Rocktober, 2007

Hey You All,
The SS LUAKA BOP is proud to announce that the Red Eye Music Distribution barge will officially be towing our catalog! All of our titles will be sailing into stores and harboring in your favorite digital outlets over a 6 month span, beginning November 13th. The first new release to look for is the historic, live recording of OS MUTANTES' first show in 30 years which took place at The Barbican in London in May of 2006. It is a remarkable sounding concert with so much fantastic material that we decided to release it as a DOUBLE ALBUM. The packaging is gorgeous and better yet, the energy of the band's live show is palpable AND there is a guest appearance by Devendra Banhart. MUTANTES LIVE AT THE BARBICAN THEATRE will be available on NOVEMBER 13th. Note, this is also the day that Britney Spears's new one drops. Who do you think will have the better come-back album?

JIM WHITE
Soon-to-be voyaging abroad in a patchwork submarine built with genuine Southern engineering, Jim White will be playing several shows in Europe in conjunction with the release of his album there. That new one, Transnormal Skiperoo, will be out in the U.S. in March of next year. Click here to plumb the depths of the album with Jim in a video interview where he discusses the impetus for the material on Transnormal Skiperoo. He's also got his own website up now, or you can check out our new Jim White page to listen and learn more. Click to here to see all of Jim's European Dates He kicked things off in the UK:
Click here to visit his Myspace page
Click here to learn about other well-known submariners

MORENO DOMENICO KASSIN +2
Three guys who consistently find themselves in the same boat (by choice) are the +2's. Moreno Domenico and Kassin +2 have recorded their third album together. Somewhere on the coast of tomorrow lies Futurismo, Kassin+2ís fond foretelling of a classic yesterday. This is where samba and bossa nova move through torrents of clever electronica, deeply grooved garage rock, and fleet-footed bolero. It's been getting mad props from all over the place and will be yours to love, with bonus tracks from Sean O'Hagan of High Llamas and John McEntire of Tortoise, on April 2nd! Find out why Andrew Bird and The Sea and Cake have both asked them to be on their tours.

SUSANA BACA
Susana Baca captains another tour of Europe in November! Click here for dates.
VISIT SUSANA'S MYSPACE PAGE

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN PERNAMBUCO
Just after the first of the year, speeding out of the swamps of Pernambuco in the most hype hydroplane that side of the Everglades come the artists featured on
Brazil Classics 7: What's Happening in Pernambuco New Sounds of the Brazilian Northeast Pick up a copy on February 5th, in time for Carnival season!

TIM MAIA
Once upon a time, a jolly funk pirate named Tim Maia sailed the seas of soul music with a bottle of fun in hand at all times. He was always on the lookout for more members to add to his crew and did his best to convert those around him to the wonders of LSD, going so far as to distribute tabs to everyone at his record label in Brazil (Polygram). Midway thru his career, he joined the cult known as Superior Rational, which convinced its members that UFO's were going to descend on the Earth and deliver believers to the next world. Once again, he began to proselytize his beliefs to those near and far. He even used his music as a vehicle for the cult's message on two albums in 1975-76, and some of those songs are included on our newest World Psychedelic Series compilation coming on May 13th.

Check out this tale of recruitment as told by Tim's longtime friend and A&R rep Nelson Motta: In 1975, a Superior Rational devotee and missionary, Tim announced that he'd sent the sect's records and books (titled The Universe in Disenchantment) to Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield and John Lennon. A reporter speaking with Tim at the time asks "Why?", since the books and records were written and sung in Portuguese. Tim's reply: "The Superior Rational will make them understand."

One month later he got an answer from John Lennon, written on a photo where he was fully naked:

Dear freak,
I don't speak Portuguese. You can LISTEN to this photo.
Love and peace,
John

Love and peace,
LUAKA BOP

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Maypril, 2007

Dormancy is a natural state for some of the most beautiful propagating species. In our case, dormancy is an observable phenomenon as the Luaka Bop plant (both flora and factory) reacts to outside stimuli (the freaky music market) and protects itself from harm. As we turn inward, you may not notice any visible sprouts, but the nucleus behind these turgid cell (office) walls is busier than ever in the production of new releases.

You'll find more information here:Dormancy: Your Plants May Need a Vacation

After learning the basics of botany, please apply these new principles to hasten further growth:

1. Gleefully remove dead links/unnamed MP3's from your iTunes garden. This is the practice of weeding.
2. Carefully dump new music from Luaka Bop Digital Sampler into the newly aerated soil of your hard drive.
3. Don't forget to water your blends of all the good stuff with multiple listens!
4. Maintain saplings until repotting with full-length Luaka Bop products in late 2007.

Even in dormancy, you can learn a lot about our plant by studying Jim White. His southern phenotypes were showcased last month at SXSW where he played No Depression's day party. For the fertile SXSW crowd, Jim unveiled songs from his forthcoming album (about to sprout at an iTunes near you). He opened the show with 'Turquoise House,' and was accompanied on vocals by his wife Robin. For Texans and transplants alike, Jim White’s music was good nourishment to the environs of Austin.

We sent out early cuttings of the Tim Maia record to a lucky bunch of music-heads. Some of their reactions have been kind of astounding! Six emails in one day from one West Coast editor in particular had us hoping he would put the big man on the cover of his magazine. But, for now, that magazine too is dormant, though it will be back ARTHUR. Just like Luaka Bop! Visit Tim MaiaSpace Page or STREAM THE FIRST TRACK, QUE BELEZA:

Kassin+2, who have been growing their musical legacy in fertile ground for quite a while, get an extra boost in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine as their top pick of breaking artists.

Os Mutantes are coming back for more. These heirloom varieties have new US and European tour dates here: www.luakabop.com/tours

If you're in NYC on June 1st, join Nouvelle Vague for First Fridays at the Guggenheim with summery cocktails from series sponsor St. Germain www.stgermain.fr.  Nouvelle Vague producer Marc Collin and DJ extraordinaire will spin tunes prior to the band's set while ticket holders stroll through the museum's galleries.  Go here for more information and to buy tix. To win tickets, check these sites: www.aekituesday.com/contest www.melodynelson.com
Or Listen to WNYU for a chance to win: http://wnyu.org

Keep growing,

The Green Thumb of Luaka Bop

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February, 2007

Maybe it's because 2007 started on a Monday, but the year has definitely gotten off to a rocky start.  After all, what other day of the week is universally reviled?  Then again, 7 is generally credited with having the most luck of any number, and the last installment in the 007 series was the best in recent years.  Who can say how fortunes will grow or fall (goodbye V2) this year, all we know is that we have a trove of great music to put out and we find ourselves in a holding pattern as far as their release dates.  All of which is to say we have four or five records we expect to release this year.  They will probably come out in Europe first and in the U.S. sometime soon there after.  We are still motoring ahead with our plans to release the compilation Brazil Classics 7: 'What's Happening in Pernambuco,' 'Futurismo' by Kassin+2, World Psychedelic Classics 4:Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul of Tim Maia and the new Jim White album.  It's just that, like passengers at the mercy of shifting subway timetables, we are patiently waiting for a distribution vessel to emerge from the murkiness that is the music biz.  It's a good thing we love this crazy beast so much, otherwise you'd think we'd have packed it in one of the last half-dozen times it pulled this kind of switcheroo on us. 

Speaking of love... let's talk about love.  Why, that's what February is dedicated to, right?  Jim White goes into great detail about his love of love letters, and, um, Dan Fogelberg, as a guest editor and curator of assorted romantic missives at Collective Experience. It's nice to see heartbreak and heartlessness anonymously displayed to make us all feel a little less pitiful.  Man, do we love JIm.

Tom Ze show's his love this month of the musical history of the northeast region of Brazil, name checking What's Happening in Pernambuco in the New York Times piece
Long-Lost Trove of Music Connects Brazil to Its Roots. Man, do we loveTom.
 
Considering her most beloved challenge, Susana Baca explains what it's like to take the stage and face her audience:

"And I emerge, perhaps as the bullfighter emerges, to confront for the first time, the bull, and I see their gazes, faces smiling-- and therein lies the challenge: to move them with a language that they don't speak, to bury one's self in the soul of the people."

Man, do we love Susana. She heads out on another extensive tour of Europe this spring. Let her catch you, if you can.  Tour dates here.

So, yeah.  Maybe one day you'll find someone or something that you really love and will promise never to let it/him/her go (unless it's Dan Fogelberg) and you'll think, "Of course!  If it happened to Luaka Bop, it could happen to me, too."

Love, obviously.


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