Random Fact: "Wiki" is the Hawaiian word for "quick"

Hey there, loyal listeners, are you ready to rock? It’s more of a statement than an actual question, but to be grammatically correct, we had to put a question mark. Anyway, NS-NV will be playing some solid sounds for all to enjoy!  Can you dig it?

Our current playlist is so random, it might as well be an iPod on shuffle (an iPod with an AIROS skin on it, of course). There is one thing these Native artists have in common besides the obvious part where they’re all Native, and it’s that they all make great music.

To go with our random playlist, we’ve picked random facts about each of the artists. To our knowledge these are all true, albeit slightly exaggerated.

Random Playlist

• Randy Wood – “Saddle Lake” [Round Dance Blues]
  -- Randy was nominated for a Juno, a Grammy, a Nammy, and an Aboriginal People’s Choice award in the same year. Next step? The White House.
  
• Buddaz & Stephen – “Angel Eyes” [Northern Lights]
  -- These two are not rappers, despite looking like they’re about to drop a rhyme at any given moment.
  
• John Trudell – “Across My Heart” [Johnny Damas & Me]
  -- Like fellow political rights activists, Malcom X, John Trudell was born in Omaha, Nebraska. If you were born amongst copious amounts of corn, you’d be joining a revolution as well.
  
• Richard McKay – “My Awakening” [My Awakening]
  -- His voice sounds almost exactly like that of Pearl Jam leader singer Eddie Vedder. (Considering the number of times we’ve seen Eddie Vedder in Pine Ridge, we wouldn’t put it past him to have finally morphed into a Native either.)
  
• Bartow & Black Dog – “Crazy Daddy” [Bone Road]
  -- Rick Bartow carved The Cedar Mill Pole, which was displayed in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden in the White House. (Wonder if Randy Wood will be commissioning his services?)
  
• Jimmy Wolf – “Driftin’ From Door to Door” [Driftin’ From Door to Door]
  -- Has shared the stage with blues legends Buddy Guy Jr., Wells, Albert King, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Millie Jackson, and Little Johnny Taylor. And you thought you had cool MySpace photos.
  
• Joy Harjo – “Eagle Song” [Native Joy For Real]
  -- Featured in Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam 2002 (and therefore has more street-cred than 99% of the kids you see running around in baggy jeans and backwards caps on reservations.)
• Jani Lauzon – “Real Rez Blues” [Skintight Blues]
  -- In her spare time, she’s Canadian puppeteer, whose resume extends to work on Sesame Street. The idea of being a Sesame Street puppeteer as a weekend job is ridiculously cool for reasons we can’t completely grasp.
  
• Arigon Starr – “What’s My Indian Name?” [Backflip]
  -- Had an acting role on General Hospital. (If memory serves, she played the comatose daughter of the hospital’s CDC liaison, whom everyone thought died in a tragic smelting accident 20 years earlier. See, the body in the casket was actually a dummy, while the mother stashed her real body at home so that she could collect on the life insurance. Also, she had an evil twin…okay, maybe not. Though it’s probably not too farfetched, to be fair.)
  
• Tricycle Thief – “Like This” [Six Maladies]
  -- One of the members is the daughter of NAPT Executive Director, Shirley Sneve. On a side note, Shirley has no stolen tricycles in her home…that we know of.
  
• Indigenous – “C’mon Suzie” [Indigenous]
  -- The members of this band are Nakota. Not Lakota or Dakota. That’s right, with an “N.” They’re also from Yankton…and we’re not yanking your chain about that. (…Okay, we’ll stop now.)
  
• Blackfire – “Mean Things Happening in this World”
  -- Did a studio recording with punk icon Joey Ramone and, honestly, you don’t get more serious punk credibility than that. Excuse us while we fail miserably at pretending not be jealous.
  
• The Cremains – “Who Are You” [The Cremains]
  -- One group member is the nephew of James Bilagody, hence their epic collaborative efforts with the singer. Bonus: They came up with the idea to start a rock band at a Denny’s. (No word on whether they were having the Grand Slam breakfast or not.)

Coming soon, we have "Kamehameha Day" and our tribute to the Battle at Greasy Grass: "Custer Didn't Stand a Chance."

Stay Tuned!

Aden Marshall & Sina Bear Eagle NS-NV co-hosts