Today, it's an Old School Wednesday where melanin is not required. Yolanda presents us with:

Old School Wednesday: Ballads From The Other Side

01 - Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart
02 - REO Speedwagon - Can't Fight This Feeling
03 - George Michael - One More Try
04 - Bonnie Raitt - I Can't Make You Love Me
05 - Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is
06 - Taylor Dayne - Love Will Lead You Back
07 - Sinead O Connor - Nothing Compares To You
08 - Phil Collins - Against All Odds
09 - Rod Stewart - Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
10 - Berlin - Take My Breath Away
11 - Billy Vera & the Beaters - At This Moment
12 - Bryan Adams - Everything I Do I Do It For You
13 - Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
14 - Simply Red - Holding Back The Years
15 - Jennifer Rush - Power of Love
16 - Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody
17 - Rod Stewart - The Way You Look Tonight
18 - The Police - Every Breath You Take
19 - Bryan Adams - How Do You Talk To An Angel
20 - Chris Deburgh - The Lady In Red

How many of these tunes do you remember? Don't front....

This week's In Rotation: 06/26/05 just goes with the flow. Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting too mellow, but as Terecico's told me, "Man, you can never get too mellow...there is no such thing." You know what? He's right....and all the while I thought it was one too many mojitos this weekend. Or maybe it was mellowing out after checking out Flip The Script. I echo the same sentiments as Rainmayan did- it wasn't a bad flick at all, but Teck was killing me. Note to Teck: polish up that acting, dawg.

That's how my weekend went. Check the flow:

01 - Eric Benet - Where Did The Love Go? From his new album Hurricane.
02 - Lina - Run To Me.
03 - Towa Tei - Luv Connection (Album Version). Remember this cut from about 10 years ago? Sure you do.
04 - Ivana Santilli - Breathe Inn.
05 - Michael Johnson - Own Way.
06 - Donnie - Rocketship. He didn't perform this last night, but trust me when I say his performance this weekend was phenomenal. Am I right, Ms. Thing?
07 - Greyboy - Genevieve. From Midnight Soul.
08 - Jamiroquai - Talulah. I keep singing the hook on this song.
09 - N8E - Brainstorm. Again, from Galactic Soul. Told you about that, right?
10 - Esthero - Thank Heaven For You. This song hits me in all the right places.
11 - Break Reform - All In Good Time.
12 - Alison Crockett - U R (Yam Who? mix). I tried singing this to Enigma over IM. She called me insane.
13 - New Sector Movements - Download This. As I was leaving a restaurant before coming home and putting this together, the valet asked me about this cut. He thought it was very cool. I have to agree with him.

Enjoy, peeps.

There's more than a little bit going on, so let's see if I can get it all out. If you're in the ATL on Friday, I can be seen at a movie Flip The Script. Major props to Rainmayan for giving his review. If you're looking for me on Friday evening that's where I'll be. Come and join me. **RPM** also called me a couple of evenings ago and had an absolutely great time. *Slides the Lizz Wright CD just out of her reach.* After that conversation, it made me appreciate the effects of vodka & tonic (or the lack thereof). And yes, I'm still planning on checking out Donnie on Saturday (thanks, Fly Girl, for letting us know).

This OSW was created by no other than Godizus, who doesn't have a blog but always has tunes in his ear. I present to you:

Old School Wednesday: The Freaky Mix

01 - Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper
02 - Rick James - Give It To Me Baby
03 - Mary Jane Girls - In My House
04 - Prince - Erotic City (extended version)
05 - Vanity Six - Nasty Girl
06 - Janet Jackson - Nasty
07 - Bell Biv DeVoe - Poison
08 - Adina Howard - Freak Like Me
09 - Wreckx-N-Effect - Rump Shaker
10 - Jodeci - Freakin' You
11 - Whodini - Freaks Come Out at Night
12 - Raekwon - Ice Cream
13 - Rob Base - It Takes Two
14 - De La Soul - Buddy
15 - Salt N Pepa - Push It
16 - EU - Da Butt
17 - Raze - Break For Love
18 - 2 Live Crew - Doo Doo Brown
19 - Super Cat - Girlstown (remix)
20 - Red Fox - Pose Off

Erotic? Check. Freaky? Check. Memories? Umm.... I plead da fifth!
Enjoy. Chicago! See you on July 2nd and 3rd! I'm comin', Golden and Kelvin.....

This week's In Rotation: 06/19/05 was inspired by Lina's appearance in town this weekend.

Check it:

01 - EJ Intro.
02 - Raul Midon - Everybody.
03 - The Plant Life - When She Smiles (She Lights The Sky). I'll keep dropping tracks from Galactic Soul until it's exhausted I'm sure.
04 - Loose Ends - Love's Got Me.
05 - Dwele - I Think I Love You. New cut from the upcoming album Verbs & Predicates.
06 - Fernanda Abreu - Eu Quero Sol (Brazil). From Global Soul. I've been really feeling this CD, because it's great hearing hip hop and soul music from all around the globe.
07 - Zo! - Say How I Feel - Remix. Zo! took Rhiann Benson's cut with a little hip-hop laced into it and dropped a cool cut, with Dwele in it for good measure. I vibed from his Re:Definition CD. Check him out on his Musical Architect website.
08 - Nuwamba - Caught Up. From his new CD Above The Water.
09 - Platinum Pied Pipers - Fever (feat. Zeno).
10 - Algebra - Some Kinda Wonderful. Meeting her last weekend was great.
11 - Lina - I Am. From her upcoming album, The Inner Beauty Movement.
12 - Amerie - Can We Go (Feat. Carl Thomas).
13 - The Rurals - Pleading With You.
14 - Jamiroquai - Seven Days In Sunny June.
15 - Salakida - Beautiful. Available on Songs From The Soul Mecca...and Beyond. Check her out here.
16 - Plantlife - Stardancer.
17 - Positive Flow - Natural.

A couple of notes:
If you're so inclined, check out the Vibe Musicfest A/B conversation, and Kevin's assesment of it. My take? Let's hope Lauryn doesn't do this again.
My tickets are purchased for my visit to Chicago for Independence Day weekend. There's a meetup- if anyone has any info they can share, let me know. I'm down with whatever is happening that weekend.

Groove it forward.

I had a very, very exhausting weekend working with the Vibe Music Fest which was in town. That's alright though, I made it through! Stay tuned for the story. Meanwhile, let me tell you about this mix:

Old School Wednesday: The Last Rites of Spring

I was going to try and perform a strictly England mix since I got a chance to meet up with Loose Ends this weekend for the Vibe Music Fest, but I just went with the flow this round. I put the headphones on and thought about the end of spring and the beginning of summer and it came out this way...

01 - Shanice - It's For You, with verses dropped by one of the guys from...
02 - Portrait - Commitment - one of my favorite cuts, which reminded me of...
03 - Alexander O'Neal - What's Missing, because I knew a lot of people have been wanting to hear a little Alex, am I right? Then, I felt like vibing to....
04 - Vanessa Williams - Work To Do, with rap by Dres, since Will's down in Miami taking lots of photos, damn him! That in turn me think of....
05 - Heavy D - Somebody For Me (big props to Nastybastard). But then, I thought about Xquizzyt1 and Honey, and decided to drop.....
06 - Taja Sevelle - Popular...but then I couldn't go without the first cut I heard from Loose Ends this past weekend during their performance....
07 - Loose Ends - Stay a Little While, Child [Remix], which was a perfect segue into the mellow...
08 - Zhane - Just Like That, which made me think of **RPM**, which is why I dropped....
09 - Chuckii Booker - You Don't Know, which was an absolutely perfect prelude to....
10 - Cherrelle - Where Do I Run To? with vocals by Rick, Ran, and Dan. Cherrelle singing made me pull out....
11 - Mary J. Blige - Reminisce... but then I had to go back into the crates and pick on Yolanda and pull....
12 - Soul II Soul - Love Come Through, which reminded me of.....
13 - Club Nouveau - Situation Number 9, and then I had to tip my hat to Gwen and drop...
14 - Aleese Simmons - I Want To Be Your Lover, and then finally I had to give a shoutout to Hypothetically Speaking and to Sister Outsider and close it out with....
15 - Loose Ends - Dial 999.

I came up with this mix in about 45 minutes. Think I did alright? Groove with me.

Musically, this has definitely been the best week this year for me so far. Get ready for this week's In Rotation: 06/10/05. In my opinion, this is the best radio blog I've done in a while, because the music these days has really been on-point. This is tight, people. It also helped that Todd Kelley's birthday was two days ago, so we had to poke him a little.

I have have 2 cuts from Dynamite, and 2 cuts from Galactic Soul, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Check it:

00 - The KB Drop..
01 - Intro - TK's-Birthday.
02 - Jamiroquai - Time Won't Wait. The album itself, in my opinion, is the best one he's delivered in 10 years. A strong track with a great vocal arrangement.
03 - D Nell - 20/20 (Main Mix). "This Thing" was one of my favorite tracks from last year. Producer Dan Jones and Vocalist Ellie Hajee have delivered one of my favorite tracks so far this year, which is making me wonder when, if at all, their album will drop.
04 - D'Influence ft Posnudos - Shake It. [Explicit] The track from the CD without Posnudos was great...this has an awesome spin on it.
05 - The Foreign Exchange - Nic's Groove (Electric Bounce Rock Skate Mix). [Explicit] When I first listened to this mix, I thought, 'why touch perfection?' but in my opinion, they did a great job.
06 - Jon B - I'm Right Here. From Stronger Everyday, a chillout cut which is a perfect segue to:
07 - Yamama'Nym - Groove. I learned about them from Honey, of course.
08 - Honey's Interlude.
09 - Jamiroquai - Starchild. I'm a sucker for great arrangements of strings, vocals, and guitars.
10 - Esthero ft Andre 3000 - Junglebook. Track from Wikked Lil' Grrrls.
11 - Rahsaan Patterson - Yeah Yeah Yeah.
12 - TK Gettin' Off (EJ).
13 - Repercussions - Turn Your Card. Still vibin' off them. Reminded me of:
14 - The Brand New Heavies - Spend Some Time. You remember this album, right?
15 - Nikka Costa - Around The World. From her new album, can'tneverdidnothin'.
16 - Kelis - So Be It. Not sure why I picked this album out and played it this week, but I was really feeling this track.
17 - Raul Midon - State Of Mind. Nikki was feeling this artist, so as soon as the album was released, I picked it up. The entire CD is wonderful.
18 - Roy Ayers - I Am Your Mind (Part 2). Also from Galactic Soul.

The explicit cuts are ones which ones are a little raw with their dialogue, so if you're blasting this at work, make sure your CEO isn't around (unless he curses too). Groove it forward.