new website @ http://kokomo.fr

the song is « Both Back »

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byga1vfQ8×8[/youtube]

http://www.myspace.com/thesummerbrothers

from the album « Oh Skies Of Grey »

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv_cC7QKuwc[/youtube]

http://danafalconberry.com/

http://www.myspace.com/danafalconberry

« One Stolen Moment »

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2VVuuYCzL0[/youtube]

http://www.petemolinari.co.uk

http://www.myspace.com/petemolinari

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=BvN3zCNBxOU[/youtube]

http://www.myspace.com/edlaurie

« Don’t Be A Stranger » is the debut record from The Moondoggies !

http://www.myspace.com/themoondoggies

Changing

(click the grey play button to stream audio or right click to download the MP3. All mp3s on this site are free legal to download)

the song is « Westbound Train »

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=A2LDtqIZ9iQ[/youtube]

http://www.christopherdenny.com/

http://www.myspace.com/christopherdenny

credits

No One Does It Like You

(click the grey play button to stream audio or right click to download the MP3. All mp3s on this site are free legal to download)

http://departmentofeagles.com

http://www.myspace.com/deptofeagles

Video for Marissa Nadler’s cover of the Leonard Cohen song « Famous Blue Raincoat. » Taken from the album Songs III: Bird on the Water.

« Little Hells », her next album will be out on Kemado Records in early 2009.

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=FFztbbyCzjg[/youtube]

Ed Laurie release is splendid first album « Meanwhile In The Park » on Dangerbird Records and is currently touring solo in the USA. Those who listen to KOKOMO WebRadio knows that we support this fantastic artist since many years ; « Meanwhile In The Park » was album of the year in 2006 ! and is still on heavy rotation on KOKOMO WebRadio. At the occasion of this official release I have listen to this record again, and I must say that these songs haven’t aged, thats probably how you recognize good songwriters and classic records.

http://www.myspace.com/edlaurie

Ed answers a few questions about his music, about him …

How could you discribe your music to somebody who never heard you ?
Hopeful, and open.

Listening to your music, it’s difficult to imagine you live in London, we imagine you in the green beautiful countryside of England.
Perhaps living in London makes me wish for other places, the countryside or the sea… and this comes out in the songs… memories are often a trigger.

If your music was a landscape ?
Probably a dry heat, not far from the sea… it’s in my blood.

You looks found of literature ? do you work a lot on your lyrics ? Tell us more about your pleasure to write !
The lyrics drive the melody as much as the music… just as the music effects the meaning as much as the words.

Who are your favorite writers ?
Albert Camus, Franz Kafka and Primo Levi.

What’s your story with music ?
I grew up with classical music. thereafter i avoided music for many years until i could no longer! I begun to sing privately many years ago; the guitar came later.

What are your projects for the up coming months ?
I am to record a full length record "Small Boat Big Sea". Hopefully i will be playing and travelling with the songs for many years to come. The new album will be quite different from "Meanwhile In The Park"… but as much as you move on from something you remain tied to your "thing"…

Those tracks were recordes 2 or 3 years ago, istnt it difficult to play a record so late after writing songs. If you had to recording those songs again, would you change something ?
I haven’t yet tired of playing these songs live. I improvise more when i play live and look for different ways to play them. You just have to turn them a little to the side and they become almost different songs. I am happy with the record as it is – it is how i felt at the time and i am content with that.

Is there a song you wish you had written ?
No, if i had written such a song i wouldn’t enjoy listening to it as much.

Most ever playing record at home ?
At the moment Camaron de Isla and Tomatito live in paris 1987 – it is the most powerful live record i have ever heard.

http://www.myspace.com/meansealevel

« Palaces » is the new Bart Davenport album

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=7g-DOc9gVhM[/youtube]

http://www.bartdavenport.com/

http://www.myspace.com/bartdavenport

Thee, Stranded Horse is Yann Tambour, a young french musician playing guitar and kora.

He released last year "Churning Strides", a music with no boundaries.

http://www.theestrandedhorse.com

http://www.myspace.com/theestrandedhorse

Yann answers a few questions for KOKOMO WebRadio:

How could you discribe your music to somebody who never heard you ?
The loan translation of the world’s second biggest ebb and flow.

What’s your story with music? How, when did you begin singing, playing guitare / are you from a musician familly ?
I started playing the guitar at the age of 7. I was total crap until the age of 12. I then took sick and had to be locked in for a month or so. I came out a much better guitar player. My family hasn’t got a very musical background, no.

What kind of music did you heard at home when you was a child ?
The only striking thing I remember from my childhood (music wise) is « Les Marquises » by Jacques Brel.

Your last albun « Churning Strides » was widely review and received lots of complimentary critics. After this, do you plan to keep going in this musical direction or do you plan something very different ?
I try to stay away from all that as much as I can. I heard it went alright. I’m currently writing a new album whose arrangements will be roughly along the same lines : just me on the kora/guitar. The songs are written very differently, though. I’m not the best one to ask really, I try to think about these things as little as possible.

Is there a new album to come, when ?
It’s being written as we speak. Don’t know when it’ll be done or out.

You’re back from China where you were touring. How your music was received their ? How did it go ?
It went well, people were sometimes very intrigued, sometimes very loud, haha. Most of the tour went really well except for the Beijing shows. The Olympics had a dreadful effect on the city night life and a lot of the people I met didn’t seem very happy about that. Aside from all this it was a stunning experience overall. I took loads of 20-hour trains with the locals. Ate amazing food. Was most bewitched by the stunning landscape, especially in the south.

If your music was a landscape ? which one ? why ?
The swamps outside my parent’s country house. It’s basically the house I grew up in. They fill up and empty as the tide ebbs and flows. I recorded the album there. The sea plays a big part in the local life. You get the second biggest tides in the world (or the biggest along with some other place… i’m not sure.. damned, gotta get my facts right! ) and I think that somehow the album reflects that.

Where did you find your inspiration ? nature, journey, love stories, books … ?
All those things, I guess.

What your songs are talking about generally ?
They’re complete nonesense. More seriously, I try not to think about that aspect of things.

I like the sleeve of the record, tell us more about your choice , the painter…
Thanks. My girlfriend made the artwork after an idea I had.

Is there a song you wish you had written ?
That song I’m working on right now, it’s doing my head in. Nah, more seriously again : I’m sure all the good songs have been written by the right people.

Most ever playing record at home ?
Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko’s « New Ancient Strings »

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6gokSHfVkE&feature=related[/youtube]

« Waiting For The Sunrise » is the new David Vandervelde album.

http://www.myspace.com/davidvandervelde

here is two songs from the album :

I Will Be Fine

Someone Like You

(click the grey play button to stream audio or right click to download the MP3. All mp3s on this site are free legal to download)

PRADA launched their new animation entitled « Fallen Shadows » scored by Antony with a new song called « The Great White Ocean ». « Fallen Shadows » is directed and animated by James Lima.

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=J_YG5XLFp44[/youtube]

« A Place Where We Could Go » is Jeremy Jay’s debut album.
here is the new video « Someone Cares » and a previous video « Air Walker »

http://www.myspace.com/jeremyjay

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=A1pUvGf8Vx8[/youtube]

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=6_wqxn9kDmc&feature=related[/youtube]

http://www.myspace.com/langhorneslim

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElwMp0qK1xc[/youtube]

« Fire Escape » is a single released last year by the Swedish band Fanfarlo. You can listen to their last single « Harold T.Wilkins » on their website http://fanfarlo.com or on myspace http://www.myspace.com/fanfarlo

[youtube width="425" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e6453HyewA[/youtube]

Roma di Luna is a Folk/Country band from Minneapolis, lead by Alexei & Channy Moon Casselle.

Their wonderful last album "Casting the Bones" is of course on rotation on KOKOMO WebRadio.

http://www.romadiluna.com/
http://www.myspace.com/romadiluna

How could you discribe your music to somebody who never heard the music of Roma di Luna ?
A: I would say its like the Carter Family meets Cat Power. Appalachian style folk with a modern twist.

What your songs are talking about generally ? Where do you find your inspiration ? nature, travel, love stories, books … ?
C: Songwriting for me is rambles of my own memories or unsettled stories of my past mixed with the stories I see in the streets and newspapers around me and the books and poems I’ve read that stay with me. I also credit Alexei with inspiring me to write; The creative energy that lives in our relationship when new songs are being written and sung helps us feed off of each other.

What do each of you two bring to Roma di Luna ?
C: We each bring our different instruments of choice, the music we listened to as children, our different writing styles and voices and even the masculine versus the feminine perspective.

What’s your story with music ? How, when did you begin singing, playing music are you both from a musician familly ?
A: My father is a painter, a singer, a songwriter, a producer and plays multiple instruments but he was not around for a lot of my childhood. My mother is not a musician but is an artist in her own right. I started writing lyrics when I was fifteen because I wanted to be a rap artist. I stuck with that and continue to write and perform hip hop music today. I wasn’t interested in rock or folk music until about five years ago when I listened to Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan. Dylan opened up another world of possibilty and became a gateway to many other artists and perspectives for me. Channy’s father used to be a songwriter and is still a hell of a ragtime piano player.

Choose one of these two songs and tells us it’s story : « silver dagger » or « these tears ain’t mine »
A: "Silver Dagger" is a traditional folk song that I first heard from an old Joan Baez record. I took to it instantly as it has all the lore and tragedy of old Irish and English ballads. It’s a story told by a young woman who is being courted by some guy, but she’s telling him not to pursue her because her mom keeps a silver dagger under her pillow for just the right ocassion. She also talks about how her father was also a bit of a Casanova in his day, and maybe that’s also why mom keeps the knife. I love these old tales because they are very simple and archaic but I think you can read into them and find all sorts of symbols and metaphors. I think they’re also very telling of age old truths like men being unfaithful to their partners and over-protectiver parents…

Is there a song you wish you had written ?
A: Yes, there are way too many songs I wish I had written.

What do you listen to ?
C: Alexei and I both listen to a wide range of genres and generations of music. Some of our favorites are Elmore James, Robert Johnson and other blues greats of that generation; the Carter Family and Bob Dylan are staples in our home; Gil Scott-Heron and modern groups like the Roots are musicians that inspre us by the truth they speak and their fearlessness to attack America’s racism and other injustices.

Who are Channy Moon’s prefered femal singers ?
There are so many… In general, I gravitate towards the tragic and emotive voices like: Billie Holiday, Texas Gladden, Amel Larieux, Esme Redsepova and other Roma singers out of the Balkans. I like a voice tha brings me to tears.

Since 2 or 3 years there is a revival of American folk music in Europe, is it the same in the U.S ?
A:Yes, there has definitely been a folk/old-timey revival of sorts going on locally and also on a national level, I believe. I think part of it is just some people following a trend since everything goes in cycles, so if enough people get into a style or genre that hasn’t been getting much attention then others will follow, but at the heart of this resurgance is the music itself and love and respect for the people that created it.

For all of us who live far from Minnesota, can you tell us more about Minneapolis ?
A: Minneapolis is a wonderful city. It is very eclectic in its population as well as in its culture and arts. Most people just talk about the winters if they are not used to harsh weather, but we have the joy of every season here. I think Fall is my favorite because there are so many trees that when all the leaves turn colors it is the most spectaclur sight. We have one of the best music scenes in the country; A lot of amazing bands and talented artists that network and collaborate on a grassroots level. There’s great food. I like that it is a major metropolitan city but there are still many small city characteristics about it. I can ride a bike for ten minutes from my mom’s house and be in the woods in one direction, or be in down town the other direction. I was born and raised here and I can see spending most of my life here, although I love to travel and hope to see a lot more of the world in the coming years.

USA is currently living a very interesting period with the next presidential election. What do you think about that ? do you have expectations ?
A: I think it is a very exciting time in our history as the first black man was just nominated to be the Democratic presidential nominee. I am a big fan of Barack Obama. Channy is, too. I think the Repulican ticket is a joke, but unfortunately many people would disagree with me and seem to have forgotten or worse, some how enjoyed the last eight years of George W. Bush and company in the White House. I though that it would be almost unanimous that people would rally behind Obama on the left but there is till a lot of division. The Republican National Convention is taking place in Saint Paul as I write this (the other half of the Twin Cities) and a lot of people on the Left are grouping Obama in with ‘just another politician who talks big but won’t follow through.’ This is disheartening to me because people either aren’t going to vote or they will vote for a third party which is how Bush won the last two elections. I don’t pretend to understand my country and am continuously confounded and frustrated by it but I do love it so I cannot just hold my tongue or leave it to the dogs.

C: I could talk about American politics until I was blue in the face. It infuriates me that Americans might vote Republican after these last 8 years!

One of our prefered songs this year is « Willow Tree » from the album « Soft Airplane »

(click the grey play button to stream audio or right click to download the MP3. All mp3s on this site are free legal to download)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK_JSaE_SQo[/youtube]

http://www.myspace.com/ollenyman