Category: Music

Legend has it that gypsy punker Eugene Hutz wrote (and later performed) American Wedding at the reception of the first wedding he attended in the U.S. Imagine his disappointment that the party didn’t last three days, as is the Ukrainian tradition.

Be you Donald Trump, or be an anarchist
Make sure that your wedding doesn’t end up like this.

Live version.

Bonus Gogol Bordello tracks: Madagascar | Alcohol (Live)

I stumbled on this over at Dark Roasted Blend. It has a special appeal as we get emails from our son who’s in Belarus on business, filling us in on what life is like in that former Soviet country. (I’m hoping he can check out the botanical garden for me.) Anyone have suggestions for what to see and do while in Minsk?

If you don’t remember the ‘original’ video (if I got it right, a 1998 remixed version of Run DMC’s 1983 groundbreaking hiphop hit), it’s eerily similar, only the breakdancers aren’t near as good. And there’s quite a good message in the lyrics, if you listen.

Update [5/10/2008]: Good timing. Good ink for Mali music in the NY Times, an article on Festival au Desert, held each January in the remote African city of Essakane, Mali.

Hat tip to my friend Scott for pointing me to this group. They played at our local Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival up the road in Trumansburg. From Wikipedia:

… a musical band formed in 1982 in Muammar al-Gaddafi’s camps of Tuareg rebels. They play in the Tishoumaren (“music of the unemployed”) style, and sing mostly in the French and Tamashek languages. Their songs mostly cover the subject of independence for their people from the government of Mali. They are said to be the first Tuareg band to use electric guitars.

Chet Boghassa with lots of footage from Mali. Live version.

Interesting pairing with Carlos Santana:

Sweet Jane. I’ve always suspected Lou Reed would approve.

Even better: A Common Disaster and Miles From Our Home.

Hopefully more pix later.

It’s been more than I year since I posted about my favorite Zen bluesman, Chris Smither (including garden appropriate content like Origin of Species and that street produce vendor song). Today, it’s just some old Philly Folk Festival performances.

Hold on:

Drive you home again:

Or if you need a garden blog surfing groove, here’s dj Cheb I Sabbah (Toura Toura):