I had the opportunity last year to see the first U.S. appearance by a wonderful African group called Konono No. 1. Founded over 25 years ago by Mingiedi, the virtuoso electric likembe (“thumb-piano”) player, Konono No. 1 plays a style of music that started in the suburbs of Kinshasa, but their roots can be traced [...]

I was complaining to a record store co-worker the other day about prepackaged bands and how transparent the whole industry has become. He responded that he doesn’t pay attention to the hype: he gets the majority of his music from MySpace.com. I told this story to another friend who also said that the majority of [...]