Connie Price and the Keystones

Connie Price and the Keystones are a modern-day deep funk[1]/"new funk" group from Los Angeles. Though the name connotes a female lead, Connie Price & the Keystones is in fact a project helmed by Los Angeles-based guitarist/producer/multi-instrumentalist Dan Ubick (of Breakestra fame) and his friend trumpeter/arranger Todd M. Simon. Ubick, who played most of the instruments for the "group" in the studio, simply wanted an alias for his drum-playing self, and decided to go with the name Connie Price for the funk-throwback group. In 2004 the Keystones put out an EP, Blood's Haul, on the Stones Throw imprint Now Again, and that same year the instrumental Wildflowers was released. Another EP, Sticks & Stones, hit shelves in 2005, and three years later the band—Ubick and Simon with the usual bevy of fellow Angeleno musicians, and now on Ubiquity Records—issued Tell Me Something, which featured guest appearances from MCs like Percee P and Big Daddy Kane (for both of whom the Keystones recorded a separate 12" on Scion), Ohmega Watts, and Freestyle Fellowship's Myka Nyne, among others.

Discography

Highland Park b/w Time to Kill
2003 - 7 inch - Now Again - NA7008-A
Wildflowers
2004 LP/CD - Now Again
Debut album
Features appearances by Malcolm Catto, and members of: Funk Inc, Poets Of Rhythm, and The L.A. Carnival.
Titles include "Sticks & Stones", "Sucker Punch", "The Buzzard", "Double Dutch", "Wild Flowers", "Tall Dry Grass", "Fuzz & Them", and "The Shadows Of Leaves".
Sticks & Stones EP
After Wildflowers, Now Again released the Keystones’ Sticks & Stones EP, a collection of live performances, a b-side, and a dub remix of the first cut from the LP.

References

  1. ^ Deep Funk is a reference to the term "Deep Soul" coined by Dave Godin.