Many souls are being lost right now… Which is why we’ve decided to offer you disc 2 of Soul of Angola, which is currently out of print. Its a beautiful, gorgous little thing,
which is more than we can say for the bleakness looming outside.

Various Artists - Soul of Angola, Disc 2

Cities, cities, technology, and cities. And technologies. We love em, but they allow authorities to be miserable in entirely different ways. In London, power drunk pigs boast their salivatory rants before launching into beating time. In DF, authorities manipulate swine flu paranoia to worry about its entry to the US (heaven forfend!) above anything else — tragironically ignoring the histories of this very flu. But god bless the Mexicans, and god bless cumbia: A bit cheesy, but an ode to city life that repudiates panic, Cumbia De La Influenza (facebook) was brought to my attention by my heavenly south american informant. Working on the irony of the civilization-robbing Indiana Jones fretting over whether the virus invades its borders, this is the kind of social response we should expect from our cities, rather than the.. um.. the other kind of response.

La Cumbia de la Influenza [alt]

Its a far cry from our normal blog posting schedule, but this ultrapoppy song just begs to be heard.

K’naan - Waving Flag [alternate]

Well… Its February 14 evening and we certainly aren’t vivo-ing per lei, I tell you.

It’s been a long time for TMYLM and, rather than adding to the economic nationwide collapse of blogs, we thought it’d be better to look on the upside.  We’re coming back, and it’s gonna involve much more than some software upgrade.

Let’s talk a little about music, the world, and world music.  Some choose to tattoo it on their arms; others choose to listen to the music when it comes to you.  And others, those well-moneyed types, can afford to actually travel in these awful times.  Well, TMYLM is at least one of the above, but certainly just came back from some long, ambiguously deserved trip.  And brought these two Belizean (well, actually Garifunian) gems for you:

Reckless - Don’t Discriminate

Umalali - Yuendueya Weyu

We could discurse randomly on these pieces (hybridity of Garifuna culture; the internalization of medical debility through HIV culture in Belize; women’s agency via song, etc) but actually, the songs are great and you should enjoy them.

R Kelly, genius, hits us with some countdown-sampled fire-hotness. Is Keri Hilson singing those lyrics about putting it to a female? Or is it Omar from The Wire dressed up as a cop and pitchshifted to sonic ecstacy? Don’t know now, do I.

R Kelly feat. Keri Hilson - Number 1 Sex

Welcome to Donkey Disco - the final days of the campaign.  First we go from a stale debate (which your correspondent couldn’t avoid) to a genuinely funny one where, nevermind the winner (McCain), the general consensus is that our first black president will inherit our tremendous financial collapse.  What is there to do but to rejoice that some kind of change is gonna come, and to be happy for the good things we have in life (namely, girls?).

Eleni Mandell starts off todays discussion.. A seemingly chickrock song actually is a pretty provocative digression on obsession and nostalgia, a welcome theme thats infected both sides (unfortunately, there are only two) in the election.  Baby Huey picks it up next with a psychedelic masterpiece version of the classic song.  We can only hope the candidates have as much sense as this tweaked out freakface.

I wonder how you feel when you kiss on election night?

Eleni Mandell - Girls

Baby Huey - A Change Is Gonna Come

Ok hai - we’re back.  Though many vacations and ups-and-downs have taken us, your resident geniuses, away from the computer, we thought we’d take the opportunity of this economic mindfuck to shoot you some songs detailing the economic relationships embiggening this perfectly cromulent country.

In the first, from the Republican aisle, TI enjoins the banks, indeed the financial institutions glueing this country together to do Whatever They Like.  Yes, they can have whatever they like.  They can go wherever you like.  TI will be there to bail them out: just pick up the telephone, Goldman Sachs, you want your $5 million dollar home?  You can do whatever you like, do the infectious beats and catchy hooks not convey this financial bailout to you?

BUT WAIT… doth exclaim Timberland & Little Lord Fauntleroy, darling butterflies of the revolution.  They are problematizing this distinction of the banks/commerce society AND the government on the one hand!  In this song, the US Government recognizes that they smashed the economy apart - and they’re a’gonna put it back together!  Through the pounding bassline, the fiction of the economic neoliberalist empire is revealed; indeed, the commerical industries are seen to ask, plaintively, to get the direction from you. Lets IMMERSE together, they shout in unison.

Well, we need a mediator.  And who’s a better mediator than a woman?  Eva Ayllon steps in (who wants to go with me to the show in November at Carnegie Hall?) to enjoin us that when the hour arrives, one must break up.  Time was good - oh, times woz very good - but in all the streets, listen to our voices, its time to just separate! Ultimately, government, the market loves you!

TI - Whatever You Like

Timbaland ft James Fauntleroy - Back Together

Eva Ayllon - Cuando Llegue La Hora

Vampire Weekend can suck my nuts. Wait…did I miss the backlash bandwagon? Sheet.

Tineyi Chikupo & The Mother Band - Sirivia

I was gonna say something like “these bands are like a musical tsunami” but then I remembered that’d be like wiping my ass with 9/11 toilet paper in front of a firefighter with no legs.

First up, Indonesian Love Boat pop, followed by the White Snake of Jakarta. Enjoyz.

White Shoes and the Couples Company - Aksi Kucing

The Super Insurgent Group of Intemperance Talent - The Party

For those who don’t mind bad singing or the fact that he’s from Africa, ‘ere go! I sure don’t.  Plus it takes me back to the time I was caught shoplifting…in Des Moines….in a Walgreens.

Afrika Boy - Lidl