Mulberry Jam

Interesting stuff all around this morning.

The Wall Street Journal has a list of the nations with the highest energy consumption per capita. Would you be able to guess the top ten? I would have guessed only two, myself. And oh by the way, the U.S. is not number one. Or even in the top five, for that matter.
Wall Street Journal Tables on Energy Consumption

And also, Chris Martin of Coldplay gave a charming interview on 60 Minutes last night. I’m going to be so crushed if this band ever gets into the headlines with Oasis-type shenanigans. But that doesn’t seem very likely. Proof that popularity and quality are not mutually exclusive.

Mark and I went to a great concert Wednesday night. Thievery Corporation has been playing five sold out shows at Washington’s 9:30 Club this week. They’re a local DC duo at the core, Rob Garza and Eric Hilton. However they perform and tour with a larger band set-up that includes multiple vocalists, guitar, sitar, bass and a small horn section. We’ve followed their music since the mid-nineties, and one of the reasons I love their sound is that they draw on a huge number of musical influences. On any given album you can hear sixties bossa nova, reggae, Brazilian, Indian and downtempo electronica sounds. Among other things.

Plus they are true independents. The ironic name is in keeping with their fierce determination to NOT be a corporate product. So along with creating their music, the two run their own independent music label, ESL Music. I like most of the bands on the label, and would encourage you to give any of them a try. They take the whole independence thing quite seriously, and the one aspect of the band I’m not so crazy about is their fondness for revolutionary imagery in their marketing. Personally, I don’t find Che Guevara at all a romantic figure, but hey. It’s their party.

The best way to hear their sound is to go to the Thievery Corporation MySpace page, which has song files and several videos all in one place. Just as a sample, here’s a video of a song from their newest album, “Radio Retaliation”:

Several of my yoga students have asked about the music I play during class. I know many teachers disapprove of music during practice, but I feel it helps create a unique mental space for the practice and also creates an aural buffer for those of us living in noisy urban environments!

I’ve set up a couple of music mixes that I play on my iPod during class, and have posted three of them on the iTunes website. Here’s the first one I thought might interest my readers: