Some South African music news

I came across this interview with the ex-members of the South Africa band Fetish - a favourite of mine from almost 10 years ago. The interview is a little old (from June last year) but has some good information about the challenges a fledgling rock band in SA faces. The members also comment on some of the current SA music (which I'm almost totally out of the loop from).

I was pleased to hear that Benguela [Myspace] recorded an album with another one of my heroes, Tony Cox. Benguela have sadly disbanded, but hopefully the Tony Cox album will be released in the coming year. In the meantime, I need to get some of the intervening Benguela CD's (I only have Sputnik) and relive the "old days" :)

Looking at the SA-based online music retailer OneWorld, I see that Johnny Clegg has a new album ("One Life") with all-new songs. The "Zulu Blanc" was really popular in South Africa and parts of Europe (France, ...), and even made it out to Seattle for a show a few years back. I wonder if he could be coaxed back for a show to promote his new album? Hello, folks at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley or Triple Door? (Or, perhaps more correctly, hello promoters that put on "World"/African music)

Another musician of note is Chris Chameleon, formerly of Boo! It looks like Chris has gone solo and done a few albums. The newest one is all in English, which tempts me to get some of his previous CDs with Afrikaans songs partly to torment Army Don. (He's responsible for some of my brain cells being occupied by Taiwanese pop and Swedish folk-rock music).
Chris has his CDs available on CD Baby, so US and European folks can buy them there instead of from OneWorld.

I wish more SA musicians used CD Baby to seel their music in the USA. First, because it'd work out cheaper (no expensive shipping from SA), Second because they're in Portland and Portland is just cool, Third because they pass on more money to the artists. (I hope that's true for foreign artists too).