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Beat Authority playlist: 4/16/10

Sorry I forgot to post this on Friday. Get down. And have a great Monday!

Awsome Tapes From Africa

The blog Awesome Tapes from Africa features MP3s ripped from, well from awesome tapes from Africa. Curator Brian Shimkovitz writes:

This is music you won't easily find anywhere else—except, perhaps in its region of origin. But if you are an artist/etc and wish for me to remove your music, click above and email me. For the record: it hasn't happened once so far. Just saying.

The site is a treasure trove of gnawa, highlife, funk, hip-hop, and much more. I likes.

Fantasy baseball. Really.

Hot on the heels of the graphic about how much musicians earn, here's a graphic about a fantasy baseball game – Between The Wu-Tang Clan and the E-Street Band. That's fantasy.

The site Flip Flop Fly Ball is chock full of beautiful and semi-useful graphic information about baseball, such as a chart showing the last player wearing #42 on every baseball team. DISCLAIMER: if you are a baseball fan and you value your time do not click on that link.

Beat of the Day: Up Bustle & Out

The first song I ever played on the Beat Authority - on October 7, 2005 - was by Ozomatli. The second by the Godfather of Soul.

The third song was "Silk, Perfume & Gold" by the UK's Up Bustle & Out. UBO always has a global mindset rooted in the groove, and I thought they symbolized what I was trying to do with the then-new radio show.

UBO has a new album out called Solilliquy, which you can download from their website. You'll be hearing some of the new tunes on the Beat Authority soon.

How much do musicians earn?

You may have noticed that very few people are buying CDs these days. If you're like me, you buy most of your music online in 2010. We've read a lot about how this change from physical to digital music distribution has been rocky – to say the least – for music labels. Less clear, less documented, and less discussed is how this shift has affected musicians. It's an opportunity for them to cut out the middleman and earn more profits independently, right? Not so fast.

The fascinating David McCandless, author of Information Is Beautiful, did some research and made this beautiful diagram showing how many units a musician needs to sell through various channels to merely make US minimum wage every month. Folks, the picture isn't pretty for our beloved musicians. If you look at this, it seems that labels are doing very well in the digital era, earning three times as much per album than they did in the CD era. Musicians on the other hand seem to have gotten little or no benefit from the shift, and in some ways may be doing worse.

Double dutch!

Just on the heels of that last post about K'Naan's mixtape, here's another free download from the producer who mashed up Jay-Z and Radiohead, and the Beastie Boys with their damn selves.

Max Tannone sets his sights on Mos Def this time. Check it.

Free download: K'Naan channels his legends

Toronto-based, Somali-born rapper K'Naan is coming off a successful album with crossover appeal in 2009. But he's not holding pat.

K'Naan has quietly produced a mixtape that he's distributing for free at this website. It features the music of three greats: Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, and Bob Dylan.

These things often live in legal limbo. So be sure to grab it before they take it down...

Malcolm McLaren and the early days of hip hop

Plenty of places to relive the life of punk icon, Malcolm McLaren. He died last week.

My favorite is a great blog post by Shawn Roberts in San Francisco. He revisits McLaren's 1983 album, Duck Rock. McLaren dabbles in early hip hop and world music, well before either became popular in the national consciousness. Check it.

Beat Authority playlist: 4/9/10

Salamalama!

Free mp3: NEW OZOMATLI!

I was pretty tepid on Ozomatli's last album, Don't Mess With the Dragon. I thought it was *too* much of a party, too over the top, trying to do too much, no subtlety or sensuality.

Sitll, Ozomatli remains the standard bearer of the new era of latin rock, funk, and soul. So I'm hopeful their new album, Fire Away, coming out later this spring will bring me back into the fold of one of my favorite bands.

Get a sneak listen of the first single, 45. Download it for free and legal here.

Canadian afrobeat coming to Canton

I just noticed that Toronto's Mr. Something Something is coming to St. Lawrence University next Saturday night, the 17th. They're a fine afrobeat outfit whose biggest claim to fame is a sound system that can be powered entire by bicycle pedaling.

They played in Potsdam awhile back and rocked it. Here's an interview I did with one of the band leaders, who actually was born in Potsdam.