Finds: Beirut in Brazil, Sierra Leone in Brooklyn, Balkans in DC, Myspace Nostalgia

Vampire Weekend on Myspace. What year might this be? 2006 is my best guess. Their mastery of melody visible right from the jump.

Vampire Weekend palm wine. Pair myspace with this one. Vampire Weekend samples palm wine star S.E. Rogie, from Sierra Leone. Note that lyrics to this song are a testament to contentment, a rare theme for indie rock.

Big Band, Tiny Desk. Romanian brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia at NPR. These are the kind of bands that Beirut (who is from New Mexico) were inspired by. Few (any?) have broke through to western markets. Why does Beirut have a following in Sao Paolo, Brazil? They’ve toured the country, a Brazilian Beirut projects exists. Beirut has more listeners in Brazil than in the United States. Theories? 

Main Ingredient, Everybody Plays the Fool. Cuba Jr’s dad and one of the most memorable intro sequences — pay attention to the piano-flute-bass interplay.

Girl Talk takes that riff and froths it up into something new. This style of mashups seems to be unique to this musician. Has anyone else done it with such commitment? With TikTok attention spans, I would’ve guessed it would be more popular. (and if you want to go too deep)

Isicathamiya, Maskandi, Hlanganani. South African acapella. Adjacent, but distinctly different from Ladysmith. Less sacred, more labor oriented. Minimal information about the band, but the depth of the vocals is immediately distinctive. Via songlines (kinda). 

Bonus: Shaggy T-shirt, “It was’nt (sic) me”, $250 on Ebay. Bid now.