Bob's beats

It's been a while since I last did a music post. (Cool music, and its post-scripts on the Owls and Marc Ribot, over a month ago.) So, here's one.

First off, a song that brought back to me my 18-year old self, from the period of my life when I had no time for freeing Tibet (do the maths: it was more than 15 years ago...): "I'm Comin' Down" from Primal Scream's Screamadelica, posted at Ear Farm, a blog that seems to specialise in reminding me of moments in my earlier lives (q.v. Billy Bragg, bringing back my joining the Labour Party age 15 and New Labour winning the election in 1997 [at the TUC May Day festival in Finsbury Park, days after the election, Bragg said "even the rain feels better under Labour", which, at the time, it actually did... ]).

Another adolescent memory is prompted for me by The Rising Storm's post on Leonard Cohen's New Skin for The Old Ceremony, the soundtrack to my angstiest teenage moments.

I thought I was up on the 1970s deep Americana/singer-songwriter thing, but I did not know midwesterner Bob Martin, to whom this post at the wonderful Rising Storm introduced me: "a stark, beautiful blend of folk and country that reveals it’s depth with repeated listens. Each song has something new to offer, and Bob brings us into his working class world with great American stories about local drunks, small town farm life, hard times, prison convicts, and working on the mill."

There's more rebel music from the Rising Storm, this time from Brazil, with this tropicalia post.

Moving straight to the present, but back to the Midwest, Cocoa Tea's reggae tribute to Barack Obama, posted at Analog Giant. And SoundRoots posts some cool Spanish language Obama and Hillary tributes: Clinton Norteno-style and Obama cumbia.

Back to rebel music, Berkeley Place posts lots of Clash covers, including a version of my favourite, "Guns of Brixton", by The Beautiful Girls, and "Train in Vain" by South London's Kirsty MacColl. The Clash's "Hateful" is also used by If It's Good to soundtrack the report on the rise of antisemitism globally.

Hahamusic asks: "Who says middle aged Jews can't like hip hop?", a question raised by a Forward article and soundtracked by a Del Tha Funkee Homosapien track. And if you want to listen to more of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, try Some Velvet Blog, Pop Matters, Crust Cake, or Orange Alert. For actual Jewish hip hop, try Why?'s new album Alopecia, as posted by Surving the Golden Age.

I think that the most far-out Jewish music I've posted is Harold Stern, Yiddisher cowboy, or Al Tijuana and his Jewish brass. Topping that is "nice Jewish boys Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals", on YouTube at PowerPop. The Meshugga Beach Party's surf rock "Shalom Alechem" (via SoundRoots) is, ahem, blown out of the water.

Continuing with a Yiddish tip, The Shondes are a New York indie rock band who take their name from the Yiddish word meaning shame or embarassment. Their new album is called The Red Sea. Listen to them at Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Another indie band with some Jewish-inspired naming are Casey Dienel's White Hinterland, whose new album is called Phylactery Factory. Read about and listen to them at Linesthroughlines.

Finally, a Matisyahu track at The World Forgot.

Bob's beats genre keywords: indie, country, hip hop, punk, tropicalia.
Bob's beats artist keywords: Leonard Cohen, The Clash

US politricks: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton

Keywords: mp3, mp3s, music downloads, music to download