Chinas vs. SARS | WFMU this Wednesday

This Wednesday, April 23rd, from 7-10 PM EDT, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio presents CHINAs vs. SARs. In tandem with a talk on Rebecca Pan and the Hong Kong indie music scene that I’ll give at this year’s EMP Pop Conference, I've planned a three-hour journey from the dawn of modern Chinese pop, or shidaiqu, to contemporary punk, hip-hop, hard rock and twee from the mainland, Macao, Taiwan and Hong Kong. 

Bookmark the page and see you Wednesday night!

BODEGA POP EN ESPAÑOL LIVE NOW ON WFMU

Live now from 7-10 PM EDT, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio is spinning three solid hours of candombe rock, Afro-Cuban hip hop, a rare extended disco track by filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, new wave mambo and mucho música corriente from Argentina to Venezuela by way of your local bodega.

Listen in and join the conversation now!

¿Cómo se dice "bodega" en español?

This Wednesday, April 16, from 7-10 PM EDT, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio serves up three hours of candombe rock, Afro-Cuban hip hop, disco copla, Peruvian funk, new wave mambo, Andean garage and mucho música corriente from Argentina to Venezuela.

Bookmark the page and see you Weds night!

Girls Sazanami Beat! | Vols. 1+2

Listen to "Chou Gutsu Terrorist" by The Let's Go's

Listen to "Yeah Yeah" by The Portugal Japan

Make off with Vol. 1 here

Listen to "Hello!Hello!!" by The Helloes!


Listen to "Yes, No Blues" by Gaijin

Get your paws on Vol. 2 here

Nobody does retro like the Japanese. Which is to say: Whatever it was, whoever invented it, they'll play it like they own it. 

Sazanami, a Tokyo-based label that celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, is one of the archipelago's leading purveyors of backwards-glancing garage, go-go, pop, rock, surf and pseudo-punk, and these two high-voltage volumes focusing on contemporary girl-group grooves are must-haves for all of you retrophiles out there -- as well as anyone seeking a musical alternative to caffeine. 

Bodega Pop Live | Lucky 13

In a world where the average album is 10–12 songs, the 13th track exists somewhere between afterthought and after-party. Baker's dozenth cuts run the gamut from Sgt. Pepper's show-stopping "A Day in the Life" to Nevermind's hidden (when even available) "Endless, Nameless." 

Most, however, fall somewhere in between: Exile on Main Street's lazily ethereal "I Just Want to See His Face," say, or Fear of a Black Planet's awesomely funked-up but never-quite-top-of-mind "Revolutionary Generation" (squeezed as it is between the title track and the Flavor Flav vehicle "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man").

On Wednesday, April 9, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio devoted its 13th broadcast to songs and instrumentals from Argentina to Zimbabwe that share one thing in common: Their makers or compilers positioned them right after whatever came twelfth.

Listen to the show in the archives now

Hoàng Oanh | Saigon Siren 1960-1975

Listen to "Le Bong"


Listen to "Mua Gat Moi"


Listen to "Tinh Yeu Tra Lai Trang Sao"

Grab the Bodega Pop exclusive album here.

I've long wanted to put together a collection of the Bodega's favorite Hoàng Oanh songs, especially since the three or four full albums I've previously posted of hers were taken down early last year. But perpetual busyness coupled with chronic exhaustion has kept me from the task -- until today. Not that I suddenly find myself free and clear, alas. No, it's just that I'm facing an inevitable, looming deadline so severe, so intractable, so humiliating if I miss it, that I just can't help but procrastinate. Lucky you!

Born Huỳnh Kim Chi in 1950 in Mỹ Tho, about 45 miles southwest of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Hoàng Oanh is considered by many contemporary Vietnamese singers to be a primary influence. No doubt in part because she was at the helm of her own career decades after most would have given up, compiling, editing and distributing her classic recordings from an address in Fountain Valley, Calif. 

A couple of things about the title of this particular BP-exclusive album. First, it might be a stretch to call her a "Saigon Siren"; for, other than her proximity to the cultural capital, Oanh was always considered more country simple than urban sophisticated -- at least, according to a fellow writer of mine from Vietnam. 

Another stretch: I'm not sure about those dates: 1960-1975. I have songs on a couple of CDs that are attributed as far back as 1964, when the singer presumably was 14, but no one song from 1960 when she was 10 or 11 ... all I have to go on for that, is this:

That's from one of her self-compiled-and-distributed albums, so I'm guessing she would know the dates. (And, no, Nhạc Yêu Cầu does not mean "Songs Other People Sang First"; it means something more like "Song Requests" -- at least, to the extent we can believe Google Translate. Unless of course it does mean "Songs Other People Sang First," in which case, mystery solved.)

Did she really begin her career as a pre-teen? She wouldn't be the first female vocalist to have done so, of course; I simply find it remarkable, given how mature her voice sounds throughout all of the recordings I have. Does it matter? I suppose not. What matters -- to me, at least -- is that, of all of the musicologists, ethno- and otherwise, we have taking up space at colleges and universities across the country on any given day, not a single one of them has seen fit to trek out to southern California and interview this living legend. (To say nothing of the dozen or so other exiled Vietnamese singers living near and around Oanh's home and offices.) There's a book just waiting to happen. Maybe not a bestseller. But, presumably, a potentially awesome read.

Bülent Ersoy | Beddua (1980)

Listen to a track from this album on last week's Bodega Pop à la Turk

Grab the whole thing here

Born Bülent Erkoç in 1952 in Istanbul, Bülent Ersoy launched her career in the 1970s, releasing five albums until, just after the release of today's offering--her last recording as a male--she flew off to London for a sex-change operation. When she returned, she found herself banned by the shortsightedly oppressive government. After appealing her case unsuccessfully, she attempted suicide, failed (fortunately!), and left to live in Germany until the Turkish government repealed their earlier discriminatory laws. In the years and decades that followed, she became wildly more popular than she had been in the 1970s while living as a male.

I picked this ridiculously soulful album up at Uludag Video in Brooklyn in 2005 or 2006, but never gave a it good listen until putting together this show last week. I realized then that I'd never shared it with you and, wanting to rectify that, am here today, begging your kind forgiveness.

AWESOME TURKISH SPECIAL

Listen to the archive now

On April 2, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio went on a three-hour tasting tour from Şanlıurfa to Istanbul, sampling a century's worth of Anatolian rock, arabesque, folk, hip hop, psych, Sufi, underground and pop from one of the world's most musically advanced cultures -- most of it from the Bodega's personal collection.

If you missed the show, you can hear it now in the archives (click link above).

Bodega Pop à la Turk | April 2 on WFMU

From 7-10 PM EDT Wednesday, April 2, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio will take you on a three-hour tasting tour from Şanlıurfa to Istanbul, sampling a century's worth of Anatolian rock, arabesque, folk, hip hop, psych, Sufi, underground and pop from one of the world's most musically advanced cultures -- most of it from my own personal collection. 

Bookmark the page and join me next Wednesday night!

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES SPECIAL

On March 26, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio celebrated the label's first decade with a three-hour-long serving of sublime pop, folk and radio snippets from the 80+ game-changing titles they've put out to date. 

Listen to the show in the archives

Seattle's supremely influential label Sublime Frequencies released their first album in August 2003 and, over the course of the next 10-1/2 years, they changed the way we think about -- and listen to -- pop music from around the world.

Sublime Frequencies | Bodega Pop Live

Seattle's supremely influential label Sublime Frequencies released their first album in August 2003 and, over the course of the next 10-1/2 years, they changed the way we think about -- and listen to -- pop music from around the world. 

From 7-10 PM EDT this Wednesday, March 26, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio will celebrate the label's first decade with a three-hour-long serving of sublime pop, folk and radio snippets from the 80+ game-changing titles they've put out to date. 

Bookmark the page now and join us this Wednesday night!

ROGUE STATES | BODEGA POP LIVE

On March 19, 2014 Bodega Pop Live hosted three raw, spine-tingling hours of BURMESE PUNK, BELARUSIAN AGITRAP, CUBAN HIP HOP, IRANIAN ROCK, IRAQI POP, LIBYAN DISCO, SYRIAN SOUL and ZIMBABWEAN MBIRA.

LISTEN TO THIS ARCHIVED SHOW NOW