DOWNLOAD: The Snake Oil Salesmen - "Be Okay"

From the new basement recordings by The Snake Oil Salesmen out of Regina, Saskatchewan, we bring you the song Be Okay.

The Snake Oil Salesmen (Little Black Bear)have been playing the open mic circuit in Regina, Saskatchewan, for years and have now come together as a collective to record some tracks. Be Okay is an alternative-folk-rock tune with a relaxed groove and a story to tell. The vibe is indicative of the style of music coming out of Regina's acoustic scene these days and we recommend taking the lyrics to heart - just come out and play, step into our haze, dance your cares away...

Stay on the lookout for more from The Snake Oil Salesmen coming soon!

DOWNLOAD: The Snake Oil Salesmen - "Be Okay"

VIDEO: Pura Fe and John Trudell In France

From Pura Fé and John Trudell's recent European tour, this video has emerged of the duo in France performing a rendition of Trudell's Wild Seed.

Starting at the end of January, Pura Fé and John Trudell embarked on a European tour that took them to France, Scotland and The Netherlands, including stops at the Sons d'Hiver Music Fest in Paris and the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow.

The pairing have just completed the tour, but for those of us who didn't get to see them live this time around, this video is a sumptuous peak into the great collaboration between two of our most beloved artists from Turtle Island who are taking Indigenous music culture to world beyond.

Watch Pura Fe and John Trudell - "Wild Seed":

Samantha Crain: On the Road & A Simple Jungle

Choctaw singer-songwriter Samantha Crain is on the road again - a long road that will see her performing over 20 gigs in the next six weeks and take her across the Atlantic ocean. She'll have her band in tow and her brand new 7" single in hand. 

The new single,  A Simple Jungle, gets its name from the two new songs it features, It's Simple (I'm thrilled to see this recorded after seeing Samantha perform it live last summer at the Winnipeg Folk Festival and loving it instantly) and Cadwell Jungle, both produced by famed singer-songwriter and producer John Vanderslice. Crain's indie-friendly spin on Americana continues to shine on A Simple Jungle, which also includes a live recording of the Dam Song. Amazon.com has already picked it as one of their best of 2012 and you can get your copy here.

As I write this, Samantha Crain has already started her latest tour, but the bulk of the dates are still coming up! She's on a long stretch through the States, and will also be performing in Ireland, England and France. If you find yourself in any of these towns on these dates, I highly recommend getting your ears and heart to her show!

For details on any of the below, visit samanthacrain.com.

And Samantha, come back to Canada already!

02.02.12 Cafe Nine, New Haven, CT 02.030.12 The Lilypad, Cambridge, MA 02.04.12 Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA 02.05.12 Cafe NOLA, Frederick, MD 02.07.12 Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC 02.08.12 The Evening Muse, Charlotte, NC 02.09.12 Boone Saloon, Boone, NC 02.10.12 Smith's Older Bar, Atlanta, GA 02.12.12 The Poor House Music Hall, Raleigh, NC 02.15.12 Music City Roots, Nashville, TN 02.17.12 Whitewater Tavern, Little Rock, AR 02.18.12 Fassler Hall, Tulsa, OK 02.22.12 Point Ephemere, Paris, FR 02.23.12 King's College, London, UK 02.24.12 Manchester Academy, Manchester, UK 02.25.12 Workman's Club, Dublin, IE 02.27.12 King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, UK 02.28.12 The Wardrobe, Leeds, UK 02.29.12 The Thekla, Bristol, UK 03.03.12 The Deli, Norman, OK 03.09.12 Frank, Austin, TX 03.16.12 Dan's Silverleaf, Denton, TX

DJ DoezIt and Ali Baby: Native Rap in High School Hallways

Landon Walls, Onondaga and Hopi hip-hop artist  (DJ DoezIT) and mentor, is helping Indigenous youth find their musical path. He’s currently inspired by the work he’s doing with one young man in particular, Junior Harvey, who is set to make a name for himself as Ali Baby. They sat down to answer some questions about their their collaboration, Ali Baby’s upcoming debut album and the importance of listening.

I first heard from Landon Walls, also known as DJ DoezIT, via an email to RPM, in which he raved about a student of his at Ha:San Preparatory and Leadership School in Tucson, Arizona, Junior Harvey. Junior (Tohono O’odham) – who goes by Ali Baby – is an 18 year old senior at the school who has discovered a talent and passion within himself for music. Together, they’ve been working afterschool and weekends to record tracks, the result of which will be a full-length album, set to be released in February, 2012.

The more Landon and I communicated back and forth, the more inspired and intrigued I was by both his and Ali Baby’s work. I had so many questions! They were gracious to answer them all.

CC: Tell me about Ha:san prep?

LW: Ha:san Preparatory and Leadership School is a small charter school in Tucson, AZ. We serve Native students grade 9-12. We focus on Culture and Language of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Most of the students live on the reservations of the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui Nations. The main town, Sells, on the reservation is 65 miles away. They travel a total of 130 miles a day for a total of 3 hrs on the bus. We have a 100% acceptance rate to college for our graduating seniors. What a great school! I am so honored to be a part of the students and community’s education.

CC: How long have you been teaching there?

LW: I have been at the school for four years now. I directed the after school programs and currently I serve as the Intervention Specialist. But I also serve as an advisor and counselor for the students.

CC: Tell me more about the after school program?

LW: The after school program was funded by a federal grant 21^st Century Community Learning Center. In the last year of the grant which was 2011, I decided to buy studio equipment for an after school music program. Since then I have recorded Tradtional O’odham songs and a digital comic book with the University of Arizona in 3 languages, English, Spanish and O’odham. But the most exciting thing was recording Ali Baby and other students rapping and singing.

CC: How did you two start making music together?

AB: Landon and I were talking one day about music and I mentioned to him that I enjoyed creating beats, he told me he was thinking about starting a music program at the school and that I should bring in some of my beats and do some recording sometime. We started out on Garageband and some non-condensor mics usually used for radio.

LW: We did a couple of songs and he blew me away! So I had to buy some better equipment. I bought Pro Tools 8, studio monitors, 2 microphones, an audio interface, etc. and once we did that, things took off.

AB: When I made my first song I was just trying to see what it would sound like or how it would turn out, I thought it turned out pretty good for a first song. I was never expecting all this to come so naturally. We put out a pre-release of the album at our school and it has received so much positive feedback. It makes me so happy to know that people are liking the pre-release, when the official drops it is going to sound much better.

LW: We both learned by doing and just did what our ears told us, haha. The things I like most about Ali Baby is his flow, charisma, and message. He raps with no errors, meaning he is clean and has a positive message.

CC: Ali Baby, when did you first starting writing?

AB: I started making beats in the summer of 2010 and wrote my first song in December of 2010. We got around to recording my first song on Garageband a year ago around this time.

CC: And tell me more about this album!

AB: The album is going to be called Mixed Breed: The Beginning. Mixed Breed is our group and it means the many Indigenous cultures within our group, the many genres we create music in, and the styles each one of us possesses. We are hoping to have the album released by Presidents Day 2012.

CC: That’s so exciting. What artists are you inspired by?

AB: My favorite artists of all time are Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. I love their style, I love their flow. I know we have what it takes to make the same success. I listen to a lot of old school and I listen to a lot of new era artists like Drake and Lil Wayne and I try to incorporate all those styles into mine.

CC: What’s the collaborative process with Landon like?

AB: He gives me advice and motivation when recording our songs and I couldn’t be more grateful for meeting him and letting us use the studio day in and day out.

CC: Landon, do you plan to continue to mentor students in recording and making music?

LW: This is the beginning. I have always wanted to do something like this for the youth. They have so much to say, so many things in their minds and hearts. After graduating college, I knew I was going to be in Indian education. While working here I see the need for a two way road of communication in the communities, meaning traditionally we are taught to listen to the elders and the adults, but I think for a healthy and strong community the elders and adults need to listen to the youth. Open communication is the key! Music is the best vehicle and I am glad I get to provide it, might be a beat up lincoln right now with low fuel, but the hope is we can get it to a G6 with an unlimited fuel level!

CC: How did you first get involved in music?

LW: I got my first turntables my senior year of high school, with just a handful of records. I was on those things all night, my brother wasn’t too happy, the fader was clipping all night! Haha. Both of us actually came up with my DJ name, HopiDoezIT, later though it became DJ DoezIT. I was the first one to go to college in my family; I moved from home to Mesa, AZ. Soon I got some 1200’s and was at the record store every weekend. I was doing house parties and DJ competitions. I DJ school dances and proms and students just started to come up to me and wanted to learn more. I knew I had to get something started. I wanted to make our own music so we could spin that and started making my own beats, nothing is more fun than creating music from scratch.

CC: You also started a label, right?

LW: The label I have created is called Just Listen Music. Like I said, a healthy community needs open communication, so I want people, in particular adults and elders, to just listen. That’s why I create positive music because Grandma deserves to bob her head too! This is the start and it looks promising, I got things lined up and hope to continue to be the vehicle for native youth!

CC: Last, Ali Baby, what do you plan to do after high school?

AB: I plan to go to college to study Music Production. I want to do college performances and also do opening performances for bigger names. I just hope one day I can be the one the local artists open up for. Nothing’s impossible. I want to show everyone that just because rap nowadays is vulgar and offensive, it isn’t dead. I’m on a mission to make it right. I know I have what it takes and I don’t plan on slowing down any time soon.

Check out this sneak peak of Ali Baby's track For the Native Youth, and keep an eye on RPM for more on the forthecoming album, Mixed Breed: The Beginning.

STREAM: Ali Baby ft. DJ DoezIT & Dead Jester - "For the Native Youth"

DOWNLOAD: Black Hands - "Touch My Blood"

Here are some Wasauksing grooves from Brydon King, aka Black Hands, for you Househeads out there.

Here is a track boldly titled Touch My Blood by Black Hands, a 22-year old from Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario who came to RPM via A Tribe Called Red. After years of playing guitar, keyboards and drums, he recently started to experiment with production and remixing. I bet ya can't listen to 30 seconds before you start chicken necking it!  Download this track and if you like it, he has a bunch of other tunes up on soundcloud.com/black-hands too.

DOWNLOAD: Black Hands - "Touch My Blood" 

New Drezus Video "Another Love"

Winnipeg's Drezus is back at it again with a new video, Another Love, directed by Jesse Green and Reign Wapioke.

Shot in the snowy streets of Winnipeg, Another Love, from Drezus of Team Rezofficial, takes us on a cold journey through a love story. Directed by Jesse Green and Reign Wapioke of CN5 Films, this video is another notch on to the belt of the already video experienced Drezus.

The track Another Love is produced by Jay Mak, the legendary producer of Team Rezofficial and many others.

Vincent Schilling's Book "Native Musicians in The Groove"

Vincent Schilling's book Native Musicians In The Groove focuses on the lives and accomplishments of Indigenous musicians.

St. Regis Mohawk music journalist Vincent Schilling is the host of Native Trailblazers - one of the most listened to Indigenous focused radio shows in Indian Country - and writer of a related series of books. The second book from that series, Native Americans In The Groove, pays homage to the Indigenous musicians he has come in contact with over the years.

Growing up in California, Vincent's love of literature and writing started at an early age in the library reading books when he wasn't playing at the beach. His path in media began at San Francisco State University where he studied broadcasting, theatre and science. Later he would be prompted by his loving wife to explore his talent for writing, and with the challenge of making a sustainable career as a writer, Vincent began his path in book writing.

His first publishing venture was to be an author of children s books until his publishing company approached him with the idea of writing about Indigenous people in the United States and Canada, which he was thrilled to do instead. The Native Trailblazers book series consists of five books that focus on Native women, men, athletes, activists and musicians.

Native Musicians In The Groove takes a look at the lives and accomplishments of ten Indigenous music artists: Crystal Shawanda, Gabriel Ayala, Leela Gilday, Michael Bucher, Blackfire, Shane Yellowbird, Mary Youngblood, Four Rivers Drum, Mato Nanji and Jamie Coon. The book was a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in 2010.

In addition to being an author and journalist (he's a regular contributor to Indian Country Today Media Network) Vincent is the manager of Cherokee singer-songwriter Michael Bucher, and host of the Native Trailblazers podcast on BlogTalkRadio - weekly in-depth and topical interviews with inspiring people from our community and where you can hear the RPM Download of the Week during the show every Friday at 7pm EST.

Get your copy of Native Musicians In The Groove from Native Voices: www.nativevoicesbooks.com/catalog/2.

Aboriginal Performance Series at PuSh Festival

Vancouver's PuSh Festival is celebrating its 9th year as one of the city's signature events. Every year The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival presents both contemporary performances from leading Canadian artists and develops new works for the stage.

It's a series I look forward to every year - it manages to be innovative and experimental while maintaining a high calibre of production and I'm always discovering new favourite artists and works. Veda Hille and Bill Richardson's Craigslist Cantata that premiered at PuSh remains one of my favourite live performance/theatre experiences ever.

This year I'm thrilled to see that PuSh is presenting an Aboriginal Performance series which "aims to profile compelling and virtuosic projects that transform perceptions... to foster a broader understanding and interaction of contemporary Indigenous artists and their diverse cultures". Right up RPM's alley!

The series kicked off last night with Beat Nation Live - the cross-platform collective that includes Kinnie Starr, Jackson 2Bears, Cris Derksen, (RPM's own) Ostwelve, JB the First Lady, and the Tangible Interaction Digital Graffiti Wall by Corey Bulpitt and Gurl23. It was a high energy performance that had people on their feet and dancing by the end of it. The collective has honed their collaborative efforts - I saw them almost a year ago at the beginning stages of their work together and they've only gotten better.

During her introduction to the performance, senior curator Sherrie Johnson shared that she was inspired to create the Aboriginal performance series after spending time in New Zealand. She experienced many festivals there that featured work by contemporary Indigenous artists along with the programming of non-Indigenous artists and it made her wonder why that is not the case in Canada. Indeed, we have festivals focused only on Indigenous performers in this country, but there is an undeniable lack of inclusion of current Indigenous works in "non-Native" festival programming.

With that in mind she returned to Canada and to PuSh with the plan to seek out the most cutting edge and current Indigenous artists. The result is this diverse and exciting series.

Running from January 31-February 4th at The Cultch in East Vancouver is No. 2, a theatre piece from Toa Fraser of New Zealand centered around a cantankerous Fijian matriarch.

From February 1-4, at the Waterfront Theatre, is Almighty Voice and His Wife, the moving and funny play by First Nations playwright Daniel David Moses. It "tells the story of a Cree man arrested for killing a cow without a license, and the ensuing manhunt that gives rise to his status as a martyr and a legend."

At Performance Works on February 2nd, actor, choreographer, director and educator Micheal Greyeyes will deliver his "keynote manifesto address" Staging Ethnicity, exploring the complexities of "native" theatre and the impacts on those who create and experience it.

I'm really looking forward to the performance by Calgary's Ghostkeeper - the noisy pop band from Shane Ghostkeeper and Sarah Houle. They'll be rocking Performance Works on February 3rd. Check out the just-published Redwire interview with Ghostkeeper for more on them: http://www.redwiremag.com/site/redwire/features/push-festival-aboriginal-performance-series-ghoskeeper-interview/.

Vancouver - which shows will you be checking out? I hope to see you there!

Christa Couture, Editorial Manager

For more information on tickets, times and performances visit http://pushfestival.ca/festival-events/aboriginal-performance-series/.

Red Slam arrives on Redwire's Sentinel Shores

Front lady for Tdot's Red Slam Collective, Mahlikah Awe:ri, speaks on growth of the group and the ways that they give back. Red Slam will be headlining Redwire's upcoming show Sentinel Shores: A Group Show and Event Exploring Land Defense February 2nd at Rhizome Cafe, Coast Salish Territories.

Marika Swan @ RPM: Wanna introduce yourself?

Mahlikah Awe:ri : My name is Mahlikah Awe:ri aka MC AngelHeart I am one of the four founding members of the Red Slam Collective. We also have other members that are a part of the collective now. We have four core members: we have a core drummer, a core bassist, we’ve added a saxophonist and then we mix it up with sometimes bringing in other emcees or a beatboxer or our B-boys.

MS: Who is making it out to Coast Salish Territories next week?

MA: So we’ll have MC 7^th Son (Annishnaabe), Miles Turner (Six Nations, Mohawk), Isaac Llacuachaqui aka Riverwalker (Inca),  myself (Mik’maw, Mohawk), Jav Bravo (Aztec), Will supporting us on bass and Paul our saxophonist cant make it but he’ll be there in spirit.

MS: How did the collective come together?

MA: In the fall of 2008 I was asked to do something at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, which is our Friendship Centre, around spoken word.  At that time I was getting back into slam poetry competitions and I noticed there was no other natives in the circuit. So I thought maybe I should expose some other people to this art form. A set of people came to the workshops and they were into hip hop and into music. I had met Isaak a year before at an open mic so I asked him to join in. So it was 7^th Son and Miles and our former member Lena who were always going. The youth coordinator encouraged us to apply for a grant to take things to the next level and take some of these lyrics and turn them into actual songs.

We applied and with that grant we got a mentorship with Digging Roots. Digging Roots took us on and got us to apply for another grant to record the single Bring It Back at their studios. They taught us how to make music and record in the studio and all the business side of music as well.  We started with local booking at community centres and then we got a travel grant to go to different reserves and cities across Ontario. This was the spring to the fall of 2010. So we ended up doing a lot of little shows and it was really great exposure. We also got a chance to bond as a crew and figure out where we wanted to go. When we ended our tour at the ImageNATIVE opening for Martha Redbone, we thought 'we need a band'. So we started working with other musicians and figured that synergy out and then we ended up with a new sound Isaak calls soul-rock hip-hop.

We have always been very forthright in our lyrical content in terms of issues that we know are relevant to our people. On a global scale because we are connected globally. Whether that’s about land, water or whether it’s dealing with residential school or whatever it is. When we were first trying to get bookings when we got our travel grant, there were some people that were hesitant to book us because of the lyrical content of our pieces. But now that we’ve had occupy all over Toronto and everywhere else we’ve had certain things come to light through the media in our different communities about the quality of our water and all this other stuff. Now we are inundated in our inbox. We cant even keep up with the amount of requests for us to come out and perform at various events dealing with the same stuff that people, even some of our own people, didn’t want us to be talking about. And I’m proud of us as a crew that regardless of what people had to say when we were coming up we steered that course and we kept on it. I mean, we talk about other stuff. We talk about love. We talk about the party. We’re people, we’re human. But at the same time we cant ignore the real issues that are affecting us.

MS: Tell me about the workshop side of the work you do.

MA: Yeah so aside from being a hip-hop fusion band we do Four Directions Community Arts Engagement workshops. We usually build collaborations with either a social group or a school or an arts organization and we deliver workshops based on what the kids want to do. My role is the artistic coordinator for the workshops, and based on what they want to do which members of the crew would be best to come in. So when we went on that tour in 2010, wherever we did a show we also had a workshop. It’s also a great way to embed our traditional teachings... so starting with orality. Rap is orality and our people are storytellers. Usually I’ll start by telling a traditional story and then I flip the same story but totally in rhyme. Then we’ll start getting them to write lyrics to visuals by various Indigenous artists that explore the same themes as the original story did. They come up with the hook and they decide what themes they want to discuss. Based on those themes we weave together a set of bars for each verse and then they decide who wants to be the emcees and who wants to be the musicians. And then we come together collaboratively and record it so that they can see how far they have come. We love doing that kind of work. We’ve got a lot more of that stuff coming up.

MS: Well we are all really excited to have you. It’s going to be pretty cozy at Rhizome but I think it’s going to be really special. We’ll have some speakers and some films and then mix it up with some live music to keep the energy flowing.

MA: It’s really timely for us, many of us have family out on the west coast so we’ve been talking about this for a while.

MS: So I was checking out a live clip of you all performing 7 Fires on youtube and was loving it.  What's that track all about?

MA: Woo yeahh! That’s a track a co-wrote musically with Isaac Riverwalker. We’ve just been working on that track in the studio.  I wrote the lyrics and its about the Annishnaabe 8^th Fire prophecy. Looking at the prophecies that have already happened and what it is that we need to do now as a people. It’s become a big track for us, people seem to like it. We weren't going to play that one but maybe I should talk to the boys and put it on the set list.

The Collective expresses their creativity through their Okra (story) and their Owena (word) in the spirit of indigenous oral traditions using contemporary poetry live reggae hip-hop soulrock and drum talk. A variety of themes are expressed in their music and poetry, but the underlying goal is too uplift, self-identify and unify through spoken word. SLAM (Spoken Lyricism Arranges Meaning).

Find out full event info at redwiremag.com. Sentinel Shores: A Group Show and Event Exploring Land Defense February 2 @ Rhizome Cafe, starts @ 6pm

Featuring Artwork by Joi Arcand, Erin Marie Konsmo, Christiana Latham, Chandra Melting Tallow, Marika Swan and Carrielynn Victor

Screenings of A Mothers Nature by Vanessa Claxton Bloodland by Elle Maija Tailfeathers Business as Usual by Jay Cardinal Villeneuve

And Special Guests: Arthur Manuel and Ta'kaiya Blaney

With RED SLAM COLLECTIVE!

Here is a video of the Red Slam Collective performing 7 Fires live:

DOWNLOAD: Raphael Deas - "Complicated"

Apache R&B artist Raphael Deas hooks us up with this amazing track called Complicated.

We get a great number of tracks submitted to us here at RPM and with our small team, it sometimes takes a while for us to listen to them all. While going through our submissions I found this awesome track by Raphael Deas, a honed veteran in the game who has shared the stage with acts such as Michael Jackson, Will Smith and New Kids On The Block to name a few.

Complicated is written and produced by Raphael himself and his music partner Gerald Richardson. This is the first finished solo track of Raphael's after working with the group Homework (which was produced by legendary Maurice Starr). We don't see many R&B/funk/soul artists out of Indian Country, so we'll definitely be on the look out for more from Raphael Deas in the near future!

DOWNLOAD: Raphael Deas - "Complicated"

VIDEO: Indian in the Machine - "Look Inside..."

The full title of this new video from Indian in the Machine is Look Inside Indian's Magical Rainbow Aura Crystal - a mesmerizing dance of colour and light. 

It turns out crystals make for interesting camera filters - holding the crystal close to the lens, Indian and the Machine filmed shots of the sun to great effect. So sit back and let this mellow, meditative track set you on smooth course this week.

VIDEO: The Trio Gang - "Rolling in the Deep"

The Trio Gang are three young Maori women -  Ngakiri Kershaw, Renee Rangikataua and Mere Arihi Pipitakoko - who recently began uploading their renditions of cover songs to Facebook and YouTube. The three part harmonies, with just the accompaniment of one acoustic guitar, are striking and charming. I'm reminded that it doesn't take much for artists to shine.

Without the aid of autotune, tracking or editing, The Trio Gang give fantastic performances straight to their computer cameras - so far all beautifully original interpretations of familiar pop songs. In the one month since they posted it, their cover of Rolling in the Deep has racked up over 7,000 views. I came across it after two other artists shared videos by The Trio Gang on FaceBook. It's incredible how quickly a new musical discovery will travel on social media!

I'm certain the word will continue to spread like wild fire and we'll be seeing more to come from this corner of Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Follow The Trio Gang on FaceBook and YouTube to keep up with their latest work.

Watch: The Trio Gang - Rolling in the Deep: