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In: BANDS, FESTIVALS, GroundUP Music Festival, Snarky Puppy

GroundUP Music Festival 2026 just announced its exceptionally strong lineup. This year will be the 10th annual, and the organizers Michael League and Paul Lehr pulled out all the stops, bringing in Flying Lotus, Patrice Rushen, Rickie Lee Jones, Bilal, and Isaiah Sharkey, among others. Let’s start with the connection to the recently departed and heavily revered D’Angelo. In a recent YouTube interview, Michael League stated, “I don’t know that you can play music in 2025 without being influenced by D’Angelo even if you never heard D’Angelo. Whenever you go somewhere and you hear someone playing drums in this way,Continue Reading

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In: Aisle 5, BLOG POSTS, City Winery, GroundUP Music Festival, Lettuce, Smith's Olde Bar, Suwannee Hulaween, Terminal West, The New Mastersounds, Variety Playhouse, Whippersnap Music and Arts Festival

This year was epic for my live music journey having seen well over 200 sets of music and recorded over 80 live performances. The first half of the year had an incredible run of live shows starting with the recording sessions for Snarky Puppy’s album with the Metropole Orkest, “Somni” in Utrecht, Netherlands. That one was recorded professionally by a dozen or so cameras and the videos are being released one by one. After that, I had an mammoth string of music starting with the GroundUP Music Festival in Miami Beach, rolling right into my first Jam Cruise and thenContinue Reading

Sticky

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In: Amp Jam, BANDS, BLOG POSTS, FESTIVALS, Lettuce

Suwannee Amp Jam has quickly made its way onto my favorite festivals list. Year 1 in 2025 had an amazing vibe and a terrfic lineup. Amp Jam has just announced a magnificent sophomore lineup and FunkCity.net will be there to soak in the good vibrations. Following in the traditions of the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP), the lineup features a heady selection of jam bands as a hat tip to the Wanee festival, and funk bands harkening back to Bear Creek. It all takes place on the glorious Amphitheater Stage so there’s plenty of time to socialize and relax.Continue Reading

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In: Album of the Week, BLOG POSTS, Snarky Puppy

Snarky Puppy released Somni on November 21, and it’s one of the best albums you’ve ever heard and will ever hear. It’s already on my deserted island list and a certain (multi) Grammy winner. I’m confident that once people hear it, they will be astounded based on its sonic impact, novel approach to melodies and rhythms, range of emotions stirred, musicality, and technical achievements. Now that the superlatives are out there, I’ll offer up the rationale for the buildup. Somni was recorded with the Metropole Orkest under the direction of Jules Buckley over the course of three days (two sessionsContinue Reading

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In: ALBUMS, FunkCity.net Presents..., Snarky Puppy

Chimera is the second (and final!?) single from Snarky Puppy’s upcoming album “Somni,” and audio was recently released on streaming platforms with the video on YouTube. The full album is scheduled to be released November 21st. Here’s my review of this breathtaking track and the accompanying video. I was in the room for all the recording sessions in Utrecht back in January 2025. You can read about that experience here – Somni: A Dreamlike Experience. Chimera is the most unique cut on an album of ‘dreams’ as the standalone ‘nightmare.’ It was/is the third track on the album and here’sContinue Reading

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In: ALBUMS, FunkCity.net Presents..., Snarky Puppy

Waves Upon Waves, the first single from Snarky Puppy’s upcoming album “Somni,” was just released on streaming platforms, and the video on YouTube. The full album is scheduled to be released November 21st. Breaking with my usual approach, I’m going to review each track as they’re released and then the full album. I’m coming from the perspective of having been in the room for all the recording sessions in Utrecht back in January 2025. You can read about that experience here – Somni: A Dreamlike Experience. I will say that watching and listening to an individual track cannot capture theContinue Reading

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In: Album of the Week, ALBUMS, BANDS, BLOG POSTS, Lettuce

Organ trios have been a mainstay of the jazz-funk-fusion stable since the 60s. In recent years, there’s been a surge in popularity of the format, as the B3 can emulate a broad range of sounds and the small format enables each of the musicians to stretch out in a big way. Deitch, Teitel Fribush (DTF) is a powerhouse within that realm, and the newly released  “Another Side of the Sound” brings fresh ideas while maintaining ligature to tradition. As described in the liner notes, the album was recorded directly to a Tascam 388 tape machine to give it that old-school feel.Continue Reading

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In: BLOG POSTS, FESTIVALS, GroundUP Music Festival, Snarky Puppy

We’re just seven weeks away from the inaugural edition of GroundUP Music Festival Alberobello (GUMF-A), which is sure to be an incredibly memorable musical and cultural event. GUMF-A follows in the mode of the well-established, perennially exciting GroundUP Music Festival Miami Beach that has taken place nine times since the inaugural 2017 edition. “Each night, it will see a set from 5-time Grammy Award-winning Snarky Puppy with special guest appearances by some of Italy’s most innovative and expressive instrumentalists,” according to the festival website. This is a recasting of the preview article to now include the daily lineups! There willContinue Reading

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In: BLOG POSTS, FESTIVALS, GroundUP Music Festival, Snarky Puppy

We’re just two months away from the inaugural edition of GroundUP Music Festival Alberobello (GUMF-A), which is sure to be an incredibly memorable musical and cultural event. GUMF-A follows in the mode of the well-established, perennially exciting GroundUP Music Festival Miami Beach that has taken place nine times since the inaugural 2017 edition. “Each night, it will see a set from 5-time Grammy Award-winning Snarky Puppy with special guest appearances by some of Italy’s most innovative and expressive instrumentalists,” according to the festival website. I’ll plan to elaborate a bit more once the daily schedule is released. https://videos.files.wordpress.com/zwmrwFK4/bass_culture_groundup_eng_feed.mp4 On topContinue Reading

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In: BLOG POSTS, FESTIVALS, Lettuce, Lotus, Resonate Suwannee, Sweetwater 420 Festival

Resonate Suwannee is coming up May 15th-17th on the hallowed festival grounds of Spirit of Suwannee Music Park.  Once again, it’s a STS9 headlining event combining jamtronica, EDM, funk, reggae and aftro-cuban vibes into one amazing lineup. It’s a great vibe with minimal, if any, music overlap on the stages so you get to see as many of the acts as you want with plenty of time to chill as well. As usual, FunkCity.net, will be there soaking it in, predominantly at the live band stages. Here’s the rundown of where I expect to be at any given moment ofContinue Reading