Musical inbreeding: What Jeff is listening, fall 2007 edition

I love that there is so much information at your fingertips on the Intertubes. You find some pretty wacky shit sometimes.

In addition to the aforementioned State of Trance, I've been looking for new stuff to listen to. I've ordered Natasha Bedingfield's second album from Amazon, which is an import because the record company appears to be in no hurry to release it in the states. I guess people got "Unwritten"-out.

My iTunes problem finally got resolved, and I got some new tunes last night. I got the Green Day version of The Simpsons theme, because it amuses me. I also got two "old" tracks for the yearly playlists. For 1995, "In The Meantime" by Spacehog, a gloriously catchy tune where you can't understand any of the lyrics. For 2001, "The King of New Orleans" by Better Than Ezra. Loved that song, and I'm not sure why I never picked up an entire album from them. They were like a more upbeat Material Issue.

In the new category, I snagged the last KT Tunstall album because, well, after Steve Jobs put her in the iPod keynote last week, I got interested. She has a new album I think next week, but what the heck. I do love my girl singer shit. She has a certain vitality to her music that is expressed in the tone. I like that.

In the weird shit that only Jeff would like category, I got an album from Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale. It's mostly hers, and he seems to have more of a producer and instrumentalist role. Both were raised American, but very into their Indian heritage. The music on the album has that heavy Indian influence.

And that makes sense, since she's a sitar player, and her dad is none other than Ravi Shankar, the only other sitar player I've ever heard of. The album has guest shots from Sting, Norah Jones and Ravi.

And that's where it gets interesting. Norah Jones is in fact Anoushka's half-sister, because both call Ravi Shankar dad. That would make Norah Jones half-Indian. I sure didn't see that. Ravi Shankar apparently has wooed many women into bed with that sitar even in his old age.

Anyway, the album is pretty sweet (unless you're annoyed by the sound of the sitar). Some of it comes off sounding very traditional, while other tracks mix that with a more electronic flare. (Reminds me a little of Midival Punditz, the Indian electronica group I've mentioned.) If you want to open your mind to some interesting world music, give it a shot.