STRICTLY GLOBAL

It's the most wonderful time of the year.  In Scotland, it's known as Samhain. In Ireland, it's Samain.  And here, and most other countries it's known as your mom's birthday. Sike, big duh, it's Halloween, and me and Danni will be showcasing some sweet grody pie international music videos containing everything from black blood to fang flaring.  We broke into Mr. Bones creepy house, but he didn't mind, cause he's dead.

Witness the wonders of zombie-ism as bands like Canada's Handsome Furs and the US's Coheed & Cambria exploit in there videos.  Seriously, if it came down to it, would you be able to survive a zombie attack?  You can only live in a mall for so long people.  And there really isn't enough bullets in the world.  Just give in...  

Give in to vampirism, because the living dead can't become zombies.  Or can they?  Hungary's, The Moog, exploit this phenomena in their video this week, and being neighbors to Transylvania, they may know more about vampiric truth than Sookie Stackhouse.  That's a True Blood ref.  You dig?  Anyway, fangs galore, fo sho with more vampy vids including Jamaica's Major Lazer, and the US's Avenged Sevenfold.  Bloody good times...

Halloween is also the time of year when even scaredy-cats break out the horror films.  Taking influence from good ole R rated horror is UK's the Prodigy, with a video influenced possibly by Omen.  I'm happy to see the uprise of R rated horror again, personally.  Who get's scared by PG-13?  And can Hollywood quit it with the nursery rhymes, and remakes???  I heard a rumor that Interview with a Vampire is getting remade.  No thanks.

Anyway... take your kid brother out trick'or'treating, and when you make your way back home, me and Danni will attempt to creep you out via TV.  So yoink some peanut butter cups from the bro, keep the lights on, sit back, and don't worry about the demon in the corner, cause you ain't afraid of no ghost.

This week's random wiki article landed on the 70's live-action saturday morning tv series The Secrets of Isis.  Awesome.  Never seen it, but it leads to Egypt, as Isis is an Egyptian Goddess, duh.  How random.  I was just conversing with my little sister via Facebook about the music scene over in Cairo, as that is where she lives.  Exact quotes: Me, "What's up with the music scene over there???" Her, "House...House...House...and errr.....House :-/."  But I just stumbled across the e-zine Rock Era, dedicated to underground music of Egypt and the Middle East, with genres spanning from new age to death metal.  Woo-woo!!!

Oh yes, Egyptian death metal.  Check out these guys from Cairo,  Crescent.  The name comes from the symbol which dominated the flag of Egypt for a while, but they put it more poetically on their myspace page: "Pertaining to our geographical roots were our sign Crescent conquered and prevailed for centuries." They put their first album out in 2000, and have a third coming out this year called The Retribution, which you can preview here.  For a death metal band, they sure have an uplifting goal... "Spreading justice, knowledge, freedom to mankind. Crescent is created to proclaim justice till our message reaches the whole world."  Party.

More Egyptian death metal! Scarab, formed back in 2006, will be releasing their first full length album this year, and you can hear tracks from it right now, here.  And again, the band's name is totally rooted in Egyptian history.  What's a scarab?  It's basically a beetle, but it's also believed by ancient Egyptians to be connected to Ra, the sun god.  In fact, during mummification, they would replace the heart of the deceased with a scarab to ensure rebirth in the afterlife.  Nice!  So yeah, Scarab has blown up in the pan-arabic metal scene, having won major battles, and opening for bands like Motorhead, Amon Amarth, Dimmu Borgir, and more! Here they are performing in Alexandria, Egypt...

So clearly, even though Euro-trash House is dominating Thursday night clubs in downtown Cairo, the underground scene of Egyptian rock is ready to take over.  Booyakasha.

It's gross, cold, and wet outside.  I'm drinking coffee and somewhere in the distance I hear the new Pearl Jam and the new Flaming Lips being blasted simultaneously.  Where am I? Early 90's Seattle?  Nah, I'm rockin' a cup of folgers alongside the Lips' latest Embryonic. Meanwhile, the east coast is completely disgusting outside which is just gonna ruin moving day for me, ugh!!!  So, Scotland's Twin Atlantic, to answer your question, "What is Light? Where is Laughter?", I just don't know.  But I'll watch your video anyway, smiley.  In fact, there will be plenty of weather distractions on this week's episode, including an artist spotlight on Cuba/Canada's Alex Cuba, and much more.

Like brand new Múm for starters, cause there's nothing like experimental electronic glitchness to score a gloomy day.  (Well, doom metal and shoegaze are some top competitors in that category!)  Anyway, Múm, (pronounced moom), from Iceland, have been together since 1997, and they've recently released their 6th studio album Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know.  Don't you hate going to a show and getting stuck either behind: {a} the tallest person in the room (sorry that was me ;P), {b} the drunkest person in the room that you have to keep at bay with your fist, {c} the person who is recording the entire show on their iphone therefore blocking your view with cheap recording technology, and {d} the person who is shouting along to lyrics, even though the band just announced they just wrote that song five minutes before the set and wants to test it out on the audience.  Yeah, I hate that too, and while I'm at it, can people like just not text on their cellphones when out at a movie, geeeees.

Back to global matters, this week we got a ditty from Siberian songstress Irene Nelson.  Now this chick used to be the lead singer of one of Russia's hugest pop acts, Reflex.  Getting to that point of her musical career was totally triumphant when it comes to where she was before.  Check this out.  Irene grew up in a poor little village in Siberia, and was totally pursuant on a musical education.  She couldn't afford a piano, so she drew a keyboard on piece of paper and practiced that way!  After graduating, she joined a jazz band and toured with them, which is how Reflex discovered her.  So, anyway, she eventually broke away from the band and secluded herself in the mountains of United Arab Emirates, meditating amongst the lack of electricity and running water.  She makes her U.S. debut this month, with an album that has yet to be named,  but we got her video premiere up this week.  Holler.

Lastly, my absolute fave video of the hour comes from the Los Angeles based noise rock band HEALTH.  It is insanely awesome.  These guys used to play gigs for free, which drew in crowds, obviously, and eventually lead to clubs begging them to play.  Later down the road, they would open up for Nine Inch Nails!  And they collaborated with Canada's Crystal Castles (love them), back in 2007 to create the track "Crimewaves" which got them major noteriety abroad, a la #9 on the UK indie singles chart.  This summer they played all across the U.S. among noise fests, including one here in DC where they opened for krautrock legends Faust.  I'm still kicking myself for not going to that, but hey, I was sick.  And besides, I might have gotten stuck behind {a},{b},{c}, or {d}.  

I’ve been watching the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer a lot recently, and it dawned on me that Sarah Michelle Gellar totally reminds me of Danni Rosner.  Speaking of which, lil’ miss piano actress herself will be hosting a new episode of Strictly Global this week before she heads off to NYC to perform with her band (check out Rosner’s website for deets!)  Sunnydale may be damned, but we’ll steer clear of it and showcase music videos from Greece, Sweden, Canada, and more.

Mmmm, Greek food.  Man, I want some souvlaki on a stick, with a side of saganaki, and a gallon of tzaziki sauce…  Anyway, Greece is of topic because this week we’ll debut a dude who has an insane backstory of his endeavors as a youth in Greece and relocation to the UK.  This would be Livan, who’s dad and granddaddy were both politicians in Greece, but were exiled during the country’s political turmoil.  Livan, thought he was living in the shadow of a leader and didn’t think he’d ever measure up, so purposefully turned to a life of drug abuse and debauchery.  Then he saw the light, music.  He produced his own debut album and that actually just came out.  Way to turn your life around man, opa!

I know a lot of kiddies were waiting for this one: the Soldiers of Jah Army (SOJA) interview will also be premiering on this weeks episode.  As far as I know, this is the only reggae band to come out of the D.C. area, and conquer.  These dudes have exploded worldwide, for seriously- they like tour 2/3 of the year globally, and they are independent to the max.  Anyway, you gotta tune in to get their take on life, love, music, and more.  Boom blaze it.

Lastly, one of me and Danni’s fave videos of the week comes from the Portland, Oregon experimental folk rock band, Blitzen Trapper.   These guys recently released an EP featuring rare songs you’d probably only find on live recordings, including the song for this video. You need to tune in to find out what video/song I’m talking about, because if I told you now it would defeat the whole purpose of being surprised.  Der.  And if I did tell you, Danni the Vampire Slayer would have to slay you.

Holy crap, summer is over.  But with the return of cold weather, also comes the return of new episodes of Strictly Global. So start doing cartwheels in the streets kids, cause we be back, yo!  And while we were away, your music video requests poured in like none other, so we'll have boatloads of them up in our 2 hour premiere this Friday, including tons of newness from around the world.

For example from New Zealand, Ladyhawke.  Please tell me you had a chance to catch her on her first U.S. tour this summer???  Totally one of the funnest shows I've been to.  Her massive collection of music videos even proves that every track on her recently re-released S/T debut are totally hit-worthy.  Imagine a mesh of Pat Benetar, Kim Wilde, and Debbie Gibson remixed for the future and then plopped back to our time.  And then trip out on the awesome visuals that make up the video for "My Delirium."  Oh yes... you will see.

And has anyone else noticed how Glasgow, Scotland is dominating in the indie music scene as of late? That area alone has churned out old classics like Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, Teenage Fanclub, Primal Scream, and more.  Glasgow still remained on the backburner as Sweden took the reigns over the past couple of years, but now they are back on top with bands like Glasvegas, Frightened Rabbit, the Twilight Sad, and We Were Promised Jetpacks.  Speaking of WWPJ, we got their new video for "Roll Up Your Sleeves" this week.  Might I suggest wearing 3-D glasses for it?  Oh yes... you will see.

I also had a chance to interview the band Extra Golden, a collaboration between America and Kenya, who mix benga music with indie rock stylings.  Tune in to find out how these guys got involved with Obama, and created a new genre.  And if you are a big follower of awesome DC bands, you may recognize Alex Minoff (guitarist) who was also in the Make-Up and Weird War.  Oh yes... you will see.