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.
Given that he’s a man who loves his hip-hop as much as his funk and soul, it’s no surprise that Crane ends up at the place where G Love, the Beastie Boys and indeed his own band intersect. Thus T is as liable to be rapping as singing on this – much like Philly legend G Love. But if T raps a bit like G, there’s no mistaking their singing voices since T’s sandpaper vocals trump G’s strangled cat every time and, of course, fans of t
‘The Breaks will already be aware of Crane’s ear for a dope lyric – “Sex ain’t dirty unless you’re doing it right,” for example. Sprinkling the occasional programmed beat amongst either actual or sampled live drumming, the blues funk dial is frequently maxing out – check the spit and sawdust groove of Diggin’ In The Dirt or the uptempo Goin’ Down To The Bustop complete with keys and soul-backing vox.
“It’s just kinda some shit I put together,” he modestly said of the project recently with all the conviction of the dressed-to-kill woman’s, “What these old things?” Make no mistake, you would have paid good money for this, even a couple of years ago, on a solid format you can hold in your hands. But like T says, “And I’m frontin’ cartoons like Mickey Mouse/ In my two tone Cadillac/ Someday I’ll make that happen if I get some airplay/ But till then I’ll write these tracks for free/ Like a bat outta’ hell smokin’ PCP.”
If it’s been too long since your last T Bird & The Breaks fix or you weren’t down with G Love’s recent country venture Fixin’ To Die this’ll be right up your street. Frankly with free music this good – downloading is the least you can do since T Bird is most definitely good for you.
(Out now HERE)