I just joined a band that my friends have been playing with for a few years called Groove Soda. I had my first show with them last night and it was awesome! It’s a pretty laid back group, no hassles, and really good money at some of the clubs.
We play a decent amount of originals, three of which can be heard on the website (with the previous drummer). We play some pretty sweet covers too, but I’m sure there are many more we could learn that would be both fun for us to play, and fun for the audience.
The covers we do (as best as I can remember) are:
Church by Galactic
Baker’s Dozen by Galactic
Ain’t it Funky Now by Grant Green
Planet of the Superkids by Greyboy Allstars
Dance Lesson #6 by Karl Denson
Stop by Monie’s by Liquid Soul
All Blues by Liquid Soul
What is Hip by Tower of Power
Cissy Strut by The Meters
Pick Up the Pieces by Average White Band
Relaxin’ at Club F****n by Koop
Baby by Koop
Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock (his version I think)
I’m sure I forgot a few. If you recognize most or a few of those, then you get the sound we’re going for. I really want to do a few MMW songs, but we’ll have to see what I can actually play of theirs. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks.
Since you’re already doing What Is Hip, you might like Don’t Change Horses (in the middle of the stream), also by T.O.P.
The Neville Brothers’ songs Yellow Moon, VooDoo and Wake Up from their CD Yellow Moon would fit right in with your list (and maybe some others from the Nevilles).
You might check out some Sly and the Family Stone, Sea Level, Steely Dan. Wet Willie and Randall Bramblett. There might be something in all that you could use.
As odd as it may sound, you could do interesting arrangements of some Marshall Tucker Band songs like A Change Is Gonna Come, Bound And Determined or I’ll Be Loving You. Also a re-arranged version of Angry Eyes by Loggins and Messina could be interesting. But then, the same could be said about almost any song, I guess.
Nice stuff there, sounds like my kind of band. A few suggestions:
“Hang Up Your Hang Ups” and “Chameleon” by the Headhunters (although the latter may be a tad overused)
“Walk Tall” as played by Cannonball Adderley
“Red Baron” by Billy Cobham
And depending on how jazzy you get you might like some Kenny Garrett (“Sing a Song of Song” always goes down well)
If your guitarist is reasonably good some John Scofield might suit you. The tune “Fat Lip” on the album “Time on My Hands” is very funky.