Bodega Pop

Cheb Hasni | Tehroub Omri

2012-03-11T11:29:00.004-04:00

I've never understood why Algerian Rai never took off as one of the hot, new "world musics du jour" here in the U.S. the way that, say, Afro-Cuban, Reggae or even Bulgarian music once did. (I'd probably never have had this conversation, if it had.) Not that I particularly care one way or the other, but it's my suspicion that, if it had taken off, we'd have seen more books in English than just Marc Schade-Poulsen's Men and Popular Music in Algeria: The Social Significance of Raï.

Born Hasni Chakroun in Oran in 1968, the year after the last French forces left the Mers El Kébir naval base, Cheb Hasni recorded more than 100 cassettes worth of songs before Islamic extremists assassinated him outside his parents' home in Oran in 1994.

Over the years I've found a couple dozen of Hasni's CDs; some day when I have a lot of extra time on my hands, I might just go ahead and post all of them up here in one fell swoop. Meanwhile, I highly recommend Tehroub Omri, as well as this one, which I posted back in 2010.

Listen to "Sarahtek"

Get it all here.

Majida El Roumi | Live Recording 1982

2012-03-10T21:30:00.005-05:00

I had it in my head to post a Faiza Ahmed CD this weekend that I've been wanting to share with y'all for a while; then, as luck would have it, I had a sudden hankering today for an almond-paste croissant & Americano at this relatively new "French" (actually Lebanese or Egyptian) cafe on Steinway Street, about 15-20 minutes on foot from my apartment. It would of course be pointless to walk all the way down to Steinway when it's this cold just for coffee and a croissant; but less pointless if one were to ad in a quick stop at the Nile Grocery more-or-less across the street from the cafe.

For me, a "quick stop" anywhere that they are selling CDs is no less than half an hour; and that's about what I spent, combing their music racks, until I'd scoped out every inch of product and my hands were sticky with grime. Some of these CDs have been there a while, including tonight's freshly plucked featured offering: Majida El Roumi's second CD, recorded when she was 26 (her first--Wadaa--had been released five years earlier, when she was merely 21).

For some weird reason, at some point last week I had a long, sort of meandering conversation with a co-worker at my day job about the origin of CDs. She was convinced that they hadn't really come into existence until the early 90s; I knew this wasn't the case, as I remember a guy at the SF State University dorms who had a CD player, and I lived in the dorms in the early 80s. It is true, though, that CDs didn't really begin to replace records and cassettes until the 90s--I personally didn't have a CD player until at least 1995 or later, and I don't think I bought any CDs until 1996. (The player was a combination CD and cassette player.)

Why am I telling you this? I mean, other than the fact that I'm obsessed with anything having to do with music burned into discs of polycarbonate plastic. Well, part of it is that tonight's CD, recorded in 1982, but published (in CD form, anyway) in 1989, is one of the physically oldest CDs that I own. Probably I have a few Bollywood CDs from a bit earlier--say, 87 or 88--but there isn't much I've got that pre-dates the 90s. That's not terribly remarkable, except for the very real possibility that we may not be seeing CDs much after this year or next ... at least a couple of friends of mine are convinced that they're on their way out, as early (according to one friend) as 2013.

Though I never intended it as such when I launched it in early 2010, this blog has kind of become a weird or random sort of record of vanishing New York. Almost when I began the blog, the bodegas I had been frequenting since moving here in 1997 began, one by one, to disappear. For instance, though I feel it in my bones that there must be other Arabic music places out there, the Nile Grocery is the only remaining place in the five boroughs that I personally know of that still sells Arabic CDs. The half dozen or so bodegas and media shops in Brooklyn I used to frequent--most in Bay Ridge--closed three or more years ago.

Will the Internet wind up being the only place in the next two or three years where you'll be able to get any of this music? Unfortunately, it's looking very much like that will indeed be the case.

Until then, I'll continue to haunt the few bodegas and mom & pop run media stores here and elsewhere I find, so long as they're still around ... and, of course, I'll share the best of my booty with you. (That sounds like a phenomenally bad line from a disco song; forgive me.)

Majida El Roumi was born to Melkite Greek Catholic parents in Kfarshima, Lebanon. She is credited as being one of the first singers to combine western and Arabic classical music. This rather wonderful live CD was her second album.

Listen to the second track from this CD.

Get it all here.

Vanishing Point

2012-03-03T09:17:00.000-05:00

A piece I wrote about the Megaupload shut-down, the death of Holy Warbles and the state of music blogs in a post-MU world, has just been published in the Brooklyn Rail, here.

Will not likely be posting anything this weekend or most of next week, but I'll be back soon enough with more thrills of a musical nature what have been burned into discs of polycarbonate plastic.

Until then, raid the archives!

P. Ramlee & Saloma | Lagu Lagu Filum Box-Office

2012-02-29T06:11:00.000-05:00

[Note: I'm reposting this because the first time I only posted the first CD.]

Listen to "Bunyi Guitar" from the second CD

Get the first CD here.

Get the second one here.

Found in the "World Music" section at Tower Records in Shibuya, Tokyo. An import from Malaysia.

Actor, singer, comedian, songwriter, screenwriter and film director P. Ramlee died early, at the age of 44, but had by then written, sung and/or played on nearly 400 songs. I know almost next to nothing about him, other than he is considered one of the icons of Malaysian cinema. I also know that his music totally, totally rocks.

Watch "Bunyi Guitar"

Shankar Jaikishan | Suraj & Gumnaam

2012-02-28T07:42:00.001-05:00

With the exception of NRIs, most Americans' first experience of Bollywood was probably seeing a good portion of the scene below--"Jaan Pehechaan Ho," from Gumnaam--in Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World:

As crazy as that scene is, it's nothing compared to this scene later in the film:

I've long suspected that scene to have been a conscious parody of the famous dream sequence in Raj Kapoor's Awaara:

... which, if so, would be especially ironic, given that Bollywood's most famous duo, Shankar Jaikishan, composed the music for both.

Get it all here.

Kojima Mayumi | Omokage

2012-02-26T20:06:00.002-05:00

Listen to the title song

Get it all here.

I originally posted this CD in June 2010, soon after having found it at a used CD place in Tokyo. I'm reposting now because I hadn't previously put the whole thing together in a single zip file (or rar, as the case is now), meaning anyone wanting it had to grab each song individually.

Obviously, such a finding is outside the purported parameters of this blog; but I posted it because I had earlier found Kojima Mayumi's Ai No Poltergeist at P-Tunes and Video, the much-alluded-to mom and pop Chinese media store on Chrystie Street in Manhattan's Chinatown pictured in the header image of this blog.

From her LastFM entry:

"Kojima Mayumi’s maturation over the years has been exciting to watch, as she evolved from the cutesy, almost childlike persona of the nascent years of her career to the confident, sultry diva we’ve seen this side of the millennium.

"That it was this cute playfulness that contributed greatly to the charm of her early material cannot be doubted, but gradually she moved away from that as her musical appetite increased in its avidity. It wasn’t just the strengthened influence of jazz, an important element of her repertoire from the very beginning, but also a newfound enthusiasm to incorporate styles as wide-ranging as rockabilly, reggae, Americana, and cha-cha to her own music.

"The girlish elements never disappeared completely of course, and traces can still be heard in albums as recent as 2003’s Ai no Poltergeist (“Koi wa Psychedelic”) or the following year’s Pablo no Koibito (“Chairo no Kobin”). But at the same time it would’ve been senseless to characterize that as her musical centerpiece."

Video from Ai No Poltergeist

Phương Dung | Hoa Nở Về Đêm

2012-02-25T10:06:00.001-05:00

For a long time, the most popular CD on this site, at least in terms of downloads, was Phương Dung's Khúc Hát ân Tình. To date, it's been downloaded 539 times, which is probably fairly low so far as downloading generally goes, but very high compared to other things on this site, which tend to average out somewhere between 50-100. (The two most popular, in case you're interested, are the soundtrack to 50s Bollywood film Aan, with 898 downloads, and a 17-CD compilation of Asakawa Maki, with a whopping 7,222.)

Clearly, a lot of visitors here connected on some level with Phương Dung, though if truth be told, many of those visitors were routed here thanks to the great Doug Schulkind's linking to it via his enormously popular Mining the Audio Motherlode.

In any event, I was thrilled last night to note, while scanning my CD shelves, that I happen to have, lo and behold, a second Phương Dung selection, most likely plucked from one of the bins at my favorite Vietnamese media shop on Argyle Street in Chicago, and that, after giving it a quick listen ... well, it turns out to be just as fabtabulous as the first one.

Phương Dung's career began in 1959 when she was just 12; the next year she recorded her first album. By the time she was 21 she had recorded more than 300 records and was, until the mid-70s, one of the most popular singers in Vietnam.

Listen to the title track

Get it all here.

Angham | Bethib Meen

2012-02-22T19:53:00.002-05:00

I found this CD many years ago, in the late 90s or early 00s, at a Syrian grocery store on 5th Avenue and 15th Street in Park Slope Brooklyn. Until I left Park Slope in late 2001 it was my favorite go-to place for Arabic pop--their selection was decent, if not exactly exhaustive, and the CDs were cheap: $5 a piece, or 5 for $20. Plus, the woman who ran the store was incredibly nice and, every time I stopped by, she'd make recommendations and quiz me on whatever she happened to be playing:

"You know who this is, right?"

"Umm, yeah ... Oum Kalsoum?"

"Very good! But, which song is it?"

She had a teenage daughter who hung out with her and, whenever I asked about this or that CD, if she didn't know the music herself, she'd ask her daughter if it was any good. I remember her daughter nodding emphatically if she liked this particular CD, Bethib Meen, by Egyptian superstar Angham.

Born into a creative family, Angham started her singing career under the wing of her father, who was a violin player and music producer. Bethib Meen, which came out in 1997, was the last CD she recorded with any help from her father. After 2001, her music became increasingly westernized.

Egyptian pop--or more specifically what I like to call, in this instance, Egyptian art pop--is some of the strangest music in the world. It has solid roots in classical Arabic music, but with tinges of western and other influence. In this CD, for instance, I swear to god, you'll hear ELO. (Yes, I mean the Electric Light Orchestra. Listen to the clip below if you don't believe me.)

Angham's voice is exquisite; there's a reason she is the most popular Egyptian female singer to have begun a career in the 80s. It had been, I admit, years since I'd listened to Bethib Meen, but when I was combing my shelves for something to post tonight after work, I pulled it down, gave it a listen, and was surprised at how terrific--and odd--it is. If you're new to Angham, or if you only know her work after 2001, I highly recommend giving this album a listen.

Listen to "Sallam Alay"

Get it here.

Selda | Türkülerimiz 6

2012-02-20T00:21:00.000-05:00

Born in 1948, Selda Bağcan--better known as, simply, Selda--is an international sensation. I found this and a couple of her other albums at Uludag Video in Brooklyn, before they ceased importing CDs to focus solely on video. Her sixth studio album, this was originally released in 1979.

From the Anatolian Psych website (all grammatical issues, etc., sic):

"Selda Bağcan or Selda, was born in Muğla, Turkey ... a well renowned Turkish folk music singer, composer and politic activist.

Her protest style and leftist, socialist political views both in lyrical and activist means brought her a great support from the public yet caused many troubles with the military and governmental authorities. Selda Bağcan's lyrics demonstrate a political struggle as well as the problems and demands of working class and the public. Her satirical lyrics make critical references to contemporary politicians from both left and right-wings yet mostly criticizes the right-wing governments and imperialism.

She both composed her own songs and covered Turkish Folk songs. Bağcan's covers involve the usage of western instruments like acoustic guitar as well as traditional ones like saz or bağlama. Her modern and universal style in covering the traditional folk songs, involving a wide variety of musical styles from progressive and psych rock to traditional folk catches the attention of many music lovers who are into different genres of music. And because of her powerful and emotional voice, she is known as (and she calls herself) bitter sound of Turkish people.

She has started her musical career when she was a student at Ankara University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Engineering Physics. The first two singles had sold around one million and following this success she somehow had to choose music as a profession. She had gave concerts in many countries including Germany, Netherlands, France, England, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and Australia. Also attended to the Golden Orpheus 1972 representing Turkey with the request of Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She mainly performed on activities mainly organized by left wing foundations and initiatives. In 1973, for the first time she toured the Western Europe.

After the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, her activities were limited by the military junta and she had been arrested and jailed three times between 1981 and 1984. She couldn't attend to The WOMAD (Word of Music and Dance) Foundation Festival 1986, which was supported by Peter Gabriel, just because her passport had been seized. But the festival committee decided to add one of her songs to the official record of the festival. This record has helped her to receive many international invitations for festivals around the world. With the hard efforts of the WOMAD Foundation, the government returned Bağcan's passport in 1987. At the same year, she attended Rotterdam Art Festival (June 13), WOMAD and Glastonbury Festival (June 19), Jubile Gardens (June 20), Eurls Court (June 25), Capital Radio Festival (June 26). After her Western Europe tour in 1988, she gave local public concerts during 1989 and 1990. These concerts were free and hundreds thousands of people were gathered.

She lives in İstanbul and runs her own business under the name Majör Müzik Yapım (Majör Music Production) ..."

Listen to "Kaç Guzulu Ceylan"

Get it all here.

Guitar Vader | 5 albums, 2 EPs

2012-02-14T08:18:00.001-05:00

If someone put a gun to my head and forced me to choose just one Japanese rock band to listen to until my retirement years, my first impulse would be: "Just kill me." For, how could I--how, indeed, could anyone--choose just one? My second impulse, tempered by the desire to continue living, would be to flip a coin: Heads = Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her; tails = Guitar Vader.

Formed in 1998 as a male-female duo, Guitar Vader was largely influenced by the Beatles and the Pixies, though they also learned and/or borrowed from every late 20th century act from Guitar Wolf to Beck. Their first album, Die Happy!, was released on cassette and never had a proper CD (or LP) release. (It is, I would argue, the single most perfect example of Japanese pop rock ever recorded.)

In 2000, they added a drummer and a couple of years later added a(n American) keyboardist. They broke up in 2007 when their drummer began to have serious health issues related to his heart; they had been working on a sixth studio album, which was abandoned. So far as I know, none of them seem to have pursued solo musical careers.

I found most of these albums on other, now-defunct sites, wiped out in the Megaupload action. They are, so far as I can tell, all out of print and impossible to find.

Included here are:

Die Happy! (1999)

Wild at Honey (2000)

From Dusk (2001)

Baby-T/GVTV/Shimanagasgi (2001)

REMIXES_GVR (2001)

Dawn (2003)

Happy East (2004)

Listen to "I Love Love Love You" from Die Happy!

Listen to "Cutting! Evil Smile" from From Dusk

Listen to "Mysterious Dirty Girl" from Dawn

Watch an interview with Guitar Vader's Ujuan Shozo and Miki Tanabe:

Get it all here.

Ketchup | In Love Again

2012-02-11T21:49:00.001-05:00

Indie folk artist Ketchup is one of a handful of acts that make up the Hong Kong twee pop scene. He's released seven albums, of which this is the fifth. It's an absolutely gorgeous record, with minimal production, focusing on Ken Tsoi's voice and acoustic guitar.

I found this gem at P Tunes & Video, the little store on Chrystie Street in Manhattan's Chinatown shown in the header image of this blog. Alas, it's the only thing I've yet been able to find by him other than his contribution to this compilation.

Listen to "Spring Time"

Get it all here.

Rita Abatzi | 1930-1948

2012-02-06T08:26:00.001-05:00

Another find from this weekend's visit to GMV, the Greek music superstore near my apartment in Astoria where I also found this fabulous CD by 60s rock band Olympians. Judging by the sound of this one, I'm guessing the whole CD was ripped from 78s. Lots of surface noise. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about her:

Rita Abatzi (Greek: Ρίτα Αμπατζή) (1914 – 17 June 1969) was a Greek rebetiko musician who began her career in the first part of the 1930s.

She was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, now İzmir, Turkey. A versatile singer of rebetiko, Smyrneika and other music, she was a popular performer on gramophone records in the 1930s. During that decade, the only female singer of rebetiko who rivalled her in popularity, and in the number of her recordings, was Roza Eskenazi.

Abatzi performed with many of the most famous musicians including Panayiotis Toundas, Vangelis Papazoglou, Kostas Skarvelis, Iakovos Montanaris, Spyros Peristeris, Dimitrios Semsis, I. Ogdontaki up to Markos Vamvakaris and Vassilis Tsitsanis. Her career ended after World War II. She did not publish any discography. She died in Egaleo (Athens), Greece.

Her sister, Sofia Karivali, was also a notable singer of rebetiko.

Listen to the second track on this CD

Get it all here.

Laxmikant-Pyarelal | Khuda Gawah

2012-02-05T22:02:00.003-05:00

"Tu Na Ja Mere Badshah"

"Tu Mujhe Kabool"

Get it all here.

[This is the first or second thing I posted to this blog, back in 2010. The link disappeared and I promised to upload it again ... and am finally getting to that now. The words below were written for that earlier posting.]

Later that year (1994, see previous post) a friend across the river in Minneapolis took me to see an Indian film, the title of which had been translated as “God Is My Witness.” This three-hour 1992 Bollywood epic following a couple of generations of Afghan tribes-people was the first Indian movie of any kind that I had ever seen.

To say that I was not really prepared for it is both an understatement and the wrong approach. More than any other film I’ve seen, “Khuda Gawah” completely changed my life forever. I loved every second of it: the supercharged game of buzkashi that opens and sets the pace and tone; the incredible songs (composed by superstar team Laxmikant Pyrarelal); and the fabulous performances by Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi:

It is no exaggeration when I say that I spent the next 10 years of my life desperately searching for a tape or CD of this soundtrack. Unfortunately, I was missing a key piece of information: Hindi Bollywood film titles are never, ever, ever translated into English, even though DVDs of almost every Hindi Bollywood film have English subtitles. As I discovered on subsequent trips to Devon Avenue in Chicago, "God Is My Witness" was not a film that anyone working in an Indian video/CD store was familiar with.

It wasn't until 2004, three years after I moved to the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, that I discovered first a DVD of the film (I instantly recognized the image on the cover) and then, shortly thereafter, a CD of the soundtrack (shown above), at a Pakistani video store on Coney Island Avenue (Pak Video, 1058 Coney Island Avenue, just below Foster).

Six years later, I'm still listening to this remarkable CD; it remains one of my all time favorite Bollywood soundtracks.

Olympians | Olympians

2012-02-05T19:14:00.002-05:00

GMV, or Greek Music & Video Inc. (25-50 31st Street, Astoria, NY 11102), is a self-described "superstore" about four or five blocks from my apartment here in lovely Astoria. GMV lives up to its self-description; as far as I can tell, they're the single largest retailer of Greek music in the New York City area. Remember Tower Records? These guys are like the Tower Records of imports from the Hellenic Republic.

Despite GMV's proximity to my home, and despite my love for all foreign music burned into optical discs of polycarbonate plastic, I admit that I don't stop in much at GMV. The reason is simple: Other than CDs from Japan, these are the most expensive imports I've ever encountered. It's one thing to pick up five CDs at $2 each from a tiny Burmese store off the 7 train ... even if only one of them is great, you've only spent ten bucks. Greek music typically retails at anywhere from $20-26 for a single CD.

This time, I was lucky. Now, we all know you can't judge a CD by it cover, but when I saw this one, I pretty much assumed it was going to be delightful. It is.

The Olympians are one of three bands mentioned in the 60s Rock section of Wikipedia's Greek Music page. From what I can gather, this collection is a compilation, including songs from 1966-1970. The CD itself was released in 1994 and seems to have more or less vanished from the face of the earth. (I wasn't going to post it if I had been able to find it anywhere online.)

Listen to the first track on this CD

Get it here.

Zeki Müren | 1955-63 Kayitlari (early radio recordings)

2012-02-04T08:14:00.001-05:00

I found this unimpeachable treasure in the late 90s or early 00s at a Turkish music store in Manhattan not far from Curry Hill (Bogaziçi Video, 35 East 21^st Street, 2^nd floor). I was taken there by the poet and translator Murat Nemet-Nejat, who may have alerted me to its existence and who may also have encouraged me to pick up this particular item. (Murat edited and translated most of what is and will be for some time THE book of 20th century Turkish poetry in English, Eda. Read a review of this essential collection here.)

Müren recorded more than 600 records, cassettes and CDs; this collection includes, according to the liner notes, "his early radio recordings removed from commercial concern, which represent Müren's admirable performance when he was in the prime of his musical career."

What follows is all from Wikipedia:

Zeki Müren (born in Bursa, Turkey on 6 December 1931, died in İzmir on 24 September 1996) was a prominent Turkish singer, composer and actor. He was famous for his compelling voice and precise articulation in his singing of both established Turkish classical music and contemporary songs.

Müren grew up in the provincial capital city of Bursa in western Turkey. From 1950 to 1953 he studied decorative arts in Istanbul at the Fine Arts Academy while launching his musical career. Müren’s first album was issued in 1951, at which time he was a regular singer on Istanbul Radio. In 1955, he produced his first Gold Record.

In his forty-five-year professional career Müren composed more than three hundred songs and made more than six hundred recordings. He was celebrated as the "Sun" of classical Turkish music and was affectionately called "Pasha". Many of Müren's records were also published in Greece, where he also enjoyed popularity, along with the U.S., Germany, Iran, and several other countries during the 1960s and 1970s.

Müren was also a gifted poet, publishing Bıldırcın Yağmuru (The Quail Rain) in 1965. Additionally, he acted in Turkish cinema, starring in eighteen films and writing many of their musical scores. Even though he did not consider himself a painter, he painted as a hobby.

Müren dressed effeminately, wearing large, ornate rings and heavy make up, especially in the later years of his life. In many ways, he had a pioneering role in rendering the Turkish society more accepting about homosexuality. He, with his distinct style, remained a highly respected artist throughout his career, and in a sense, paved the way for many later, more openly gay or transsexual Turkish artists. His visual style shows many similarities with Wladziu Valentino Liberace.

He died of a heart attack during a live performance on stage in the city of İzmir on September 24, 1996. His death caused the greatest public grief in years and thousands of Turks attended his funeral. Zeki Müren Art Museum, established in Bodrum, where Müren used to live, has been visited by more than 200,000 people between its opening on June 8, 2000 and December 2006. All his worldly possessions are donated to the Türk Eğitim Vakfı (Foundation for Turkish Education) and Mehmetçik Vakfı (Armed Forces Foundation for Disabled Veterans and Families of the Martyrs.)

Listen to a song from the same period

Get the first CD here.

Get the second CD here.

Najwa Karam | Ya Habayeb

2012-02-02T12:05:00.004-05:00

At the age of 23, Najwa Karam, born in 1966 in Zahle, Lebanon, a largely Christian city in the mountain region bordering Syria, released this, her first studio album. While popular in Lebanon, it didn't make much of a dent in the rest of the Arabic world. It would be another three years before she released her second album and another five before she would sign with Rotana and become a pan-Arab superstar.

Her career was not exactly smooth sailing. She was plagued by a series of scandals, including eloping at 4:00 a.m. one night with Yosef Harb, a Muslim music promoter living in Canada, who was several years her junior, and--much worse--being accused in Alkefah Al-Arabi of having told a television interviewer that she had named a pet dog after the prophet Mohammed.

After the article appeared, Karam filed a lawsuit, and assumed--as she didn't even own a pet--the matter would quickly be forgotten.

By early 1999, however, morally incensed busybodies were frantically faxing the story to magazines and radio stations throughout the Arabic world. According to a report in a March 1999 issue of Al-Ahram Weekly, Riyad Daoud, a former member of the Jordanian parliament, publicly called for Karam's death. She was banned from entering Jordan and Qatar. She ultimately cleared her name and is now one of the most popular singers in the Arab world.

While I love all of her albums (I've found all but her third, which was released on an obscure, probably now-defunct label), this one holds a special place in my heart, in great part, for the completely hair-raising final mawwal, "Baladeeat," a track I've forcibly played to every single person unfortunate enough to have stepped a foot or two into my apartment.

I'm dedicating this upload, which I've ripped using the Apple Lossless code, making each song a whopping 1,000 kbps or more, in memory of the poet Stacy Doris, who passed away two nights ago. She was a friend of just about every non-mainstream poet in America and one of the warmest people I've ever met. I made her at least a couple of mix-tapes over the years and I remember she was particularly fond of Karam, and especially "Baladeeat."

Listen to "Baladeeat"

Get it all here.

Watch Najwa belt out a couple of other mawwals a few years prior to releasing this album:

Crowd Lu | Seven Days

2012-01-29T23:05:00.001-05:00

When your comments field gets overrun by bitter expatriate trolls wasting away in the middle east and your stat counter reveals that visitors are coming to your blog via Google searches for “i used megaupload” + “prison,” it’s a sure sign that it’s long past time to get back to the music.

My hope this evening was to upload the entire discography of my all-time favorite Taiwanese pop star, Crowd Lu. But, considering the fact that I’ve got a day job to get to early tomorrow morning, that’s not very likely to happen. Instead, I’ve uploaded CL’s second full-length album, Seven Days; you can get his first album, from 2008, 100 Ways to Live, here.

Crowd Lu is the closest thing pop music has ever had to a superhero. After having been seriously injured as a college student when a truck ran over his legs, Lu spent his recovery time learning to play guitar and writing songs. Not just any songs. Really incredibly fabulous pop songs, at the level of Jonathan Richman or Nick Lowe.

The year before he released 100 Ways to Live and became one of Taiwan's most popular singer-songwriters, he became a YouTube sensation for this video, where he imitates Russian operatic singer Vitas:

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;That humor and exhuberance &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

That humor and exuberance can be felt on every EP and full-length album Lu has released over the last four years or so he's been active. I found this CD--indeed, everything of Crowd Lu's that I have--at P-Tunes and Video, the little shop on Chrystie Street featured in this blog's header image.

Listen to "Oh Yeah!!!"

Get it all in glorious 256kbps here.

And let me know what you think. If you like him, and like him lots, I'll likely upload the rest of my collection.

Guilty until proven innocent?

2012-01-27T00:41:00.004-05:00

It's hard to measure the full impact of the FBI shutdown of Megaupload. The site was responsible for a reported 4% of all internet traffic, with millions of registered, paying users happily up- and downloading everything from wedding pics to the complete Lady Gaga discography.

God knows how many of them were trafficking in crappy Hollywood films or dreck like the latest Chris Brown or Adele. All shit that will be footnotes some day in some knowing culture studies textbook look-back on the early part of this inglorious century, but otherwise forgotten, and thankfully so. As far as I'm concerned, people who up- or download any of that sludge should definitely be fined or sent to jail ... but not for copyright violation. They should be fined or sent to jail for disseminating the corporate roach-vomit that constitutes most of contemporary American pop culture. You don't even want to know what I think should be done to the people who create or publish that shit.

But, seriously. Should Britain have allowed Iran to extradite Salman Rushdie for his blasphemous Satanic Verses? Because that's basically what we're looking at here. One culture's laws trumping everyone else's.

That said, I'm not here to argue in Kim Dotcom's defense. I'm here to lament the loss of countless music blogs, the loss of the communities they fostered, the loss of the evidence of otherwise forgotten expressive culture(s) that they brought to the surface and shared.

Most notably, Owl Qaeda's Holy Warbles, which first had its Megaupload content stolen by the FBI action. As if that weren't enough, no doubt freaking out over the Megaupload action, Blogger simply shut his blog down, claiming multiple instances of copyright infringement. Of--we should be clear--expressive cultural artifacts that were either long out of print (and never to be reprinted) or so obscure as to be readily unavailable to anyone whose head is not a giant interactive encyclopedia.

The last thing I downloaded from HW was a rare, completely out of print album by Marie Jubran, a Syrian artist who recorded mostly during the 50s I think and who doesn't even have so much as an English-language Wikipedia page. I have a lot of Arabic music from the period and a couple of related books, and I'd never even heard of her before visiting Holy Warbles. That is the sort of thing we're talking about. Gone now. Not just the music, mind you, which is lovely. But an artifact that is now once again unavailable for, say, anyone studying the region and period.

Holy Warbles, and blogs like it, are--for all intents and purposes--libraries. That, really, is their function. Libraries that store things that not even the NYPL or Queens Borough Public Library have. (I should know; I've ransacked both for their CD and other media collections, which I--yes, you guessed it--immediately download to my computer. Will the FBI be visiting our libraries next?)

Another casualty in the FBI's completely unethical shut-down: Madrotter. Run by Henk, a self-described "Dutch guy living in Bandung since 1996," the site links to, or used to link to, some 2,000 out of print Indonesian records. Henk isn't giving up. "As long as I can find an upload service that still works Imma keep giving you people great music," he writes in a recent post. Again, not just great music, but a library. A library that was being accessed by more than 40,000 people a month.

The carnage hardly ends there. The wildly popular Mutant Sounds and Global Grooves were both significantly spavined as well. Then, there's my absolute favorite music blog of all time: The Vault: Japanese Music Junkies Unite, a semi-collaborative blog that housed more than 5,000 Japanese records and tapes, most completely out of print, was also more-or-less wiped off the map. In a very real sense, it's like the Library of Alexandria burning down x 1,000. Or 10,000. No one really knows.

And this, we must assume, is just the beginning. How long before Awesome Tapes from Africa, Moroccan Tape Stash or Monrakplengthai are wiped out as well? Again, we're not talking about shit you throw onto your iPod before heading off to the gym; this is serious cultural evidence. These are, I can't stress it enough, libraries. And thoughtless, good-for-nothing corporate asswipes who supply rat-diarrhea-producing mental aphids like the members of MGMT and Bright Eyes with, like, cocaine-spending money are, essentially, destroying them.

As Lily Tomlin once put it: "I resent losing the ozone just so we can have PAM."

NOTE: Thanks to Jessibird for alerting me to this.

Asakawa Maki | 17 albums

2012-01-18T14:15:00.001-05:00

When I was in Tokyo in mid-2010, I spent a couple of full days wandering around almost all of the 9 floors of the massive Tower Records superstore in Shibuya.

When I got off the escalator at floor 2, which houses Tower Shibuya's extensive J-Pop and J-Indies stock, I was immediately struck by a kind of mini-shrine made up of of the CDs of Asakawa Maki, most of which seemed to feature grainy black & white photographs of the singer on the cover, often smoking.

I had no idea who this mysterious enshrined singer was, but after a bit of YouTubing and Googling, I was able to figure it out. Asakawa Maki was born on January 27, 1942, in Nagoya--she'd have been 70 years old this month had she not died in 2010, just shy of her 68th birthday. She got her start singing in U.S. Army bases, but got her big break in a series of concerts organized by avant-garde poet and playwright, Shuji Terayama in 1968. (Terayama would write lyrics for a number of her early songs.)

Over the next 40 years, Maki (as she was often referred to) released some 30 records, only slowing down in the aughts. She continued to perform live up until her death. She was one of the greatest, most expressive singers of all time, not just in Japan, but in the world.

Listen to "House of the Rising Sun" live

Zip file includes the following albums:

浅川マキの世界 (The World Of Maki Asakawa, 1970)
浅川マキ II (Maki Asakawa II, 1971)
Maki Live (1972)
ブルー・スピリット・ブルース (Blue Spirit Blues, 1972)
裏窓 Maki V (Rear Window: Maki V, 1973)
Maki VI (1974)
灯ともし頃 Maki VII (By Candlelight, Maki VII, 1976)
One Maki XI (1980)
Cat Nap (1982)
幻の女たち (The Illusions Of Women, 1988)
Nothing At All To Lose (1988)
Black - Black に Good Luck (Black Brings Good Luck, 1991)
Darkness I (1995)
Darkness II (1996)
Darkness III (1997)
闇のなかに置き去りにして -Black に Good Luck (Left In The Darkness - Black Brings Good Luck, 1998)
Darkness IV (2007)

Get it here.

Malika El Marrakechia | Malika El Marrakechia

2012-01-15T11:54:00.002-05:00

When I was in Morocco a few years ago I picked up a couple of CDs by this woman, who, I guess because I kept seeing her merch everywhere, I just assumed was the hottest thing going in Marrakech at the time. This may or may not have been true, of course; what is true is that hers were my favorite CDs I found there. This one, especially.

I'm almost certain that this is an example of Moroccan chaabi, though Tim could correct me if I'm wrong. I'm also reasonably certain that you're going to love it.

Listen to the second track on this CD

Get it all here.

Altin Mikrofon | 1965, 1966 & 1967-68

2012-01-14T08:16:00.006-05:00

I posted the first volume in this series (1965) last June and have been meaning to upload the other two since then. Finally! I've gotten around to that. I found this incredible, legendary series at Uludag Video in Brooklyn. Here ... let me just cut and paste a few things from the Altin Mikrofon page of PsycheMusic.org:

"There was such a blasting of bands that one of the biggest national newspapers, Hürriyet, decided to organize a big contest that would help the young amateur bands have their names heard throughout the country. The contest organizers wanted the musicians to either compose songs in Turkish or arrange a traditional tune, in a western style with electric western instruments. The finalists performed live In many cities. Had Altin Mikrofon not been assembled, we wouldn't likely to be talking about a 60's & 70's Turkish rock scene."

Listen to "Halim" from the 1965 volume

And a bit more from the same page:

"Altin Mikrofon, or 'the Golden Microphone,' was first held in 1965 to help give a new direction to contemporary turkish music through the use of western techniques, forms and instruments. The finalists would get their contest song plus a song of their choice recorded and printed as the A and B sides of a single, which was sold on the music market with all revenue benefiting the groups."

Listen to "Eminem" from the 1966 volume

I remember reading a bit more about Altin Mikrofon somewhere, but can't seem to locate anything but the page from which those two quotes above appear. I seem to recall that this was not simply a fun contest that ultimately led to the Turkish Psychedelic movement, but rather part of a larger Turkish program to westernize (read: de-Islamicize) the culture.

Listen to "Meçhul" from the 1967-68 volume

Whatever the case, it's certainly true that Altin Mikrofon would prove highly influential on the direction of Turkish pop music to come. It boggles the mind--my mind, at any rate--that the series, which I believe is fully contained in this three-CD set, has not yet been seized upon by some enterprising western label looking to cash in on the general mania for international psyche music (especially Turkish psyche) ... but, until they do, you can grab the series for yourself via the links below.

Get 1965 here.

Get 1966 here.

Get 1967-68 here.

Kazim Al Saher | Aghsilly Bilbard

2012-01-12T07:53:00.001-05:00

Listen to the the whole thing

Get the whole CD here.

[Another of my "house-cleaning" reposts; the first time I posted this it was at 128kbps and you had to download each song individually. Here it is now in 192 & a single zip file. It's one of the most sonically rich albums I've posted to date and I can't recommend it highly enough. I think it's Al Saher's all-time greatest album.]

I found this CD many, many years ago at Princess Music on Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge. The last time I stopped by Princess Music their doors were closed. I've since called the number on the awning a number of times and always get nothing. They were the last of some half a dozen Arabic music places in the area that I used to haunt; now, it looks like they're gone with the others.

Kazim Al Saher, born in 1957 in Iraq, is perhaps the Arabic world's biggest living superstar. I have maybe a dozen of his CDs, most of which are heavily Western influenced. "Aghsilly Bilbard" is an exception.

Unlike many Arabic singers, Kazim Al Saher composes most of his own music. I don't think there is any question that the man is a genius. But more importantly, every time I listen to "Waneen," the first track (of only three) on this CD, I get terribly misty-eyed. I think it's one of the most moving pop songs--if it can actually be called a "pop" song--ever recorded.

While you're waiting for this thing to download, read this interview.

Silvio Rodriguez | Mujeres

2012-01-11T19:54:00.000-05:00

Ten years ago today the first prisoners were locked up at the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. To mark this inauspicious date, here's a CD by Cuba's most famous protest singer, Silvio Rodriguez, one of the giants of "Nueva Trova" ("New Song").

I found this gem--the third of Rodriguez's albums, originally released on vinyl in 1978--at a sort of street fair thingy in a huge parking lot near Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

I don't know what the fuck we are doing still holding hundreds of people there indefinitely without charging them of anything. I'm sorry, but ... what happened to the president I voted for who said he was going to shut it down?

Listen to the title song

Get the album here.

Rare Cambodian Tracks

2012-01-10T22:29:00.002-05:00

Listen to 6 songs from this ridiculously fabulous collection

Get it all here.

Tracklist:

1. Yeung Nam Knea Ram Leng | Touch Saly

2. Bandam phdam tov som lot | Rous Sareysothea

3. Samleng Skor Dai Ek | Sinn Sisamouth

4. Chumno Trocheak | Pen Rorn

5. Oun Noek Kheugn Te? | Im Song Serm

6. Oun Chang Prolorng Rom | Unknown

7. Chet Ning Chet | Chhun Vanna

8. Tngai Nis Chhoe Chet | Ros Serey Sothea

9. Ban Roeu Te? | Song Seum & Sothea

10. Sovann Sakor Chegn Ptim | Pen Rorn

11. komlos srey chaom | Rous Sareysothea

12. Pnek On Mean Avei? | Sinn Sisamouth

13. Own srolagn tei bong muy | Rous Sareysothea

14. Knorng Phnom Anouksary | Sinn Sisamouth

15. Pjak korn pjak chav | Rous Sareysothea

16. Prarchum Knea Phoek Ram Sabay | Samouth & Pen Rorn

17. chot maay machoreach | Rous Sareysothea

18. Kjol Tonle | Sinn Sisamouth

19. Srornos Kantaung Khiev | Im Song Serm

20. Krormom Reus Pdey | Song Seum & Pen Rorn

21. Mek khpos deyreap | Rous Sareysothea

22. Loeung Rom 2 Neak | Pen Rorn & Unknown

23. Saryka prot ku | Rous Sareysothea

24. Neakna Kmean Snae | Sinn Sisamouth

25. Superstar | Ros Serey Sothea|Ros Sereysothea

26. Boe Bong Bok Srov | Vor Sarun & Pen Rorn

27. Pros youm sro lagn | Rous Sareysothea

At least nine compilations of Cambodian rock have been released for western consumption over the last decade, making this incredibly rich pop from the 60s and 70s some of the most talked-about and listened-to around the world. But for every song now readily available on CD, there are 10-20 more that most people outside of Cambodia haven’t yet heard.

Over the last year I’ve scoured the furthest reaches of the Internet, pulling together a collection of nearly 1,000 songs, ranging from pretty darn okay to unimpeachably great. The selection I’ve put together here is an attempt to showcase the greatest of what has yet to see major distribution. Every song on this mix-CD is a personal favorite and, to the best of my knowledge, not otherwise available on any of the Cambodia Rocks, Cambodian Psych-Out, Groove Club, Dengue Fever or Sublime Frequencies compilations.

If I had a CD series of my own, this would be the first thing I’d release. Alas, I don’t. And, because I don’t, it looks like you’ve just saved yourself $16.95.

Enjoy!

Archives de la Musique Arab - Vol. 1

2012-01-09T20:35:00.002-05:00

Here's something for all of you Excavated Shellac fans: The first CD in the Ocora / Institut du Monde Arabe's Archives de la Musique Arabe series, including recordings from the middle east from ca. 1908-1920, with most of them hovering around 1910.

Listen to brief samples of the songs here.

Get the whole thing here.

I've imported this CD--which itself dates back to 1987, nearly 25 years ago, which seems like the Jurassic Period for music burned into polycarbonate plastic--at a whopping 320 kbps (my usual is 192), given how much surface noise there is from the original 78RPM-to-digital transfer.

Does that mean anything? Are you happier? Honestly, while I can tell a difference between things I've downloaded at 128 versus 192, I'm not sure I'm hearing any real diff above 192. Am I wrong? Should I be uploading at 320 as a general rule? You do know it takes forever to upload at 320, yeah? I mean, I'm happy to blog less but at higher bit-rate if that's going to make you extremely happy.

I feel like I need to do a survey or something to find out what ya'll expect/want/desire/need. How am I blogging? What could be better. Should the CD cover be bigger? Do you need track lists? Am I a terrible excuse for a music blogger for withholding track lists?

In the absence of any real context for any particular CD, are you okay with me just rambling about talking with the bodega owner who sold it to me? Should I just shut up? Would you like more description of the music? More samples? Do you like videos if they're available, or could you care less?

Seriously, I'd love to know what you think.

I found this CD, by the way, at Rashid on Court Street in Brooklyn, a legendary Arabic music shop and former music publisher that closed a year or so ago.

Thái Thanh | Thái Thanh 5

2012-01-09T07:56:00.002-05:00

Several years ago I attended a work-related conference in Montréal--sweet deal for me, right? Well, yes and no. It was, after all, a conference and I worked all day and many evenings.

One evening after the workshops and other events had ended, I decided to walk back to my hotel rather than get on the subway. I thought it would be a nice way to explore a bit of the city. As it turned out, the route from the convention center to my hotel took my right through Montréal's Chinatown, on the edge of which was situated one of the largest Vietnamese video and CD stores I've ever seen.

Naturally, though I was exhausted and starving, I wandered in. And spent what probably seemed to the shop keep like hours poring over the CDs. Before long the shop keep, a woman who seemed to be about my age, began asking me the usual questions:

"You like Vietnamese music? You speak Vietnamese?" Yes, no. We talked a bit--I explained that I was a tourist from New York, which seemed to be provide her with enough explanation as to why I'd walked into her store that she loosened up and began to make suggestions. She also told me a bit about her family, who were part of the first wave of Vietnamese immigration to this continent in 1975.

I returned to the store every evening thereafter until the end of the conference and the shop keep each night would recommend several other titles for me to try. She would provide some context for each recommendation, talking about the specific importance of this or that singer, and who they might be similar to in western culture.

If I remember correctly, she described Thái Thanh as a kind of "blues-y, jazz-y" singer along the lines of a Sarah Vaughn--a description that, actually, was fairly apt. I'm almost certain she recommended Thanh as a personal favorite. In any event, I'm really grateful for her recommendation: this is the only CD I've yet managed to find by this particular singer, and her voice is decidedly fabulous.

Listen to "Mot Mai Gia Tu Vu Khi"

Get it all here.

Fatmire Breçani | Fatmire Breçani

2012-01-08T10:02:00.000-05:00

Listen to whole CD above. Get entire CD in a single zip file here.

[This is a reposting of one of the earliest posts to this blog, before I was zipping up entire CDs in a single file. Enjoy!]

As I said in an earlier post, there are two kinds of shop keeps: Those who are thrilled to find someone besides their usual customers combing through their tapes and CDs and those who--

Every single guy who works in the Albanian bodega on Church Avenue a few blocks from my apartment is friendly, helpful and talkative--until you ask about the music on the wall behind them.

"Thees museek NOT for you."

[extreme sarcasm] "What you like? You speak Albanian, yes?" [/extreme sarcasm]

"I don't know thees music. You don't know? I don't know."

[extreme disgust] "Just tell me WHEECH one." [/extreme disgust]

"I cannot halp you."

Given the looks some of these guys would give me, you would think I was asking them which hand to use when wiping my ass with pages from the Koran. So, how, then, did I ever manage to amass my SuperPosse of Albanian pop CDs, given this gauntlet?

I'm not altogether sure. I know I faked it a couple of times:

"No--I really--[cough]--I especially like Dava [mumbles unpronounceable last name], do you have anything else by her?"

I even tried telling the truth now and then:

"I just--I LOVE music from around the WORLD ... including Albania."

I know nothing about Fatmire Breçani other than she has one of the most powerful voices I've ever heard. And I've put her song "Ani Rushe Ruxhes Kush O Ma Ka Pa" (the 4th track on the playlist above) on nearly every mix-tape CD I've ever made anyone.

I haven't, though, been back to the Albanian bodega since well before Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Maybe they've chilled out a bit since then?

Various Artists | Punk Islam

2012-01-06T00:29:00.004-05:00

Listen to "Suicide Bomb the GAP" by The Kominas

Listen to "Thaleon Vi Chimrro" by Noble Drew

Listen to "Hey Hey Hey Guantanamo Bay" by Secret Trial 5

Get it all here.

Tracks:

1. Suicide Bomb the GAP | The Kominas

2. Thaleo Vi Chumero | Noble Drew

3. Hey Hey Hey Guantanamo Bay | Secret Trial 5

4. War Crimes | Diacritical

5. Gaza- Choking on the Smoke of Dreams | Al-Thawra

6. Sharia Law In The USA | The Kominas

7. I like you | The Fatsumas

8. Teri Assi Ki Tassi | Dead Bhuttos

9. Rumi Was A Homo | The Kominas

10. Ignorance | Diacritical

11. Years Ago | Edifice Al-Thawra

12. I Want A Handjob | The Kominas

13. Dirty Looks | The Fatsumas

14. The Exile of Hope | Al-Thawra

I haven't been so excited about music coming (mostly) out of the USA in a long, long time. The bands in this 14-song compilation share at least two things: they're punk and--whether practicing or lapsed, straight or queer, sober or stoned--Muslim. They're also writing some of the funniest, most outrageous and, without question, politically savviest lyrics in English (and Urdu and Punjabi) since The Clash.

Musically, they're all over the map, drawing from 70s punk, 80s rap, ska, rock, bhangra, Bollywood, metal, noise, folk, disco, etc.--the sum total of which almost convinces me this might be the missing LP between London Calling and Sandinista!.

I put this compilation together after watching Omar Majeed's documentary, Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam, which I highly recommend. The moment the DVD ended, I started hunting around online for songs, the result of which, pared down to this blogger's personal favorites, you can now listen to yourself.

Enjoy!

Tito Rodriguez | Mama Guela

2012-01-04T07:20:00.002-05:00

Get it all here.

My first job in New York, summer of 1997, was secretary to the head of the history department at Columbia University. It was an easy gig. The pay was negligible. Our union went on strike about a month after I took the job, making my first months here a living financial hell.

But I got a lot done. A year and a half into the job, I started Readme, one of the first large-scale online magazines of poetics. (It was mostly interviews and essays; I wasn't yet convinced that the Web was such a great place to publish poetry.)

And, at some point while I was there, I remember walking along Amsterdam Avenue above 110th Street and seeing a single line of CDs over the head of a cashier in a tiny bodega with a single aisle. I went in. I saw the cover above, asked how much it was--I think $7 or $8--and bought it.

Tito Rodriguez was one of the most popular Puerto Rican bandleaders of all time. (That said, his father was Dominican, his mother Cuban, and he did most of his recording here in New York City.) I had no idea who he was at the time, but when I popped this thing into my ghetto blaster at home, I was determined to find out. Sadly, the music in this collection--recorded in NYC from 1949-51--may well be the best material he ever recorded. Certainly it is the tightest I've heard by him and, believe me, I've picked up everything else I've managed to find.

More than a decade after finding it, it remains my all-time favorite Latin music CD.

LMF (大懶堂) | Absolutely Fxxker: The Ultimate_s...Hits

2012-01-02T11:43:00.001-05:00

Listen to 10 songs from this 3-CD album

Get it all here.

Visiting my favorite Video/CD store in Brooklyn's Chinatown last year I noticed an odd-looking VCD I'd never seen before: "Dare Ya!" which was described as "A daring documentary on the Hong Kong's most controversial hip-hop band, LMF (LazyMuthaFuckaz)." I noted the "Category III" triangle in the bottom right hand corner. ("Category III" = X, or adults-only, rating.) I assumed it was going to be either really awesome, extremely embarrassingly bad, or some sort of parody, a la Daniel Wu's Heavenly Kings.

It turned out to be fairly good. (You can watch the entire documentary, with English subtitles, below.) But nowhere near as life-changingly awesome as the 3-CD "best of" compilation I discovered a week later in a Manhattan Video/CD place on the corner of Bowery & Canal.

That's the place on the left, with the white awning with orange trim

Listen to the playlist above and though you'll hear a little of their range--hip-hop mixed with soul, thrash, rock, etc. I'll be blunt: I love, love, love, love, love this band. Seriously. While you download, watch the documentary:

LMF documentary, "Dare Ya!" part 1, includes English subtitles

"Dare Ya!" part 2

"Dare Ya!" part 3

"Dare Ya!" part 4

"Dare Ya!" part 5

"Dare Ya!" part 6

Farid & Asmahan | Asmahan & Farid

2012-01-01T11:03:00.002-05:00

Listen to "Ya Habibi Ta'al Ilhaqni"

Get it all here.

[Originally posted in 2010, before I was linking to complete CDs. For the month of January, I'll be reposting a number of those early posts, this time with links to zip files of full albums. Enjoy!]

In the spring of 1997, the year I would leave St. Paul, Minn., for New York City, I went out east to visit friends in Boston, Mass. It was an eventful trip in many ways, but perhaps the most fortuitous was our stumbling upon Daff and Raff Books & Music ("A Gateway to Another Culture," was their ambitious motto), an Arabic book and CD store in the heart of Cambridge (52-B JFK Street).

It was a small, somewhat cramped store, with the CDs lining one wall. I'm almost certain that the photo above is the building, though it is obviously now a different store. (I remember trying to find Daff and Raff on a later trip to Boston, ca. 2000-2001, and it had disappeared. Google only returns relevant pages from 1997 and 98.)

I knew literally nothing about Arabic music, and picked up several CDs randomly, mostly gravitating toward covers that looked "promising." (Whatever that means.) For reasons that are obscure to me now, something about Farid & Asmahan's simple red and yellow layout (to say nothing of the extra-groovy lettering) drew my attention.

My attention was greatly rewarded. Asmahan was, of course, one of the most celebrated Arabic singers of all time, credited with bringing a "western" influence to her singing style. Born in 1918 to Druze parents in either Syria or Lebanon (I've read conflicting reports), she moved with her brother, Farid al-Atrash, to Egypt, where both went on to become wildly popular film and music stars:

She died in 1944 when a car she was in with another woman passenger crashed into the Nile. The driver escaped; Asmahan and her companion drowned. Conspiracy theories regarding her death--by British intelligence or the Gestapo, take your pick--abound.

She is one of a mere handful of artists I've posted music by on this blog who has actually had a book written in English about her life and work: Sherifa Zuhur's Asmahan's Secrets. Highly recommended.

BEST ALBUMS OF 2011 | REPOSTING

2011-12-30T19:42:00.002-05:00

[I posted this a week or two ago but am reposting it, given that there's only two days left of the year. I'm going to start off 2012 by reposting albums from the first month or two of this blog, back before I was putting everything into a single zip file, making downloading infuriating-to-impossible. So, watch out for that.]

I've provided links to get this music, all for free, and all from others' uploads. (I was surprised to find each of these online somewhere; I didn't have to upload anything.) I encourage you in every case to seek out original CDs and actually buy them, whenever possible. Also, I can't guarantee that everything will still be there in month or so--or even in a week or two ...

Marshmallow Kisses
Ciao!Baby
Released January 25, 2011

This is one of my top two CDs of the year, and possibly the album I listened to most after discovering it online a couple of months ago while sleuthing around about Hong Kong underground music. While the MKs are somewhat late to the Hong Kong twee party, their first two albums (their first being I Wonder Why My Favorite Boy Leaves Me an EP) have delivered far beyond my own expectations for the genre ... and I'm a huge fan of HK twee pioneers My Little Airport, Ketchup and the Pancakes.

I have no idea what sort of legs this terrific ray of sunshine would have outside of the Special Administrative Region, but it seems criminal that not even Pitchfork seems to know about it. Get it here.

Listen to "Jazz for Lovers; Solitude for Me"

* * *

Deerhoof
Deerhoof vs. Evil
Released January 25, 2011
I'm just as shocked as you are to see a U.S. band among my top 10, but along with Ciao!Baby, this was my most listened to CD all year. (My two top faves of the year were both released on January 25.) In another 2011 top 10 I read online, someone else described the album as "utilitarian," noting the lukewarm response it received from critics, who generally like the album but complain about it being unfocused, or even ADD. That actually makes it the perfect record for the kind of listener I am: completely bored with the simplicity of most western popular music but not terribly thrilled by most jazz or classical, either. It's what's driven me to track down every Albanian, Bangladeshi, Brazilian, Burmese, etc., etc. bodega in NYC, where I can get music I can really respond to on a visceral level. (Most western critics write about pop as if they respond to it on a purely socio-semiotic level; reading music more than than listening to it.)

Personally, I think this is the best album Deerhoof has ever made: sonically rich, forward-looking, utterly brilliant pop that sounds like it couldn't possibly have been made in this country. Get it here.

Listen to "Qui Dorm, Només Somia"

* * *

Najwa Karam
Hal Leile ... Ma Fi Noum
Released June 28, 2011
Holy crap, but I love Najwa Karam. I have--I'll admit it--zero objectivity when it comes to this woman; she could release an album sitting on the toilet reading Jewel poems translated into Arabic and I'm sure I'd buy it, listen to it and profess my undying love for it. That said, trust me when I tell you that this record totally and unimpeachably fucking rocks. Other than her voice getting consistently deeper and more powerful, little has changed since the Lebanese superstar began recording in the late 80s: nearly every record she puts out is either the dabke or the baladi equivalent of AC/DC, Rolling Stones or, closer to home, Hakim. And this one, quite honestly, is the most rockin' she's put out in a few years--it's like the Some Girls of her career.

Did I mention how hard she rocks? Or how hard this record rocks? If this wasn't such a recent purchase for me, it would probably be right up there with Deerhoof and Marshmallow Kisses in the "most-listened-to" category. I'm sure it'll earn that status soon enough. Get it here.

Listen to "Ya Baie"

* * *

Sōtaisei Riron
Correct Theory of Relativity
Released April 27, 2011
Sōtaisei Riron means "theory of relativity," so the title is kind of a play on the idea of a correct theory and the fact that most of this album is made up of remixes of the band's earlier work by Yoshihide Otomo, Spank Happy, Buffalo Daughter, Arto Lindsay, Cornelius and others. These aren't, however, remixes that sound like remixes--this album is completely unique, beautiful and totally perplexing. (Track three, for instance, is NOT a mistake; although it took me several tries before I was able to listen all the way through to the end and realize what, exactly, it is.) Perhaps appropriately, the first song, "Q/P," one of the two non-remixes on the album, opens with the words: "I. Don't know. Wha. Choowhachoo want ..."

The band has come a long way from its kind of Smiths-soundalike-with-female-lead-singer, and this album, though I bet it throws some fans off, is another great surge forward. Get it here.

Listen to "Q/P"

* * *

Pairs
Summer Sweat
Released September 30, 2011
I know next to nothing about this band, which I "discovered" via Music Has the Right to People a couple of weeks ago. From what I've been able to suss out, it's a male-female duo based in Shanghai; this is their second album; and this one was produced by Yanghai Song of Beijing punk superstars PK14. When my absolute favorite Chinese punk band, Subs, released the deeply disappointing Queen of Fucking Everything last year, followed this year by a less-than-thrilling Honeyed and Killed from the once fabulous Hedgehog, I just assumed that punk in China had shot its wad. Apparently, it's just moved south to Shanghai.

This record is stripped down, extremely raw and in some ways every bit as surprising as Wire's Pink Flag (songs range in length from the 52 second "Christmas" to the nearly five-minute long "My body is not a wonderland"). I suspect it'll convince at least a few of the more cynical of you out there that, in fact, "punk's not dead." Get it here.

Listen to "Cloud Nine"

* * *

Zee Avi
Ghostbird
Released August 23, 2011
This is the only record (other than the Deerhoof) that actually, so far as I know, has legs here in the U.S. In fact, you're more likely to know more about her than I do, as I only recently stumbled onto this record, wholly by accident, while scrolling through the music blog Chinese Music Collection. (Yes, I know she's Malaysian; thanks.) I don't know what her record was doing on that blog, but there it was, and I'm rather happy to have it, although I have no idea if I'll still be listening to it in another week or two; it's already starting to feel ickily like any number of earnest American or British neo-folkers whose work I have strenuously attempted to avoid for the last several years.

That said, I do love "Siboh Kitak Nangis" and "The Book of Morris Johnson," neither of which I can imagine getting tired of any time soon. Get it here.

Listen to "The Book of Morris Johnson"

* * *

Guitar Wolf
Spacebattleshiplove
Released, golly ... sometime in 2011
This is a self-released album, recorded in Tokyo in 2010 and intended to be sold during Guitar Wolf's 2011 Hoochie Coochie Space Men North American tour. It is so ear-shreddingly raw, so super em effin' rockin', words simply can't describe how much I love it. How is it that, while 80s Japan rockers Shonen Knife have gotten increasingly self-consciously cute, Guitar Wolf has just gotten more fucked-up and awesome? Don't get me wrong; I love both bands. But GW has no right to be this full of energy, this rockin', this far into their career. For one thing, it isn't fair to everyone else. For another, it's just confusing.

Get it here.

Listen to "Hoochie Coochie Spaceman"

* * *

Da Bang
Bone Hug

Released October 1, 2011

I'm seriously running out of steam here, so don't expect a lot of vivid description at this point. And, honestly, we're starting to get into "uneven" territory now. But the "end of year" convention demands 10 albums so, so help me god, that's what I'll deliver. I don't love everything on this record, but I love the stuff that sounds like super-jacked up 80s synth pop, especially "No-Hero-Days," which is as good as anything Big Sea Queen Shark has recorded, and "冰心" (which I'm assuming is about the famous Chinese writer of the same name).

Definitely worth a listen. Get it here.

Listen to "No-Hero-Days"

* * *

Juusho Futei Mushoku
JAKAJAAAAAN!!!!!
Released sometime in 2011
I love this band so much it hurts. That said, their follow-up to their 2010 debut isn't quite as mind-blowing, though it certainly has its moments. I really, really, really, really, really, really wish I could find the video they shot for "One Two Three"; it was insane. Alas, it appears to longer be on YouTube, perhaps owing to the fact that it wasn't, to be perfectly honest, exactly P.C. Or maybe I just lack the skills to find it again. (If you find it, for god's sake, please let me know.)

Get it here.

Listen to "One Two Three"

* * *

10cm
1.0
Released February 10, 2011
In truth? I don't love this album, but I think this band, which I'm pretty sure is a duo, from Korea, has potential. They can either go one of two ways: Slicker and less interesting, or more Jonathan Richman/Crowd Lu-like and awesome. Time, I suppose, will tell. I wouldn't have included it here except that (a) it does seem promising and (b) fairly different from most K-pop.

Get it here.

Listen to "King Star"

* * *

So, what do you think? And, more to the point, what are your own favorite albums of 2011? Post your list in the comments below, or, better yet, include a URL to your own blog, if you have one. (But, seriously, if your list includes Wilco or PJ Harvey, don't bother.)

Shadia | Best of, vols. 1 & 2

2011-12-25T09:56:00.005-05:00

Egyptian actress/singer Shadia, born Fatima Ahmad Kamal, acted and sang for more than 100 films before retiring in 1985. Though I've known of her for a long time, I've only ever managed to find a couple of later CDs, neither of which was (to my ears) particularly compelling. That is, until last week, when I found this two-volume set at the Nile Deli on Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens, about a 15-minute walk from my apartment.

The range included in these two volumes is impressive, beginning with the rather western-inflected "Khamsah Fe Setah" (listen to sample below), to more-or-less traditional sounding Arabic pop and classical. Though she has been recommended to me more than once by various bodega owners in Queens and Brooklyn, there is very little written about her in English, either online or in the two books on Egyptian cinema that I have, which seems odd, considering how long her career lasted--well into the 1980s. (She's still alive and living in Egypt and is, depending on which of the given birthdates I've found is correct, either 80 or 82 years old.)

Get both CDs in a single zip file here.

Listen to "Khamsah Fe Setah"

Daydream Cycle | Daydream Cycle

2011-12-23T11:32:00.001-05:00

A recent discovery (this morning, actually), Daydream Cycle is a sort of Portishead-y trip-hop band from the Philippines. I know little about them other than that they're due to release their third album shortly. This, their first, is out of print in CD form and the band has given the OK to download for free.

I found this one online, not in a bodega, but wanted to share it with you, as I can think of a few more-or-less regular readers of this blog who'll really like it.

Enjoy!

Listen to "High Five"

Get it all here.

Hakim | Nazra

2011-12-22T20:38:00.000-05:00

From an interview with Hakim earlier this year:

B.E.: So, you made the first album [Nazra]. You wanted to make something new with sha'bi music. What was new in the very beginning, in that first record?

Hakim: The music was very new, for sha'bi music. Instruments. All the instruments. Hamid El Shari's fingers, on the keyboard, this is new. The first time there is keyboard for sha'bi music. The first time electric bass for sha'bi music.

B.E.: ... You added those things ... And what happened after it was released?

Hakim: I don't know. The rain has come. In three days. Number one in the Middle East. Like a bird flu! Really. Really. Like bird flu. [LAUGHS]

This, Hakim's first album, changed Egyptian pop music forever. What's incredible is that, as great as Hakim has been over the years--and he's pretty obviously one of the true greats of pop music--this album (which I just played for the first time, finally having found it at the Nile Deli on Steinway Street this evening, after years of searching) still rocks as hard as it must have rocked back in 1992 when it was first released.

Listen to "El Bo'd Laa"

Get it all here.

Dava Gjergji | Jane me mua djemte e Kosoves

2011-12-20T10:59:00.000-05:00

The first Albanian CD I ever bought, found at a little Albanian bodega on Church Avenue in Brooklyn. I know very little to nothing about Gjergji, other than the fact that she is wildly popular and has a magnificent voice. Since then, I've found a few other outlets for Albanian music in other areas of NYC, including a bodega and a CD shop across the street from that on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx and a small selection of CDs at the legendary Euro Market not far from where I live in Astoria. Someday, a sociology or anthropology scholar somewhere will write a dissertation in English on Albanian folk and pop that will be published by some academic press somewhere and then, maybe, I'll have a bit more context for this music.

Get it all here.

Plastic People of the Universe | Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned

2011-12-18T22:59:00.001-05:00

R.I.P. Vaclav Havel. In memory of the great Czech dissident writer/president, here's Prague-based Plastic People of the Universe's first studio album, recorded in the early 70s and finally released in 1978 in France (they were banned in the former Czechoslovakia until the Velvet Revolution of 1989). Heavily influenced by Frank Zappa (from whose song "Plastic People" they took their name) and the Velvet Underground, the PPU put the Prague in Prog Rock. Sorry. Seriously, if you're a psych music junkie you probably already have this or, if not, are perhaps peeing your pants as you realize that--finally!--here it is; you've found it.

Get it all here.

Listen to "Podivuhodny Mandarin"

Hasna | Hasna

2011-12-18T08:59:00.000-05:00

It's nothing new for Arabic pop artists to draw from a variety of other musics from around the world. But on her first album, released in 2004, Moroccan superstar Hasna manages to slap memes and cliches from Latin, Punjabi and elsewhere into solidly pop soundscapes to create frisson and fission, rather than bland, seamless fusion.This is, in my not-terribly-humble opinion, one of the most thrilling records to come out of the Arabic pop world in the last decade. I found this gem a week or so ago at the Nile Deli on Steinway Street in Astoria, just a few steps down from the legendary Kabob Cafe.

Get it all here.

Listen to"Inta Il Habeeb"

10 Best Albums of 2011

2011-12-11T21:44:00.003-05:00

I've provided links to get this music, all for free, and all from others' uploads. (I was surprised to find each of these online somewhere; I didn't have to upload anything.) I encourage you in every case to seek out original CDs and actually buy them, whenever possible. Also, I can't guarantee that everything will still be there in month or so--or even in a week or two ...

Marshmallow Kisses
Ciao!Baby
Released January 25, 2011

Listen to "Jazz for Lovers; Solitude for Me"

* * *

Da Bang
Bone Hug

Released October 1, 2011

* * *

Jelena Karleuša | JK Revolution

2011-12-10T15:54:00.002-05:00

Get it here.

Serbian turbo folk star, fashion designer and former columnist Jelena Karleuša, or JK, is the Lady Gaga of the Balkan Peninsula--but with much better music. Hugely popular especially among the gay population, she won 2010 Gay Icon and LGBT Person of the Year Awards from the GayEcho Annual Gay Icon Awards and the Loud & Queer Annual Awards, respectively. Her music video for "Tihi Ubica" ("Silent Killer," included on this CD) was the most expensive ever made in the Balkans.

I found this completely delightful CD, having never before heard of the woman, about three hours ago in a corner of the locally famous Euro Market on 31st Street in Astoria. Twice as expensive as the smoked pork loin I also picked up, JK Revolution is proving to be more than twice as satisfying.

Listen to Karleuša's version of A.R. Rahman's "Mala"

NANCY AJRAM | 7

2011-12-07T20:59:00.003-05:00

Get it here.

This jaw-droppingly great CD was released on September 6, 2010, the day I moved into my new digs here in Astoria, and I'm almost certain I picked it up on Steinway Street that month, or possibly that October. It's without question the most forward-looking Arabic pop album of the last decade or so and manages to be so without resorting to gimmicky crap like the digi-voice thing that every other Arabic pop star seemed to rely on over the last several years. 7 received a Murex D'or Award, the Lebanese equivalent to the Grammies, for Best Album in 2011.The video for "Fi Hagat," the 7th song on 7, has been viewed more than 22 million times, which gives you some idea of her popularity in the middle east. (Watch it here.) It's my least favorite song on the CD (I much prefer the song you can listen to below), but I'm obviously in the minority on that one.

Listen to "Lessa Gayya A'ollo"

MCHotDog | Wake Up

2011-11-26T01:34:00.000-05:00

Listen to "Ma Chu"

Get it all here.

I found this absolute gem for a dollar on 86 Street in Brooklyn in a weird sort of store that had home goods and CDs. Apparently, the CDs were not selling so fabulously well, as everything was a buck a piece. Admittedly, I bought this CD solely for the joke value of "MC HotDog"; I expected nothing from it and was pleasantly blown away by the album when I finally popped the disc in to give it a listen.

I've since gotten several other CDs by MC HotDog and he has, to date, failed to disappoint.

Here's another song from the CD, an incredibly poppy-yet-foul-mouthed ode to Taiwan women:

2011-11-22T19:46:00.002-05:00

HONG KONG TWEE POP

2011-11-14T20:20:00.010-05:00

Listen to "Jazz For Lovers, Solitude For Me" by the Marshmallow Kisses

Listen to "Leo, are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes" by My Little Airport

Listen to "Men in Black" by 有耳非文

Get it all here.

A mix I recently made of especially fabulous twee pop from Hong Kong. Most of this was found at P-Tunes & Video, the store on Chrystie Street featured in the header image of this blog, though a few songs were found on CDs I picked up at other Hong Kong CD places on the Bowery and there's one or two things I found online.

It shocks me that there's no Pitchfork, Spin or Rolling Stone article out there on Hong Kong twee. The music is exceptional and hip, some if not all of it is available through western channels and, last but not least, the artists mostly sing in English. While I've found individual reviews of a CD here and there, there's just no 411 out there about the movement as a whole.

So, as you'd imagine, my own entry into it was purely random; I found this CD, which features a number of the artists you'll find in the present mix. I then spent the next two years combing Brooklyn's and Manhattan's Chinatowns, Flushing, Queens, and--yes, I'll admit it--the World Wide Web--searching for more.

Introducing ... BOLLYVAULT

2011-11-10T11:46:00.002-05:00

Okay, I've gone and done it. Given that I've got somewhere between 500-1,000 Bollywood soundtracks from the 1940s-1960s, it seems a shame not to share them all with you. So, in addition to this blog, I've started another: Bollyvault.

Enjoy!

Kohinoor & Aan soundtracks | Naushad

2011-11-08T18:12:00.012-05:00

Listen to Lata Mangeshkar sing "Aaj Mere Man Mein Sakhi" from "Aan"

Get it all here.

A friend recently told me he'd just seen Abigail Child's "Mirror World," a short experimental film that I collaborated on with Abby several years ago. You can watch it here. My contribution was limited to (a) choosing the source film (or several Bollywood films, from which, Abby chose Mehboob Kahn's epic early color film "Aan") and (b) supplying the language, which was all "found"--literally just subtitles from various other Bollywood films.

That reminded me that I hadn't posted many Bollywood soundtracks recently, so I decided to post the soundtrack to the film that serves as the basis for "Mirror World." Like most Bollywood soundtracks on CD, it comes with two soundtracks; in this case, that of a much later film, "Kohinoor." The great Naushad Ali composed the music for both. Singers include Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar and the insanely underrated Shamshad Begum.

I was interviewed about a month or two ago by a brilliant Anthropology grad student, Portia Sedon, who is writing her Master's thesis on music blogs. She interviewed a number of music bloggers, wanting to get at our motivation for blogging and our general philosophy, if any, behind what we do. I confessed at the time that, while I love doing the hodge-podge that is Bodega Pop--it's really, to me, a blog as much about New York City and the immigrants who make their home here, as it is about fabulous music--part of me would like, someday, to do a more focused blog on Bollywood soundtracks.

I have hundreds of them, mostly from the 50s-60s, the "golden age" of Hindi film. Poking around online this evening, I couldn't really find anything out there now that focuses on this incredible treasure trove. So ... I'm thinking.

I won't abandon Bodega Pop. But I'm thinking I might launch a second blog, dedicated to this music. It seems like it would serve a genuine function, providing listeners and scholars (*cough*) alike with a vault of some of the most incredible pop music ever made. [Wipes tear-of-inspiration from eye.] In order to justify it, though, I feel like I'd have to include full track listings, composer(s) names, lyricist names, singers, etc., etc.--in other words, make it data heavy, and well-organized, so people could actually use it as a reference.

What do you think? Should I do it? Would it be too much like having a second job? I'm on the fence; it might be a lot of work but I can also see how it'd be enormously gratifying. Also, I kind of already came up with a sort of cool name for it. Ergh. Ack! Gawhd. Can't ... decide ...

Sezen Aksu | Allahaismarladik

2011-11-06T19:57:00.008-05:00

Listen to the title song.

Get it all here.

I was never a big fan of Turkish superstar Sezen Aksu--not, at least, until I discovered this CD at Uludag Video in south Brooklyn. This particular CD is a reprint of her first album, Allahaismarladik ("Farewell") from 1977 along with a few bonus singles from 1976-79.

Enormously popular and influential, often referred to as the Queen of Turkish Pop, Aksu has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. Listening to this powerful early work, it's not hard to understand how that happened.

Drew Gardner & Various Artists | Flarf Orchestra

2011-11-03T20:09:00.008-04:00

Listen to K. Silem Mohammad reading "Utah!" and other pieces.

Listen to Sharon Mesmer reading "A Unicorn Boner for Humanity"

Buy a copy of this crazy-ass CD here.

Most readers of this blog probably don't know this, given that most of you are in Europe or Asia and probably don't read much American poetry, but back in late 2000 I began writing a bunch of crazy, somewhat offensive poems that I began to call "flarf." In the spring of 2001, a half-dozen friends and I launched the Flarf email list, which ultimately grew to about 30-40 participants.

You can read a short history of the movement here and an article about us that appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal here.

Over the course of a decade or so, my friends and I put on a number of performances--in New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Washington DC, and elsewhere--and at a few of these performances, flarf poet and jazz musician Drew Gardner put together impromptu Flarf Orchestras, made up of both local professional and completely amateur (or altogether non-) musicians, who provided music for some of the readings.

This CD, just released by DC flarf poet Rod Smith's Edge Books, features 10 of those live performances. For those curious about this blog author's "other life," I should warn you that I'm not one of the featured readers, though I do play a plastic blow-into-it sort of "keyboard" on one of the tracks. That said, the music is solid, often fabulous and, as is the case with the sample tracks above, offers an occasionally transcendent mix of language and music, the likes of which I'm guessing you've probably never heard.

Cheb Mami | Douni El Bladi

2011-11-02T12:51:00.003-04:00

Listen to the title track

Get it all here

This 1996 CD from early in the Prince of Rai's career completely blew my head off the first time I heard it after plucking it from the now-gone Princess Music electronics and Arabic music store on 5th Avenue in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge.

Shockingly, in 2009, the wildly popular singer was sentenced to five years in a French prison for allegedly forcing a former lover to undergo an abortion. (He was released on parole in March of this year.)

His last CD was released five years ago, in 2006; he says he plans to continue performing and recording, though I don't know whether he's begun to do so yet and/or how audiences will respond to him today.

Chicken Rice | Lucky 7

2011-11-01T19:00:00.004-04:00

Listen to "Spider Man"

Get the whole 7-track CD here.

Japan's love-affair with rockabilly is, of course legendary. Taiwan's? Not so much. This solidly rockin' record was my first indication that anyone else in Asia beyond Japan even cared about the sub-genre.

Found in P-Tunes & Video, the ultra-fabo DVD/CD store on Chrystie Street in Manhattan's Chinatown featured in the header image of this blog. This is the only CD this band ever produced, which is disappointing, considering how much it doesn't suck.

Posting this largely in anticipation of seeing the 5.6.7.8's at the Mercury Lounge later this month.

Here's a vid:

Rimitti | Hina ou Hina

2011-10-30T10:40:00.010-04:00

Listen to "Skerna And Amara"

Get the whole thing here.

I found this in one of many now-closed Arabic music places in Bayridge, Brooklyn, maybe three years ago or so. Each of those no-longer-existent places had a section of rai music, but for some reason, this was the only Rimitti I was ever able to find there.

Cheikha Rimitti is, of course, legendary. A bit about her here.

Uncreative Genius | Alt Japan

2011-10-18T19:35:00.019-04:00

Listen to a mind-blowing remix of James Brown's "Super Bad"

Listen to a fabulous breakcore track

And if those two don't convince you, this will

Get all 50 songs here.

A collection of Japanese covers, remixes, pastiche, breakcore, retro and beyond, culled after reading Simon Reynolds' Retromania.

I was a huge fan of Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up And Start Again, a terrific critical and social history of British and American 80s post-punk. So when Retromania was published, I descended on a copy like the admitted culture vulture that I am.

It's a brilliant book. I think anyone interested in pop music, or more generally, in pop culture, should read it. But I didn't agree with all of it. And I definitely wasn't sympathetic to the book's almost non-existent coverage of non-Western pop. If you've read the book yourself, you can probably guess what chapter raised most of my hackles. That's right, Chapter 5: Turning Japanese: The Empire of Retro and the Hipster International. The one chapter that even acknowledges that other cultures produce pop--in this case, Japanese Shibuya-kei artists.

I'm hardly an expert on Japanese pop music. I've been there twice for very limited visits. I do have, however, a rather fabulous collection of CDs and MP3s of Japanese alt pop that, if nothing else, proves that this music is about something more than mere "consumer affluence." Also, it isn't particularly "Japanese" to mimic others in the creation of one's "own" pop culture. This is something the entire First World is adept at/reliant upon, especially the British, and especially 60s British pop artists.

I'm not going to launch a critique of the book--which you can (and should) read for yourself. Instead, I've put together a sonic riposte that, whether or not you've read Reynold's book, I'm pretty sure you'll love.

Sabahat Akkiraz | Türkü Hayattır

2011-10-02T21:30:00.006-04:00

Listen to the first song on this CD

Get it all here.

Found at Uludag Video, 1922 Ave W, Brooklyn. Alas, they ceased selling imported CDs a couple of years ago, saying it cost more to import audio than they were able to make back. They're now (assuming they're still there) simply renting and selling pirated DVDs of Turkish movies.

A rather mind-blowing song by Akkiraz via YouTube:

Anthony Wong | badtaste ... but i smell good

2011-09-09T20:33:00.003-04:00

Listen to the first track

Get it all here.

God, I love this CD. I bought it, for a dollar, in the bin outside the DVD/CD/VCD store at the corner of Bowery and Canal, one of the few of my favorite foreign-media haunts in NYC that is still in business. I bought it, to be totally honest, because I loved the title. I had no idea who the singer was, although he did look oddly familiar ...

It turns out the singer is Anthony Wong, long one of my absolute favorite Hong Kong cinema actors. There is no equivalent for this sort of thing in U.S. culture. It's not like Harvey Keitel cut a CD and it happened not to suck. Or, as might be the case here, it sucked in ways previously unimaginable, and sucked so hard and so relentlessly, that it was actually, finally, totally great. (Did I mention how much I love this CD?) Because most Hong Kong actors, from the late Anita Mui to the insanely popular Andy Lau, have singing careers that are every bit as robust as their acting careers. It's just that most of them don't sound in any way, shape or form like this.

Many, possibly even all, of the songs are covers. Wong covers Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" (a super Xtreme crazy fucked up backwards alphabet poetry magnet gay & lesbian Islam double fupa rainbow high point), Nirvana's "All Apologies" and whatever the hell the song is that I don't know the name of in the sample song above. (Someone please let me know. I've been dying to know ... for years, now.) But these are not mere covers. These are Xtreme emu-on-sheep action covers. "Don't cry for me ... next door neighbor," the chorus exhorts in the sample song above. Where the hell did that come from? Where did any of this come from?

I love, love, love, love, love, love, love every moment of this monument to bad taste and good smell. If you get even 7% of the thrill I do listening to it, I'll have done a swell thing uploading it here.

Ménélik | Phenomenelik

2011-09-05T17:01:00.005-04:00

Play "Tranquille"

Get the whole thing here.

Found at Bastille Day on 61st Street, withdrawn from the French Institute's library. I think I payed $1. Ménélik is a French rapper who was born in Cameroon and who moved to France at the age of 9. This was his first CD, released in 1995 when he was 25 years old. I'm not sure what I'm more surprised by: That I haven't really heard or heard about much Francophone rap or that this is as good as it is. Definitely iPod-worthy!

Surinder Kaur + Prakash Kaur | Solid Gold

2011-08-22T18:30:00.006-04:00

Listen to a crazy-great track from this CD

Get the disc here.

I found this absolute gem four or five years ago in Manhattan on Lexington Ave near the corner of 28th at a particularly fabulous Indian cinema and music store that I believe closed down within the next year. The owner's son complained bitterly that the store was not doing well because they did not sell pirated material. Everyone, he said, preferred to get things on the cheap. But his father had integrity and sold only original discs.

Read more about Surinder Kaur here.

Unknown Burmese Singers

2011-08-20T19:02:00.007-04:00

Listen to track from this sublime CD

Get the whole thing here.

Found at Thiri Video in east Elmhurst. Peter Doolan of Monrakplengthai had found out about this place a while ago and contacted me to see if I'd be interested in coming along with him on his first trip there. We finally met up today and made the trek.

I'm heading out the door, but I have another CD from the same store that I'll upload this coming week sometime, and when I do, I'll tell you all about our trip to Thiri.

Until then ... enjoy this insanely fabulous CD!

Hoàng Oanh | Souvenir Ky Niem 04, Ngay Em 20 Tuoi

2011-08-16T20:55:00.003-04:00

Listen to the first track on this hair-raisingly beautiful CD

Get the whole kit & kaboodle here.

Frankly, I'm scared to upload anymore music until September 1st, when my Divshare account limit zeroes out again. When I started this blog last year I had about 5 or 6 visitors a day; now I'm getting well over 100. By pop music standards, 100 people a day ain't much, but it's enough to push me up to the next level of Divshare accountage or whatever the word is that means "Gary, we're going to need a lot more money from you if you want to keep doing this."

But, what the hay. This is something I found on Argyle Street in Chicago a few years ago, and is one of my five favorite Vietnamese CDs. Hoàng Oanh is probably the most famous female singer from Vietnam prior to 1975 when, obviously, everything changed. I've got another fabulous CD from her on this site; just click on "Vietnam" in the label cloud to the right. I think Oanh now lives in Cerrito, Calif., and still performs.

Here's a somewhat recent performance on video:

Tsin Ting | Song of Tomorrow

2011-08-14T09:42:00.003-04:00

Listen to Hong Kong go-go classic, "Firebird"

Get it all here.

Want the track listing?

I found this terrific CD, and two dozen others from the same (deservedly) legendary series, at one of my favorite Chinatown DVD/CD stores on Bowery. The shop, sadly, has since closed, though not before I happily absconded with their entire stock of these.

And, more upsetting, I don't know what's become of this series, either. Most that were previously available through yesasia are out of print, and have been for years. There is no website anywhere that I could find from the publisher. From what I can tell, this project has been abandoned.

Get more from this series at What's in my iPod? and Ambuscade from Ten Sides.

Read a bit about Tsin Ting's life and career here.

See the clip from Hong Kong Nocturne, where this song made its debut:

Various Artists | 21st Century Japan

2011-08-12T15:01:00.007-04:00

Listen to the first song from this set

Hear song number 5

Listen to the 21st song

Get all 30 songs here.

A nice shout out about Bodega Pop from WFMU's "Beware of the Blog" reminds me that, in fact, my initial plan was not to do a blog at all, but a CD label. Talking with conceptual poet and WFMU DJ Kenneth Goldsmith, who encouraged me to consider doing a blog instead, ultimately led me (and now you) here.

Kenny was right, of course; I've probably posted more music to this blog in the first year than I'd have been able to publish in CD form, even if I lived to be 100. But a boy can still dream, can't he?

Were I to seriously consider a label, I think the very first project would be to compile a couple dozen of the most thrilling contemporary tracks from Japan, focusing on indy rock and some of the more accessible experimental stuff--from noodles and Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her to Melt Banana and OOIOO.

And that is, more or less, what I've done here. Some of this was found in Japan, but most of it was discovered online, a good portion of it at Rebel Japan Music, one of my all-time favorite music blogs.

If you like what you hear, I encourage you to seek out other music by the bands that intrigue you; many of whom, again, can be found on Rebel Japan.

And don't be too harsh on my imaginary CD cover--it's the first I've ever "designed."

Various Artists | Red Rock

2011-08-08T16:21:00.008-04:00

"The egg under the red flag," "The holding in arms armed forces flower drum," and "Big production."
Get both CDs in a single zip file here.

I posted a selection from this 2-CD set several months ago. Reposting, as I've since sussed out a bit more 411 on the music and, this time, I've uploaded the whole dang thing.

Here is an updated version of what I wrote earlier about it:

After 10 years of bodega diving, very little surprises or shocks me. After picking up, last summer in Brighton Beach, a Russian CD featuring on the cover two large shirtless orthodox Jewish guys made up to look like walruses, complete with huge tusks, I pretty much figured I'd seen & heard it all.

Not so, as it turns out. I found Red Rock in one of my favorite Bowery Video stores, all way the in the back of the joint, where they keep the stuff from Korea and mainland China.

The rock versions of these communist songs are intentionally ironic; artists include Cuī Jiàn, whose "Balls under the Red Flag" I posted here.

In addition to a lot of the music on this admittedly uneven collection, I love the list of songs as translated into English on the back cover:

The long march newly on the road shakes to roll
The Chinese people's liberation army army song
Socialism is good
The internationale
The small bird
Member of a society all is a light exposed to the sun
Brother
Colorful clothes clothing
Ideal and peace
Leave oil lamp light
The Chinese people's volunteer battle song
The detachment of women even song
We walk on the main road
The egg under the red flag
Nanniwan area
Not own a thing in the world
Feel too ashamed to show the face
Is not that I am in vain unknown
The end rises lucky its tommy gun
The tunnel warfare
The holding in arms armed forces flower drum
Learn the good good example of Lei Feng
The rambles in the sky
Big production
Mans and wives are in pairs the family still
It is full of water
Greenhouse girl
Together Hong Bu
Girl is handsome
Elder sister
The ant ant
The river water of folk song in the spring of Caing be compared to
Beijing that good night
The beacon-fire Yangzhou road
The bird hovering

Check out this fabulously punked out video of Communist classic "She Hui Zhu Yi Hao" ("Socialism is good," the third track in Red Rock):

Unknown Khmer Surin Music

2011-08-02T20:20:00.005-04:00

Listen to the first track

Get the whole thing here.

Found at a Thai/Cambodian grocery store in Portland, Oregon, a few years ago. Khmer Surin is a northern Cambodian/Thai dialect, similar to Khmer, but different enough that some suggest it be considered its own language.

Fez City Clan | Fez City Clan

2011-08-02T07:41:00.004-04:00

Listen to a fabulous track from this CD.
Grab it all here.

When I began collecting music from around the world in the 1990s, I could never have imagined that one day you'd be able to walk into a music store like Kim's or Other Music and find a solid row of rock music from around the world.

The same cannot yet be said for rap and hip-hop. There is so much out there, all over the world, that it seems likely that at some point some intrepid soul or souls will launch a label or two and begin a similar process for the genre.

There seem to be two kinds of non-American rap: That which attempts to sound in every way as close to contemporary American rap as possible; and that which creates a kind of fission (as opposed to fusion) between the source and host musics, the result of which is often exciting and genuinely new. Obviously, I'm far more interested in the latter.

Happily, that's what we have in the CD above, which I found in a music stall in Marrakeh's Jamaa el Fna.

Some day--perhaps some day soon--I'll put together a zip file of samples of rap and hip-hop from around the world that I've discovered over the last decade. Until then, enjoy the present disc!

Cuī Jiàn | Balls under the Red Flag

2011-07-28T01:02:00.004-04:00

Listen to "Flying"

Listen to "Balls under the Red Flag"

Get it all here.

Found for a dollar in a Chinese-language bookstore in Flushing.

Ground-breaking Beijing art/punk rocker Cuī Jiàn has been recording since the mid-1980s. Considered the father of Chinese rock (he was the first mainlander to adapt Western-style pop), he actually started out with the Beijing Philharmonic Orchestra when he was 14 years old. His song "Nothing to My Name" became an anthem during the Tiananmen Square protests, despite his own protest that it was merely a love song--nothing more, nothing less.

His music is at times funky, experimental, slightly off-kilter--sort of like James Chance & The Contortions x Sonic Youth, though I don't think I've heard anything quite like at least some of the tracks on this CD. As the title would suggest (and yes, it means *those* balls), he often mocked China's communist past (and present), ultimately getting himself banned from airplay and major public performances until 2005. Recorded in 1994, "Balls under the Red Flag" is considered by many to be his masterpiece, one of, if not the greatest rock records ever recorded in China.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that he's single-handedly responsible for the current Beijing punk movement.

Read a long, detailed article on Cuī Jiàn here.

Read an interview with him here.

Great live version of "The Village Attacks the City" (song begins 2:10 into video):

Zeina | Delila

2011-07-27T09:54:00.004-04:00

Listen to the first track, "Nes El Leil"

Get the whole thing here.

Found several years ago Princess Music in Bay Ridge. I miss Princess Music. I believe they finally closed their doors in 2009.

Without being hyperbolic, I can honestly say that Zeina, to my mind, is the greatest pop singer to come out of Lebanon since Najwa Karam. Forty seconds into the sample track above, see if you agree.

Video with odd selection of photos featuring a track from this CD:

Fréhel | La Java Bleue

2011-07-14T11:20:00.006-04:00

Listen to "Où sont mes amants"

Get the whole thing here.

Happy Bastille Day, everyone. This rather fabulous CD was almost certainly found in a cheesy post-card shop in Paris in the early 2000s.

Fréhel had early success in Paris at the turn of the last century, but left France for the east, winding up in Russia, where she stayed for a decade. When she returned in the 1920s she revived her career, becoming a minor movie star in addition to a singer in the 1930s. She died alone in 1951 after having left the limelight a decade or so previously.

Here she is in a scene from "Pepe le Moko," singing along with a record:

Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her | 50 Songs

2011-07-13T20:32:00.003-04:00

Listen to six songs from this 50-song selection

Get it all in a single zip file here.

The greatest rock & roll band in the world of the last decade of the 20th century has got to be Japan's Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her. Their influences were many, without being wholly derivative. And, if rock is largely about sex, drugs and attitude, SSKHKH had at least the first and third in spades. (Aspirin is the only drug I can recall hearing them sing about.)

Launched in 1992 by Aiha Higurashi, SSKHKH lasted through 2001 or 02 before disbanding, leaving a number of ear-poppingly great CDs, EPs and singles in their wake. The 50 songs in the zip file linked to above come from CDs, EPs and videos converted to MP3s.

The Fly | The Fly I

2011-07-07T10:04:00.002-04:00

Get it all in a single zip file here.

I'm reposting this CD, one of the first I featured on this blog, mainly because, at the time, I wasn't zipping whole CDs into zip files, making downloading a form of torture. Now, it's easy. Here's what I wrote about it last year:

Great Beijing punk CD that I found in the dollar bin of my favorite Video/CD store in Brooklyn Chinatown, corner 8th Ave and 53rd Street. According to this article on Beijing rock published in 2000, they were likely signed to a label in the late 90s. I've managed to find references to two other CDs besides this one online.

I have no idea how the Video/CD store in Brooklyn Chinatown got this CD--they don't really seem to carry stuff from the mainland, and when I've taken the CD in to other places (mostly in Manhattan's Chinatown), no one really seems to order from the mainland.

Distressing. I love Maybe Mars, Sound Kapital and the other stuff coming out recently from Beijing ... but The Fly is every bit as mind-blowing, and a decade earlier.

Part one of two, from what appears to be a Japanese documentary about Beijing punk.

Part two of two, of same.

Dolphin | K.A.M.A.-3

2011-07-04T20:39:00.007-04:00

Listen to a track from this CD

Get it all here.

Found today in St. Petersburg Book Store on Brighton Beach Avenue in Brooklyn. A rather fabulous low-fi alt-rock band with minimal vocals and lots of chunky screechy guitar above a wobbling bass and chippy trap set. Sounds live, and may well be so.

The following bit of Joy Division-y goodness, however, is all studio, and well worth a watch:

Motrat Mustafa | Dasma shqiptare

2011-07-02T20:38:00.005-04:00

Listen to a track from this CD

Get it all here.

Found on Arthur Avenue today in an Albanian bodega run by what must be the single nicest bodega owner I've ever met. After letting me know in uncertain terms that "This is all Albanian music," my response, "I know; I like Albanian music, especially Fatmire Brecani," changed the game rules.

After an hour talking and listening to numerous samples, I walked out of the store with five CDs--the owner charged me only for four. This one, by the Mustafa Sisters, is my favorite of the bunch, in great part for the harmonies.

Listeners will note the abrupt endings of songs; this is because, on other Motrat Mustafa CDs I have, the songs are all run together. Every single CD in this store was pirated, and I'm guessing someone used the "2 second delay between songs" feature in iTunes when they burned their merch.

Check out this rather old VHSed music video:

Josie Ho | Hell's Kitchen

2011-06-24T08:06:00.029-04:00

Listen to a track from this CD: Rolling Stones ca. "Some Girls"?

Get the whole kit & kaboodle here.

A keen advantage of listening to "other" people's pop music is that, to the extent it's possible, doing so affords the listener at least the illusion of a far more visceral experience listening to the music of one's own culture.

There is, alas, no such thing as a purely visceral experience--absent cultural, semiotic, etc., cues--not of anything human-made. We read, interpret, translate, bring our biases to everything. And everything is coded, even if we don't have the key, or have only part of it. There is, I'd argue, as a great a pleasure in completely misunderstanding something as there is in "getting" it--maybe even more so. Just ask the poets.

I bought the CD above--Hochiu (aka Josie Ho)'s "Hell's Kitchen"--in Manhattan's Chinatown one Saturday afternoon before straggling in to the Bowery Poetry Club to host a Segue Series reading. Once at the BPC, I spotted Franklin Bruno, a musician and music critic as well as a poet. I pulled out the CD in question, handed it to him and asked: "Okay, Frankin; you're an expert: What is this CD cover trying to tell us?"

Franklin chuckled a bit and then slowly flipped the CD cover back and forth a few times, before handing it back to me. "I'm picking up Patti Smith," he finally said.

As it turns out, despite "Hell's Kitchen"'s obvious nod to the cover of Patti Smith's "Horses," no one could be further from working-class androgynous hippy-dippy Romantic poet cum rock icon Patti Smith than Josie Ho. For one thing, Ho is the daughter of the purportedly richest man in Macau, casino tycoon Stanley Ho. The differences don't end with class background. Whereas Patti is also a poet, Josie is also a movie star. (And movie producer.) Whereas Patti's music is instantly recognizable for its shaggy, emotive intensity, Josie's music is slick, aggressive Canto rock and pop.

Look again into first Patti's eyes and then Josie's on those covers above. Patti looks soulful, vulnurable, almost frightened, even in what looks like "defiance." Josie looks something in between bored and simmering with sadistic energy. There's a way in which her cover feels as much of a nod to "A Clockwork Orange" as it is to "Horses." Take, for instance, this video, of "自衛術" ("Self-defense Art"), a song from the CD above, the only music video I'm aware of with a cake-fisting scene:

There aren't, to my knowledge, any other female pop artists who express this kind of energy (beyond the cake-fisting, I mean: the dancing with dogs in the tub, the messing with the fish, the singing to sock puppets, etc.). How, I want to know, do Hong Kongers "read" her? Is she a kind of Alex-from-Clockwork-Orange figure?

Various Artists | Altin Mikrofon 1965

2011-06-19T19:10:00.010-04:00

Get it all here.

I found this and two other discs (1966 and 1967-68) at Uludag Video in Brooklyn on I think Avenue W near Ocean Avenue.

I'll upload the other two in the next day or so. Meanwhile, a bit of context ...

From Anatolian Psych:

Altın Mikrofon (Golden Microphone) song contest was first held in 1965 to help give a new direction to contemporary Turkish music through the use of western techniques, forms and instruments. The participants were consist of college student bands of metropolitan cities like İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir, who most of them were widely renowned bands like Moğollar, Haramiler, Erkin Koray. The finalists would get their contest song (and a song of their choice) recorded and printed as a single and sold on the music market for revenues which were left solely to the benefit of these groups.

Many bands and artists like Sis Beşlisi, Mavi Işıklar, Mavi Çocuklar, Cem Karaca & Apaşlar, Selçuk Alagöz, Silüetler, Oksijen, Kaygısızlar, Hayaletler and many more were introduced to Anatolian cities other than İstanbul, Ankara, and İzmir.

As the regulations for the contest was announced, 78 competitors applied immediately. The jury had a long list of 119 people (which reduced to 82 at the begining of the competition) including important musicians, artists and journalists like M. Nurettin Selçuk, Nadir Nadi, and Safiye Ayla.

Video? Yeah, video:

Hương Lan | Cánh Cò Quê Hương

2011-06-18T12:37:00.007-04:00

Listen to a fabulous track from this CD

Get the whole thing here.

Found in a Vietnamese convenience store/sandwich shop in Manhattan's Chinatown.

Hương Lan started her career in Vietnam in 1961 at the age of five when she participated in performances of Vietnamese opera. She was recording pop music by 1966 and ultimately left Vietnam for San Jose, Calif., in 1975.

Listen to a pre-75 recording:

Кэто Джапаридэе | Russian Romances

2011-06-16T18:17:00.010-04:00

Listen to a track from this CD

Get it all here.

I know zip about Keto Dzhaparidze, other than that she was apparently Russian and had a fabulously soulful voice. Found in a Russian media store on Macdonald Avenue under the F line el.

I'm guessing these recordings date from the early 20th century, maybe the early teens to twenties. Would welcome any info any of you out there might have.

UPDATE: See the comments for more info. Apparently she was Georgian, not Russian, and these songs are a bit later than I had thought, 30s-40s.

A live performance:

Chris Marker | PASSENGERS

2011-06-16T08:18:00.003-04:00

My review of Chris Marker's amazing PASSENGERS photography show and book (Peter Blum SoHo and Chelsea) is the cover story of Berlin film journal CARGO.

Joey Boy | Thailand Rap Hit

2011-06-09T08:27:00.005-04:00

Get the CD in a single zip file here.

I previously blogged about this CD. I did not know at the time who the artist was. Nor was I then uploading things in a single zip file. Thus, this repost.

Found last year in a Vietnamese CD/Video store on Argyle Street in Chicago--this is quite honestly one of the most bizarrely satisfying purchases of a musical nature I have ever made.

First, let's take a look at "what's up" on the cover. Note that "Rap" is in quotes on the back. As it should be. I have never heard rap like this. I'm fairly certain that, unless you have already heard Thailand's Joey Boy, you probably have never heard rap like this either.

Well, so what is it, then? I'll go out on a limb and just say that it's quite likely the single most carnivalesque melange of rubbery cartoon-y dance-y hip-hoppy trippy-y influences from around the world ever burned into polycarbonate plastic. It is simultaneously the flarfiest and rockin'est thing I have ever heard. I have quickly grown to love it almost as much as life itself. Could any language be less suited to rap than Thai, the most soft-spoken-deferential-un-pissed-off-sounding language on the planet?

But why is that woman in the sunglasses on the cover pointing to her nose like that?

Watch Zom Ammara's fabulous music video "Playgirl," in which Joey Boy makes a cameo: