Sunday, 20 February 2011
Dean Wareham - Route du Rock 2/18/11
Singer/guitarist Dean Wareham is more influential than he is usually given credit for. Often sounding like a depressed slacker, Wareham has inspired a number of indie rockers to express their sadness with a wistful tenor. Wareham was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on August 1, 1963. In 1977, Wareham and his parents relocated to New York City. Wareham then moved to Boston to attend college. After spending a year in Germany, Wareham returned to Boston, MA, in 1987 and formed Galaxie 500 with his high school and college buddies Damon Krukowski (drums) and Naomi Yang (bass). Galaxie 500 was signed to Shimmy Disc and released their first album, Today, in 1988. Although Galaxie 500 received little mainstream recognition, the band's languorous, narcotic rhythms -- recalling the Velvet Underground and Joy Division -- had a significant impact in shaping alternative subgenres such as shoegazer and slowcore. Wareham recorded three albums with Galaxie 500 before leaving the group in 1991. Galaxie 500's label, the U.S. division of Rough Trade, also folded that year, leaving the band's LPs in limbo until Krukowski later bought the master tapes at an auction. Wareham then moved back to New York City, releasing the EP Anaesthesia and contributing vocals to Mercury Rev's "Car Wash Hair." A year later Wareham started Luna with Justin Harewood (bass) of the Chills and Stanley Demeski (drums) from the Feelies. Named after Diane Keaton's character in the Woody Allen film Sleeper, Luna recorded their debut full-length, Lunapark, for Elektra Records. The track "Slash Your Tires" was a minor hit on modern rock stations, but Luna's subsequent commercial failures diminished the label's faith in the group's ability to attract a bigger audience. Elektra dropped the band before their fifth album, The Days of Our Nights, was even released; it was distributed in 1999 by Jericho instead. The lack of major label support did nothing to diminish Luna's adoring fanbase. Wareham, et al issued Luna Live (Arena Rock Recording Company) in 2001, and moved to Jetset for the acclaimed 2002 release Romantica. Wareham returned a year later with L'Avventura. The album was a breezy mixture of originals and standards recorded with latter-day Luna bassist Britta Phillips. (Michael Sutton)
directlink
00:55:26
Reggae Britannia (Documentary)
Showing how it came from Jamaica in the 1960s to influence, over the next 20 years, both British music and society, the programme includes major artists and performances from that era, including Big Youth, Max Romeo, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jerry Dammers and the Specials, the Police, UB40, Dennis Bovell, lovers rock performers Carroll Thompson and Janet Kay, bands like Aswad and Steel Pulse and reggae admirers such as Boy George and Paul Weller.
The programme celebrates the impact of reggae, the changes it brought about and its lasting musical legacy.
via
Saturday, 19 February 2011
exiledsurfer exiledsurfer
via ►@martinchulov: Bahrain's Crown Prince just announced that the army has been ordered off the streets of Manama
Scientist vs The Upsetters - Live at Fabric, London
Scientist needs no introduction. As a protégé of King Tubby at Dromilly Road he started out learning the tools of the trade, fixing electronics and working on four channels, before he moved on to the sixteen channel desk at Channel One Studio in Jamaica, where he engineered a host of albums, often working with the Roots Radics. His musical vision as well as his deep knowledge of the technical side of things have made him an undoubted godfather of dub with one of the most expansive discographies of the last three decades and counting. This set was recorded live at Fabric, during the launch party for Tectonic's new dub vs dubstep project, Scientist Launches Dubstep Into Outer Space. And while Scientist got busy in the booth, the live band on stage was latest incarnation of The Upsetters, who were not only Lee 'Scratch' Perry's house band but also form the nucleus of The Wailers. Big Showdown!
Velvet Underground - Under Review (Documentary)
The Velvet Underground Under Review is a 75 minute film reviewing the music and career of one of rock musics most influential collectives, a band which esteemed music journalist Lester Bangs claims started modern music. It features rare musical performances never available before as well as obscure footage, rare interviews and private photographs of and with Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, Sterling Morrison and John Cale. The film also features rarely seen promo films, material from Andy Warhols private film collection, interviews with colleagues, producers, musicians and friends, TV clips, location shots and a host of other features.
If the video is blocked for your country try this link
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (2011 - Albumstream)
A title like Ravedeath, 1972 is great because of all the possible associations it calls up. A time-traveling techno explosion, a John Brunner novel title, a 1960s Frug winding down in a horrible dry gulch? Whatever all the possible associations, when Tim Hecker begins the album with the at-once shuddering feedback glitch and distant soothing bliss of "The Piano Drop," the Canadian composer does seem to thrive in an intersection of possibilities from multiple sources. If the principle of plundering the past to create the future is well established, Hecker engagingly demonstrates how the many possibilities it offers remains open. Split into three multi-part pieces and several stand-alone compositions -- some with titles continuing the titular approach, such as "Analog Paralysis, 1978" -- the overall effect of Ravedeath, 1972 is a balance between sheer sonic wooziness and a focused sense of construction; nothing seems wholly random in each song's development even as the feeling can be increasingly disorienting. Of the multi-part pieces, the first, "In the Fog," lives up to the name -- instead of enveloping obscurity, however, it's more like a serene float in darkness, with the organ tone loop running throughout the second and third parts providing a bed that whirs and arcing grinds rise and fall on, an underscoring of violence that melds and contrasts with the otherwise calm progression. The concluding "In the Air" almost inverts this, with the feedback tones and growls stabbing out more directly in the first part while the second increasingly brings in the otherwise half-sensed piano. "Hatred of Music," meanwhile, doesn't sound like a radical change from the other parts in terms of overall feel or in matching with the title's sentiment, but the low rhythmic rumble of the second part, a steady progression punctuated by soft piano additions and what sounds like a howling, looming threat in the distance, is pure atmosphere at its best. Then there's "No Drums," which finds in its own calm way the kind of beautiful, dark-toned ambience that has informed the best work in the field of disturbing but never aggressive electronic music. (Ned Raggett - allmusic; 4/5)
1. The Piano Drop
2. In The Fog: I-III
3. No Drums
4. Hatred Of Music: I-II
5. Analog Paralysis, 1978
6. Studio Suicide, 1980
7. In The Air: I-III
ALBUMSTREAM
Friday, 18 February 2011
Faiz Ali Faiz & Titi Robin - Festival Au Fil des Voix 2/16/11
Faiz Ali Faiz (Urdu: فیض علی فیض; born 1962 in Sharaqpur, Pakistan) is a Pakistani qawwali singer.
Faiz was born into a family of seven generations of qawwals. He studied classical music with Ustad Ghulam Shabir Khan and Ustad Jafat Khan, and qawwali music with Muhammad Ali Faridi and Abdur Rahim Faridi Qawwal. He was a close acquaintance with the world-renown qawwali performer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and is considered the latter's spiritual successor within the genre. Faiz Ali Faiz regularly performs the qawwal "Mustt Mustt", a signature song of his deceased mentor.
Faiz Ali Faiz was nominated for a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award in 2005 and 2006.
Thierry "Titi" Robin (born 1957 in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France), is a French musician influenced by gypsy, tzigane and Arabic music, and by the musicians Camaron de la Isla and Iraqi oud player Munir Bashir. Robin plays the guitar, oud, and bouzouki. He has given numerous concerts, in South Africa, the Middle East, and France.
He has frequently collaborated with Gulabi Sapera, who has appeared on several of his albums to lend his distinctive vocals peculiar to gypsy motifs. He has also been involved in extensive collaborations with Erik Marchand, a musician from Brittany focusing on reinterpretations of that region's distinctive Celtic music.
01:10:54
directlink
A Day in the Life of a Love Doll
Opening at New York’s Salon 94 Bowery on the day after Valentine’s Day, The Love Doll: Days 1-30, presents Simmons large-scale, color photos and video of her mail order roommate, which she gradually befriends. Documenting her from day one, when she emerges from a box in only a slip, Simmons takes her under her wing — buying clothes and creating a fantasy lifestyle for her in the artist’s New York apartment and country house. The lively results expose a psychological situation, where the doll partially sheds its designated role as a sex object and begins to take on an identity projected on it from Simmons’ poetic imagination.
Laurie Simmons – The Love Doll: Days 1-30 is on view at Salon 94 Bowery February 15 to March 16.
Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution
Gene Sharp: From Dictatorship To Democracy(PDF)
Bahrain: What's at stake for America
As far as Washington is concerned, this small Persian Gulf kingdom may be where support for Middle East democracy dies. The loss of American military power that would accompany an overthrow of the regime of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa is incalculable.
Nestled between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Bahrain is home to 1.2 million people. It's also home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet -- a vital instrument for the Pentagon in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Fighter jets from carriers in the fleet provide close air support for American troops in Afghanistan.
The fleet is also a potential bulwark against a future nuclear Iran, analysts note.
"It's our most important strategic asset in the Persian Gulf," said Michael Rubin, a former Bahrain resident and Middle East expert at the American Enterprise Institute.
The security of America's naval presence in Bahrain was called into question when protests erupted there this week. Three people died and dozens were injured Thursday when security forces stormed a group of protesters. Witnesses described a blunt show of force, with police firing pellets and rubber bullets, as well as using tear gas.
Two other people died during disturbances earlier in the week.
"Violence is not an appropriate reaction," lectured White House press secretary Jay Carney. Leaders in Bahrain and across the Middle East region need to "be more responsive" and "live up to the hopes and dreams of their people."
But exactly how responsive?
Bahrain has been ruled by a Sunni Muslim royal family since the British left in 1971. Two-thirds of its population are Shiites. While the latest turmoil is largely a reaction to uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and elsewhere, younger Shiites have routinely led protests -- often violent -- to complain about discrimination, unemployment and corruption.
They also rioted when the Islamic Revolution toppled the Shah of Iran in 1979. Since then, every time Shiite protests have become too heated, the Sunni rulers of Saudi Arabia have quietly sent troops into the country, according to Rubin.
"On the one hand, Bahrain is a flash point between the United States and Iran," he told CNN. On the other, it's "a flash point between Saudi Arabia and Iran."
Bahrain was actually a Persian province through the 16th century. Iran claimed the territory when the British left, but the Bahrainis opted for independence.
"Bahrain is Iran's Kuwait," Rubin said, referencing former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's insistence that Kuwait was rightfully an Iraqi province.
If Bahrain's government falls, "there is no question -- no ifs, ands or buts -- Bahrain would become an Iranian satellite, and the Fifth Fleet would be sent packing," Rubin predicted.
The Obama administration is "not being too vocal on the riots in Bahrain because it's pretty much the one country where we can't afford regime change," he said.
Could U.S. officials find a new naval home in the Gulf? Possibly Qatar or the United Arab Emirates, Rubin said, but "if there's a sense that the dominoes are falling and the United States is the big loser, then all the regional states are going to make their accommodation with Iran whether they like us or not."
The stakes could not be higher.
Alan Silverleib @'CNN'
Baghdad wants U.S. to pay $1 billion for damage to city
The city's government issued its demands in a statement on Wednesday that said Baghdad's infrastructure and aesthetics have been seriously damaged by the American military.
"The U.S. forces changed this beautiful city to a camp in an ugly and destructive way, which reflected deliberate ignorance and carelessness about the simplest forms of public taste," the statement said.
"Due to the huge damage, leading to a loss the Baghdad municipality cannot afford...we demand the American side apologize to Baghdad's people and pay back these expenses."
The statement made no mention of damage caused by bombing.
Baghdad's neighborhoods have been sealed off by miles of concrete blast walls, transforming the city into a tangled maze that contributes to massive traffic jams. Despite a sharp reduction in overall violence in recent years only 5 percent of the walls have been removed, officials said.
The heavy blast walls have damaged sewer and water systems, pavement and parks, said Hakeem Abdul Zahra, the city spokesman.
U.S. military Humvees, driven on street medians and through gardens, have also caused major damage, he said.
"The city of Baghdad feels these violations, which have taken place for years, have caused economic and moral damage," he said.
U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq's cities in June 2009 before formally ending combat operations last August. Around 50,000 remain in Iraq but they are scheduled to withdraw by year end.
Baghdad is badly in need of a facelift. Electricity and trash collection are sporadic, streets are potholed and sewage treatment plants and pipes have not been renovated for years.
Iraq has seen growing protests in recent weeks over poor government services.
Zahra said the city's statement issued on Wednesday would be the start of its measures to get the United States to pay for damages but he did not say what other steps might be taken.
@'Reuters'
Thursday, 17 February 2011
(GB2011) Scrap the minimum wage for young people
Youth unemployment in the UK is at a record high, with nearly a million 16 to 24-year olds out of work – 20.5% of that age group. Around 600,000 of them have never worked at all. Youth unemployment is particularly worrying. If young people cannot get a job and learn work skills, and the basic habits of work, it blights their whole lives. Sadly, too few youngsters are not getting into the work stream but instead are getting drawn into the welfare stream. Instead of learning about life in work, they are learning about life on benefits.
Youth unemployment – and the same is true of immigrants and other minority groups – is always worst when times are hard. Employers keep the best workers and shed the labour they do not value so much. And the fact is that young people are just not worth as much to employers as older workers. They may have no marketable skills. They will have little or no experience of how workplaces operate. They might, after a decade and a half of state education, even lack basic life skills.
And yet government regulation forces employers to pay not less than £4.92 per hour for 18 to 20-year-olds and £5.93 for those 21 and above. It is plain that many employers think a large proportion of young people are just not worth that amount of money too them. Particularly when other employment legislation adds to their costs even more, and makes it almost impossible to get rid of workers they find they don't need. No wonder they aren't hiring.
It's time to scrap the minimum wage for young people. It just prices them out of jobs, so does them no good at all. For them, low-paid work is a way of building up some human capital that will make it easier to find a better job. But we stop them even getting that work at all – and all in the name of protecting workers.
HERE
Youth unemployment – and the same is true of immigrants and other minority groups – is always worst when times are hard. Employers keep the best workers and shed the labour they do not value so much. And the fact is that young people are just not worth as much to employers as older workers. They may have no marketable skills. They will have little or no experience of how workplaces operate. They might, after a decade and a half of state education, even lack basic life skills.
And yet government regulation forces employers to pay not less than £4.92 per hour for 18 to 20-year-olds and £5.93 for those 21 and above. It is plain that many employers think a large proportion of young people are just not worth that amount of money too them. Particularly when other employment legislation adds to their costs even more, and makes it almost impossible to get rid of workers they find they don't need. No wonder they aren't hiring.
It's time to scrap the minimum wage for young people. It just prices them out of jobs, so does them no good at all. For them, low-paid work is a way of building up some human capital that will make it easier to find a better job. But we stop them even getting that work at all – and all in the name of protecting workers.
HERE
NickKristof Nicholas Kristof
At hospital in #Bahrain. 600 brought here w/ injuries as of 8 am, more since. Beatings, shotgun pellets, rubber bullets.
2احداث البيضاء ليبيا 2011/2/16
Protesters chant "Gaddafi you dictator! Your turn has come! Your turn has come!"
Libyan protesters prepare for 'day of rage'
In a country where public dissent is rare, plans for the protests were being circulated by anonymous activists on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and it was not clear if the demonstrations would materialise.
Libya has been tightly controlled for over 40 years by Muammar Gaddafi – who is now Africa's longest-serving leader – but the oil exporter has felt the ripples from the overthrow of long-standing leaders in its neighbours Egypt and Tunisia.
Though some Libyans complain about unemployment, inequality and limits on political freedoms, analysts say an Egypt-style revolt is unlikely because the government can use oil revenues to smooth over most social problems.
Witnesses and local media reported that several hundred people clashed with police and Gaddafi supporters on Tuesday night in the city of Benghazi, about 1,000km (600 miles) east of the Libyan capital.
Late on Wednesday evening, it was impossible to contact witnesses in Benghazi because telephone connections to the city appeared to be out of order.
State media reported there were pro-Gaddafi protests too across the country, with people chanting "We sacrifice our blood and souls for you, our leader!" and "We are a generation built by Muammar and anyone who opposes it will be destroyed!"
People posting messages on opposition website Libya Our Home, which is based outside the country, urged Libyans to protest and drew parallels with the uprising this month that toppled the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.
"From every square in our beloved country, people should all come together in one city and one square to make this regime and its supporters afraid, and force them to run away because they are cowards," said a post from someone called Mustafa.
A Facebook page dedicated to the planned protest urged followers to "make it a day of rage in Libya".
Gaddafi says Libya does not need to import western concepts of democracy because it is run on his system - known as the Third Universal Theory - under which citizens govern themselves through grassroots institutions called popular committees.
Thursday is the anniversary of clashes on 17 February 2006 in Benghazi, when security forces killed several protesters who were attacking the city's Italian consulate.
Amnesty International voiced concern about a new crackdown. "The Libyan authorities must allow peaceful protests, not try to stifle them with heavy-handed repression," it said in a statement.
@'The Guardian'
Bahrain
nolanjazeera Dan Nolan
WARNING:horrific picRT @joshmull @StateDept @PJCrowley Still dont feel like making statement on Bahrain crackdown?
monaeltahawy Mona Eltahawy
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