“I have a soft spot for Brazil,” says Edgar, “which offers the perfect blend of amazing people, natural beauty, and incredible music. Rio is such a stunningly beautiful city with so much soul and spirit, and music flows through the people like blood. I’ve put myself in some pretty edgy situations in search of great music, but luckily I’m rarely by myself and am more often then not, with someone from the local community that keeps me out of trouble. I guess the most risk I took on was when I was studying in Costa Rica and taking part in my first ethnomusicology research projects, I went to Carnival in the Atlantic Coast city of Limon and glommed on to a musician I had met. He took me to some very seedy places, including a shantytown crack den where zoned out addicts were lighting up all around me. Ultimately, I slept on the floor of his family’s shack, getting eaten by mosquitoes and other strange bugs all night long. Ironically, my wife-to-be was traveling with me at the time… I guess she liked the idea of marrying a nutcase!”

Cumbanchero at heart, Edgar strives to get to the essence of a people through the outpouring of hearts in their music.  He explains that, “Cumbanchero is an Afro-Cuban word that means someone who likes to party, especially with a soundtrack. I’m definitely the kind of person that loves to get together with friends and enjoy music, drinks and good company.” From modest beginnings in the music business working for a small world music label run by a French couple out of their home, he moved on to work with Putumayo, a larger world music label that focused on putting out compilations. For the next eight years he traversed the globe searching for music to include on Putumayo’s compilations and had a great time doing it. Ultimately he became his own boss and started his own label, Cumbancha, with the support of Putumayo.

Recently, Edgar has returned to his bohemian roots as the host of a travel and music television program called Music Voyager, which has taken him on “some pretty amazing adventures to India, Jamaica, New Orleans and beyond,” he says. “The good thing about working on the show is I get to do crazy things I might not otherwise do on a trip, like stay in a Maharaja’s palace in Rajasthan, get Dancehall dance lessons in a gang-ridden ghetto in Jamaica, eat bulls testicles and so on…”

“There are certain world music albums that were particularly meaningful to me, mostly because they helped convince me that what I wanted to do with my life was travel around the world and discover incredible music,” he explains. From Paul Simon’s Graceland and Brazil Classics 2: O Samba to Angelique Kidjo’s Logozo, Edgar was inspired. “If I had to pick an all-time favorite American artist, I guess I’ll say Louis Armstrong, just because so much sprang from him and because he was one of the greatest naturally gifted virtuosos on his instrument,” he says. “James Brown, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Aaron Neville, Dr. John, Woody Guthrie, Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Herbie Hancock, Tito Puente (yes, he’s a born American), Eddie Palmieri (ditto) are all pretty high up there as well.”

As Edgar narrates through music that has impacted his life, we thought it best to allow the music to speak for itself. Quoting Edgar’s own vision for Cumbancha Music, to expose music from cultures people might not otherwise get to learn about, and in a small but consequential way help pave the way towards greater appreciation and respect for diversity. The music Edgar has recommended for Panel is a testament to that.

You can listen to our weekly album selections on our iPhone application PANEL.

It’s this excitement that has lead Angergård to guide the signature sound of the Swedish label, procuring retro-pop (with the occasional electro bent) gems by such Scandinavian luminaries such as Radio Dept, Sambassadeur, and one of this week’s picks, The Mary Onettes. Says Angergård of The Mary Onettes, “They sent us a CD with 9 songs and it just got stuck in my CD player. It was just so timeless, big and touching.” (Also timeless…and a whole lot of fun? Check out Angergård’s second pick this week, The Guilty Office by The Bats.)

Of course, Angergård would know. Crafting his own signature of “timeless and touching” pop, he performs as a part of not one, not two—but three bands (Legends, Acid House Kings, and Club 8).  “I wrote my first songs when I was about ten. It was one song about a vacuum cleaner, including vacuum cleaner sound effects, and something about space or something featuring sounds from a video game. I listened a lot to Kraftwerk and Jonzun Crew (Space is the Place) at the time and thought sound effects and synthesizers were cool.”

However cool it might be, just don’t call it an average 9-5 gig. “I don’t see making music as a career. People who see making music as a career stops making interesting music. Labrador is more of a career I guess. Or at least more like a job.”

Labrador and making music is a job, or a career, or a very lucky break that Angergård started “studying” for at an early age. First, few journalists helped him along the way. “There was a music magazine called Sound Affects, Angergård recounts. “They wrote about McCarthy, Wedding Present, Razorcuts and bands like that in the first issue. I bought everything I could find that they recommended up until issue no. 5. In that issue they gave XTC’s Lemons and Oranges a five star review. I wrote them an angry letter and stopped listening to their advice.” Closer to home however, he was a bit luckier. “When I was twelve or thirteen I discovered The Smiths, which has probably affected more aspects of my life than anything else. My brother (fellow Acid House Kings member Niklas Angergård) started playing “The Queen is Dead” at home. The strange thing is that I didn’t really like it in the beginning. I found it dull. It took half a year before I got hooked.”

Little did he know it was the beginning of his stint as an uncompromising tastemaker.  “I love all the bands on Labrador. There’s a musical scene that’s almost, in itself, better than any other country’s combined output,” says Angergård with pride. Not bad for a day’s life’s work. Not bad at all.

Written by Laura Studarus
Photography by Kjell B Persson, Henrik Mårtensson and Kent Angergård

Scrambling for the box of cassette tapes in his closet, meet Joey Mejia – a high school freshman at the time, searched for any cassette available for recording on, to capture a piece of the song that had just started playing on KXLU 88.9 fm.  If he failed to do so, he might not have ever heard the song again.  This was the case in 1995, when internet was not available.  There was no way to google lyrics or Shazam your way to identifying a track.  “I literally had boxes of tapes recorded from KXLU, and I’d make tapes of my favorite songs from the other tapes.”  It wasn’t until 4 years later that Joey, an avid KXLU listener, was brought onto the KXLU DJ roster, where he has continued to search out, discover, and serve up new tracks to this day.

“In those days the music [on KXLU] seemed like a bottomless ocean of unknown artists,” Joey remembers, “and although the mystery is mostly revealed, I, to this day, have the same mentality as I did back then.  I am on a quest for the next discovery.”  Joey explains that this is not always the case with other DJ’s.  “Much of the time DJ’s will get comfortable.  They’ll find a certain style or genre that they like and they put it in cruise control.  Their show not only sounds the same from week to week, but even resembles a ‘top 40’ station by playing the same songs each week.”  Check our last week’s interview with KCRW DJ Aaron Byrd and it will illustrate to you how rare it is to find good and faithful DJs.

Joey is not only interested in playing new albums, but also in bringing new bands up to perform live at the station. There was even a time where he would have an unsigned band visit the station every week. “My goal, which is the same goal of the station, is to give a proverbial voice to the voiceless.  Many of these bands have no opportunity to be heard.  We step in and mediate the situation.”  KXLU boasts of breaking many bands this way.  The Black Eyed Peas, Beck, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, just to name a few.  “Beck used to come up and bring cassette tapes of what he recorded on the 4-track of his bedroom.  The station would put them in regular rotation.”   Even the Black Eyed Peas recorded their first demo at KXLU.

This stubborn fervor doesn’t come easy to Joey.  He finds it difficult at times to understand and embrace new bands and genres.  “The musical rut that people are prone to is in all of us.  It takes time and effort to acquire an appreciation for the new sound.  You just have to tell yourself, ‘If I don’t like it, then I may not understand it yet.’”

The hard work eventually pays off.  With every barrier that is broken, new territories are opened up.  “If you think about it, this is the case with art in general.  New ideas aren’t always well received.  That’s why it’s important to be open minded.”

So what has excited Joey lately? “Well, the 90‘s, fuzzy, low-fi, noise pop sound is pretty solid. This can be seen with bands such as No Age (LA) and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (NYC).  Bands that have been incorporating various types of world music have been really pleasing – such as Abe Vigoda, High Places, Gang Gang Dance, and Rainbow Arabia.”

Ironically enough, Joey’s passion for finding new music, which was originally inhibited by lack of technology, is now being hindered by the opposite – an over-saturation and over-availability due to the accessibility of the internet, music sites and blogs.  This is what has brought Panel and Joey together, a very similar passion. Serving up unheard yet quality music as easily as possible. It beats cassette tapes. You can look forward to many more great finds from Panel.

Note: KCRW’s pledge drive ends the 8th of February. Subscribe to be a member and support independent radio. Win a few prizes. Please visit their site for more details.

Written by Adam Hildebrand

Shahnazarian’s trek being president of Feudal Records, an indie music label based in Los Angeles, wasn’t a straight shot. He grew up in Palm Springs with music wafting through the home—a strange mix of Elvis, Pavarotti and Neil Diamond. Such disparate mixes have been known to drive a man insane. But Shahnazarian laughs in the face of danger; he boldly tossed the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack into the mix, and then added Queen’s soundtrack for the 1980 feature adaptation of the serial classic, Flash Gordon, just for kicks. Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da—Flash! A-ah! Savior of the Universe!

After interning at Capital, Columbia, and Epic Records, and then an in-house temp program at Sony Music, Robert wasn’t impressed when an attorney for Sony offered him a position in business affairs. “It was a complete one-eighty from what I had my mind set on,” says Shahnazarian. His true aspiration was to lead what he believed would be a “romantic” and “glamorous” life in A&R. He initially declined the offer. Placidly drafting contracts, publishing and licensing deals were a far cry from staying out late, going to shows, and discovering new artists. But at the attorney’s insistence he took the position in business affairs—and for two years before finally landing a spot in A&R.

“I went to SXSW and would go to three or four shows per night.” Musical diets of that magnitude would naturally kill the average man. According to a surgeon general’s warning, massive quantities of music intake have been known to cause a nomadic and lonely lifestyle, antisocial behavior, severe depression, and ulcers. “After about a year of that,” he says, “I realized most bands out there aren’t very good, in the sense that no one’s born writing a three and half minute pop song… And going night after night to all these shows—and sometimes you have to go to a show just because you’re doing it as a favor to an attorney or as a favor to your boss in A&R, it wasn’t satisfying to me. I didn’t have anything to show for it except saying ‘This band is good’ or ‘this band is bad.’ I didn’t create anything from it. And I started to get bummed out about being in A&R. It wasn’t what I thought it would be.”

Meanwhile, he observed A&R outsourcing demo recordings, overdubs, radio edits and radio spots to the studio just a floor below. This didn’t sit right with Shahnazarian. “I put together a little cost benefit analysis for putting together a little studio within the A&R department, and presented it to my bosses in A&R, and they approved it. Sure enough, two weeks later it all arrived, and I didn’t know how to use any of it. I had never gone to school for producing, engineering—none of it. What I ended up doing was I found a ProTools expert, and I hired him to come at nighttime when everyone was gone to train me on it… As I got better, the A&R guys trusted me and started having the artists come in to do acoustic guitar vocal piano demos in the studio.” Within a few years Robert earned the role as chief producer for the exclusives at Sony’s online music store, Connect.com.

“I started noticing everyone around me was getting let go at Sony,” says Robert. “Everyone that I worked with in the twelve years that I worked there were gone.” For most people this is precisely the time to dive back into the foxhole and pray you don’t get shelled too. “That’s when I said, it’s time to go off and start my own thing. I’ve learned the business affairs side, I’ve done the A&R thing, I know how to produce.” And so he started his own music production company, Feudal Music Group. “[Feudal Records] would be the part where I invest in bands, my time, money and sign them up and put out their music… The whole goal of FR was just to find compelling artists and put their music out there,” says Robert.

“[People] go on the website—they’ll find an Irish pop rock singer, then they’ll see a Swedish, Lebanese female pop singer, then they’ll see a screamo rock band from Northern California, or they’ll see an electro pop band—they’ll see all these different genres, and it perplexes them.” But Robert’s goal is not to become a predictable niche label. “Because I come from the producer background, I’m just attracted to anything that’s good. I don’t care about the genre.”

In the land of the bottom line, and where it rains as often as a band “makes it,” one wonders what the key is to cope with all the madness. “Work ethic is really important,” he says. “It’s great to write a great song or record a great song, but if you’re not willing when it’s commercially released to go out there and tour or play shows, or find new ways to find fans or build a database or do any of those things, then what we created doesn’t really matter.”

Bottom line: Write great music, and then work your tail off.

Written by Adam Hildebrand

Kaufmann was raised in Escondido, California, a suburb of San Diego that he says was pretty disconnected from art and music. It wasn’t until his Sunday school teacher from Truman’s Water, an early 90’s band opened his eyes to the endless possibilities in music. The band opened for experimental rock heavyweights such as Sonic Youth and the Boredoms. It was these shows that pushed Kaufmann to find the musical tastes he craved. After a semester in college Kaufmann went to live with his parents in New York City: “I would just go through the Village Voice and look for the weirdest things I could find and go to them.”  That led to occasions at the Knitting Factory where he witnessed the “weird, free improv jazz” of Charles Gale or the avant-garde experiments of John Zorn.

Kaufmann is a rare breed in the music world. He is empathetic, seeing the artist through the eyes of an artist and extrapolating camaraderie in the process. “I think one thing we have done very strategically is investing in artists’ careers as opposed to just albums. And what’s more important than selling records is fostering and developing an artist both creatively and emotionally.” The trust that he has built with the musicians on Asthmatic Kitty is admirable and unique. Kaufmann treats each act as a long-term relationship. He understands the ever-evolving mind of a musician. “What I’m more interested in is what this artist’s fifth album going to sound like…“ Loyalty takes center stage and builds on the community aspect thriving at Asthmatic Kitty.

“I think if there was a perfect album, that would leave a lot of other albums out.” Says Kaufmann who straddles the line of romanticism when attempting to define what he loves in a good record. He describes it as a connection to form and tradition with an awareness of rhythm and melody. He goes on to elaborate on the perfect album say that, “something new, unique and personal appears when a genre is explored, turned inside out and individualized by the artist.”

Kaufmann took his own advice when choosing albums for Panel this week. Serengeti and Polyphonics’ “Terradactyl”, which according to Kaufmann illustrates that the boundaries of the experimental hip-hop have only begun to be mapped. While his other pick, These are Powers’ “All Aboard Future” manages to walk the fine line between pop and not pop.

October of 2009 marks the beginning of Panel. Panel set out to bring you music tastemakers from all over the country. They all share one mission – to assist you in developing and expanding your taste, for the purpose of discovering and savoring. If there were a college for music tastemaking, these people would be the faculty. Let’s be honest, we all rely on others to discover music. Simply discovering a band or song through another human should not devalue the music. Tastemakers are faithful warriors, sifting through album upon album everyday only to bring to you the best.

Panel is a haven for music lovers, with a simple offer of two album picks per week from our roster of tastemakers/panelists. There’s music suitable for beginners all the way to heavy music junkies. But this is not because we’ve chosen music carefully just to achieve that purpose. When you connect music with a collage of human experience, the most complex music equation finds its solution; the most bizarre composition finds its audience. Music is communal. Having someone else echo your newly found favorite song exponentially magnifies your experience. We consider ourselves truly blessed to be able to share music with you. We are well aware that you won’t like all the music we bring to you each week. In fact, we don’t want you to. We just want to connect the dots between human experience and music.

Music consumption is not showing signs of slowing down, and the next stop is music subscription. “Music subscription can and will work over time,” said Ian Rogers from Topspin Media, “You’ve got to start from the point of, where am I and how do I want to listen? As soon as you can get your music subscription in your house and your car and while you walk around, music subscription will work. It will be a model that people will use.” Music subscription or not, one thing is for certain. There will be no shortage of music. There are hundreds of thousands of blogs and services designed to keep you on track with the latest trend in music. Of course we want to be in the know when a talented new band emerges, but allow your music to burn a permanent impression in your mind, one that recalls a photograph when the first riff of the song hits. When we talk to our Panelists about their album choices, we don’t limit them to music that was released within the past six months. We ask them for music that they can connect important memories with. What does your music photo album look like?

Written by Darius Fong

Rogers grew up in Northern Indiana, close to Michigan. Armed with his skateboard, a degree in computer science and a passion for music, Rogers embarked on a journey about which he admits, “I actually avoided music as a career as long as I could.” Strangely his stubbornness launched him into the music business, towards building companies that facilitate the dissemination of good music to hungry music lovers. His philosophy is simple. People will listen to relevant music that they love.

A pioneer in his field, Rogers helped a lot of bands get online in the early days. He reminisces about the early days when “record execs didn’t even have a computer in their office. They had to go down the hall to look at it on someone else’s computer.” When the Beastie Boys invited Rogers to go on tour with them in 1995, he was still living in Indiana. That six-week tour was the beginning of his life in Los Angeles, and a continual career in music. Rogers asked himself a pivotal question. What was a guy with a computer science degree doing working at a record label? “I remember this distinct feeling of working with people at the record label, and realizing that I cared more about their product than they did,” he explains. “For them it was a job, and for me it was a passion. Maybe these guys go home at night and watch TV, because they spend their days dealing with music. I would rather spend my days dealing with computers, and go home at night and listen to music.”

Rogers has been a record collector since he was five years old, so his whole life was marked by what music he was into at that moment in time. He adds, “Right around that time was when I really started getting into punk rock and didn’t care about anything that was on a major label. That mentality stuck with me through my early twenties at least. I remember buying seven inches by bands that would include their phone number, and you could just call them up and have a conversation with them,” says Rogers. “And that level of approachability really meant a lot to me as a music fan. To know that I could call up some band in Berkeley and actually talk to them was just amazing. It felt like you were part of something.”

“The first record I ever put a needle on was Kiss’ “Rock and Roll Over.” I have a brother that is nine years older than me, and I got his hand me downs. Then later, in second grade, I listened to ACDC’s “High Voltage.” Every day at recess, I would literally go out with my Panasonic tape player and sit on a stump and listen to ACDC’s “High Voltage” over and over. That’s a lot of who I am in a way. I could still listen to that record over and over today. Such great songs, a little bit of humor rolled in some great rock n roll attitude. I was kind of a loser, a nerd. If it was cool, it wasn’t cool to anybody but me. And I don’t think it was cool to me, I just don’t think I knew what else to do. Then later I got more into Zepplin, Rush, Zappa. The big change for me was punk rock. I remember watching Ian MacKaye in “Another State of Mind” and identifying with what he was saying so strongly. He said something about not knowing what he wanted to be, but knowing what he didn’t want to be…that was exactly how I felt,” remembers Rogers.

“My very favorite record is Sly and the Family Stone’s “Fresh.” In college I made a zine out of ‘Fresh’ and ‘Small Talk.’ I have Sly tattooed on my right arm. For me in general, the perfect record are those records that people just couldn’t help but make. I want to listen to music by people whose music is coming from some inner place. Maybe there’s a combo of calculation and timing of the sound for the market, but really it’s coming from somewhere deep inside people who really wouldn’t be good at anything but making that music,” says Rogers. “Fresh” embodies the anomaly of a perfect record that has the perfect balance of loose and tight. It was so in the pocket. The rhythm section is tight and everyone else is really loose. It’s just so soulful to me. It’s something really magical.”

Optimistic about the music industry, Rogers says, “I feel like every year, I hear more and better music than the year before. I’d like to be enabling people to experience music. Whether it’s what we did at Winamp, where you make consumption of music easy for people, or the kinds of things we’re doing at Topspin where we make the distribution and marketing of music easy for people. It’s a hard line to draw, but I realize now that I’m definitely in the business of music for the rest of my life.”

Photography by Marco Walker

Lead singer of an eight-piece rock-n-roll band called the Oxymorons, Ragoowansi is a musician first and foremost. But she has always had an interest in music business, which led her to become an entertainment attorney. A National Symphony Orchestra was the first record deal she worked, which eventually won a Grammy.

“My parents are both from India and emigrated to the US in 1964, the year the Beatles arrived in the United States,” Ragoowansi giggles. “And I grew up listening to Indian music, sort of Bollywood Film music, but back then we didn’t call it that. It was film music. On a weekly basis I looked forward to the next Bollywood film soundtrack to listen to.” She used to go to the library and borrow vinyl records; 6 at a time, anything with an interesting cover. This is when she got exposed to the old standards, jazz and musical theater. “I definitely have a love for jazz and musical theater. It was such a huge part of my life for many, many years…for probably the last 2 decades of my life.”

The Beatles where a big part of her life as well listening to them as early as 3 years old. “I’m just one of those Beatle-esque people,” muses Ragoowansi. “Then there are offshoots of that style of music, ..where I love Aimee Mann, for example. She’s really inspirational. There’s sort of a whole group of melodic songwriters and musicians…are you familiar with Club Largo in Los Angeles? That whole scene, like Jon Brion, who every Friday does his one man show, and the people that would come to that, like Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, Elliot Smith and Ben Folds. The melodic pop rock school is a major inspiration. Radiohead too. The Pretenders songs were a huge inspiration, and really the closest to my current band’s sound. Oh and Tom Petty too. I also adore Supergrass. They make me want to write songs.”

Ragoowansi’s first pick is by a band called People in Planes. “These Welsh boys,” describes Ragoowansi, “I think they’re absolutely amazing. They’re melodic and creative and you find a lot of punch in their arrangements.” The other artist she recommends is Laura Burhenn. “She has this great album called “Wanderlust.” I’ve heard a billion singer-songwriters,” she remembers, “but when she started playing I was blown away by how luscious, how rich her voice is. Her style of how she sits at her keyboard…sort of how when we all first saw Tori Amos. She sat at her piano sideways, and it was just so sensual and beautiful.”

“Everyone has their favorites, and that’s what music is supposed to be anyway. Personal, so that we can all have that sort of experience. The older I get, the more that’s what I need, something that reveals an honesty in the voice of a singer, a sense of soul whether it be technically right or wrong in the musicianship; something that gives you a sense of soul or funk [not necessarily only in the genre] or a feel of how one plays. Even in classical I think there’s a sense of funk honestly.” She really goes for someone who has a great melody. Now are there songwriters who are writing great melodies today? “Yes,” she explains. “There definitely are. I hate to be a cynic and say nothing’s as good as it used to be. I’m always still searching for it.”

Photography by Richard Wheare