Meet North Philly’s newest oldest family funk band, The Thompsons and the Brewerytown Beats reissue of “I’ll Get Over It”.
For Girard Avenue’s Brewerytown Beats/Dogtown Records sophomore effort beyond its free-jazz-in-Germantown “Sounds of Liberation” debut, label owner and executive producer Max Ochester just dropped “I’ll Get Over It” from the North Philly family band, The Thompsons.
Don’t pretend you know The Thompsons. Chances are that you never heard their 1975 Mellotron-filled R&B excursion when it was originally released on manager/producers Eric Ward and Tyrone Broxton’s BCW label with a run of 300 copies. Recorded at Century Productions in Sayreville, NJ, the album became an instant rarity upon its initial release. And the Thompson family of 10 children from North 25th Street – brothers Cornelius (aka Lefty), Sylvester (aka Lightbulb) and Bill, with an “honorary Thompson” Sandy Andersen – became legendary for the synth-soul innovations and Delfonics-like harmonies even if they didn’t become honeyed, moneyed sensations.
With Brewerytown Beats’ West Girard record store mere blocks from The Thompsons’ childhood home, a relationship among the family and its original producers and manager came together quickly, with the dense and playful “I’ll Get Over It” a must for deluxe re-issuing – think gatefold packaging, colored vinyl, new liner notes and a bonus 7″ vinyl single included with the LP featuring DJ Froz remixes of “Message” (FROZ1 Edit) b/w “I’ll Always Love You.”
Any chance to hear the heated soul grooves and plush harmonies on old Thompsons songs such as the aptly-titled “We Love To Sing” and “Gotta Get Down to Ever Get Up,” is both a funky reminiscence and new-found pleasure.
The story of The Thompsons does not stop with the lush and luscious “I’ll Get Over It” re-issue. Along with a new animated video, Ochester and Philly producer Aaron Luis Levinson are ramping up to record The Thompsons anew much like they’re doing with the Sounds of Liberations’ first new music since 1973, by getting the family vocalists into the studio with South Philly’s York Street Hustle as funky backing band.
Get ready for The Thompsons revival now.
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