you herd it here first

i went on a 4-day jeep trip to the Uyuni salt flats when i was in Bolivia. I was grouped with a British couple and an Australian girl.

during these trips, there'a a hell of a lot of driving, all day basically. i killed time being the designated DJ. the Australian, Ellie, was impressed with my eclectic tastes in music. at some point, i was curious to hear what she had in her ipod. she played a lot of hip-hop and i realized that i had very little knowledge of Australian music. to my surprise, the songs were politically inclined and i realized something else: i know nothing about australian politics. at the end of our trip, we exchanged names of a few bands from our respective homes. here's one i particularly enjoy: The Herd.



stat!

don't cry for me, Kanye

hey! has Kanye gone soft?
i've been reading a lot of blogs lately. i have a friend who's blogging today about how totally confused he is about the new Kanye West album, 808s and Heartbreak. He says that he's heard two singles and that there isn't any rap and it's all about heartbreak, boo-hooing, etc.
i went to listen to the singles and i have to say i like this new Kanye, but please back old Kanye soon. let's not let him flood in heartbreak tears. i love to hate in-your-face Kanye...don't you?
no question, though, that this will be heard relentlessly (and to loud) in youngsters' cars across america.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYpiQTOaw1U

stat!

Old School Salsa Edition

Salsa came out of the New York Puerto Rican/latin community of the 1970's. My mother is Puerto Rican and I kind of grew up with this music in the background, this sampling is by no means exhaustive. And, no I never quite learned to dance as well as I really should have, but I figure there's still time, no?

El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico is among the most respected groups in salsa history, though they have had changes in personnel over the years. Still going strong, too.

El Gran Combo - "Un Verano En NY"


Ruben Blades and Willie Colon released one of the classic salsa albums of all time, Siembra, back in '78 - Ruben has written some of the most classic tracks in the salsa canon, including "Pedro Navaja" from the same album. They both later got into politics (Sr. Blades ran for president of Panama, and Sr. Colon is involved in New York politics) - this video is from their younger days. The only song with a vocal guitar solo because "the guitarist didn't come today" - done here with the piano too.

Ruben Blades & Willie Colon - "Buscando Guayaba"


Hector Lavoe is, sadly, among the few of salsa's founding fathers no longer with us today. Marc Anthony (excellent salsa singer in his own right) and J-Lo (Puerto Rican, but otherwise...well...everybody knows J-Lo) made a movie about his life. Which I haven't seen, and so can't really say much about. What I can say is that almost anything he sang sounds pretty good to this day, and a lot of it is downright fabulous.

Hector Lavoe - "Periodico de Ayer"


Oscar D'Leon is also fairly old school, starting out in Colombia back in the early 70's. This is a song he wrote himself and one of my favorites. Still touring to this day!

Oscar D'Leon - "Lloraras"


Buen provecho!

Classic Mashup Edition

After looking at the last few posts, I said to myself, "My, these posts are far longer than they need to be, and they aren't all that frequent".

I'll be trying to fix that.

Anyway:

DJ Zebra is from France, and some of his mashes have introduced me to an assortment of French music I had never heard of before. There are a hell of a lot of Beatles mashups out there and this one is my favorite. Be aware that this does include the explicit chorus of "Closer". In case you're at work and/or somebody cares.

DJ Zebra - "Come Closer Together"


Among the better mashups I'm aware of, credit to DJ Mei-Lwun (San Fran based, don't know much more about him than that). I remember the first time I heard this track was at Bootie (ah...Bootie...). I no longer remember how the music to "Country Grammar" goes.

DJ Mei-Lwun - "Sweet Home Country Grammar"


Another classic mash, called "Jay-Zeezer", this seems like it was a bonus track on a remixing of Jay-Z's Black Album with Weezer's Blue Album to create (you guessed it) the Black & Blue Album. Kind of like with DJ Danger Mouse and The Gray Album.

Jay-Zeezer - "99 Luft Problems"


Bon appetit!

Nostalgia, 2004 Edition

So there's an old friend of mine who recently got back in touch and made me all nostalgic for 2004, specifically for:

Sodastream

Australian two-man band (cello and guitar, if I recall correctly) in the same vein as Belle & Sebastian but...well, better. And by better I mean, less just-sitting-there-being-pretty and more meaningful storytelling about things that Really Matter without cramming it down your throat that they are Telling You About Things That Really Matter.

Sodastream - "Fitzroy Strongman"



Rasputina

I saw Rasputina live in San Francisco before delving into their collected works much, largely on the strength of this song - I had bought an EP with this track on it. Good times are associated with it, very good times indeed. For the rest of y'all, other excellent tracks include a version of "Wish You Were Here" and the inimitable "Signs of the Zodiac".

Rasputina - "Rusty the Skatemaker"



Nick Drake

Nick Drake's music reminds me of that line from American Pie, where the dude looks at a plastic bag and says something along the lines of "Sometimes I think there's so much beauty in the world, I can hardly stand it."

Nick Drake - "River Man"



Elliott Smith

Yeah, this song has been in more than one soundtrack and you might have heard it a lot on college radio. The measure of a good song is that it can remain a song in spite of being in more than one soundtrack and overplayed on college radio.

Elliott Smith - "Waltz #2"



Gerling

Lest we get too downtempo and downright down, here we have a shimmering, sparkling track from our Australian friends. Not sure this remix had been released in '04. Not sure I really care.

Gerling - "Hot Computer (Summa Laptop Mix)"



Ella Fitzgerald

Respect.

Ella Fitzgerald - "One Note Samba". Live 1969.



Bon appetit!