You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 21

PLAYS: 32

(Crooked Cowboy & The Freshwater Indians - finally, a new music genre)

I don't think there is really an adequate way to describe Crooked Cowboy & the Freshwater Indians. So I won't. Other than I think we've hit on something wonderful.

But right now the only thing you can really do is listen to this track, BumpyGBH and get sucked into it. It's an amazing adventure.

And once you do that, go over to their MySpace or Last.FM page and check out the other tracks as well as their upcoming gig listings. They're an L.A. outfit, so I suspect they won't be showing up in London anytime soon (unless of course you have connections and can book them). They've only been together a short while, are not on a label and can certainly use every bit of support they can get.

Do yourself a favor.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 84

PLAYS: 235

(The Kinks in 1977 - changes in the air)

Back to the 70s this week with The Kinks. A 1977 concert from The Rainbow in London, recorded by the BBC.

Vintage Kinks and vintage Ray Davies.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 25

PLAYS: 41

(Pamela Hute - What Paris is sounding like these days)

I first discovered Pamela Hute during one of my browses on MySpace in 2006. Her first ep hadn't come out yet and her player had a demo track for Chocolate Soup, the first song of hers I ever heard.

I was hooked after the first ten seconds and I've been a fan ever since.

This track, Hysterical is off her new album Ghost (coming out in December), but she has a new ep called Turtle Tales From Overseas that has this track on it as well. It's available now and I would urge you to fall by her site and pick one up. Her previous ep's have sold out rather quickly, although they are available from iTunes.

Hute is French, but she splits her time between Paris and London and has been doing a lot of club and concert dates all over Europe the past year and several videos.

I have no idea if there are plans to bring her and her band to the States. It would be rather cool if they did (I think she just signed to Warners in France) - but as has happened so many times before, I'm not going to hold my breath.

But check this out in the meantime and visit her site.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 51

PLAYS: 24

(As of September 17, there was no more Poland)

(Apologies for the delay in posts) September 17, 1939 signified the end of Poland as it was a month earlier. The reports from Warsaw were not encouraging and there was plenty of blame to go around.

But at this particular moment, things were not looking up for any satisfactory conclusion to the conflict.

John Gunther (Reporting from London): “This has been a hard day today, a bad day. We’ve seen something very terrible to watch. The death of a free country. The death of a nation. Poland was killed today. In effect, assassinated. For the fourth time in its unhappy history, Poland has been partitioned. . . . .for all intents and purposes the Poland we have known these past 20 years has ceased to be.”

And it would just get worse.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 188

PLAYS: 32

(Sadistic Mika Band - rumored to have been named in honor of Mika's cooking)

Sort of in keeping with the Prog/International feel of the week, I thought I would toss something a little different in the live concert department. The Sadistic Mika Band wasn't really characterized as a Prog-Rock band. They came about at a time Glam was starting to take off in 1972 and had the distinction of having their second and third albums produced by Chris Thomas (whom Mika wound up having an affair with and later marrying) and released in the UK, to good reviews and a decent following.

They toured as opening act for Roxy Music in October 1975 (where this concert comes from) to coincide with the release of their 3rd album "Hot Menu" and did several appearances on British television.

As usual, they were never issued by a label in the U.S. and had only the hardcore import collectors here for a following. Naturally, they never performed live in the U.S. even though there was a lot of press about them and a goodly amount of hype, which in turn made it possible for a number of other Japanese bands to explore popularity outside their own country during the middle and late 70's.

It's highly likely that the popularity in Europe for bands like Sadistic Mika made it possible for bands like Yellow Magic Orchestra (which morphed from ex-Mika Band members) and Ryuichi Sakamoto to establish themselves to English speaking audiences. Just as it was possible performers like Stomu Yamash'ta made it possible for bands like Sadistic Mika to be considered for release in the UK. Just speculating.

Vocals are a bit weak and not their strong suit. But the bulk of the tracks during this concert are instrumental, which are top notch and confirms the idea a lot of great musicians were not confined to a couple of countries.

After the affair surfaced, Mika and Kazuhiko Kato, the bands lead guitarist and estranged husband, divorced and left the band. Mika becoming Mrs. Thomas, Kazuhiko pursuing a solo career before becoming a TV personality, while the rest of the group continued for a time as simply The Sadistics.

Just a reminder that music is the universal language and its spoken everywhere and you don't necessarily have to understand it to get into it.

A mixed race crowd of a gob-million people at a concert in London in 1992 wiping their cheeks and singing "I'm not gonna spend my life being a color." Simultaneously.

Amy Winehouse has been down-and-out tabloid fodder for so long that it's easy to forget that she can really sing. Over the weekend, a seemingly healthier and more together Winehouse returned to the stage in fine form at London's V-Fest to sing with legendary ska band The Specials. Let's hope her year rehabilitating in St. Lucia has lasting effects.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 139

PLAYS: 41

(The Smoke - Banned at the starting gate)

I doubt The Smoke are a band anyone on this side of the Atlantic has ever heard of, unless you are a die hard collector of psychedelia or knew someone who actually was familiar with this band at the time.

The Smoke was a short-lived outfit famous (or infamous) for their very first hit single "My Friend Jack" - an innocent sounding title, but the rest of the line goes " . . eats sugar lumps". Sugar lumps being something of a code word for the thing LSD was laced with. Right off the bat, it was banned from any airplay in England. So naturally, when anything is banned it races up the charts just on sheer rumor alone. There have been several bands with the name The Smoke, including one that did get released in the States on Tower, but they have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

Sadly though, The Smoke were a one hit wonder. And after several tries, of which this particular single "Have Some More Tea" was one, they gave up and went their separate ways. But not before recording an albums worth of material and making an indelible impression on any record collector who came their way. In later years, "My Friend Jack" has become something of an underground classic, being covered by Boney M (which has a connection to The Smoke) and Wondermints. I actually never heard this band the first time around, but discovered them on the recommendation of a guy named Yves who ran Vinyl Solution in London in 1979.

It's all his fault - thank God.

CNN obtained video of Michael Jackson and his dancers rehearsing in LA at the Staples Center for his London residency on June 23rd, a mere two days before his death. It's mesmerizing and haunting, to say the lest.

I'm about to pull a Bill Frist, and it may be the energy of "They Don't Care About Us", one of his best songs, but as Consequence of Sound noted, this does add a degree of credibility to the idea that there was reason to believe he was in good health shortly before his passing.

Do you ever get the feeling that the class war is over, and their side won? Money for these guys - but massive conniptions over paying for national health care?

Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms.

A lack of competition and a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products has sent profits at Goldman Sachs soaring, according to insiders at the firm.

Staff in London were briefed last week on the banking and securities company's prospects and told they could look forward to bumper bonuses.

Figures next month detailing the firm's second-quarter earnings are expected to show a further jump in profits. Warren Buffett, who bought $5bn of the company's shares in January, has already made a $1bn gain on his investment.

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 152

PLAYS: 50

(And there are those who are insane enough tell you this is all some hoax)

With the recent events at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, and the insanity of those denying the Holocaust ever happened, I ran across this report from the BBC recorded just after the concentration camp at Belsen was liberated by British troops. It's one of many reports broadcast during those last months of the War, as camp after camp was liberated and the true ghastly horrors came to light.

In a strange way, I can see how some would like to deny this ever happened. I think there are times the mind finds it impossible to conceptualize one human being this capable of such cruelty to another - people just don't do that to each other. And the answer is, yes they do. And, for the most part they are still doing it. Look at Darfur (as many choose not to). Look at Rwanda-Burundi. Look at the recent past of the former Yugoslavia. Horrible events, so impossible to conceive. Yet, it's true - all of it. Yet there are some sick enough to deny any of this has been and is still going on - some passing themselves off as scholars and people with supposed proof and a public forum.

So here, from the program London Calling via the BBC in London on May 23, 1945 is a report from Belsen.