Buju Banton - mistrial declared

From the BBC, "A US judge has declared a mistrial for reggae star Buju Banton, accused last year of conspiring to buy cocaine from an undercover police officer.

"Jurors in the US state of Florida were unable to reach a verdict. The four-time Grammy nominee may be re-tried in December. A defence lawyer asked he be freed on a bond.... Banton has been jailed since 10 December [last year]."

His arrest and trial have been widely reported in Jamaica - his family talk on the trial here.

Two iPads and a DJ mixer

Rana Sobhany is one of the speakers at Web 2.0 conference on in New York this week - she talks about developing music apps for the iPad. She started developing this idea since April this year.
 Demo of the gear starts at 4.11 into the video.

She says shes hacked it together based on Ableton Live software, and uses an app called Looptastic. Warning - her demo uses cheesy techno (she describes it as eclectrobreakstep). It's an interesting concept, but it's not exactly Serato on iPad. The use of Ableton on iPad suggests it could be something a group like locals Pitch Black (who use Ableton in a live setting) could really have some fun with. (Wired magazine article on  Rana)





Another session at Web 2.0 that sounds like it would've been fun was Why Everything Sounds Better Auto-Tuned, Despite Auto-Tune's Alleged Death (link), presented by the Gregory Brothers, the folk behind autotune the news, and the Double Rainbow song.

"Jay Z declared the death of  autotune, and we're here to give it a proper funeral..."

And look - here it is.... awesome youtubeness...

Awards season

In this month's Metro magazine, Gary Steel has critiqued the NZ Music Awards, and picked at the bones - he's is a former judge of said awards. Hussein Moses at The Corner blog talks about his comments here, and has a pdf of the article too if you want to read it  (as Metro no longer has a website - that's the progessive thinking of old media for you).

Hussein says... "... as Steel tries to get across in his column, let’s not forget about the independent labels and artists which are the backbone of our industry. Border, Arch Hill, Muzai and countless others release superb music every year and will continue to as long as they can."

The need for some kind of recognition of the incredibly strong indie sector we have at present seems to be coming thru from a lot of quarters - maybe it's time to revive an indie awards show, similar to the B-Net awards? The indie labels have a very strong organisation in Independent Music New Zealand, who could pull it together. If it's anything like the B-Net Awards, it would be a bloody great night.

The B-Nets started out in 1998 at the Mandalay (remember the Male/Female Fox award?), and originally sprang into existence because the NZ Music Awards were so endlessly crap. They’ve kind of outlived their purpose, as many of the acts it used to highlight like Fat Freddys, SJD, Mint Chicks, Phoenix Foundation or Shapeshifter, now get recognised by the NZMA’s, which is a sign of the Music Awards evolving. The B-Nets stopped in 2007.

Steels' argument for overlooked acts highlights critically acclaimed artist SJD, and Steel claims that as long as the the music awards judging team is "loaded with radio jocks and industry honchos" with little passion for music or limited knowledge,  SJD "will continue to be roundly ignored".

SJD has won two Tui awards (in 2005), and been nominated for best male solo act. He's not in the running this year, I guess because he hasn't put out an album recently. Steel also points at the Naked and Famous as being proudly indie, but distributed by  a major label, Universal. The last three SJD albums were also distributed by Universal (as were Naked And Famous's earlier EP releases).

One of the things I like about the NZ Music Awards, it gets people talking about our music.  We're a passionate lot and that's a good thing. Now, lets bring back the B-Nets!

Rock Hall of Fame nominees

Pretty amusing list of names... First-time nominees include Bon Jovi, Donovan, Dr. John, Tom Waits, Alice Cooper and Neil Diamond. Darlene Love, LL Cool J, Donna Summer and the Beastie Boys have been nominated before. Other previous nominees include the J Geils Band; Chuck Willis; Chic and Joe Tex.

Artists must have had their first release 25 years ago. Tom Waits has been eligible since 1998 as has Neil Diamond; Dr John, since 1993. Chic have been nominated 5 times prior to this year. Go figure.

Roar power

The Big Day Out lineup was announced this morning at 8am. Local media seem to have been under an NDA (non disclosure agreement) until that time, even though the BDO official website posted the lineup at 2am NZT (breaking their own NDA). The original media launch was scheduled for 7pm last night. Apparently this is the last time the BDO organisers will do the launch this way - I hope they do it next year with a dance party in the Supertop at 2am. That would be fun for the media, aye? Anyways, my two predictions were right on - Tool and Grinderman. So much for the rumoured Soundgarden/Stone Temple Pilots grunge revival. Or maybe that's in the 2nd announcement.

The lineup includes MIA, LCD Sound System (one of the best live acts I've ever seen, based on their 2008 BDO appearance), Grinderman, Deftones, The Black Keys, Lupe Fiasco, Bookashade DJs, Die Antwoord, Crysal Castles, and more. It's also slightly nostalgic, with the likes of Tool, Rammstein, Primal Scream (playing Screamadelica) and of course Iggy and the Stooges, with James Williamson on guitar, in for the late, great Ron Asheton. They are currently playing the Raw Power album, and it sounds like this. Fucken rock n roll excitement, kids.




BDO Auckland, January 21, 2011. Tickets on sale October 8.

Keep it acapella

Live, acapella version of Momma hold my hand, by Aloe Blacc. Incredible.



Album version of Momma hold my hand is below (nice fan video), off Good Things. Out now on Stonesthrow, produced by Truth and Soul crew (El Michels Affair etc). The album is super soulful. Don't sleep on it.

Look, it's the vinyl revival! (Story #281)

Photo: Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

It's that time again - another fabulous story about the rise of vinyl sales. Computerworld US does a bunch of number crunching, over here - "Forget digital tunes; analog music on the upswing".

"As surprising as it may sound, LP sales are up again this year, and 2009 had the highest number of LP sales ever since we started tracking them," said David Bakula, senior vice president of analytics at Nielsen Entertainment." Unfortunately the article fails to mention exactly when they did start tracking vinyl sales.

And as a bonus, here's the New York Times on record collectors at the recent Brooklyn Flea record fair, like "Bill Yawien, a 55-year-old from Sheepshead Bay whose recent move from a house to a condo forced him into the kind of difficult life decision Manhattan Mini Storage was created to facilitate. “It was time to whittle it down a little,” Mr. Yawien remarked to some browsers perusing his trove of ancient discs. “I kept about 4,000 records."

Salsa Explosion

Salsa Explosion: The New York Salsa Revolution is a compilation of some of the finest tunes from legendary label Fania Records. If you want a taster, try this free download...

Louie Ramirez- "Ahora Es El Tiempo" (mediafire) (soundcloud)

"Salsa Explosion, provides an essential introduction to the classic Fania sound through some of the label’s major artists including Celia Cruz, Mongo Santamaria, Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe, Ray Barretto and the Daddy of the Fania family, Johnny Pacheco.

From: Salsa Explosion: The New York Salsa Revolution 1969 - 1979 (out Sept 28th, Strut)

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Sat Sept 25

Chuck Womack and the sweet souls -Ham hocks and beans - Quantic remix
Tubbs - Five day night - Fat Freddys rework
Timmy Thomas - Why can't we live together -Shoes edit
Wajeed - Jeedo suave
Romanowski - Romjack steady
Dub Spencer and Trance Hill - Enter the sandman
Lovejoys - It aint easy
Manasseh - I-wah
Roots radics -Babylon wrong
Phyllis Dillon - Woman of the ghetto
Derrick Morgan - I'm the ruler
Big youth - Jim screechy - Smith and Mighty remix
Philadelphia allstars - Let's clean up the ghetto - Danny Krivit edit
Sleepwalker - Brotherhood - Mitsu the Beats remix
Aloe Blacc - Loving you is killing me
Budos Band - Golden dunes
Outlines - Waiting in line inst
Charles Wright and Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band - Girl from Ipanema, Express yourself, Must be your thing
(off the 5 album boxset from Rhno, only $19.99. Grab it! Every home should have one.)
Tokyo ska paradise orchestra - The Big Man still standing - Winston Hazel and Marc Woolford remix
Mad lion - Girlzzz
Dillinger - Cokane in my brain 12" mix
Lee Scratch Perry - Fire power
Keith Hudson - Troubles

America’s 10 greatest indie record stores

Via Flavorpill. Read it here...

" A few weeks ago, we published our list of the country’s top 10 bookstores, a response to those who browse but don’t buy and those who would abandon paperbacks and hardcovers for the realm of eBooks. It generated so much discussion it inspired us to put together another roundup of shops for culture vultures: America’s best independent music stores.

" Although, in general, they seem to be doing much better than their chain competitors in this era of declining CD sales and renewed interest in vinyl records, legendary outlets still go out of business all the time — like, most recently, beloved NY and LA hip-hop destination Fat Beats.

" This list isn’t just our opinion: It’s the result of recommendations from Flavorpill staff and readers (who weighed in via Facebook). Add to our celebration of indie music stores around the country by leaving your picks in the comments."