The Entroporium

All props to the plucky Socceroos! Italy is leading a charmed life. Here is something I’ve been wanting to know for a long time. I lived in Los Angeles during the great mid-80s PR push for Australian pop; Australia was the Seattle/Montreal/Omaha of the moment. (Midnight Oil! Men At Work! InXS! Aaaaargh!) One of these [...]

Two very different types of dance music compose my last entry covering a Group Round knockout: Saban Bajramovic – Hanuma.mp3 Saban is known as the “World of Gypsy Music.” Why? Because Indira Gandhi dubbed him so! Yugoslavia’s leading artist in the 1960s, he has apparently gone missing after the former republic’s turbulent ’90s. “Legend also [...]

Paraguay is surprisingly absent from the Internet. Hardly any pictures. No music. Wikipedia’s entry on "Music of Paraguay" mentions more reggaeton artists from Puerto Rico than anything native. The first few pages of a Google Images search on its capitol, Asuncion, returns a large proportion of pictures of a local Mormon temple. I am indebted [...]

Random thoughts on a day of defeat: Isn’t it appropriate that I have the US entry following the Saudi entry? We’ll follow those guys anywhere. (rimshot) I’ll be here all the week, don’t forget to tip the waitresses. Rant coming: If people get so upset about American flag-burning, why is it OK to wear Old [...]

As in Iran, female singers are banned in Saudi Arabia, thus knocking out half the fun. I get the sense that fun isn’t a real high priority over there. Abdulmajeed Abdulla – Al Gaid.mp3 Mohamed Abdu – Abaa’d.mp3 I think the Mohamed Abdu track kinda rocks — it takes a while to get going, it’s [...]

Iran’s President Bans Western Music (AP, December 19, 2005): Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned Western music from Iran’s radio and TV stations, reviving one of the harshest cultural decrees from the early days of 1979 Islamic Revolution. Songs such as George Michael’s "Careless Whisper," Eric Clapton’s "Rush" and the Eagles’ "Hotel California" have regularly [...]

After yesterday’s horrible beating of the US side, it’s only fitting to feature the Czech Republic. The former Czechoslovokia had a flourishing psychedelic scene around the time of the 1968 uprising, all of it illegal and deep underground. Surprisingly, quite a bit of material survived. I should also note that the first thing that confronted [...]

Down a man? Never played in the World Cup before? No problem for the folks from the home of calypso! Lord Invader – No Place Like The West Indies.mp3Lord Invader – Auf Wiedersehen.mp3 Photo by David Sanger

There are several countries for which presenting music is going to be a tad difficult. I’ll just come right out and confess that Ecuador and Paraguay have me stumped. I’ve got the rest under control, though. Luckily, the always excellent Benn Loxo du Taccu, the blogosphere’s clear leader in African music, has Togo covered for [...]