin Owens of Houston, Texas. The ‘editing’ on this one is right at the business end of the breakbeat spectrum taking the original into the sonic big country known to all and sundry as b-boy …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

BLEND MISHKIN: Break Out Riddim EP (2012)

Cast-A-Blast head honcho Blend Mishkin shows it’s not just the Latin sound that the Greeks do well, they’re also a fair hand at island style grooves too. The Break Out Riddim EP is a five tracker of quality digital reggae and showcases the vocal talents of Baba The Fyahstudent, Ras Daniel, Sani Showbiz and Leah Rosier. For full dancefloor participation, djs, be sure to drop Leah Rosier vehicle I Don’t Hide My Ganja which contains multiple crowd-pleasing references to marijuana. Not only does Leah not ‘hide’ her green it seems – …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CHART – December 2012

(NEW) 1. T Bird & The Breaks – Somebody Had A Drinking Problem Last Night Sleazy roadhouse soul stomper…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Somebody Had A Drinking Problem Last Night (2012) + video

Robert Moore once sang, “Alcohol oh alcohol, got to put you down/ Taken all my money, threw me on the ground.” Coincidentally, it’s this snippet of his classic heavy funk cut Alcohol that opens the video to T Bird & The Breaks brand new single – sleazy roadhouse soul stomper “Somebody Had A Drinking Problem Last Night” another song which conveys that ol’ love/hate relationship with the demon drink. “We got to kill it before…before it kills us”, T ...READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Just Gettin Started (K Sabroso’s Mackronomics Lesson) (2012) Free download

In the run-up to the release of next single Somebody Had A Drinking Problem Last Night, Texan chunk-funk crew T Bird & The Breaks drop a free remix of Just Gettin Started off their last EP Dancehall Freakin. Fiddling with the knobs is K Sabroso – clearly a man for whom the guitars were too loud and the drums weren’t loud enough …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

BEASLEY PRICE: Is/Are Here (2012) Free download

Beasley Price might sound a bit like a high street furniture store (“Did you see – there’s a half price sale on down at Beasley Price?”) but they’re actually former members of Texan funk crew T Bird & The Breaks and they’ve got an LP out called Is/Are Here. The sound on it is somewhere between old school NY electro from the eighties and Muscle Shoals soul from the sixties which ought to put them …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Dancehall Freakin EP (2012)

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Dancehall Freakin EP (2012)
[RATING:5]
Texan chunk funk crew T Bird & The Breaks broaden their already catholic approach to the funk with the Dancehall Freakin EP trying their hand at b-boy breaks on the one hand and squalling funk rock on the other. Normally accompanied by girl-backing vox, the ladies for whatever reason are noticeable by their absence on this. And apparently when the cat’s away at Breaks Towers it seems the mice throw down ridiculous superfast, hard-ass live drum breaks and guitar antics they know they wouldn’t be able to get away with normally. Cue …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

JOHN ALLISON: Good So Bad (2012)

JOHN ALLISON: Good So Bad (2012)
Anyone who caught the T Bird & The Breaks storming second LP Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive will know it isn’t just gravel-vocalled T Bird who sings in the band. Aside from a roster of backing singers that includes soul queen in waiting Sasha Ortiz, guitarist Johnny ‘Too Bad’ Allison also stepped up to the mic for album track Paranoia For Ya and rocked a Rare Earth/ James Gang style vocal. That’s a mega-lengthy preamble…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Everything Unto Me (2011) + Video

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Everything Unto Me (2011) + Video
Still criminally unsigned, prolific Texan funk outfit T Bird & The Breaks deliver Everything Unto Me – their first single since the release of second LP Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive and it’s new material that wasn’t even on the album. Everything Unto Me is a heavy, heavy downtempo jam that…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive (2011) – Album review

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive (2011) – Album review
RATING: 5/5
Proper funk – where you been you hussy? Mainly hiding out round at T Bird’s place seems to be the answer on the strength of Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive. This is the second full length album from Texan heavy funk and soul outfit T Bird & The Breaks and giant middle finger to all that jazzy noodling that’s been coming out of the contemporary funk scene. What we’ve been missing are dirty, blues-based soul grooves that reek of sex, combined with big-ass breaks. This delivers all of the above in a breath of stank, whiskey-soaked air. …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive + Clap Hands Song (2011) – free download

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive + Clap Hands Song (2011) – free download
By way of promoting their forthcoming second full length album Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive( due 12 July 2010) Texan heavy funk crew T Bird & The Breaks offer up not one, but two huge slabs of funk as freely downloadable promo singles. The LP title track Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive is a bumping, Ohio Players-esque kind of thang with a little more of the seventies in it than older material while The Clap Hands Song is a driving slice of heavy soul/ sixties-style rnb…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

T BIRD: T Bird Is Good For You – Album (free download) - 2011

T BIRD: ‘T Bird Is Good For You’ – Album (free download) - 2011
Amazingly, this has been out since January. For those not in the know, let me explain that T Bird a.k.a. Tim Crane is the gravel-voiced front-man of criminally underexposed Texan heavy funk and soul outfit T Bird & The Breaks whose funky soul bomb Esmerelda from the 2009 debut, Learn About It recently featured on the monkeyboxing mixtape Filthy Rhythm, Dirty Soul. The band have dropped a number of breaks-heavy funk nuggets since Learn About It’s release and now T Bird Is Good For You sees Crane stepping out on his own.
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T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Monthly singles campaign

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Monthly singles campaign
Obviously keen (in the wake of a rash of international releases) not to let the rest of the planet forget which country funky-ass soul originated in, T Bird & The Breaks return with some super-heavy Texan funk.…READ THE REST AT MONKEYBOXING.COM