Cincinnati native and all-around music icon Bootsy Collins has announced the launch of Bootzilla Records, an outlet for archival music and film footage the Funkmaster has collected over the past 50 years, spanning from his early days and revolutionary work with James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic to his Bootsy's Rubber Band, solo work and many collaborative projects.
The Bootzilla platform will also be used to issue music from Collins' latest projects.
“We'll be sharing unreleased music from the past, music from the present, and music far into the future,” Collins says in a press release. “Let's just say that the Star-Gate has been opened, and the fountain of youth is pouring love, health and Bootsyful motivation across this nation. Stone-cold, funked-up history in the making!”
The first release from Bootzilla Records is coming very soon. On June 28, the Bootzilla Records Archives, Volume 1 EP will be available. Here's the tracklisting:
"Crushin' on U" (featuring Ouiwey) - Recorded in 2018
"Bootsy Play-Cation" (featuring The Rubber Band) - Recorded in 2012
"Z-Declassified" (with Buckethead, Catfish Collins, Bernie Worrell, Razor Sharp Johnson, Fred Wesley)
"When I'm Dancing" - Recorded in 2006
"Nothin' but U" (featuring Chew Fu)
A music video for "Bootsy Play-Cation" was released today with the Bootzilla announcement:
In further Bootsy-archives news, this summer, Cincinnati's Shake It Records will be releasing its reissue of long-out-of-print material from Collins' pre-Parliament-Funkadelic band, House Guests. Shake It shared selections from the compilation last October at a party for Collins' 67th birthday at its Northside storefront, where members of House Guests also performed.
My Mind Set Me Free: The House Guests Meet The Complete Strangers & Bootsy, Phelps & Gary
is scheduled for release on Aug. 23. In a press release, the House Guests are described as "the link between the Original JBs and Funkadelic," as the material was recorded in the early ’70s after Collins' (and his brother, guitarist Phelps "Catfish" Collins') stint in James Brown's band and just prior to the brothers' initial launch on George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic mothership. The House Guests later morphed into the Complete Strangers before becoming Bootsy's Rubber Band.
Along with the Collins brothers, the House Guests also featured drummer Frank “Kash” Waddy, trumpeter Clayton “Chicken” Gunnells and singer Rufus Allen.
In the press release Collins says of the House Guests days, "Couldn’t nobody tell us we weren’t doing it right, because we didn’t really care. We just loved what we were doing, we loved each other and we loved traveling. We were just having a great time. And it all showed in the music.”
My Mind Set Me Free tracklisting:
My Mind Set Me Free
What So Never to Dance
Fun in Your Thang Pt. 1
Fun in Your Thang Pt. 2
House Guest Girls
Be Right Back
Say Something Good
Together
Love and Understanding
UPDATE: Rolling Stone yesterday wrote about the wealth of Bootsy material being released this summer and shared the title track from the Shake It release.
