Hey, rainforest lovers, best catch a red-eye right now to Malaysia 'cause this weekend (7/9-7/11) in the heart of some lush greenery on the island of Borneo, the state of Sarawak is playing home to the 13th annual Rainforest World Music Festival.  Actually, just plan ahead for next year cause with an average audience of 22,000- one can only imagine the hunt for hotel rooms. (And I hear goers book a year in advance!)

Since 1997, this completely interactive fest has taken place near the foot of Mount Santubong right on the grounds of the Sarawak Cultural Village.  Over the course of 3 days, fest-goers can participate in informative workshops, ethno-musical lectures, jam with and have awesome conversations with festival perfomers, gorge out on local food, and attend the World Crafts Bazaar that's had exhibitors from Poland to Japan and more.  Then at night, concerts take over, and this year performers come all the way from Bulgaria to Portugal, and in between.

Like from Iran, the Shanbehzadeh Ensemble will be belting out the traditional sounds found in the Boushehr region of southern Iran.  To do that, they use Iranian bagpipes, double clarinet, animal horn, and a variety of percussion.  The group was founded by Saeid Shanbehzadeh in 1990, who's been a professor and journalist on the subject of Southern Iranian music, and has even composed for and acted in Iranian films. 

Another stand out is Novalima from Lima, who got their start back in 2001.  Their unique sound combines traditional Afro-Peruvian music with modern DJ elements, and have pretty much revolutionized the music scene over there in good ol' Peru. That's what happens when you mix turntables with bongos and congas! Oh si!

Farafina from Burkino Faso will also be making an appearance.  Now, these guys have been around a long-time, something like, oh .. 30 year!  Combining elements of jazz, rock, and world music, they infuse their own traditional instruments like flutes, koras, and balafons.  And their lyrics share to the world their own outlook on what's going on in Africa.  If you think you've heard their name before and can't quite place it- it's cause they've recorded with the Rolling Stones.  You're welcome. ;)

Leeds University, located in West Yorkshire England, is one of the most prestigious higher learning schools in the world, having been established back in 1831 for their School of Medicine, and backed by the motto "et augebitur scientia", or "and knowledge will be increased." This weekend, the literal volume will be increased, as this Russell Group affiliate (Ivy League equivalent in the UK) will be home to Ghostfest 2010! 

Originating in 2005, Ghostfest is a metal and hardcore festival pulling together undergound metal and hardcore acts from Europe and America.  For festival standards, tickets to this ear explosion have been ridonkulously cheap, as in £15-£30 for the entire weekend.  Insanity!  The first festival featured 18 bands, including Sikth, Azriel, Bring Me The Horizon, and Architects.  It was filmed and made into a rare/hard to find DVD. Party.

This year, the line-up has 32 bands ready to perform one after the other on two stages over two days.  An awesome idea, so that audience members don't have to sacrifice seeing one band over another.  One band that shouldn't be missed are the Gallows, a punk band from Watford, Hertforshire.  They will be headlining the second night, before continuing on their Euro fest trek throughout the summer.  Hey,  and they just supported a Cypress Hill show at Brixton Academy.  Mega.

And headlining the first night is the London-based hardcore band Knuckledust, who've been around (and maintained the same line-up!) since 1996.  When they formed, hardcore was a near-dead scene in London, but with the help of other local groups, the scene once again grew in the underground, and eventually led to Knuckledust opening for acts like Agnostic Front, Madball, and the Misfits. 

For more info and the rest of the line-up, check out Ghostfest's site.

Written by Dawn Reed

Katrina and the Waves formed back in the early 80's when a couple of American "Air-force brats" (holler!) joined the already formed UK group, The Waves, and toured throughout the military bases of Great Britain before hitting it big in Canada (via record sales and radio promotion.)  With some major re-recording, and plenty of horn tracks added on, "Walking on Sunshine" went on to become a worldwide hit (1985's #9 US, #8 UK) and garnered them a Grammy nomination for "Best New Artist."

Now, in it's 25th Anniversary, the single is getting gobs of new attention, and more revamping.  Such as an iPod game, a karaoke contest, a re-release of their back-catalouge, and a new version of the tune as performed by the Soweto Gospel Choir. 

From Soweto, South Africa, the Soweto Gospel Choir is composed of over 30 members who blend African gospel, with reggae and pop.  They've won 2 Grammy's (2007 & 2008) for Best Traditional World Music Album.  They were also the first group to perform at Nelson Mandela's AIDS benefit concert series, 46664 (Mandela's prisoner ID number.)

So the Soweto Gospel Choir gave it some global rhythm. Dolly Parton made it bluegrassy.  And Me First and the Gimme Gimmes took it to a whole new level of obnoxiousness with a pop ska twist (barf.)   I wonder what Barry would think if Belle and Sebastian were to cover it...

Ooo la la!  Next week, Canada will be saying bonjour to summer with it's 22nd annual Les FrancoFolies de Montreal Festival.  Why, since 1989, has it been known as the largest francophone music event in the world?  Hmm, let's see. Well from June 10-19, they'll manage to cram in 70 indoor shows, as well as 160 FREE outdoor shows, filled with over 1000 songwriters, composers, musicians, and bands from all across the francais-speaking world.  Zut alore!  Befitting that it's held in America's largest French speaking city, tout à fait.

A variety of genres will be represented, as is the case at most summer festivals.  A notable Montreal native indie pop act that'll be making it's way to the fest this year is Tricot Machine (French for Knitting Machine.)  The duo formed towards the end of 2005, with a 9 song demo floating around until their debut s/t album was released in March 2007.  Through that album, they received the ECHO Songwriting Prize via SOCAN, (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.)  Terrifiant!

If you're into electro, then the French duo Sexy Sushi should not be missed.  Formed in late 2002, this dude and dudette had this to say about their chance meeting, "We met by chance on what a distributor of Super U, we have shared our respective work one and so we have started sammanfattningly to work on our first songs with the band aim is simply to have fun!"And they sure are getting around this summer on the Fest Circuit! (Just noticed they will also be at the Dour Fest, which we covered early on in this series.)

Pop punk will take stage at the fest as well, as seen with the band The Hop La!, another out source from the motherland of France. Forming in 2004, these dudes have been on the road since 2005, hollering their mantra,"Qu’on se le dise : LE ROCK’n’ROLL n’est pas mort!" For us anglophones, that translates to "Spread the word: Rock'n'Roll is not dead!" Party!.. I mean, escouade! 

And a new edition to this year's extra activities is the FrancoFolies dinner cruise aboard Montreal's "Bateau-Mouche" (tour boat).  Politely binge out on the five-course French-faire while literally cruising on a cruiseliner, and take in the sweet Edith Piaf tribute via Angélique Duruisseau.  This mademoiselle was the winner of the "Ma première Place des Arts" contest in 2003, and received "best singer" title at the Festival International de la Chanson de Granby in 2005.

For more info on the festival, check out their website.

by Dawn Reed

Hey, so what are your plans around July 15-18? You gonna be in the western part of Belgium, more specifically, the province of Hainaut?  Really? Then you must be going to the Dour Festival!  Even though "dour" means gloomy person, attendees of this fest are most certainly not, as it is in it's 22nd year and 200 bands from all genres will be there!  No wonder it won the prize for Best Medium-sized Festival at the European Festival Awards last January.

The festival came to this French-speaking village back in 1989 where it started off small with only 5 bands on the bill: Bernard Lavilliers, Gamine, Les Gangsters d'Amour, Les Innocents, and Les Tricheurs.  Since then, the line-ups have grown exponentially, and almost every genre known to man will be represented this year, including dubstep (UK's Skream <this kid is AMAZING!>), pop synth (France's General Elektriks), electro hip-hop (UK's Dub Pistols <love it!>), as well as thrash/punk (USA's GWAR <oh yeah!>)  Even fist-fulls of SG favorites will be performing, like Buraka Som Sistema, the Futureheads, Serena-Maneesh, Chromeo, and more.

And back together after an 11-year hiatus, Germany's digital hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot are making their comeback this summer on the festival circuit, including (obviously) the Dour Fest.  The group, most noted for their anti-fascist and anarchist lyrics mixed with intense techno, have recently added a new American member, CX KidTRONiK, who has previously worked with Saul Williams, Kanye West, and NIN.

Plenty of American bands will be hitting the stages of Dour as well, many of which are a lil' under the radar stateside, with huge fanbases abroad.  Like the hip-hop group from Oakland, CA- Crown City Rockers.  They are more than just hip-hop though, meshing funky grooves with soul samples, and overall old-school B-boy flavor.  And with a live performance that has made their local fanbase grow with every show, they were themselves crowned with the title "Best Hip Hop Group in the Bay" by the San Francisco Weekly and the San Francisco Guardian.

Dang, how does the Dour fest fit all this awesome music into just 4 days? Well, aside from the six-stage set up, the party starts at 12am and goes well into the wee hour of 5am!  Yeah that sounds about right for Europe.  (Well, at least 3 AM is the best time to hit up a club in Spain, fo sho.) And remember, Dour Fest is a camping festival, so if you happen to be flying in, and don't wanna pay the baggage claim fee for your portable tent, no worries.  Leave the tent at home, and take up residency at the Festivillage in a rented Festihut!  These cute little cottages can house up to 4 people, complete with 2 bunkbeds and access to showers, and VIP toilets (which is probably the best thing ever at a music festival besides music-right?)   

Finally, immerse yourself in the worldwide phenomenon that is air guitar, as the Dour Fest once again opens it's stage to the Belgian Air Guitar Championships.  The National Champion will become an heir to an actual guitar (Gibson Les Paul), and go on to represent Belgium and compete against 30 other global winners in Oulu, Finland.  Party!

Check out the Dour Festival's entire line-up here:
http://www.dourfestival.be/en/lineup/


by Dawn Reed

Holy crap!  Next week is already the season finale??? What? It seemed like only yesterday that we were buried in snow and churning out the music video hits of the decade.  Wow.  This of course means that you need to get your requests in ASAP to see if they make The Most Requested Videos Of The Season Countdown, or something along those lines... ;P.  Meanwhile, this week Danni hosts an hour that seems to be dominated by our neighbors to the North.  Some of the Canadian standouts include the goodies listed below.

From Vancouver, we've got the latest from Yukon Blonde, who've recently finished up a US tour in support of their self-titled debut album.  These guys produce strong harmonic rock that would cleverly fit amongst early 70's classic rock bands, and up it with a modern charm.  Not to mention the lyrics and melodies are super-duper catchy!  Like, seriously- I can't get "Wind Blows" out of my brain.  They'll resume another tour supporting Good Old War later this month, and I just noticed they will be playing at a venue in Chicago called Beat Kitchen.  Hmmm.... raise your hand if you're ready for another Beat Kitchen on SG!

Harry will also fill us in on a couple of Nextwave bands: Pacifika (Vancouver) and Malajube (Montreal.)  Pacifika is extremely diverse as the members incorporate Peruvian, Armenian, and Caribbean grooves into their unique global pop sound of latin electronica.  Not to be missed, as they are gonna be 'uge.  French-singing indie rockers Malajube are 'uge too.  And they have recently written the score to indie film The Trotsky coming out next week!  Radical.

And we'll also check out the latest from Toronto's electropop group Dragonette, who's second live performance was opening for New Order!  Wow.   The group formed originally as a duo named The Fuzz, and released their first EP back in 2005.  Eventually they moved to London to record their debut album Galore, which got them spots opening for Basement Jaxx on tour.  Good-times!  Danni got a chance to interview Dragonette when they came by DC recently- so be on the lookout for that interview this summer.  Word.

Dude, seriously, I love music so much.  Like, one day, you hear the greatest jam ever, and you think no other song can ever top that-ever.  But then, the next day, you remember that Crystal Castles put out their new album, and now that you've chosen to live your life on Ramen so you can buy merch from touring bands for the rest of time, you can easily afford new music once again.  God I miss Tower Records.  Anyway- that's my deal- I get insta-crushes on new songs and bands every week.  And hopefully you do to, and will wanna cheat on your favorite band with some of the new stuff we got going on this week on Strictly Global.

Like a blast from the near past, UK's the Futureheads have just released their fourth studio album this week called The Chaos.   Did ya know they got their name from a Flaming Lips album?  Hit To Death in the Future Head. Wowsers. Their US tour in support of it starts in June, so hurry up summer- get here already!  Coincidentally, I recently caught up and chatted with one of Yukon Blonde's guitarist/singers, Jeffrey Innes, and we shared our love of the Futureheads' first album (s/t).  That full interview will be comin' soon ya'll, so giddy up.

Perhaps you want to take your music relationship to the next level with some Danish pop-rock.  Then might I suggest Efterklang, who recently released their 3rd studio album Magic Chairs.  No dates booked in the US as of yet, but they claim the Icelandic ash clouds won't prevent them from canceling the millions of dates they have lined up throughout Europe in the coming months.  So if you happen to be in Greece this summer, make sure to bring me cause I'll be your new best friend and we can check out their live show.  It'll be the bestest, Bestie.

Or maybe you wanna change the pace and mix things up with your music marriage.  This can be done via ^|SiCk0|^ who may or may not be human. "Originally"from Hamburg, Germany- ^|SiCk0|^, melds synthesizers with effect boxes to create chaotic noise fit for hockey riots (CAPS!!??) and late night Area 51 drive-bys.  Thanks to Intolerance Records for intro-ing this insanity to moi. Me likey.  

Usually around this time of year, I blow my tax refund on tattoos and beach vacays.  But I was totally denied that oppurtunity this time-around, so I'm a little bummed.  But just a little, because luckily my pal Danni was there to save the day, with hot tea and pretzels...  Oh the shenanigans of a Strictly Global shoot.  She will be intro-ing the latest music videos from around the globe this Friday, so get ready for it!

Like the latest from the Parisian electronica tango trip-hop group, Gotan Project.  Having been around since '00, this trio have recently released their 9th album (3rd studio), Tango 3.0, and will begin a Euro tour at the end of April that will last all summer!  With this album comes a blend of Buenos Aires, mixed with Mississippi blues, and a dollop of New Orleans, Nashville, and New York.  Break out your cha cha heels!  Sexy.

Also, we recently asked you all via Twitter/Facebook and on-air, what local band you love and support.  The response was phenomenal, and you all sent us some great new sounds to get into.  Such as the power exuding from Chicago's rockers, My Gold Mask.  Two members (Gretta Rochelle & Jack Armondo), two instruments, and a full wall of jangly noise fit for an early 60's Phil Spector session, infused with raw rock of the 90's and beyond.  Too cool.  Yet even cooler, their music was featured in New York Fashion week, and they will be performing alongside the New Pornographers this summer.  Get it ya'll!

And also on this episode will be the premiere of the interview I had with Emil Nikolaisen, singer/guitarist/songwriter of Norway's shoegaze alt. noise band, Serena-Maneesh.  It was only two "blogs" ago that I spouted off my love for this band, but I'm going to reiterate it regularly because their second release, S-M 2:Abyss in B Minor, is hands down the best album of the freakin' year.  I personally haven't listened to something on repeat as much as I have with this album since the Strokes' Is This It.  Hmm, wow, deja-vu- that was also blogged about recently.  Anyways, ... love it!

Hey alright, we are back from our brief spring break with a new episode this Friday.    But while the show was away, me and Danni managed to hit up touring artists galore to bring you awesome interviews in upcoming episodes.  Enough with the teasing though, cause on this week's episode we've got lots of requests to fulfill from you guys, as well as new music videos from Spain, Canada, the UK, and more.  A- woo-woo.

From Spain, we'll be showing the latest from the electro group Delorean who've recently released their 3rd studio album Subizia.  They've been touring the states in support of it for a lil' while now, but tomorrow is their last stop in L.A. so get over there and catch em'!  Not too long ago, these dudes got more music press recognition with their talent at remixing other current indie faves, such as the XX, Cold Cave, and the Big Pink.  But their music is gorgeous on it's own and deserves ones complete attention. Mmhmm.

We'll also check out the latest from UK's curly girly, Goldfrapp!  She's just released her new album Head First, and will be touring this summer in support of it.  But, she's only making several stops in the US, so fingers crossed that this lushy synthy splendor comes to a town near you!  Fans may notice how she tends to change up her genre just a lil' bit between albums.  This one seems almost Xanadu-like.  I like.

Speaking of genre-hopping, we've got the latest from the American/Australian collab rock band, Liars.  These dudes love a good rhythm, and manage to show it in different ways with each album, whether it's represented as art-punk, noise rock, dance-punk, what have you.  They've recently released their fifth studio album, Sisterworld, currently touring the states in support of it, before they head over to Europe for the entirety of May.  I wanna go.