Nantida Kawbuasai | Jum Kun Bor Dai Ka

 

Listen to "Noi Noi Nhoi Ko"

Grab the album here.

Special thanks to monrakplengthai's Peter Doolan for singer name, track titles and a bit of info about the artist.

Nantida Kawbuasia, according to Peter, is best-known as an actor who was most active in the 1970s and 80s. Apparently, she also sang. These songs (which I'm guessing were probably first heard in films) sound like they were made in the 70s or 80s, and even have a bit of Hong Kong-y proto-Canto- / Mandopop to them. But, really? They're Thai. And pop. And they sound it. 

I love, love, love, love, love the horns. In so many more recent recordings, horns have been replaced by synths / Casios, so it's nice to hear the real thing every now and then, even if I'm not, actually, a synth / Casio hater. Here, they're simply lovely.

I picked this rather plucky gem up at the Vientiane Asian Grocery Store in Seattle's super-diverse Othello neighborhood. I should also tell you that I came away with a few dozen albums from Thailand, Laos and Cambodia--all from groceries / bodegas in Othello. Watch this space for more shares and a special Bodega Pop Live show I'll be doing soon, featuring some of the most amazing tracks from this ridiculous haul.

Oh! I also gave a talk at this year's EMP Pop Conference -- I'll have to write a bit about that, too. More soon; I gotta go get groceries and do a bit of laundry.

SONG SUNG LONG | KILLER JAMS

From 7-10 PM EDT Wednesday, April 30, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio features super-human singers, jet-fueled jams and all manner of time-insensitive, audacious audio from Cairo to Tokyo clocking in over 10 glorious minutes a track -- each plucked by your humble host off bodega shelves from NYC to SEA. 

Bookmark the page and join me Wednesday night!

Chinas vs SARs | On air now!

TONIGHT from 7-10 PM EDT, Bodega Pop Live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio will take you on a three-hour journey from the birth of Chinese pop in Shanghai to the go-go years of Hong Kong to the current post-punk indie scenes of Beijing, Taipei and Kowloon. 

Listen in and join the conversation now!

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

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).