Fresh New Beats on al-Jazeera's 'Playlist'

Wow! So I was surfing the web, looking at various bands that I like and seeing what new music I could find when, by nothing more than sheer chance, I stumbled across some videos from Doha-based media outlet al-Jazeera's Playlist. Apparently, it's a music show that goes around the world finding fresh new sounds from different artists - they've got some great selections from the US, the Middle East, Britain, Europe, Africa and beyond. And alot of artists that I really like have been featured too! Dengue Fever, Balkan Beat Box, Rachid Taha, Gogol Bordello, Hanine y Son Cubano, Toumani Diabate, M.I.A., Akli D, Tony Hanna and the Yugoslav Brass Band, Justin Adams, Tinariwen, Soap Kills, the Chehade Brothers....

Man, I am in LOVE! And no, thats not a reference to anchorbabe Ghida Fakhry. I absolutely love it when I find stuff like this, because it gives me a whole bunch of new artists to explore and see what I might like or want to experiment with. Plus, it makes me feel so cutting edge... knowing about all the cool new music before all of my friends and associates, you know. Its like the good old days, when I would discover some really obscure random band who would become big later... This show is AWESOME, and so up my alley. Really pisses me off that it's so hard to get al-Jazeera out here in the Midwest. People have gone to GREAT LENGTHS to suppress it out here. But at least you can still watch it online, and for free nonetheless. Plus, there are a bunch of clips floating around on YouTube. Looks like the current show is focusing on some of the new talent coming out of South Africa (one of the powerhouses of African music, in fact).

Given that their selections mirror my taste in music pretty well, I think I am obligated to look up some of the other artists on their site. I get a feeling some most of them would be right up my alley. Also, Michelle, if you are reading this, check it out. I know you like some of this music too (Gogo Bordello, Rachid Taha, M.I.A., Balkan Beat Box, Calexico, etc). I get a feeling this might be a good show to watch. Time for some internet surfing and sampling of bands on Amazon and iTunes....