MSFunk began as a collection of Kansas and Nebraska musicians brought together to re-form the midwest supergroup "The Smoke Ring" in 1971. They quickly left the area to headquarter in Memphis in 1972, then Chicago in 1973. It was a 5-year wild ride: stunning performances night after night throughout the South, Midwest and East Coast that people still remember to this day. MSFunk was a concert opening band that would blow away the headliners. They were a club act with record crowds. National acts came to see THEM play. They were like no other band on the road at that time
(See Blog for MSFunk member Bios)
"PLATFORM SHOES" REVIEW FROM YOGI @ MELODIC ROCK.COM:
Last Friday my M.S. Funk Platform Shoes CD arrived. I have given this CD a whole bunch of spins since. The first thing I have to say is, if you are a Styx fan this is a MUST purchase. Forget the recent past and buy this CD.
MSFunk is the closest thing to Styx I have ever heard. This CD is all over the map but it still all comes back to the Styx sound.
Let me start out with some quotes from the liner notes. The notes were written by a guy named Paul Love:
'I still recall the evening in 1972 when I first saw this band perform. I was convinced in a short time, and I remain so to this day, that I was watching and listening to the greatest band of all my experiences'.
Paul made an offer to the group to record them. The deal was that he could record them but all recordings were to remain private, and would never be distributed or copied without permission of all the band members.
These recordings lay dormant for over 30 years until now.
There is enough to produce 3 CD's Paul writes. This CD has over 70 minutes of material. Will there be 2 more CD's in the future? I dont know. He does not say.
The CD starts off with a song called Musical Charades. The start of this song and Put Me On are exact. The fourth Song MS Funk Medley has the start of Put Me On in it again plus what sounds like the drift away part DDY and JY use later in Put Me On. Its incredible.
The last song on the CD is the 9:50 song titled Bitter Suite. This is where the song Mademoiselle comes from. 'The where do you go at the end of the day, where do you go when you spend time away' plus more is exact. It almost sounds fresher than the Styx version. It never says Sweet Mademoiselle the song just moves on into a different direction. The part in DDY's Ballerina right before Dennis sings 'dance for me, I beg of you' is also in this song almost exactly how it appears on Crystal Ball, Ballerina version, right down to the Wo OOHH part.
This CD just blows me away.
There are 13 songs 3 of these songs are right at or over 10 minutes long. Only three of these songs are covers. One of the covers is Tommy singing BBKing's The Thrill Is Gone.
The CD has everything from a Crosby Stills feel to a George Benson feel, but it all comes back to Styx.
I never knew how much Tommy influenced their(Styx) sound until now. Years later Styx even went back to the MS Funk sound so to speak. There is a part in one of the songs where the guitar riff from Rockin The Paradise comes from. It sounds exact to me.
M.S. Funk has 8 or 9 players and almost all of them sing. They sound GREAT. The vocals are tremendous. While some of the music sounds dated the songs are so complex and layered its like, 'is this the same song that started 8 minutes ago?'. The vocalists take turns in the same song. Its awesome.
Finally, the only reason I could see this band not making it BIG was their geography. ALABAMA was not the right place for this band. I honestly wonder at the time if Tommy thought he was making a mistake switching bands. After hearing M.S. Funk you are left to wonder why they didn't make it HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! ("Platform Shoes" review from MelodicRock.com).
FROM BRIAN AT 'HEEPSTER':
I listen to "Platform Shoes" very often. So many times,
when fans finally get to hear material that has attained a "mythical" status,
the reality is often disappointing. Not so with MSFunk. Pardon the cliche, but
you guys kicked major butt. One of the strongest "archive" releases EVER. The
record industry should be ashamed of themselves for not seeing the enormous
talent in that band.
FROM "BLINDEYE" AT 'HEEPSTER':
This is a must for Styx and Heep fans, IMO, if you play tracks 1, 2, 4, 7,
10, 11, 12 and 13, you've got the album of the year or maybe of a decade!!!
FROM JAY AT 'HEEPSTER':
I'm one of those who purchased Platform Shoes and it
was my no.1 archival release of 2006. Actually, it was
one of 2006's best releases!!
FROM ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME'S MIKE S:
At least we all have this CD to look back on and realize just how great MS Funk really was. Easily the BEST unsigned band I've ever heard!
Plain MySpace Layouts by Iron Spider
Now you can own MSFunk's First CD!."Platform Shoes" is available now at cafepress
FUNK FAN'S PIC PAGE!
Hey Funk Fans.
Some of you were around when MSFunk toured the South, East Coast, and Midwest. We know there's some Funk pictures out there locked away in vaults, buried in old scrapbooks, hidden away in junk drawers or used as evidence in paternity suits and divorce proceedings.
WE WANT YOUR PICTURES!!!
Send them to us and we'll put 'em on our Funk Fan's Pic Page! We don't care how embarrassing they are.we want 'em! We just received a batch from "Bad Bev" in Atlanta and we put up some from Kathy in Birmingham. Take a look!
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The Funksters:
Danny, Keith, Robert, Lindy, Colin, Tommy, Chaz, Larry and Mike
