Here’s a gift suggestion for Thailand enthusiasts — or lovers of eclectic music — on your holiday shopping list: The Sound of Siam: Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz and Molam from Thailand 1964 -1975.
From the record company’s Web site:
As Soundway’s entry point into the Asian music world, The Sound of Siam CD and double LP offers a unique vantage point to the most experimental period in Thai musical history. The 19 tracks reflect the outcome of a twentieth century journey from Thai classical to Luk Krung and Luk Thung – music that incorporated western influences such as jazz, surf guitar, ballroom and even Latin and African.
The album can be purchased via the link above (where you can also listen to some of the tracks), or on Amazon.
"Stubborn political crisis hangs over Thai economy" [Reuters] — "Foreign investors are wading back into Thailand despite a three-year political crisis, stoking stock and currency gains, but economists say political unrest will limit how fast and how far Thailand pulls out of recession."
"King calls for unity in polarized Thailand" [Reuters] — "Revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej has called for unity in deeply divided Thailand to stop it from falling into ruin, in a rare foray into the country's four-year political crisis."
The Los Angeles-based Latin funk/hip hop outfit Ozomatli ((More info on Ozomatli can be found on Wikipedia and on Amazon.com)) is one of my favorite bands. But I’d never seen them live.
So I was surprised to learn, at the last minute, that Ozomatli were playing a free show here in Bangkok last night — a Sunday evening, no less.
Ozomatli, it turns out, are U.S. State Department cultural ambassadors, and the US embassy in Thailand put on the event to showcase American diversity and multiculturalism. (The band has also played in Myanmar and Vietnam on this trip.)
The show took place outside Bangkok’s glittering CentralWorld shopping mall — an incongruous setting — amid a light rain. Thai band Buddha Bless ((Warning: link to MySpace page.)) opened. There were just a few hundred people in attendance, so my pals and I were able to watch the show from the front row. Ozomatli were full of enthusiasm, humor, and positivity.
Embedded below is a 30-second mobile phone video I shot. (Click here to see it on YouTube, if you’re reading this via RSS.)
One of my favorite Web sites ((Back in 2001, the site ran an essay of mine called Soup to Nuts, about a funny experience I had here in Bangkok, long before I moved to Thailand.)), World Hum — tag line: travel dispatches from a shrinking planet — has just launched a re-designed site. World Hum’s Jim Benning, Mike Yessis, and Valerie Conners discuss the re-vamping in this video.
New features include videos, bigger photos, and a column by Tom Swick ((A few years back, Swick wrote a good story about Cuenca, Ecuador — where I lived for a year — for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.)) There’s also a piece by Anthony Bourdain called “Subcontinental Homesick Blues,” about “why music can make a travel moment.”
I contributed a list of my top ten songs ((For the record, my top ten songs were:
1. “Born to Run,” by Bruce Springsteen
2. “This Must Be the Place,” by Talking Heads
3. “Range Life,” by Pavement
4. “Long May You Run,” by Neil Young
5. “Just Like Honey,” by Jesus and Mary Chain
6. “American Girl,” by Tom Petty
7. “Love Shack,” by the B-52s
8. “Passenger Side,” by Wilco
9. “Float On,” by Modest Mouse
10. “Good to Be on the Road Back Home,” by Cornershop.)) and then, once the voting was complete, I wrote a few sentences about Neil Young’s 1976 tune, “Long May You Run.” That song is at number 16 on the list. You can find what I wrote here (scroll down a bit).
The current issue of The Magazine (pictured above), a bi-monthly glossy published by the Bangkok Post, contains a very brief item I wrote about Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. (You’ve heard me mention Wilco before, no doubt.) In each issue, various folks are asked to weigh in on their favorite album, book, or movie. The item isn’t online, sadly, but interested Bangkokians can find my thoughts on page eight.
Sky Blue Sky (great title — Allman Brothers via Laurie Anderson) is understated, erratic, often beautiful, disarmingly simple music; it really sounds like six guys playing in a room, and no doubt that’s how they wanted it.
My favorite track so far is “Hate it Here” (number eight).
I recently stumbled across this remarkably complex Wikipedia entry for “backronym”:
A backronym or bacronym is a portmanteau of backward and acronym[1] coined in 1983.[2][3] It usually refers to a phrase that is constructed backwards from the phrase’s abbreviation, the abbreviation being an initialism or acronym. Sometimes backronym refers to the initialism or acronym itself,[4] but usually in those cases, it is a “replacement” backronym, the abbreviation already having an associated phrase. When the backronym phrase becomes more popular than the original, the word becomes an anacronym.[5]
I’ve got a story in today’s International Herald Tribune/Thai Day (Thai Day is a Siam-specific IHT section) — it’s a review of drumming legend Billy Cobham‘s first-ever concert in Thailand. The story’s not (yet?) online, sadly. If you’re reading this from the Kingdom, pick up a copy of the paper; for those of you outside Thailand, well, you’re outta luck. But here’s my lede:
When the drummer for the opening act launched into his manic solo Tuesday night at the Thailand Cultural Center, he may well have felt intimidated by his proximity to greatness. That’s because not far away – lounging backstage, perhaps, or seated serenely in the wings — drumming legend Billy Cobham was in the house. When Cobham later took the stage and struck up his band for what would be his inaugural Thailand performance, he displayed not only his staggering percussive genius but also his subtle aptitude for marshaling disparate sounds from around the globe.
![Wilco [not my image]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1062/531302592_b67d14ae31_m.jpg)
![Pete Doherty [Not My Image]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/376575710_00cbbe213f_m.jpg)
