This Week on Strictly Global! (3/25/11) 03/24/2011
Host Danni Rosner
(by Dawn Reed) I'd just like to thank everyone who sent in their kind regards wishing mine and Danni's family and friends well during the disaster that recently took place in our home country of Japan. (Danni grew up in Tokyo, and I'm from the Aomori region.) We hadn't addressed it yet because it truly broke our hearts and was already dominating the news, but thankfully our friends and family back in Japan are alright. And this week on Strictly Global, we will feature videos from international artists (from Colombia to Poland) who are pulling together to help out with relief efforts in the land of the rising sun.
Deerhoof
Like Deerhoof, the San Francisco based experimental rock band that is fronted by Japanese singer Satomi Matsuzaki. She had moved to the states to study film back in 1996, and had met Greg Saunier, co-founder of Deerhoof who'd been around since 1994. Despite her musical inexperience, her singing style added an element that Deerhoof was looking for. They've just released their 11th studio album Deerhoof vs. Evil, and recently had a benefit show where proceeds went to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. After matching donations, they gathered about $20,000 (according to their facebook page)!!! Satomi is in Japan right now with her family.
Cairokee
We'll also feature our interview with Egyptian rock band, Cairokee, whom I met with last summer in Cairo when they were recording at the grammy award winning Ultra Studios. Recently they collaborated to create a song that expressed the triumph that Egypt achieved this year. Check out the beautiful video for it below.
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This Week on Strictly Global! (2/11/11) 02/09/2011
Host Dawn Reed
(by Dawn Reed) Great, grand, wonderful week for music- just a couple hours ago my fav band of all time, the Strokes, stream released their new single "Undercover of Darkness", revisiting their classic 2001 sound with a new pumped up perspective- beyond radical! And did you catch the new release from Aussie electronica Cut Copy? Zonoscope, which has been in the works for months now, has track titles that, dare I say, totally coincide with the current news in Egypt. They totally pulled a Nostradamus ya'll! More on that later... for now let me just say we've got another awesome line-up of videos on Strictly Global this week as we bring you the latest from Argentina, France, Mexico, and more!
Prince Rama
We'll check out a trippy video from the Brooklyn based psychedelic rock group Prince Rama, comprised of sisters Taraka and Nimai, and their friend Michael, all of which were raised on a Hare Krishna commune in Florida. Their recent release (4th) Shadow Temple, was put out on Animal Collective's label Paw Tracks, and they'll be performing at this year's All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in the UK, in May, olè!
Broken Records
And we'll check out the latest from Scotland's indie-folk band Broken Records who are usually compared to Arcade Fire, the Verve, and the Levellers. They'll be touring the US pretty soon, kicking it off in DC on Feb. 20. Let's show them that an American audience can dance ceilidh style at their shows too!
Alright, now back to the whole Cut Copy vs. Egypt thing... Check out these song titles: "Sun God"- Ra. "Pharoahs & Pyramids"- Totally Egypt. "Need You Now"- A change in their government. "Take Me Over"- What protestors don't want. "Where I'm Going"- Protestors pushing for an outcome. "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution"- history is being made over there dudes. "Strange Nostalgia for the Future"- when future tourists visit the Egyptian Museum and see headless mummies, they'll remember that the heads were taken during this time in history. "This Is All We've Got"... ok maybe I'm reading to much into it. Or am I???
Random World Music Scene: Cairo, Egypt 10/22/2009
Isis
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!!!
Crescent
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.
Scarab Beetle
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.
