JDub Records

CNN has an article about Muslim punk bands, who have turned to music to express their feelings about religion and their conservative backgrounds by blending South Asian rhythms, punk beats, and various languages.

It’s interesting that CNN is picking up on this movement. Like those who identified with punk music in the 1970s and 80s, many Muslims are marginalized from American culture (for different and usually completely unfair reasons). By the mid-1990s punk music had been established as a part of mainstream American culture.

For those interested, Jericho’s Echo is a documentary that explores punk rock in Israel, and is available in the JDub store.

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Two years ago the FCC and the four largest radio station owners signed a voluntary agreement to change the methods behind their programming and open the airwaves to more diversity of artists. This was after allegations of payola - that major labels were paying stations to play certain songs.

A new study from the Future of Music Coalition finds that even without payola, radio playlist composition has stayed the same. (That is, if you believe that the practice of payola has ended.) Major record label artists still receive the vast majority of radio airplay, while independent artists (30% of the market) receive a tiny fraction of airtime.

You can read more about the study here.

Short Circuit trailer
Check out the above video of Yuto Miyazawa, all of eight years old, completely tearing it up on a guitar that’s about as tall as he is. He’s not flawless but he’s got a few years to improve.

• Banshee!!! hd

H/T All Songs Considered Blog Tightrope divx

Today’s post is dedicated to securing music, music supplies and donations for the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda. They’re looking for everything from drums and guitars to ipods and recording equipment. Details and wish list after the jump.

Built on the Israeli model of establishing youth villages for orphans of the Holocaust, the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) opened in December for children left orphaned or vulnerable in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide…

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Last night a friend of mine called and offered me a ticket to Les Savy Fav’s (see above) concert tomorrow night at The Brooklyn Masonic Temple.  I had nothing else pressing going on, so I agreed to join him.  After accepting his gracious offer he exclaimed, “get ready for the best live show of your life!”  That statement got me thinking, what makes an incredible live show, and what has been the best live show I have ever seen? 

I’ve seen some pretty memorable shows, but I don’t know if I could name one of them, “the best live show of my life.”  Shows stand out for me for a variety of reasons.  I’ll never forget my first Rolling Stones concert, and watching Mick Jagger strut around on stage.  He’s probably the best performer I’ve ever seen, and during that concert, even I had dreams of grandeur and rock-god status.  The Strokes also put on a memorable show during their “Is This It” tour, but it was more memorable for the antics, Julian falling into the crowd face first and Fab destroying his drum set, than the music.  The Roots have also been consistently amazing each time I have seen them…their musicality is incredible and Black Thought, ?uestlove and the rest of the band really know how to entertain, but as far as being the best show ever, I’m not sure. 

Although I am having trouble defining the best show I have ever seen, I definitely know the worst.  I actually stopped listening to this band after seeing them and deleted all their music from my iPod…

What about you, what’s the best live show you have ever seen?  What do you look for in a live concert experience?   

Melting Pot recording artist and frequent Soulico collaborator, Kutiman has done something sick with youtube, various musical instruments and some fine chopping and editing skills. Click the picture above to check it out. Shouts to Sabbo for the heads up.

Popes of DelRay - What You Do

Last week my wife and I had a houseguest from New Zealand. Duane Kennedy currently lives in London but comes from the Auckland area where he played drums in bands and organized shows. I asked him a few questions about music in New Zealand, and after we laughed about some of the country’s offerings, we got to the good stuff. As for the song above, he and friends recorded it over one day in a bedroom. Duane describes it as 12 bar blues, white boy style. “There’s a harmonica part, there was a guy outside playing who thought we were great and wanted to come in and play with us. If the guys in the song knew the mp3 was on a New York blog they would think it’s hilarious.”

Tell me a bit about the New Zealand music scene.
In general the New Zealand music industry, there’s lots of government grants for musicians. The scene is quite small, it’s a small country but a lot of the stuff that comes out is quite good. You have to be unique and original. I’m finding that in London a lot of the bands sound the same but in New Zealand you get a lot of interesting punk, interesting indie. But in the end a lot of bands have to get out of New Zealand to further their careers. A lot move to Australia, to Melbourne. Or quite a few have been going to London as well. A lot that I have talked to find it quite hard because London is expensive and has a lot of bands already. Read More »

Maybe it’s Auto-Tune’s new cousin, maybe it’s the death of of the remix as we know it, but either way, Microsoft Songsmith is producing some entertaining results. The software was launched this year to automatically generate music around a vocal track. Users can simply sing into a computer microphone, select a musical style, and the program magically creates music.

So far popular use of the program has consisted of users taking the vocals from popular songs and changing the music. Some of my favorites (in addition to the video above) after the jump. Read More »

This photo of Black Style by Avishai Mekonen captures the group of three young Ethiopians living in Israel becoming celebrities in their small community of Binyamina as they use hip-hop to try to express with their own desires to be free of judgment and oppression. It’s a familiar trope in the hip-hop cannon, but coming from the unique perspective of a Jewish African diaspora community rapidly assimilating (and not only giving up injera) into Israeli culture. If you want to check out some of their music, and learn more about the distance between the elders and the youth culture of this community, artist Avishai Mekonen (a Six Points Fellow) is presenting a photo and video show at the JCC in Manhattan. In one of the videos you can hear the US premiere of the music of Black Style, and find out more about the contemporary assimilation story of the Ethiopian-Israeli community.