Thanks Kate P. for the African music. I'm liking the West African stuff a little more than the South African stuff -- it's a little funkier. But you reminded me that many a moon ago I downloaded a Fela Kuti album I never really listened to. So that's now on the iPod. But anyway, you rock.

I'm been applying for better jobs tonight and listening to iTunes; here's a sample of tonight's music:

One Of These Days - Camper Van Beethoven
Interlude - Jay-Z/Beatles/Danger Mouse
We Suck Young Blood - Radiohead
All For Swinging You Around - New Pornographers
Fins - Jimmy Buffett
Smokestack Lightning - John Lee Hooker
Let Love Speak Up Itself - Beautiful South
Portions For Foxes - Rilo Kiley
Shouldn't Be Ashamed - Wilco
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence - Fernando Ortega

I don't know why iTunes thought Buffett and a Christmas carol were worth playing. But "One Of These Days" seems appropriate for the dark Seattle night and for applying for better jobs, and the Beautiful South always seems appropriate for my irony-tinged life.

Wow, I've never heard Mississippi John Hurt do "Smokestack Lightning." When's that from?

Also, what Fela do you have? Pretty much everything I've heard is brilliant, but I've only heard four or five albums.

You're welcome, dw! I did eventually find where my compilations were stored, so I might try to put up a couple more tracks tonight or tomorrow. I think I mentioned the "Love's a Real Thing" compilation in one of the buffistarawk emails, but if you like the West African funk, you should definitely check it out, and of course it's hard to go wrong with Fela Kuti.

Wow, I've never heard Mississippi John Hurt do "Smokestack Lightning." When's that from?

Oops. I meant John Lee Hooker. My bad.

Also, what Fela do you have? Pretty much everything I've heard is brilliant, but I've only heard four or five albums.

Turns out I have two -- No Agreement and With Ginger Baker Live.

No Agreement and With Ginger Baker Live.

You know, I don't think I've heard either of those. The one I listen to most often is Expensive Shit/He Miss Road, and also the best-of compilation that came out several years ago, The Best Best of Fela Kuti. There are a few afrobeat comps out now, Nigeria '70 and Afro Baby, I think are the names. I downloaded several comps (the aforementioned, plus Ghana Soundz, 2 volumes) around the same time a few months ago and have been listening to them on shuffle, so I can't say which is the best, but they're all fun and funky.

Oops. I meant John Lee Hooker. My bad.

Ohhhhh, ok. I was all excited about the prospect, man.

Thanks for the recommendations, y'all! I've got the Best Best, Zombie, Confusion, and Gentleman, all of which I highly recommend back to y'all. Haven't heard any of the ones y'all've mentioned, though.

There was a fantastic article about Fela in the Da Capo Best Music Writing Anthology of 2002 or 2003 (I'm fairly certain it was the one that Jonathan Lethem edited). Y'all'd probably enjoy it.

I'll look it up, Corwood, thanks! The first I really heard of Fela was when I got a job indexing a book about him several years ago, which turned out to be a really cool project. The book is Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon, by Michael Veal, and it's excellent.

Synchronicity! I just checked that out of the library last week. Been waiting for my copy of Fela: The Music Is The Weapon to come from Netflix before reading it.

I saw Bauhaus at the Orpheum in Boston last night. The band sounded amazing and Peter Murphy's voice is still as vivid as ever (whether it works for you or not, he sounds like he used). He's slowed down a bit physically since I saw them in 1998 at Harborlights (!), and they had a more interesting visual show then too, but the song selection was right on (i.e. - digging deep into the albums rather than just the hits off Galore like they did in 98, although they did some of those too).

I was pleased to see Daniel Ash don a Marc Bolan-esque top hat for the glam covers portion of the show ("Telegram Sam" followed by "Ziggy"). They also pulled out one of the Ash-sung songs from BURNING FROM THE INSIDE ("Slice of Life") which was nice, since half that album was a serious precursor to LOVE & ROCKETS. And with the version of "She's in Parties" they did, I would have been happy even if they didn't do "Bela" (which they did do, of course).

Synchronicity! I just checked that out of the library last week.

Ooh, make sure you explore the FABULOUS index. t /professional pride

Frank, sounds like a great show!