Hailing not 40 miles from my parents of hometown of Coli Al Volturno, Italia is the Naples based Spaccanapli (Divided Naples).  The best way for me to tell you about them is just to have you listen.

Fresh from Nacional Records, run by Tomas Cookman who brought us the international star Manu Chao, is Spanish-Harlem based Pacha Massive.

The best musical group in America, Antibalas,  just recorded a song with Radio 4 called “The World is Waiting.” (disclosure, this song is part of  the soundtrack of my film “Let Fury Have the Hour.”)  After leaving the studio, they headed directly to Boston to battle The Roots in a Soundclash. An unbelievable spectacle that must be seen. Video after the jump. …more

Rachid Taha is an important musician on the international rock scene beginning in the early 1980s. Rachid Taha was born in 1958 in Oran, Algeria. His music is influenced by many different styles such as Raï, techno, rock and punk. Taha is based in Paris, France where he began his solo career after his beginnings as the leader of the French rock band “Carte de Séjour”. Politically engaged, he has always stood up to defend democracy, tolerance and altruism and against racism, fascism and discrimination. Taha created a new, groundbreaking style of music-worldbeat-that mixed punk, Rai, traditional North African and Middle Eastern music, jazz and rock. Video after the jump. …more

“I just saw a billboard on Houston street, it says ‘where have all the junkies gone?’”

Clocking Some Time With Richard Price

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Fermin Muguruza is the prime mover behind Kortatu and Negu Gorriak, two of the fiercest rocking punk-rooted bands you probably never heard, Fermín Muguruza is almost certainly the single most important catalyst in the development of the radical, Basque language rock/punk scene that flowered in the ’80s and ’90s. A political radical who believes in music as a vehicle for spreading anti-system ideas, his lyrics combine a fervent Basque nationalism with an anti-imperialist internationalism grounded in human rights and self-determination for indigenous peoples.

The author remembers his time with Joe Strummer and reflects on the band’s definitive new book, The Clash. …more

Antonino D’Ambrosio remembers his time with Joe Strummer and reflects on the great band’s definitive new book THE CLASH

“I wanted to be Pete Townsend, the bloke who throws his arms and jumps up and down.” Paul Simonon

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