Last week in New York, Public Radio International’s Afropop Worldwide inducted Habib Koité from Mali, Vusi Mahlasela from South Africa, and Dobet Gnahoré from the Ivory Coast into the Afropop Hall of Fame. The 2006 Afropop Hall of Fame took place last Tuesday (11/14) before a rapturous crowd at B.B. King Blues Club in New York City as part of the hugely successful Putumayo Presents: Acoustic Africa nationwide tour. Afropop Worldwide...

In promotion of his sophomore full length, Supply & Demand, Amos Lee played a packed Electric Fetus in-store performance last Saturday (11/18) before his sold out gig at Fine Line in Minneapolis, MN. Check out the the video interviews via YouTube (there are 12 total), but be sure to catch him in your city when his tour resumes December 2. Amos Lee’s Remaining Tour Dates: December 2 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress December 3 - Anaheim, CA - HOB...

Unsatisfied by the success of his two previous bands, Blur and the Gorillaz , vocalist Damon Albarn has four new projects in the pipeline. "The one thing I never want to be guilty of," Albarn firmly believes, "is repeating myself." With upcoming work as diverse as producing Algerian El Gusto’s 2007 album, scoring the Chinese opera Monkey: Journey To The West, and singing for a feature-length Gorillaz film with Monty Python's Flying...

Taking place on the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California, the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival’s schedule will swell to three full event dates from April 27-29 this coming year. Running strong for eight years straight, Coachella has been one of the foremost progressive music and arts festivals in the U.S. The lineup for Coachella 2007 will be announced late January, but we’re positive you’re going to want to schedule the first Coachella Friday off—it’s going to be large!

Last Friday (11/17) Bjork’s original band, The Sugarcubes reunited for one night in Reykjavik, Iceland to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their non-profit record label, Smekkleysa SM. Known for hits like Birthday and Motorcrash , the legendary alt-pop group played together for the first time in 14 years. We couldn’t make it, but from the YouTube footage of the band performing the Icelandic version of Birthday , it looks like we...

On Friday (11/17) last week, the world’s largest recording company, Universal Music Group (UMG) filed a lawsuit with MySpace, seeking unspecified damages, including up to $150,000 for each unauthorized UMG user-posted music video or song on the website. The music corporation claimed the online social-networking hub illegally “encourages, facilitates and participates in the unauthorized reproduction, adaptation, distribution and public performance.” "We have been keeping UMG...

French downtempo duo, Air have composed a Pocket Symphony, which is due out March 6th next year on Astralwerks. Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel’s (see his 2006 solo side-project Darkel ) follow-up to 2004's Talkie Walkie will feature guest vocals from Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon, and production by longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich. Several of the pieces on Pocket Symphony ...

A few months ago Robbie Williams asked a group of young, guerilla filmmakers to make seven short films, to compliment his new album Rudebox . Based on the writer's/director's originality and vision, seven treatments were selected and green-lit by Robbie Williams. (You can watch the trailer culled from these seven videos below.) However, there is an eigth film yet to be made. Here is where you come in: Budding directors from around the world are invited to enter a competition to...

Dance-floor music makers, !!! just announced Myth Takes , their third album since the Brooklyn based group formed in 1996. Expect more riotous hip-shaking grooves a la their 2004 banger, Louden Up Now. While previously only on Warp overseas and Touch and Go in America, the band is now signed to Warp Worldwide. The 10-track disc comes illustrated with beautiful cover art (see above) from painter Kevin Hooyman . Tracklist: 1)...

The nominations for world music fans' favorite award show, the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards , have been announced at WOMEX (the World Music trade fair) in Seville, Spain recently. As always, the nominations came from different corners of the world with names like Camille, Ben Harper, Gogol Bordello, Ojos De Brujo making it among the nominees. The Album of the Year category is decided by a world panel of critics organised by fRoots Magazine and voting for the final...