One of the best ways to listen to new indie bands in Spain is through the national public radio station Radio 3, which has programs showing different new entries from all music genres – yes, even flamenco too – both nationally and internationally. A singer/songwriter who has taken advantage of this station and who is causing a lot of sensation is Russian Red. Through her voice she gives a very emotional portrayal of all her lyrics. Her debut album “I love your glasses”, released previously this year has been very successful. The opening song, Cigarettes is a great example of her delicacy while singing her sensitive lyrics.

CatPeople are a band from Vigo that debuted in 2006 with an album called Reel #1. Their sound has often been compared to post-punk and new wave bands such as Joy Division or The Chameleons.  This comparison is exemplified in their song Goodbye Angel (from their new album, What’s the time Mr. Wolf?) which sounds as if it were straight out of late 70’s Manchester. Half Foot Outside is another band that relies in sounds from the past, with a strong guitar presence, and a soft and melodic voice from their lead singer. They have recently released their sixth album Heavenly, with eleven pure indie-rock songs that sometimes even have a Pixies touch in it.

El Guisante Mágico are a formation of six people, each one of them brings a key element to the band, from the use of a saxophone to percussions. Despite the Spanish name of this group, at first one could think they are from the U.S. Aldo Comas, lead singer, has a voice very similar to that of early Elvis Costello’s, especially in the song Bubble Song Num 1 which is part of Love, Lust and a Bit of Champagne, their debut album. Spanish passion has always been projected in music, why would their indie music be any different?

Miguel Banon-Kelley

Shaun Rabah

Not only music festivals are what fill the streets of Toronto with fine tunes. The city relies on solid music venues that serve as a platform for the multicultural citizens of this Canadian town to check, first-hand, innovative and new. A venue that has been active for over six decades is The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.  Located in a mid 19th century building, downtown Toronto, it went through some rough times during the late 90’s (not hard to understand considering how low quality some of the music was back then) but recovered thanks to the booking of bands like Spoon, Neutral Milk Hotel or The Strokes, at the beginning of the current century.

The Mod Club is another music venue, located in Toronto’s Little Italy. Even though it is not a direct heir of Brighton subculture from the 60’s, there are several images in the walls reminding people what mods are. No more than 600 people can join together to view a concert throughout the tables on the sides, the second floor balcony or the floor in front of the stage. It gives the audience a sense of intimacy when they see an artist, such as mod par excellence Paul Weller, who has performed here in the past.

The Phoenix Concert Theatre, or the “18,000 square feet of electric grandeur” as they like to describe it, has three different areas. It is an important nightclub and a venue where even The Rolling Stones have played at. Local artists have a strong performing presence at Lee’s Place, bands like Bran Van 3000, in the past, or The Bicycles in the present, have ties to this venue. It also serves as a nightclub for crazy nights listening from Brit Pop to 60´s mod garage soul.

There is a venue located in the old working class neighborhood Leslieville. The Opera House started as a vaudeville stage in the early 20th century. After several transformations throughout the years it has become one of the most prominent places to watch live music performances, having had the honor of featuring Kings of Leon, The Libertines or Dinosaur Jr., among many others. Indeed, Toronto receives many artists from their own city limits and beyond, and is well prepared for all of them to blow everyone’s mind.

Miguel Banon-Kelley

Bands like Arcade Fire or Tegan and Sara, who have been on the go for several years now, have achieved global critical acclaim. Others are internationally undiscovered still, but should become familiar, like sixties sounding The Bicycles, folkie band Great Lake Swimmers or introspective Wintersleep. Unlike other countries, there are many government agencies that support the Canadian music industry, especially emerging talents; a good example of this is CBC Radio 3, which is a public radio station dedicated to 100% Canadian new and emerging artists.

Artists from this part of the world have managed to amaze thousands of people. Singer-songwriter Feist, who also is part of Broken Social Scene, has a distinct voice and sound in her songs, her folkie 1234 song (from her third studio album, The Reminder) made it especially big after its use in an iPod Nano commercial. Tokyo Police Club, who released their first album earlier this year, combine songs with a strong base guitar and drum sounds (like in their single Your English is Good), they have recently toured with Weezer receiving great reviews.

Every year the Juno Awards, Canada’s music awards, serves as a platform for the rest of the world to get to know about new local musicians. Artists such as Rufus Wainwright, The New Pronographers or Buck 65, have been awarded in the past. Canada is living its golden years when it comes to music production, without the U.S. or the U.K. being in its way.

Oh Canada! You make it happen.

Miguel Banon-Kelley

The last member of The Strokes that has appeared in the news has been drummer Fabrizio Moretti. Along with Rodrigo Amarante (singer/writer of Brazilian indie band Los Hermanos) and Binki Shapiro, they have formed Little Joy. The band will release their album on November 4, 2008, through Rough Trade Records. There is a clear influence of Brazilian sounds, including samba (like in No One’s Better Sake) and bossa nova (in Brand New Start).  They are scheduled to tour around the US all through November.

Another member of The Strokes who has a parallel project in this, might I say, long hiatus is guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. This year he released his second album, ¿Cómo te llama?, although not great, it kept a similar pattern to innovative and successful first album Yours to Keep. There are no scheduled tour dates as he has just arrived to the US, after opening for Coldplay in their European tour.

The last member of The Strokes to have an interesting music project is bass player Nikolai Fraiture. Under the name Nickel Eye he rescued a few poems and other written material that he had created and kept over the years. With help from UK band South he recorded some demos. The album has been recorded in New York and will be titled The Time of the Assassins. It’s expected to be released by the end of January 2009. With songs that sound powerful (like Dying Star) and others close to reggae (in Brandy of the Damned) the album will draw even more followers to the shyest member of The Strokes.

Apart from recently opening a restaurant in Hollywood (with Mark Ronson, among others), lead singer Julian Casablancas participated in creating a popular song for Converse All Star’s anniversary, along with Pharrell Williams and Santogold. Even though these different members from The Strokes have created their own thing, the influence and sound of the band is present in mostly all their creations. We will just have to wait a little to get new songs and unforgettable live shows from the ever-creative New Yorkers.

Miguel Banon-Kelley

What does Baudelaire have to do with a London based indie pop band? The answer is Fanfarlo, a band named after one of the French author’s earliest books, founded by Swedish exile Simon Aurell in 2006.

The band just said, in their website, they are in the U.S. ready to start recording their first album, which is scheduled to be released early 2009. When you first listen to them you may not be able to avoid comparing them to Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or The Spinto Band. Even though they have not been widely published in the media David Bowie has well acknowledged them, stating he is sure that “we will often hear about the name Fanfarlo”.

Formed by four guys and one girl, this folkie art-pop band has released four singles already. The truth is that, like the characters of Baudelaire’s books, Fanfarlo’s music is full of style, with beautifully arranged tunes. The songs might make you turn into happy-mode (when listening to second single Outsiders, edited by Label Fandango) or in I-will-not-do-that-again-or maybe-I-will-mode (when hearing their first single, Talking Backwards, edited by FortunaPop).

A rock base delicately mixed with a mandolin, violin or accordion make this original sound that will give music lovers much to talk about. Their sweet, yet rhythmic, melancholic songs can be heard at their website or at their Myspace page (myspace.com/fanfarlo). If you are lucky to be in New York City this following October 25, you might be able to enjoy Fanfarlo at this year’s CMJ at Fat Baby.

We are all outsiders…

Miguel Banon-Kelley

Now that I’m back, I thought I’d settle right in and write a post about some of the music I experienced while traveling.  I spent about a week traveling through Ireland where I had the chance to catch some awesome live music.  My friend Erin and I planned a relatively last minute trip to Ireland about a month ago. When I say we planned, our planning consisted of printing out a NYT article that happened to have come out around the same time and happened to have an itinerary for a “this is what you absolutely have to see if you’re planning to drive around Ireland for a week,”  which is exactly what Erin and I were hoping to do.  So Erin and I met in Dublin from our respective departure cities, rented a car at the airport, made a quick stop over at the Guinness storehouse and were on our way to see some of those quintessential Irish views for ourselves.  Although we didn’t see much of the sun during those seven days, we did see some breathtaking views of the misty Irish coastline. I’ve also never seen so many shades of green and grey in any one place I’ve had the privilege of visiting.

At night, Erin and I found ourselves gravitating to pubs that played traditional Irish music.  These pubs were always packed and everyone looked like they were having a great time.  These traditional music “sessions” as they’re referred to, are mostly informal gatherings of musicians and they are usually held in pubs.  Someone starts a tune and those who know it, join in.  Listening to these sessions, felt like I was experiencing music in its rawest form. These sessions are meant to be shared communal experience with musicians rarely getting paid.  They’re a great way for amateur players to practice and just have fun and also a great way to preserve some really old music that has been passed down from generation to generation.

One of my favorite sessions was in a little fishing village called Skibbereen.  The session had about eight musicians playing some really funky looking traditional Irish instruments. There was this horizontal harp looking thing that I still haven’t been able to find the name of. Of course there were the more common instruments that you think of when you think Irish music like the fiddle and the flute but my favorite instruments to watch and listen to were the button accordion and the bodrhan, an old-school drum made from animal hide.

There is a certain etiquette that is all part of the session experience.  Some of these rules go out the window in the more touristy pubs but especially at pubs in the smaller fishing villages I travelled through, the etiquette is pretty much well understood. It can be considered rude for example for the “audience” to request a particular tune.  Part of the authentic listening experience, is to try and listen as closely and carefully to the instruments as you can so that you can pick up as many of the individual instruments as possible, especially in sessions with lots of musicians.  I learned this the hard way at the pub session I saw in Skibbereen. I was trying to have a conversation with someone and this old man kept giving me evil looks and shushing me.  He finally stomped away to the other side of the bar, so he could get a closer listen to the music.  However, at other pubs I went to,  lively conversation and the camaraderie the Irish are known for were just as much a part of the session experience.

The music I experienced at these sessions encompassed such a wide range. Some of the sessions sounded more like traditional Gaelic music (think Enya without the sometimes cheesy poppy melodies) and other sessions felt more like a rehearsal for a Riverdance production. Both styles represented a different facet of Irish music and culture and I really felt like I got the true Irish experience listening to these sessions.

So fast forward to a month later. I’m back home and I’ve come back to some major craziness going on Wall Street.  Here’s hoping we’ll see some stability in the economy sooner rather than later. Until then, I’m taking solace in my music. I’ve got a full music bonanza planned for this weekend - Cut Copy on Friday, practice with my band Sunday afternoon and Apocalyptica Sunday night.

Trying to stay sane in an insane world,
Melina

There have been conflicting reports on their stance with independent labels. An article in Wired back in April reported that independent labels would be excluded from this profit sharing deal.  However, a post on hypebot indicates that these labels will be included via Amazon mp3. However, no official announcement of the partnership has been made.

Merlin is the global rights body for the independent music community. They currently have a combined membership of 12,000 independent labels representing an 8% market share. This is equal to that of the major label EMI, which is the only major record label left out of the MySpace music deal. Merlin have been reported to be in negotiations with with MySpace in relation to the highly anticipated MySpace Music, but it is unclear that any deals have been made here. I would like to see the details of this MySpace Music/ major labels deal, as it has been reported that the labels have abandoned their large upfronts and pay per play requests, which are currently troubling Pandora and have also resulted in the shut down of other music services such as the likes of Sonific and Muxtape.

If this is true, and MySpace is indeed brushing independent labels and unsigned artists aside, this would be huge smack in the face for all the unrepresented indie labels and unsigned artists that have been with MySpace from the start. It is one thing to open up a platform to accommodate new visitors as Facebook did when they allowed for non-collegiate users to register with their site, but in doing so they offered the same service to everyone. MySpace does not seem to be providing a fair playing ground for artist with their current major labels deal. If this is true at launch and continues to be so months after, then you can be assured that more independent labels and unsigned artists will seek friendlier grounds with other sites, such as last.fm and imeem or even groovetap (once we are launched). Therefore, making MySpace more of a place for majors than a place for music.

Putting The Music First

Shaun

The Music is Power Podcast has been around for about a year now and has posted 54 podcasts. It’s run by Dimitar Klaturov and Maria Mihneva. What makes this podcast unique is their diverse taste in music. Once every Friday they upload an hour long podcast consisting of a playlist of songs and interviews from the likes of The Joy Bus, The Drawers, Deluka and Lau Nau.

I had a chance to chat with Dimitar through gchat to ask him a couple questions  about the podcast and his thoughts and opinions on music today. Here is a link to the interview.

They currently have a little over 1,174 subscribers and have an ambitious, but I think achievable goal of reaching 10,000 subscribers. This podcast is definitely a good listen, especially on a slow Friday at the office or at home. Here is their subscription button for your shear convenience.

Subscribe to MiPP

Enjoy,
Shaun