Beat Authority playlist: 11/28/08

Drop it.

Free MP3: Matisyahu

Props to John in VT... He pointed out that Matisyahu, the Hasidic reggae rapper, has a new single out, and it's available for free over at XPN. Mr. 'Yahu is playing in Burlington at the Higher Ground on Decenber 18th. But he might get overshadowed by opening act, K'Naan, a Somali-American rapper who I saw in Copenhagen a few years ago, and he rocks it.

Beat Authority playlist: 11/21/08

There. Now get you some corned beef.

Best CD of 2008?

Sorry it's been a light week for blog posts. It IS nearing the end of November, NPR's gathering up votes for its listener list of best CDs of 2008. So what moved you most this year? The CD you just couldn't take out of the player, the MP3 that ended up on every playlist? Submit your favorite record of 2008 in the comments section of this post. Thanks!

Networking

Beat Authority fan and music writer Josh Davis of Malone has started his own blog. The latest entry points us to a sweet remix of M.I.A.'s ubiquitous "Paper Planes" hit. Welcome Josh!

Beat Authority playlist: 11/14/08

A la fuerza! Oh, as promised, here's the free MP3 of young British soul singer Alice Russell's new single. It's hot. And props to Six Degrees' blog, Global Noize.

Timbuktu!

Malmö's very own Timbuktu is the undisputed king of hip-hop in Sweden. He released a new album (his eighth) named "En high 5 & 1 falafel" last week. You'll be hearing some new songs from the album on The Beat Authority, but here's a video of Timbuktu performing in Oslo, Norway to tide you over until then. And if you just can't enough, you can buy the record here, direct from Timbuktu's own record label, Juju Records.



UPDATE: The price of the CD (including shipping) is about 200 Swedish Crowns, which is about $25.

The Obama Beat Goes On

Last week, I played a set of Obama tunes coming out of the P-E's first press conference. I knew it was just scaping the surface, but I didn't know the half of it. This Friday, I'll play a Haitian singer, Manze Dayila, who has an Obama song for free download. Then this erstwhile music blogger makes a triumphant return with everything from mariachi Obama to 'hoodie Obama. And here's one of my favorite DJs right now, DJ Z-Trip, with his own mix tape of Obama music. Again, another free download. Gotta love the Inner-nets. And the beat goes on...

UPDATE: One more. DJ J-Period mixing new Q-Tip rhymes with the Eric B. Is President (which, of course, was Q-Tip's favorite jam back in the day (besides apricot)). And again, free, free, free!

P.S. - Love the football map, Flush! Go Bills! :^(

Football map

This probably doesn't belong on a Beat Authority blog, but I discovered this endlessly fascinating map of football fan regions which I want to share. Here's a bigger version. It was created by something called The CommonCensus Sports Map Project, and yes, they have maps for other sports too. You could spend hours going over this map and dissecting its sociological and demographic implications. I'd love to get the people who made this map together with the intense statistician and baseball fan who runs this blog. The result could change the world. Or at least build a better tailgate party.

Here are my thoughts on the map:
1. I love the densely packed territories around the Great Lakes region, the cradle of football. I suspect that these regions are pretty accurate, even with a small sample. I'd love to see how this would look without the Indianapolis (née Baltimore) Colts, for a more traditional feeling. I suspect that Indiana would be divided into Bears, Bengals and (since this is traditonalist) Cardinals regions.

2. Speaking of the Cardinals, I wonder how long it takes a transplanted or new franchise to build up a solid fan base? I notice that the Rams area seems pretty small considering their success. The same goes for the Ravens.

3. I'd like to see a more detailed map of the NYC area to see how the Jets/Giants rivalry plays out.

4. I love the fact that the Packers/Bears boundary seems to match the Wisconsin/Illinois line.

5. What's up with the 49ers zone around Salt Lake City?

6. Why do people like the Cowboys so much?

RIP: Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba, "Mama Africa", voice of anti-apartheid South Africa, first arrived in my consciousness in an embarrassingly simplistic way. When I first heard her recordings, I was fascinating by the clicks and pops when she sang in her language. (Clearly, I wasn't alone.) This is a huge loss for all of music. Que en paz descanse...

Beat Authority playlist: 11/7/08

Shortened by President-elect Barack Obama's first press conference, the Beat Authority gives it up to the brand new Funky President. And don't forget, thanks to the folks at Thrill Jockey records, you can download a great (8 Minute long!) afro-beat song by Extra Golden, called "Obama", here.

The vibe in Sweden

I just thought that I'd write a few words to describe the vibe here in Malmö, Sweden after Obama's election. It's pretty amazing that it's had such a big effect on people over here. It's another country's election after all, but both yesterday and today Obama's been pretty much all that anybody's talking about. Everybody who knows that I'm American stops me to congratulate me and ask me how I feel. A few people that I've spoken to have been overcome by emotion and started weeping when talking to me about the election. One of my son's teachers, an immigrant from Chile, wept and said that her father who died in August would have been overjoyed at Obama's election. A colleague from Germany wrote that she stayed awake until six in the morning to watch Obama's speech. She also wept.

Part of the joy that people are feeling is because they realize how significant it is that the US elected a black man as president. But that's really only part of it. A lot of it is actually a sort of envy that we have such a charismatic president elect. Many politicians in Europe are very talented and efficient, but they're rarely exciting. They all kind of remind you of Mike Dukakis or Gerald Ford. Europeans are excited by a politician who could give a speech like the one Obama gave on Tuseday night, a speech intended to inspire a people to achieve greatness. My German colleague joked that Angela Merkel, arguably Europe's most effective leader, could never make a speech like that, could never inspire like that. Obama inspires faith in the American style of democracy, even makes it seem attractive to Europeans who frequently deride American democracy as too individualistic. It's not just that he's made the US seem acceptable, he's made the US seem like an example to be followed. People here seem genuinely relieved to admire America. It's as if they really want to, but haven't been able to for some time now. I think that many of the tears come from that.

Finally, here's a kind of double post-script. David Foster Wallace wrote a fantastic essay for Rolling Stone about John McCain's campaign in 2000. David linked to it a couple of months ago, shortly after DFW died. So what happened? It seems like sometime this summer we lost both the author and the subject of this article. Where was this John McCain this past year? He seemed to make a reappearance in Phoenix on Tuesday night. It would have been exciting if he had shown up earlier. Here's a link to Wallace's article, The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys And The Shrub. I promise that it'll be worth your while if you take the time to read it. It's a classic.

Free MP3: Obamania!

Sorry for the lack of posts. It's been a busy and exciting few days. President-elect Obama has generated more popular music than any other presidential candidate in a long, long time.

Extra Golden, the awesome Kenya-DC collaboration, is offering their song, "Obama", for free. Just right click here and save it to your computer. Enjoy!