KATIA MORAES CHARMS, BUT BIG SAM STEALS THE SHOW; TUAREGS TIDAWT THIS FRIDAY IN PASADENA

Like I said before, if you’re a true music aficionado, whether musician, promoter, critic, or mere fanatic, the pay-off is that moment when music just knocks you on your ass. You went in expecting nothing, got blown away, and then left with a wet spot in your mind where something hard and unyielding used to be. That’s just what happened Saturday night at MacArthur Park courtesy of Big Sam’s Funky Nation. I didn’t think it could happen two weeks in a row, after Del Castillo reminded me of why I used to love hanging in Austin. Now Big Sam comes along and makes me want to go back to N’Awlins. I’ve never been such a huge fan of New Orleans music really, Cajun and Zydeco sure, but that ain’t the Big Easy. I’ve been to Mardi Gras, Jazz & Heritage fests, Bourbon Street late-night staggers, and private Meters parties in Manhattan, but I’ve never been more than politely appreciative and thankful, never moved. Saturday night I mean I was literally MOVED, like up out of my seat. I had no choice. If I’d known Big Sam used to be the Dirty Dozen trombonist, that might explain it, but I didn’t know that. Now that I know he usually has a full horn section with him, I want the full Monty, or the full Sam that is, and he’s a big guy. His band are grade-A jazz musicians laying down pure funk, featuring Adam Matazar on organ and Casey Robinson on lead guitar. They’ll be at the Continental Club in south Austin on the 23^rd this month. Don’t miss it. Hey, wait a minute… where am I? What year is this? What identity problem?

The LACMA non-stage was perfect for Katia Moraes of Pure Samba earlier Saturday evening, enabling her to walk right out into the crowd in her frequent exhortations to dance and to love. Her charm is infectious; few would dare refuse. That’s what’s I like about speakers of Romance languages- they’re so romantic. If Dennis Hopper epitomized the northern barbarian outlook in the movie Water World with his line, “Don’t just stand there- kill something!” Ms. Moraes one-ups him with the Romantic counterpart, “Don’t just stand there- kiss something!” Katia Moraes’ is samba almost to the point of bossa nova, sleek and sexy but most of all sensual, fingers interlocking fingers, hands holding hands with Nature and everything else surrounding, including him or her, lost in the moment. And this is a down-to-earth moment, too, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and just one of the guys. But don’t be fooled by her tom-boy casualness. She really is a good looker, and a good singer too. I don’t know how her other band Sambaguru differs from Pure Samba, but I plan to find out. I’ve been to Brazil looking for music like this and only found second-rate rock, passable folk, and novelty acts in a festival presided over by Gilberto Gil. What does that say? It wasn’t Rio…

Friday was also a good day for music. I managed to catch a bit of Chekere’ at MacArthur and also some of Jaipur Kawa at Cal Plaza. Chekere’ is a pretty darn good Latin jazz band featuring Yvette Summers on percussion and vocals and Eric Luis Gonzalez on trumpet. Yvette is quite charismatic and full of thoughts and ideas, something of a self-styled African wonder woman, and insists on talking even though she’s been warned to ‘shut up and play,’ but she was actually spot-on with her comments on African culture, sometimes to my surprise. Gonzalez can certainly wail on the t-horn and the whole band is quite good. Any place besides LA that would be more than enough. Jaipur Kawa is another story. If the mere spectacle of an Indian brass band isn’t enough for you, then the guy balancing a bowling ball off his nose certainly is. I’m only exaggerating a little bit, but the point is that the spectacle overrides the music. The only problem is that it’s really not enough of a spectacle to be a real spectacle. There’s a reason circuses have three rings, and even small ones have lots of people with lots of things going on. Any less than that and I’m thinking ‘tourist schtick.’ I expected the guy to charm a snake out of his pants at any moment. Still these guys are fun if only ‘India lite.’ It’s cheaper than a flight to Delhi.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Irish music either, though always respectful mind you, and definitely a bit skeptical about so-called ‘Celtic’ music, soaring and wailing, mystical and magical, with overtones of Lindisfarne and undercurrents of little people. But you can’t beat traditional Irish music for drinking in a pub and getting happy with your friends. Okay, so MacArthur Park is not exactly Kilkenny, but you can still have fun with it. That’s the kind of music Ken O’Malley and his Twilight Lords played Thursday, along with some other folksy songs by fellow sympathizers such as Van Morrison and Townes Van Zandt. Sounds good to me.

Irish music and culture have affinities with the Mexican, however bizarre that may seem at first glance. They both come by circuitous routes before meeting in Catholic churches and a sentimental attachment to homeland. Ireland is the last stand of Gaelic- i.e. Gallic, Galatian- culture after a centuries-long migration from that uncertain Indo-European heartland through Central Europe, France, and England. One strand even got lost in Anatolia, which is only known because it’s Biblical. Mexican culture of course begins from that uncertain Asian heartland (possibly the same as the Indo-European) and winds its way through the Americas before finding itself ‘down there,’ then mixing it up with European Spaniards coming the other way. One strand even found itself in Texas where it mixed culturally with not-so-long-ago German immigrants who taught them the polka and gave them the accordion. Thus a new genre of ‘Mexican’ music was born in exile. That’s the music Juan Manuel Barco’s Tejano conjunto played Wednesday night, complete with narrative and history. These guys may not have full professional chops and stage presence yet, but they’ve got lots of heart. There’s plenty of time for the other. They’re only in their sixties. Dreams die hard.

It’s another good week for world music coming up. First there’s Pistolera at the Mac on Wednesday playing their own unique brand of Mexican ‘alt-folklorico’ the way women would do it if they could. They can. I saw these ladies at Webster Hall NY earlier this year amidst the cluster-funk of GlobalFest, and they rock out. Rangoli will follow them with Indian dance on Thursday and then CHANA with electronic musica Latina on Friday. Then there’s Tuareg bluesmen Tidawt out at Levitt in Pasadena on Friday, playing the kind of music that Tinariwen brought to the forefront last year. Argentinians Los Pinguos follow them on Saturday. Luis Conte Cuba is at H&H tonight Tuesday and Chuchito Valdes is at LACMA on Saturday. Lal Meri does East Indian trip-hop at Cal Plaza at noon Friday. How can you get to six or eight shows in only four days? Practice.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN MacARTHUR PARK

They say flamenco bands are a dime a dozen in Spain (actually they don’t say that; I say that), so why do they all sound the same- two Spanish guitarists and three people clapping and clogging to the rhythm, with assorted throw-away vocals? Well, this is good interesting stuff to be sure, but can’t somebody do something new and original with it? Enter the Gypsy Kings, basically doing a double-or-nothing, twice the guitars and twice the vocals and bam! They’ve got hits and top billing and a high-five artists’ fee while the rest wallow in anonymity. But still, can’t somebody take flamenco and do something really original? They can; and have. You’ve even heard them, but you probably didn’t notice. They’re Del Castillo and they were the nuts and bolts of Robert Rodriguez’ ‘own rock band’ Chingon (I won’t translate) in the third installment of the ‘Mariachi’ trilogy. The sound they create is so memorable and classic that you assume it’s always been around. Maybe it has, but only in small snatches. Imagine a combination of Spanish guitar, Flamenco flavor, Santana stylings, and Mana’ pop hooks, and you’re getting the pic.

These guys have really got something, and any notion that Rodriguez himself might deserve the credit is undermined by the fact that these guys predated Erase Una Vez en Mexico. If it were the ‘Rodriguez sound’, then you would’ve heard it on previous ‘Mariachi’ installments. You didn’t; you heard Los Lobos. The band is anchored by suave Spanish speed guitarists Mark and Rick Del Castillo and fronted vocally by Mexican bad-ass Alex Ruiz, a brilliant convergence of the different Spanish and Mexican personalities. This is Tex-Mex music at its best. This is why you go to Austin. These guys come out of the same milieu that has spawned such innovators as Anglos Doug Sahm and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Espanoles Charanga Cakewalk and Maneja Beto, and hybrids Alejandro Escovedo, Los Lonely Boys and Flaco Jimenez. It’s fitting they showed up at McArthur Park in the Central American barrio only days before Salvadoran independence day. It’s a shame few people showed up. It’s not cutesy cumbia after all, and it’s really not designed for dancing, though I guess you could. It’s for listening and letting your mind wander over high plains and fields of saguaro, sensitivities heightened and mentally alert. If there’s any vicarious thrill to being a music promoter/aficionado, it’s discovering something new and different, maybe right before your eyes but invisible until you took the time to notice. Del Castillo could be the next Los Lobos. Have I said enough good things yet?

Latino music took a totally different turn with Quetzal Guerrero as part of the Fresh Roots Jazz Festival at Cal Plaza’s Grand Performances Friday night. This is smooth violin-laced jazz with a Brazilian feel, sung in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. I was pleasantly surprised. This is music for caressing your lover, getting out of your rut and sliding into a groove. I’ll expect more from Quetzal G with or without his eponymous warriors. There’s always room for a good jazz violinist. Latino music took a more familiar path with Bobby Matos’ (Afro) Latin Jazz Ensemble at LACMA on Saturday. There’s a lot of salsa and Latin jazz in this town. You gotta’ be tight. The confusing profusion of band names under which Mr. Matos plays may reflect some confusion in the delivery of such. I’d give him big credit for adding violin and flute to diversify the sound, but they might need to double up on the practice sessions. There were a few calls from the line of scrimmage and some dropped leads, and that hurts. The dancers probably won’t notice of course, but listeners do. Like I say I don’t always know where Latin jazz becomes salsa becomes cumbia becomes ‘rock en Espanol’ becomes ‘indie en Espanol’ on a scale of tightness to looseness, perhaps in inverse proportion of spontaneity to formality, but if you call yourself ‘jazz’ then you better be tight and you better wail on the leads. Perhaps there’s some confusion with half the band from LA and half from NY. Bobby’s got a long distinguished career. Cut him some slack.

Last but not least, and not even last chronologically, Thursday night was reggae night at McArthur Park with Elan, who has made a name for himself, and still does sometimes, by assuming Bob Marley’s vocal roles with Bob’s old band The Wailers. His voice does sound uncannily like that of Uncle Bob’s. Big deal; I know a guy in Chiang Mai who’s made a career out of being the Thai John Lennon. Do we love Bob Marley because of his singing voice? No, we love him because he articulated something that needed to be articulated and gave musical voice to African/American identity in the lean years between soul and rap. His current MySpace numbers verify the timelessness of his message. Fortunately Elan has got some good hooks in his own right, and his music is unmistakably reggae, both technically and spiritually, among the best of what that genre has to offer in this age of lifeless re-hash. It’s eminently listenable.

There was a lot more world music this past week that I couldn’t make, like Dengue Fever at El Rey and Nomo at Amoeba, but that’s the breaks. I’ve seen them both and DF is one of my all-time faves, but you live for the thrill of discovery. This week gives some much-needed African music into the mix with Oliver Mtukudzi and Rocky Dawuni at Santa Monica Pier and Daby Toure’ at Skirball Cultural Center. Unfortunately they’re at the same time, so you can’t see both. There should be some sort of way to avoid this. Besides that there will be plenty of other choices, including Juan Manuel Barco’s Tejano conjunto, the Dublin 4, and Chekere Latin Jazz at MacArthur Park on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday respectively. Then there’s zydeco with Lisa Haley on Thursday, Smadar Levi’s Semitic tunes on Friday, and Nocy’s guitar wizardy on Saturday night, all at the Levitt sister Pavilion in Pasadena. Cal Plaza water court downtown has Jaipur Kawa Brass Band Friday at noon and 8pm, and LACMA has got Pure Samba with Katia Moraes on Saturday evening. I love this job. When do I get paid?

MUSIC'S WORLDLY CHARMS- RUPA ROCKS, DENGUE FEVER SATURDAY AT EL REY

The ‘world’ genre of music can turn up some real gems sometimes, and that’s what we world music aficionados live for, those acts that define and refine the musical, cultural, and linguistic quirks that we love and live for. Dengue Fever, everybody’s favorite Cambodian band (bassist Senon is not really Cambodian, but don’t tell anyone), is certainly one of the best examples of this. Formed and founded by brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman from LA and fronted by Ch’hom Nimol, the sweetheart songstress of Khmer Karaoke from Battambang, these guys rock and roll in Khmer and English like no other, with quirks and hooks and feeling to boot. This is modern indie rock inspired by 60’s killer Cambodian pop, tweaked to their own subtle frequencies and timing, and performed with… okay, a fever, yeah, that’s right. They’ll be at El Rey this Saturday, not to be missed.

Rupa and the April fishes is another example of the quirkiness that we love in world music (I’ll just say WoMu for short, OK? We do offer CD’s). They showed up for a noontime Grand Performance gig at Cal Plaza on Friday in some significant summertime LA heat, no problem for an Angeleno but maybe problematic for a fog-bound Franciscan. If so, it didn’t show; they were great. Look out, Manu Chao. You may have some female competition. Of Indian descent, San Fran birth, and world-wide travel and residence, Rupa sings mostly in French, with some Spanish and English, and rumors of Hindi and Roma. Nevertheless, regardless of the language, the musical idiom is French, complete with abrupt tempo changes and extended leads by accordion and cello. As Manu Chao himself proved long ago there’s healthy demand for someone who can tame that farcical romantic but sometimes overwrought French ballad genre and channel it into some healthy digestible pop and roll. Rupa succeeds. I only hope she doesn’t jeopardize it by casting herself too strongly as a reborn ‘hippie chick’ singer, performing barefoot, looking for berries to pick, and hanging with repatriated mojados in TJ. All that’s fine and good, of course, but once typecast, it can be hard to change.

This past week may have been a little less exciting than some previous ones for me, but that’s partly because I’d already seen some of the acts, such as Baka Beyond at Skirball and Quetzal at Levitt Pavilion in McArthur Park. Then there’s the Greek Theatre, where I heard Los Lobos with Los Lonely Boys was good, but I didn’t get there. Promoters note: I do accept free tickets. I assume they worked out who was headliner. But as always, at least in the summer, there’s no shortage of good world music to go around. This week there was even some dance to add to the mix, something I don’t usually go out of my way for, so it’s nice to have it come to me. First there were Sounds of Korea doing traditional songs and dances, very staged and elaborate, relatively speaking, similar to the traditional Chinese operas I’ve seen frequently in Thailand, though more serious and less burlesque (i.e. no behind-the-screen percussion laugh track). Seeing a rack of drums lined up across the stage, I hoped to see some serious acrobatic percussion, such as I’d seen in Thailand in Chinese festivals. I know some wood carvers in Hanoi that carve huge drums which they export everywhere, so am very curious about this universal aspect of Asian culture. Unfortunately they didn’t get this far. Still this was a charming cultural display and it was good to see some of the sizeable Korean community come out in support. Let me know when there’s a concert of Korean roots music; I’ll be there. Then there was the Delfos Danza Contemporanea from Mazatlan, Mexico at Cal Plaza Friday and Saturday nights. This was anything but regional or ethnic; this is contemporary dance of the highest order I’d say. I’m no aficionado, much less an expert or critic, not yet anyway, but the effect was striking. I’m hungry for more.

But this is a music blog, not a dance blog, so that’s what I’ll talk about. As always there’s so much good salsa here that you start looking for added flavor. Chipotle? Cilantro? Corn and beans? This week I went and heard Pete Escovedo at Hollywood and Highland for their Tuesday night ‘rum and humble’ jazz series. I don’t always know where salsa stops and Latin jazz begins, but I don’t worry about it much. Escovedo was great, and the crowd was appreciative. He was in town for the LA Jazz and Music Festival as part of the ‘Escovedo Family.’ For anyone who doesn’t know, that’s a distinguished family indeed, prominent in San Francisco music circles for years, both rock and Latin Jazz. His late brother Coke and Pete himself were long associated with Carlos Santana before joining more mainstream jazz circles. I’m not sure which ‘E family’ members were with him at the Festival, but I imagine daughter Sheila E. was, at least. Little brother Alejandro’s playing at the Troubador this week. If he showed up at Pete’s gig I don’t want to know, or I might die kicking myself. Pete’s over seventy now; catch him soon if you haven’t already. He still kicks ass, in all three of his bands.

Last but not least I managed to catch part of the Rogelio Mitchell show at LACMA Saturday. Since I wasn’t familiar with him, so didn’t expect much, I was pleasantly surprised. I even made some smart-ass remark about never having heard of reggae en Espanol, so now I have not only heard of it, I’ve heard it. Still most of his songs are in English, though there was a notable Hispanic contingent in the audience in addition to the Rastafarios and Homies. Sparsely backed by a minimal rhythm section and occasional violin, Rogelio mostly evoked Richie Havens and Bob Marley in his songs of love and peace and forgiveness. He even had an itinerant rapper for creative effect. I even like rap better now since I heard it referred to as ‘talking blues.’ Maybe there’s hope for me yet in the world of hip-hop.

This week, in addition to Dengue Fever at El Rey on Saturday, there’s Del Castillo, ELAN, and Sambaguru at Levitt Pasadena and Celtic Spring and Rolando Morales at Levitt McArthur. The there’s Otmaro Ruiz and Bobby Matos at LACMA. The only problem with world music in LA in the summer is making decisions.

QUALITY RADIO DOESN’T HAVE TO GET SO SIRIUS

I just heard this morning that XM and Sirius are merging. I have no opinion on the subject. Yeah, right, as if there were any subject I don’t have an opinion on. But anyway, I suppose it didn’t live up to all the hype. If it did, they wouldn’t be merging; there would be more emerging. Who wants to listen to canned radio anyway? Good radio is LIVE, even though I don’t particularly care to listen to some failed-actor egomaniac blessed or cursed with the ‘gift’ of gab. I just want some spontaneity. Though most stations have some sort of play list, there’s always at least some flexibility in the frequency or pattern of rotation. The only advantage I could see in satellite radio is the consistency to be had in long-distance driving. If you find something you like you can follow it from all the way down I-10, from Santa Monica to Savannah. Is there any coincidence in the timing of this current consolidation with the rise of gas prices? Accordingly the only time I’ve availed myself of satellite radio is while driving rental cars. Apparently it’s becoming standard. Unfortunately I had Sirius, and could find no decent world music. XM has world music, though I haven’t heard it yet. The term ‘world music’ can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Still, it’s canned. If you listen long enough, it’ll repeat. That ain’t radio. That’s a tape loop.

Los Angelenos have got it nice, lots of good radio stations. Residents of any big city or college town have it similar, music geared to eclectic tastes. There’s nothing wrong with mainstream country or rap, hip-hop or pop. It’s just a matter of proportion, that and some true diversity. Public radio helped a lot, starting way back in the 70’s and spreading quickly wherever anyone had long hair and liked good music. Some of the best music I ever heard was driving through the outback of Colorado while gazing upon glaciers. But big cities generally have the best offerings. In LA of course there’s the public KCRW, which prides itself on its ‘eclecticism’, has the standard PR in-depth news coverage, even promotes shows with the type of ‘indie’-style music that it features, and has some world music second to none, though not every day. Just as good almost is Indie 103.1, which has a bit punkier rockier feel to it generally, though with the great Americana-genre ‘Watusi Rodeo’ on Sunday mornings and an international rock selection on Saturday morning, not to be confused with ‘world music.’ They even have ex-Sex Pistol Steve ‘Jonesy’ Jones syndicated live from London every day and a show they variously refer to as ‘deep alternative,’ ‘shoe-gaze,’ etc. that I’ve been meaning to check out, but it comes on late, not too late, but the same time as Seinfeld re-runs. That’s sacred time. Don’t interfere. There might be one I haven’t seen.

Growing up in a big city or progressive college town, you get spoiled. You could almost forget that the vast majority of the country’s outback is aware of the same trends, but just has a hard time accessing it. But access it they do, and always have done. As a thirteen-year-old in Mississippi in 1967 I curled up with my little transistor radio after going to bed at night, because that’s when they’d play the good shit, like ‘Day in the Life.’ I knew it was important. No one had to explain that to me. As things picked up steam in the late sixties, there was a late-night border blaster operating out of Little Rock that we listened to. Everybody knew about it, something like ‘Bleeker Street,’ though I may be confusing it with the famous street and cinema in New York. It was the same deal ten years later if you wanted to listen to New Wave and Punk, though by then cassettes were replacing eight-tracks and ‘turning friends on’ to things took on new meaning. As late as the Nineties you could’ve died waiting for Grunge to come to Flagstaff, AZ. Now it’s easier. When you hear about something interesting, you go check out their MySpace site and have a listen. Any act that’s not there probably doesn’t count for much anyway. Listening was always free, as it should be. You pay to possess. Musicians used to pay to play. Everything’s different now.

Let’s change the subject. How old is pop music- by broad definition- anyway? Arguably the recording industry started at the turn of last century, though it suffered later with the birth of radio before somebody thought about combining the two. Anyway things picked up steam after WWII with the birth of 33rpm LP’s (sp. elepe’) and 45 rpm flip-side singles. More importantly for our purposes, 1946 is the year when Billboard started keeping records, of singles at first, then albums a decade later. Guess who topped the Top 100 in 1946? Well, there was Bob Wills atop the country charts with ‘New Spanish Two-Step (and also #4 with ‘Roly-Poly’), Lionel Hampton atop R&B with ‘Hey-ba-ba-re-bop’, and Perry Como #1 in the Top 100 itself (general overall category), the Ink Spots being in the Top 5 in both of the last two. When albums were first tracked in 1956 Harry Belafonte was #1 overall, with Elvis Presley #5, and the soundtracks to My Fair Lady, The King and I, and The Eddie Durchin Story (who?) were number’s 2, 3, and 4. We’ve come a long way since then, past the rock ‘n roll invasion, folk music, the British invasion, soul, psychedelia, blues rock, country rock, disco, metal, grunge, into the modern era of hip-hop and techno, with assorted mainstream pop and rock and assorted teen idols interspersed along the way. But those are the evolutions of genre and style, faces and places. The medium was always the same- radio singles and record albums- until now. Enter iPods and podcasts, YouTube and MySpace. Everything’s different now.

Myspace is more than a social network, which I care little about myself, not being a teenager anymore. It is simply the single largest central database of music that anyone is likely to ever have access to and growing every day. I’m listening to Blind Lemon Jefferson now for the first time. Sure I could’ve hung out on Farish Street back home as a teen and maybe found something, or maybe hung out at Arhoolie later, but that’s easier said than done. I’m sitting on my bed in my underwear right now. They won’t let you do that at Arhoolie. I know; I’ve asked. Thus it plays the same role as the Internet as a whole plays, one single massive database. This is a revelation and a revolution. The record companies are the first to go, hopefully down-sized into usefulness. Publishing is next. Newspapers are being decimated and the book publishers won’t be far behind. It’s already happening, with novels and short stories and poetry being blogged and flogged increasingly each day. Will it ever reach the film industry? TV of course is hardly any different from You Tube already, dumbing itself down with heavy doses of reality, but action movies take a lot of money to make. I bet more than a few members of SAG and AFTRA have stopped worrying about a piece of ‘new media’ action and started wondering whether there will even be anything to have a piece of. The ‘star system’ has collapsed before. Everything’s different now.

AFRO-PORTUGUESE VIBES SERENADE CAL PLAZA; BAKA BEYOND THIS WEEK AT SKIRBALL

It’s been another good week for world music in LA this past week. I started off Wednesday with Son de Madera at Levitt Pavilion in McArthur Park. They are a traditional son Jarocho group from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, currently on tour of the western US. After playing Cal Plaza downtown they played gigs in Santa Fe, NM, and Yoshi’s in Oakland before returning to LA last Wednesday. The style is simple, as you would expect from an extremely rural style of music, but the effect is rich. Two musicians playing assorted guitar/mandolin-like instruments and one bassist comprise the band, occasionally accompanied visually by Rubi’ del Carmen Oseguera dancing zapateado. They sing of life, love, and… politics in southern Mexico. Though they sing a rural style, these are no country bumpkins, and list among their influences Susana Baca, Hendrix (?), and Bob Dilan (sic), in addition to a slew of their compatriots. They were also joined occasionally by members of the local sometimes-son band Quetzal. Good stuff.

Grand Performances at Cal Plaza downtown was the hot ticket last weekend. In addition to the frequent evening performances, Cape Verdean troubadour Tcheka showed up midday Friday for a show on the way to Grass Valley for the California World Music Festival. Born Manuel Lopes Andrade on the island of Santiago, Tcheka grew up playing the local hybrid batuque music in the local hybrid environment. Though called the most ‘African’ of the Cape Verdean islands, there is in fact no evidence of African habitation prior to the Portuguese arrival. Thus the music reflects a mix of the different African groups brought over as slaves and the Latin influence of the Portuguese and later Brazilians. If this makes the music and culture less African, then that’s both blessing and curse. At 60 years, Cape Verde has by far the highest life expectancy of West Africa. Tcheka has succeeded in adapting the local music to modern times and tastes, especially the guitar, making an aboriginal drum-based style of music more melodic and suitable for ballads and story-telling. It has great affinity with some Brazilian music, i.e. the best Brazilian music. Give it a listen if you like that style of silky-smooth sometimes-sexy musica soave.

If all Afro-Portuguese music is a hybrid, then Waldemar Bastos mixes it up with an even heavier dose of the Latin, thus more romantic, component. On some songs you could close your eyes and imagine that you’re not in the jungle, not in a mud-walled village, not on some driftwood-strewn beach, but instead maybe at a fado fest at the market in old-town Lisboa on a Sunday afternoon still train-lagged from the long ride from Madrid the night before, waiting for the crowd to show up, trying to remember the differences between the Brazilian and Portuguese languages, trying to wake up, spilling hot espresso all over your notebook and pretending it doesn’t matter. This life is your fantasy after all. Bastos has seen much of the world, leaving his native Angola at an early age to never return, spending much time in Europe and the Americas, particularly Brazil. There he mingled with the cream of the musical crop and absorbed much of their influence. Recently sponsored in the US by David Byrne and his label Luaka Bop, Bastos has even taken to recording and singing some songs in English, though with mixed results. Recording in English is always a risky proposition for a foreign act. He shared the show at Cal Plaza last Saturday with Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca, whom I unfortunately had to forego. I’ve listened to their music, though, and he completes the circle to straight-ahead salsa. This brings up the old chicken-and-egg conundrum of existence: with Afro-Cuban music, which came first, Africa or Cuba? They’ll be at Levitt Pasadena again this Saturday. I’ll see you there.

This week looks like another good one for world music elsewhere in LA also. In addition to Ricardo Lemvo, Levitt Pavilion will host folk music of Eastern Europe with Harmonia on Friday. Levitt Pavilion at McArthur Park opens this week with local fusion-soneros Quetzal on Wednesday then continues with Korean court music on Thursday. Rogelio Mitchell will be at LACMA on Saturday evening from 5-7pm with music every bit as hybrid as his name- a ‘unique blend of reggae, soca, and jazz.’ But the hot ticket I’d say is Baka Beyond at Skirball Cultural Center, carrying the concept of ‘fusion’ to new heights, somehow not just mashing together, but actually combining African and Celtic music. The strange thing is, it actually works! I saw these guys last year at Edmonton Folk Festival and they don’t disappoint. That’s at 8pm and it’s free, parking only $5 if you carpool, $10 otherwise.

First things first though. Tonight Tuesday Pete Escovedo is playing in the courtyard up at Hollywood and Highland. That sounds good to me.

THE MYSPACE COUNTDOWN CONTINUES (PART 2)

For those of you just tuning in, I’m counting MySpace plays to judge musical popularity as of July 2008, this being an era when the traditional record industry is in a shambles and Internet is ascendant. So far I’ve counted down past the top 50 with some gross omissions as I promised. By a strict count the grossest omission would be number one, Panic at the Disco, with some two hundred million plays, highest I've ever seen, and some forty million views. That’s a problem, though, because plays never run five times the number of views, so I don’t believe it. I suspect that it’s being manipulated just by the fact that somebody like me might be ranking them. I can believe the forty million views, so that’s where I’d rank them, though plays could very well be sixty million or so. That would place them right with their label-mates Fall Out Boy, who I also omitted. Then there’s their bass player's stable-mate Ashlee Simpson at 20 million, who I also omitted, along with Carrie Underwood at some 40 mil, coincidentally with one of the lamer My Space sites I’ve seen, especially since it’s ‘managed’ by Arista Nashville. Isn’t that what we’re trying to avoid here? Enter You Tube, exit Nashville.

So do you give up yet on who’s the number 3 t-shirt idol in the third world after Che Guevara and Bob Marley? It’s Kurt Cobain. Third-world cognoscenti cry out not just for revolution or minority equality, but out of sheer anguish at the very fact of their being. They ‘get it’ whether a record executive ever will or not. Nirvana has also received over 15 million MySpace plays, despite the fact that they only released three albums of new material and their leader self-destructed at the ripe old age of twenty-seven, apparently the prime age for self-destruction, the Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and James Dean of his era. Also at around or over fifteen million plays are rockers Oasis and Kid Rock, and guess which classic-era act? Beatles maybe? Stones? How about Journey, the Santana spin-off (they’ve fared much better than Santana himself)? Then there’s country star Faith Hill, Jason Mraz, rappers ‘The Dream’ and DJ Khaled, the perennial Madonna, this year’s model Leona Lewis and (pull up a drink) Paris Hilton, forever proving the old adage, “sex sells.” As I reiterate, this is a snapshot in time. It has no metaphysical meaning.

We’ve seen 90’s rock; we’ve seen 70’s; now where’s the 80’s? At around 10 million hits there are U2 and Green Day for the US and UK, along with the ex-King, now dethroned, Michael Jackson himself. Sister Janet’s right there also. Forget Van Halen; you gotta’ stay in shape. For Spanish speakers there are Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez, and for country lovers there are the good-looking Toby Keith, Dierks Bentley, Jessica Simpson, Shania Twain, and cow-couple Sugarland. Then there’s teen pop star Jesse McCartney, Shinedown and American Idol Jordin Sparks, rockers Limp Bizkit, rappers Three6Mafia and the still revered Tupac Shakur, decisively beating his old rival Notorious B.I.G., who pulls only around 100,000 posthumous MySpace hits. Then at the same 10 million level there are rising emo stars Metro Station, Wyclef Jean, last week’s Top 100 #1 Katy Perry and Gwen Stefani. Considering Gwen’s old band No Doubt itself still pulls 5 million hits with no maintenance or even any songs, a solo career may or may not have been a good career move for the ‘no-holla-back’ girl. Witness hubbie Gavin Rossdale’s re-energized career also.

Switching genres was DEFINITELY a good move for Jewel, who can’t rap worth a shit, but finds herself a rising star in country music with over five million MySpace plays, along with fellow country-folk Hank Williams, Jr. and Alan Jackson. There are also 90’s rockers Beck, Pearl Jam, and Radiohead around that level. Jazz gets their first entry on Hardie K’s list here with the bubbly Michael Buble’, as does sometimes alt-country rocker Ryan Adams. Where’s the 60’s music? Guess who tops the list? Meet Mr. Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan who Allen Ginsberg, no slouch himself, once referred to as “the greatest poet of our age” or something like that. Want some more poetic justice? The Mexican group Mana’ are right there with five million hits, Mana’ a group that’s never sung a word in English, did Led Zep’s ‘Fool in the Rain’ in Spanish’, and has never even bothered to establish an ‘official’ MySpace site. They cracked the Billboard Top 5 in 2006, though the average Anglo-American has never heard of them, with their CD ‘Amor es Combatir’ (‘Love is Warfare’). They’re one of my favorites. The Colombian hip-shaker Shakira, up-and-coming rapper David Banner, old-time-white-boy rappers Beastie Boys, country rising star Blake Shelton and Scandinavian inspirations-for-Cold Play Sigur Ros round out the five million category, along with Flobots, 80’s party animals Motley Crue and southern rockers Alkaline Trio. Guess what 60’s icons come next? The Who, followed by Jimi Hendrix.

Many more sixties and seventies favorites, all still active, show up at the 2-3 million hit level, including Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Elton John, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, the Eagles, James Taylor, and Jefferson Airplane (their Starship spin-off didn’t do as well). Tambien los Hispanicos demuestran su fortitud a este nivel con la apariencia de Juanes, Manu Chao, y Julieta Venegas. Then there are the Marley brothers Ziggy and Stephen following in daddy’s footsteps and playing his songs, America’s best 80’s band R.E.M., up-and-comer Duffy and freak-folkie Devendra Banhart. Ready for a 50’s rocker? Guess who? That’s right, Elvis the Pelvis, still getting a few million listens thirty years after his death and at least forty-five after his heyday. What about kiddie groups? Hanson’s here, along with the newly-active New Kids on the Block, featuring ‘the other Wahlberg.’ Then there’s ex-Take That star Robbie Williams. Wha ‘tsat? Never heard of them? They’re from the island, mate. They’ve got a million hits on their own, too. Don’t forget late Tex-Mex star Selena at 2-3 million. The ‘new’ Selena, or is it the ‘Mexican Miley’, Selena Gomez only gets 2-300,000, but give her some time, and maybe a Spanish dictionary, and maybe a few more years on the Disney Channel.

Obviously at this level we’ve got stars on their way down as well as their way up, such as Sam Sparro with his red-hot take on events at the Garden of Eden with ‘Black and Gold’ or Mexican Techno-Rancheros (my term, not theirs) Kinky. Scads of classic-rock biggies are at this million-hit level, including the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Lou Reed from the 60’s, but no CSN or Santana. There are Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, John Denver, Peter Frampton, and the BeeGees from the 70’s, but no Allman Brothers or Joni Mitchell. From the 80’s are Crowded House and Bauhaus, but no Tears for Fears. Not really classic but sounding a lot like it are Indigo Girls and the jammers Widespread Panic and Phish. Old-timers but not really rockers Sergio Mendes and George ‘Possum’ Jones are there at a million, as well as almost-world-music groups Ozomatli and Michael Franti’s Spearhead. Jazz’s Norah Jones is there with John Mayer and so is hip-hop’s P. Diddy/Puff Daddy/Sean Combs, or whatever he’s calling himself these days, ironically the richest rapper from other investments and involvements. We’re just counting popularity here, remember, not money.

Mainstream world music gets a lot more entries around the half-million level. There’s Lila Downs, TJ’s Nortec Collective, and everybody’s favorite Cambodian band Dengue Fever. Then there are country faves Lucinda Williams on the way up and Randy Travis on the way down and Dwight Yoakam holding his ground between acting gigs. 90’s Alanis Morrissette is there along with 70’s Genesis and their antidote, the Sex Pistols, along with 50’s rockers Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. Ready for some 40’s music? How about ol’ blue eyes, Frank Sinatra x 2, Sr. and Jr. both. I bet they’ve got a lot of the same fans. Guess who else? Yep, ol’ boots-made-for-walking Nancy is still pleasing fans. I walk by her mural every day at Hollywood and Highland. Then there’s my heroine Patti Smith and my hero Townes Van Zandt, the original Cowboy Junkie, proving that death CAN be a good career move, considering he never got more than thirty minutes of radio play in his life. There is poetic justice in the world. It wasn’t quite as good for Gram Parsons at half that nor fellow cowboy junkie Steve Earle.

The farther down you go, the thicker the field gets of course, and at a few hundred thousand hits there are many great artists rising from their graves in a universe now contracting, for instance: jazz greats John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, blues great Howlin’ Wolf, and their upbeat contemporary Doris Day. There’s world-music star Angelique Kidjo, Lyle Lovett, Carole King, and Thai chart-toppers Silly Fools. Bluegrass finally gets their vote in here with Allison Krauss and Union Station, though Jerry Douglass gets 100K on his own also, where the field starts to get really thick. There you find world-music greats Orchestra Baobab, Ali Farka Toure,’ Fela Kuti & Femi Kuti, Café Tacuba, Tinariwen, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Andy Palacio, bluegrass greats Ralph Stanley and Doc Watson, and old timers Os Mutantes, Joni Mitchell, the Allman Brothers, grateful splinter acts Ratdog, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart, and a surprisingly weak Carlos Santana, my vote for greatest disappointment. He really is not as well known among Hispanics as you might think. When he toured the US with Mana’ I suppose he was the secondary act. B.B. King is down there, too.

Are you ready for somebody from the 30’s? How about Leadbelly at a cool 50K, or maybe Blind Lemon Jefferson? 20’s? How about Al Jolson with the same? Rudy Vallee is down there somewhere. Any further listing would be a bit ridiculous. The main point is the comparative popularity among genres from a 2008 perspective. The other point is that with social networking, Internet and computers are now for everybody and record companies play only a secondary role. You Tube can even help a band where MySpace can’t. Many Thai bands from outback Isan who haven’t given a thought to MySpace have videos on You Tube. Figures like these of course are only good right here and right now. If they became a goal in themselves, then they could be manipulated like back-link farming and page ranking within the blogosphere, and thereafter meaningless as a true gauge of popularity.

So who are the big winners and the big losers in the MySpace music era? Aside from the youth for whom such is a way of life, big winners are the regional music centers in general. Big losers are the musicians manufactured by Hollywood, pablum for Saturday morning consumption. For example Austin old-timers Townes Van Zandt, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and the 13^th Floor Elevators each get more hits, 3-400,000 EACH, than some of their best-known 70’s contemporaries, while most boy bands get little or nothing at all. Elmore James has twice as many hits as the Monkees. How’s that for poetic justice?

MAKE MINE SALSA ON RAI; HOLD THE POLITICS

I don’t know who has better salsa music, LA or New York, but at some point the question becomes superfluous. They say it was created in New York by Puerto Ricans, or maybe in Cuba, but it’s a universal genre by now, widespread in all Hispanic countries and beyond, as if language carried culture embedded within, regardless of a theoretical Chomskyan ‘meta-language.’ I won’t go so far as to talk about a ‘Latino’ race as did Yari More’ last Friday at McArthur Park, but the point is valid. There’s so much good salsa music in LA that they have to distinguish themselves, and to be sure there ARE differences, usually referring to the dance that they accompany, but also to the regions they come from. Hispanic culture, not unlike Anglo, has a universal aspect as well as individual differences native to the individual locales. I won’t go into the different types of salsa, of which ‘LA’ is one, but that’s about all I know. Yari More’ is Colombian, and his salsa style may very well reflect that, with its ties to the big band era and popular cumbias, but his own self-subtitle probably says it best, the ‘romantic of salsa.’ And that he is, after many years as a balladeer. The music may not be as ‘spicey’ as some or as funky as others, but show off Yari’s own vocal talents and those of his wife Christina.

I don’t think the Levitt Pavilion at McArthur Park planned a ‘Semana Colombiana’ or anything like that this past week, but they certainly got a dose. Yari More’ was preceded there last Wednesday by a vallenato group called Very Be Careful, weird name but good stuff. Maybe the group’s name has some hidden meaning, so I won’t rag on it. They’ve got a lot of loyal fans, so they’re doing something right. For those who don’t know, vallenato is a Colombian folk style, the exact opposite of salsa, if that makes sense. It’s a very rural story-telling style with roots going way back to the wandering minstrels of Spain, by whom news was carried from town to town in the medieval era. VBC carries on this tradition albeit with the changes brought by circumstances of time and space. Ricky Balboa carries the load on vocals and accordion, and has an amazing talent. He is accompanied on stand-up bass and various percussions in addition to back-up vocals. Unfortunately a disproportionate load falls on Balboa’s shoulder. In addition to the inherent limitations of the genre, he must carry the bulk of the load on both vocals and lead instrument. He could use some more help on one or the other or both. But all told, they’re great. Catch them around LA, when they’re not playing festivals in Japan or Europe.

LA even has some world music that isn’t Latino of any form, but you won’t find the amount of African music here that you would in, say, New York, and what you do find may lack some authenticity. Usually that means reggae, but others make the effort also. ADAAWE did so last Thursday at McArthur Park. They consist of seven females every shade of brown from every corner of Africa, including Israel, which is geologically correct, if not politically. In their faces you can find traces of the horn, the bulge, the desert, and the coast. In reality, they’re probably far removed from the source, but do an admirable job of evoking it. This is percussion only, so the possibilities are a bit limited, but what they lack in Western-style ‘songs,’ they make up with energy and spirit. Make no mistake, though, this is a female group first and a percussion group second. If you’re a hard-core percussionist or drum-circle enthusiast, this might fall short of expectations. Still, they’re good fun and educational at the same time. Check ‘em out sometime around LA.

But the real treat last weekend was not at Levitt Pavilion, either LA or Pasadena. The real treat was at Cal Plaza for Grand Performances. Not only do they have some great performers, but it is a killer venue also. What it lacks in natural acoustics it makes up artificially. The split levels and broken surfaces combine with the waterfalls and surrounding high-rises to not only dramatize the setting and backdrop, but also dampen the sound and not let it boom or reverberate, which could be disastrous downtown. The high-rise neighbors don’t complain; they come out and listen. Son de Madera was there Friday, which I missed, but I’ll catch them out in the McArthur barrio this Wednesday. Saturday night rocked with Rachid Taha, the world-renowned Parisian-based Algerian who sings mostly in Arabic. They say he’s socially conscious, but I can’t really tell. My Arabic’s a little rusty, since we didn’t speak it much around the house. It’s not really ‘Rai’ music though, even with all the traditional instruments.

Taha is a master of synthesis, and does it thoroughly. The Arabic-language songs seemed to have a French pop-rock feel and the effect is splendid, harsh guttural Arab consonants blending with crisp French melodies. On the other hand, the few songs he sang in French seemed to have a more typical Algerian ‘rai’ feel to them musically, sweeping strings leaden with overtone. Either way it works. If any art is the art of combination or juxtaposition, then this is one more example. He’s played rock, punk, ballads, and blues; he’s dined with farmers and factory workers, and met with the ministers of government and masters of ‘rai.’ His new album is called ‘Rock El Casbah.’ That says it all. Unfortunately they don’t let blogger floggers like me get up close to get good pictures, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

Si voce fala a lingua Portuguesa ista e uma boa semana. Grand Performances is again the hot ticket with Tcheka playing at noon on Friday and Waldemar Bastos with Ricardo Lemvo at 8pm Saturday. Tcheka is a Cape Verdean singer singing in the island nation’s brand of Portuguese creole. Bastos and Lemvo come from another ex-Portuguese colony, Angola, blending African rhythms with Latin sensibilities in trying to make sense of the realities of that formerly war-devastated land. Brazil Brasil is at Pershing Park downtown at noon Thursday also. The Dave Pell Octet and Orquesta Charangoa are over at LACMA this Friday and Saturday evening at 6 and 5pm respectively. Then there are Son de Madera at McArthur for some rockin’ Mexican son Jarocho on Wednesday evening 7:30pm, and Filipina jazz artist Charmaine Clamor (‘my funny brown Pinay’) on Thursday if that’s your style, but I’ll probably wait for Pete Escovedo next Tuesday at Hollywood and Highland 7pm to get my jazz rocks off. See you there. It’s all free.

p.s. For those of you just checking in after a long absence, the major changes to this blog may have surprised you. Don’t worry; I’ll get back on the road and write some more travel stuff soon. What you may not have noticed are some of the minor changes- I’m now dealing Latin girls in addition to Thais. I know I know- salseros need love, too, but I’m starting to feel like a pimp. I have no control over Google ads you know. Actually I’m starting to think maybe Google knows something I don’t, about me that is. This is getting spooky.

MYSPACE’S MOST POPULAR BANDS- The Numbers are In

For those of you who didn’t read the introductory blog last week, here’s the deal- I’m looking at the plays/views for an individual musical act’s MySpace site(s) to determine who is most popular, at least of the ones that I can remember to include. Obviously MySpace could probably just click a button and list them all in order, but they haven’t done that yet, and by the time they do, or if anybody knew they were doing it, the results might be manipulated and therefore useless. So this is a snapshot in time, all relative to July 2008, a point at which I figure every act that cares to join MySpace is already on the band-wagon without a lot of ones who are now out-of-date, like much of the Internet itself, barely a decade old. What does it all mean? That depends. Though there are obvious advantages and disadvantages inherent with any count of MySpace ‘hits’, and the results are nothing if not unscientific, they are nonetheless interesting, at least to me. If someone took a scientific survey, the results might be different. But how would you do that? Would minorities be accurately counted? Would youth? At what age would you start counting? What about people without access to electricity, much less computers, much less Internet, as if computers were anything but Internet-machines these days? What about overseas?

The biggest skew is toward initiative; only those motivated enough to log on will be included here of course. The next biggest skew will be toward technological proficiency. If you can’t navigate the Net then you won’t be counted here. Such considerations are obvious and don’t really discriminate. The main discriminatory tendencies will be toward youth and toward the wealthy, those most likely to have the means and the lifestyles (i.e. the spare time) to show up here. Given population demographic skews toward older populations in Western countries anyway, maybe this balances out. There is certainly a bias toward Western countries, particularly the US, where Internet usage is high. Using the terminology of physics, numbers would probably fall off in inverse proportion from a line extending through space from LA through New York to London and in time from the moment NOW back into the past. The older the act, and the less memorable of course, then certainly the less likely they are to score highly here. They might score more highly here than in CD sales, though generally I suspect the ratios are similar.

Countries within that Western spatial orbit, including Canada, Mexico, Scandinavia, even Russia, still count strongly, then fall off precipitously. For example, T.A.T.U. the Russian femme-pop sensation led by ‘fierce brunette Julia Volkova’ and ‘sprightly red-head Lena Katina’ easily score 5 million MySpace hits while Puffy AmiYumi, superstars from Japan, who have courted the English-speaking audience far longer and far harder, barely get a quarter million and play small clubs on the US West Coast like Slim’s in SF and the Key Club in West Hollywood. Shonen Knife only get half that and I can’t even find a site for Umeboshi Plums. The numbers are similar for Faye Wong from China and Coco Lee from Taiwan, zip for Korea’s BoA (not the bank). Even sexy Anggun from Indonesia, on record as the best-selling Asian artist outside Asia, barely scores 50K, though she now lives in France, where she records albums heavy on the drum machine and poses semi-nude on the beach for mail-order bride ads touting the ‘smoothness of Indonesian women.’ She can’t do that back home in Bali, though the white girls do, hence 10-12 aftershocks to 9-11 (a popular name for mini-marts there). Of course these MySpace numbers don’t mean much until you compare them with well-known Western acts, so we’ll let the results speak for themselves, remembering that I have to actually search an act’s site to get the numbers, so there could be some gross omissions. Anyway here goes:

Number one overall in MySpace plays (drum roll here please): Lil’ Wayne at 140 MILLION MySpace plays (just as a point of reference Russia with a population of 141 million is the ninth most populous country in the world). At about half that number are slinky umbrella girl Rihanna followed closely by the rapper ‘50 Cent’ each with some 70 million. Chris Brown is not far behind with 65 million, though with some 85 million views. Surprised yet? Don’t be. Hip-hop and rap have tremendous pull in the third-world, with its universal themes and individual screams and schemes. You don’t pull these kinds of numbers with sales in south LA and Bed-Stuy alone. They may not have poster-boy status overseas equal to Che Guevara and Bob Marley yet, but whoever emerges on top of the rap race certainly could. Ready for the country? Rascal Flatts comes in at 60 million. Number 6? Guess. It’s time for another sexy girl, right? They’re legion. Another rapper maybe? Lil’ Wayne, 50 Cent, and Chris Brown are hardly unique. Guess again. Now for something completely different: a girl yes, but the anti-Britney. How about Avril Lavigne at around 60 million? Now if a country full of hip-hop fans was scary, what about a country full of raccoon girls, all wearing too much make-up and laughing at us men when we try to come on to them? Now that’s scary! But don’t worry. The dollhouse girls Danity Kane right behind prove that all is right with the world.

Who’s next? I’ll give you a clue: white men can be sexy, too. Would you believe Justin Timberlake? This should hardly surprise, former Boy Band boy going out on his own and learning to cop a pretty decent hip and a hop in the process. Ready to Rock? My Chemical Romance is right behind Linkin’ Park at Number 9. Then Fergie has over 50 million plays ON HER OWN, without the other Black-Eyed Peas, so factor that in later. What color are her eyes anyway? Then come Kanye West and Beyonce’ with around 50 million also. Country super-star Taylor Swift is right there, followed by rockers Nickelback. The pubescent Jonas Brothers also have around 50 million views also, but not that many plays, so I won’t count them here, though I would if the other way around. Like I say, this is a snapshot; who’ll remember them in ten years? Want to know Hanson’s rating? It’s not bad, actually. Next on my list, hardly scientific I reiterate, are the hip-hop acts Plies, Ne-Yo, Jim Jones and Snoop Dogg with around or over 40 million, as well as Nelly Furtado, country pop-star Carrie Underwood and MySpace’s own star, the neo-singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat, who showed that MySpace could not only map the stars, but it could create them too. In the mid-30’s are Mariah Carey, Evanescence, and soft-rocker Jack Johnson. This completes my outer circle, the strato-pause, beyond which you’ve truly achieved escape velocity and start to form your own countries and governments. Let’s get a little more down to Earth, the mere stratosphere.

So far there seems to be a strong pattern favoring hip-hop and exotic females, and sure enough at around 30 million plays we find Alicia Keys and fellow mighty not-so-modest Mouseketeers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, still holding up after all these years, after growing up on our TV screens, after baring all for public consumption. Then there are rap and soulsters Timbaland, Ray J and Gnarls Barkley and ‘emo’ superstars Boys Like Girls. Where’s the rock and freaking roll? It’s there with Coldplay, neo-classic Daughtry, the Red-Hot Chili Peppers, alt-rockers 3 Doors Down and even heavy-metal old-timers Metallica and new timers Disturbed, all there at around 30 million. Thought maybe things might move a little slower out in the country? Think again. Country stars Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban are right there at 30 mill. Then there’s R&B singer Keyshia Cole at over 25 million, and a little closer to Earth at around 20 million plays are teen idols Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers (though 50 million viewed, only 20 million actually listened), and also hip-hoppers Tech N9ne and Flo Rida, Vanessa Hudgens, pop-punks Relient K, and the UK chart-topper Natasha Bedingfield. Black-Eyed Peas are right there also, which gives Fergie an enormous figure (heh heh) if you add this to her total. Amy Winehouse is there too, bottle in hand (fitting name, eh?), as well as rockers Death Cab for Cutie, Maroon 5, Weezer and Foo Fighters, looking grungier every day, and rappers Usher and Jay-Z. We’re measuring popularity here remember, not wealth. And don’t forget the emo stars Good Charlotte and centerfold rockers Pussycat Dolls. Any comment would be superfluous.

This is boring so far, right? That’s the Top 50+ artists by my measurement of Myspace hits, subject to gross omission. There are no surprises there. Almost all of these are at or have been at the top of the charts recently (not all the Top 100 have millions of MySpace hits, however). That’s where I found most of them, and admit to listening to many for the first time in the last 2-3 days. Some have been on the charts since the birth of MySpace some three years ago, so these results are expected and to some extent negligible. Where’s the classic stuff you ask? This is where it gets interesting, and this is the reason I started this project. These numbers may even stand up over time. Now enter Robert Nesta Marley at over 20 million MySpace plays, and that doesn’t count his protégés and prodigal sons. Dead almost as many years as he ever lived, he is still a genuine third-world hero, arguably the father of world music, and still in the Top 100 on Hardie K’s list of MySpace popularity. It was only after his death that Record executives began scouring Africa for suitable replacements, even though they probably didn’t ‘get it.’ Marley is the only poster-boy who can compete with Che Guevara on third-world T-shirts, except for another rock-and-roll hero. Guess who. You might be shocked. I’ll tell you next week. I need a drink. Let’s take a break here. Next week we’ll continue getting more down-to-earth. That is where it gets even more interesting. Remember we still haven’t heard from the genres of jazz, bluegrass, and blues or the decades of the 80’s, 70’s, 60’s, 50’s, 40’s, 30’s, and even 20’s. That’s a lot of territory to cover. Can you believe it? They’re all here. Stay tuned, and feel free to tell me how many great artists I overlooked. This is a democracy, remember.