gosh this is fascinating stuff. composer who wrote the music for all those original MTV promos (think astronauts and animations) contributes a few Eno/Byrne-inspired “found vocals” songs to a terrible John Travolta movie. the label loves them and asks for a followup (The General’s Daughter 2!! YES!!), which of course never pans out but ultimately results in a solo album full of fascinating remixes of southern spiritual/blues field recordings. chris douridas has been playing this stuff on kcrw for years, and today i finally tracked it down. and not only is the whole album unbelievably good, but his cuts from the soundtrack are unreal. sadly the guy died a year after this album released. his last major work? the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider video game soundtrack. fascinating.

a little solidarity music for the egyptian demonstrators from some fellow north african freedom fighters. the change will come, insha’allah. -d

*for a stunning photojournalistic look at what’s going on in egypt, check the best blog in whole wide world wide web, the big picture from the boston globe.

*saw these guys at the bowl last year. one of the most hypnotically energetic shows i’ve ever seen.

*sad that after my family spent 4 years in riyadh, insha’allah is the only arabic i remember.

beck beck beck. if there were ever a musician i aspire to be like…sigh. the man records whatever he wants. there are no rules for genre. he writes what he likes, and he nails it every single time. i mean, listen to this! this is the same guy who sings ‘tropicalia’ and ‘black tambourine’ and ‘sunday sun’? it’s just unreal. the guy is a monster. i will spend my weekend in awe. -d

i had high hopes for this album. between the title, the cover art and the opening track (‘repo man’), i was ready for a full disc of dirty, dusty, bass-drumming, butt-kicking blues. but it wasn’t meant to be. instead, i had to wade thru 8 tracks of weepy alt-country and lover’s lament crap before i found another good track. the other good track. this one. yes, it’s good. and yes, two good tracks is better than one, better than none. but teasing me with a delicious appetizer, only to serve an entree that’s barely worth poking at, not cool. and it takes more than a solid dessert to leave a good taste in my mouth. -d

busy week last week. (turns out quitting your job creates a lot of paperwork.) but it sure did end well — with a stop at the hollywood bowl for the opening night of KCRW’s world music festival. baaba maal, yeasayer, fool’s gold, yes, all great, and will probably all make appearances on the blog this week. but i’ve been wanting to see tinariwen live for years now. and it was just as smooth and groovy as could be. by the end, i felt as calm and relaxed as if the people right behind us had blown second-hand weed smoke at us for three hours straight. -d

oh man. i could quite literally post the entire album. top to bottom bluesy radness. -d