“Sugar Man” is remarkable because it conjures an overwhelming, unique sense of hope. It’s a tale of talent being recognized, of humility’s triumph. – Kia Makarechi
The film had me drinking the Rodriguez Koolaid almost from the get go. I was so much a fan by the end that I went out and bought both Rodriguez CDs not long after seeing the film. – dbborroughs
A new single off the album, Fireflies In The Rain, the debut solo album from one of South Africa’s leading electric cellists who is best known for her work with the Cape Town group CODA as well as with the groups Electro-Muse and Sterling Electric Quartet.
One of the eleven new tracks specially recorded by this veteran SA artist inspired by his appearance in the recent spooky KykNET TV series Wie Lê Waar? off the album Spookpsalms.
Terry Dean writes and plays his own brand of blues, rock and folk music on his latest album Blues with a Capital C , which was recorded live at a local festival and features guest musicians Dave Smith on keyboard, Davie Namonde on bass and Thapelo Monareng on drums.
The production of her debut solo album Secret Surprise saw Elzahn collaborating talents with acclaimed South African musicians such as Schalk Joubert, Kevin Gibson, Jesse Jordon, Louis Esterhuizen, Ramon Alexander and award winning mixing engineer David Langemann.
A song from the compilation Jazzing and Jiving – The Cape Town Sessions an eclectic trip through the traditional and modern landscape of Cape Jazz with the city’s finest musicians.
On her album, Wonderful Life , this Cape-based songstress sings about the light and dark side of life, the undeniable relationship between these two opposites, and how we cannot exist without either of them.
Mingus is a well respected figure in SA Hip Hop who gathered all his friends from Germany,Sweden, the U.S. and South America to contribute to Beneath The Underdog his highly jazz influenced debut album.
Prime rat instigator Jonathan Handley wrote the tracks for this album, Spooky Obsession inspired by a real incident. Handley can be heard on bass, drums, vocals, spoken monologue and harmonica.
Hi everybody! My name is Chocko and I tonight I am reporting from the red carpet event for the New York Premiere of SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN. In a nutshell, the movie is about a Mexican-American folk singer from the 70’s named Rodriguez (pictured above) who was adored by critics, but was a flop commercially. He eventually disappeared into obscurity, unknowingly becoming a HUGE star in South Africa where his antiestablishment songs struck a chord with the masses. Decades later, his story is finally being told. I was able to speak briefly with the director of the film, Malik Bendjelloul.
Rodriguez Live at The Sewer (Courtesy of Rodriguez)
Very excited for this upcoming week in New York City where Rodriguez will be playing a rare live show at Joe’s Pub. In addition, there will be two screenings of the Sundance award winning documentary Searching For Sugar Manas part of the Tribeca Film Festival. Check the links below and hope to see you there!
Rodriguez – Live Performance
@ Joe’s Pub, NYC
Wednesday, April 25 @ 11:30PM
Tickets available here.
Searching For Sugar Man (Film)
@ Tribeca Film Festival, NYC
Tuesday, April 24 @ 9:30 PM, BMCC Tribeca PAC
Friday, April 27 @ 6 PM, Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 7
Tickets available here.
Just A Poke (album) – Sweet Smoke: Baby Night & Silly Sally
Includes an excerpt from The Soft Parade by The Doors and a wonderfully phased drum solo.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond, parts 1-9 – Pink Floyd
On the ‘Wish You Were Here’ album, this song is split into two sections, separated by the other 3 songs on the album. Here it can be heard as one long piece.
Anonymus Two – Focus
Tarkus – Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Echoes – Pink Floyd
Salisbury – Uriah Heep
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida – Iron Butterfly
Ordinary length songs are often stretched incredibly during live performances, here’s one of them:
Dazed And Confused (live 1973) – Led Zeppelin
And here’s another:
Space Truckin’ – live 1974 – Deep Purple
And just for laughs:
Metal Machine Music – Lou Reed
This double album, consisting of 4 sides of equal length, is like one of those really bad movies that you keep watching hoping it will get better.
A song for the late Syd Kitchen penned by his good friend Jonathan Handley. Performed by Jonathan Rat with Dave Rat on vocals. Filmed in The Necroplis Hotel in March 2012 by Rogue Productions. Footage of Syd courtesy of Rogue. Words and music by Jonathan Handley, copyright icbm music/Radio Rats.
A song for musicians – lepers with long hair, borrowers of birdsong and so on – written by Jonathan Handley. Filmed by Rogue Productions in Room 213 of The Necropolis Hotel on Wednesday, 21 March 2012. Vocals – Dave Rat, Lead guitar – Ozzie Theron and all instruments by Jonathan Handley, copyright icbm music/Radio Rats.
Mingus is a well respected figure in SA Hip Hop who gathered all his friends from Germany,Sweden, the U.S. and South America to contribute to Beneath The Underdog his highly jazz influenced debut album.
Prime rat instigator Jonathan Handley wrote the tracks for this album, Spooky Obsession inspired by a real incident. Handley can be heard on bass, drums, vocals, spoken monologue and harmonica.
The recent musical show Crazy Diamond- A Tribute to Pink Floyd has been released as a double live album with 31 hit Pink Floyd songs, interpreted by guitar guru Mel Botes and his multi-talented band.
The first single from this two-man acoustic punk/rock band from Pretoria formed as a side project by Deon Roos from Die Onbekende, and Raymond Roy Horn from Neontetra.
Fabian Josephus (aka GlamaBoy) started free-styling at parties and worked with many underground hip hop artists from the Cape Flats before starting GlamaBoy’s Risk Taking, the group that won the Western Province Talent Promotions.
Heather Mac rose to prominence in the 80s SA rock music scene as the lead singer of Ella Mental – here with a track off her new album, WITHIN , a collection of personal songs gathered from the last 25 years of her life.
On his debut album Life & Death , hip hop artist Shane Q sings about growing up with a love of music and his musical inspiration, American rapper 2 Pac.
On Veraz’s debut album, From Joburg to Jamaica , this hip new local artist sings songs about ordinary life in Jeppe Street, xenophobia, love, nature and unity to workers.
Live acoustic performance from Rodriguez!
April 11th at 7pm
Wayne State Welcome Center
Come join the smallest student organization on campus for a grand celebration of National Poetry Month! The Wayne Writer’s Forum is proud to present two icons of poetry and music, Ed Sanders and Sixto Rodriguez. This event is free and open to the public.
Ed Sanders is an internationally-acclaimed poet and publisher of The Woodstock Journal the famous literary magazine F**k You, which published works by Alan Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka (then Leroi Jones), Frank O’Hara, Norman Mailer, and Andy Warhol. He went on to become one of the founding members of seminal 60’s rock band The Fugs. Sanders has received many different fellowships and awards for poetry, including fellowships for poetry from the Guggenheim in 1983, and from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1987. He won the American Book Award in 1988 for Thirsting for Peace in a Raging Century, selected poems 1961-1985.
Sixto Diaz Rodriguez is an internationally-renown musician. An alumnus of Wayne State, he received a BA in Philosophy in 1981. His sound is complex and soulful, and more than a few times he’s been referred to as the Hispanic Bob Dylan. His albums Cold Fact and Coming From Reality have garnered him a cult following in the music world, with his greatest hits album At His Best going platinum in South Africa.
It’s been a crazy year for Rodriguez. The documentary Searching For Sugar Man was one of the first films to be purchased (by Sony Pictures Classics) at Sundance and picked up two awards on the way (World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary and World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize for its Celebration of the Artistic Spirit). Be sure there is some cool Rodriguez news in the coming months! After being out of print for the last year, Rodriguez Cold Fact (LITA 036) is finally available again on vinyl and to celebrate, we’re giving away a copy of Cold Fact for this week’s Free Basin’ Fridays. – Light In The Attic
It’s been a crazy year for Rodriguez. The documentary Searching For Sugar Man was one of the first films to be purchased (by Sony Pictures Classics) at Sundance and picked up two awards on the way (World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary and World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize for its Celebration of the Artistic Spirit). Be sure there is some cool Rodriguez news in the coming months! After being out of print for the last year, Rodriguez Cold Fact (LITA 036) is finally available again on vinyl and to celebrate, we’re giving away a copy of Cold Fact for this week’s Free Basin’ Fridays. – Light In The Attic
Over the last while I have noticed the following type of marketing approach:
“If you are bored, please listen to our radio show”
“If you have nothing else to do, please come to our concert / gig / show”
“If you have some spare time, could you please …?”
Are these really the people you want as your fans?
People that are bored and have nothing else to do.
Time to set your sights a little bit higher.
If you don’t believe that what you do is important, then why should anybody else.
Create an experience that is unmissable, and people will find the time, whether it is spare or not, and not only because they have absolutely nothing better to do.
