Cardona. This is a Soundboutique exclusive courtesy of Renmin. Not only does he have the coolest name in the world, but he's truly one of the coolest cats I know. It's rare I come across someone so honest, so mellow, so cool, and with such a great sense of humor. So, I gotta give him dap. But, let's rub his thick cool cat coat of fur a little more...He's deep in the crates game and discovered this true gem of a song by Homegrown Syndrome. WOW! When he first told me about the title, I thought it sounded cheesy as hell. But, once his portable turntable got up to 45 rpm, I also got up to speed with this killer disco boogie cut. Such a aggressive disco burner, complete with tuff breakdown. Anybody that still unearths gems and digs deep until they find something new, get mad, mad respect from me.
He's been a crew member of Sweaterfunk for a few years and along side Proof has brought us two volumes of 'Night Shift', which was one of the earliest boogie mix Cd's floating around San Francisco. He's also my right hand man in busting out with our own pressings of vinyl. More to come in the future. Let's pedal backwards a little to his name, although understand this.. the name does not make the man. How cool is the name Renmin? I mean, you don't have to change your name for DJ flyers or nothin'! Sure, he gets the most amount of ad libs due to the 'Ren' and 'min' in his name...but, this guy is sooooo cool and soooooo mellow, he's usually crackin' the jokes on himself. A comedy style much like myself. But, his humbleness is in it's purest form I would say. My favorite is REN DMC, or rather the more fitting REN DJC. I noticed on his record box the other day it said 'Philip E. Knowles', as in 'Filipinos', truly a cool breeze of a brother in my eyes. So, in addition to the constant humor you have him to thank for discovering this nice little disco boogie funk track.
Sadly this was Homegrown's only offering. Even in 1981 bands got signed to majors like Arista and were dropped like hot cakes with or without a chance for a full length LP. In this case, without a full length album shot. There was an additional issue of this 45 released with the tune 'You And Me Baby' on the flip. It's rumored that this band was in fact a band called 'Home Grown Funk' that recorded with and were under the wing of Ike Turner. But, this can't be confirmed as of yet, it may have been a name for the band that Ike carried around with him for some time supplying it with whomever backed him up. There's an album called 'The Edge' by 'Ike Turner and Home Grown Funk' which appears to be the same group, but again it's not confirmed and hard to pin point. Homegrown Syndrome were Los Angeles based and Home Grown Funk were from Memphis. It gets confusing with the 'Edge' album release as it's dated 1980, yet sounds more like 1973. Even more affirming is the appearance of Tina Turner's vocals on the 'Edge' album, probably just a marketing of previously unreleased material. Maybe Ike had a hand in helping to sign 'Homegrown' to Arista for the release of this 45.
Whoever Homegrown Syndrome were, if you're out there...we want to know you. We are thankful here on this blog for your music. Again, props are due to Renmin Cardona for discovering and sharing this great tune. Truly a Jedi in the music world and a cool dude to boot. A.k.a Philip!
Homegrown Syndrome - Confrontation
