It's a (Communist) party over here!

If there's one thing I've noticed in my years of blogeration, it's that this site receives the most hits, generally, on days that I post the exact same shit every other blog in the world is posting... I could be a titan of the Hype Machine if I put nothing but the Arcade Fire and Animal Collective on here (the Indie kids might not admit it, but they're led around by the nose by marketing just as much as fans of chart pop are, just to different bands). But where's the fun in that? Besides, we're here to talk about good music. So, the point of that being... here comes another post sure to be read by almost no one...



I guess there are some advantages to living in Cuba other than the stellar health care. For instance, a young musician doesn't have to worry about which label they should sign with... because there's only record label in Cuba and it's run by Fidel Simmons. The label is called EGREM, which stands for Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales, which is Spanish for Musical Recording And Publishing Company... because Communist regimes are nothing if not wildly creative when naming shit. Anyhoo, back a few years ago when Buena Vista Social Club blew up, somebody got the wild idea to put together a big fat box set because after all, the government owns the rights to every song ever recorded in Cuba so why the hell don't we make some money off those white people in Santa Monica, too? The result was this 6-disc behemoth, and quite frankly it's pretty awesome. Here's a track by some dudes...

Orquestra Ritmo Oriental - Yo Bailo De Todo (ysi)

And here are those dudes live on stage in 1978... a stage that's not quiiiiite big enough if you ask me...



I'm not even sure that all of those guys were even doing anything... but I imagine the Indie kids probably think Arcade Fire invented the concept of having too many people in your band, too...