Lisner Auditorium may not resemble the Sahara, but Thursday night’s “Festival in the Desert” concert featuring Tinariwen and Vieux Farka Toure may at least conjure up some images of that annual event 65 miles north of Timbuktu. A year and a half after his father, guitarist Ali Farka Toure, passed away from cancer, guitarist Vieux Farka Toure has released his self-titled debut, recorded shortly before his dad’s death. Vieux not only attempts to capture his pop’s unique high-pitched Malian-meets-John Lee Hooker technique, he is joined on several cuts by him. Toure responded via a translator to some e-mailed questions that I sent his way:

1. Did your father teach you to play guitar at a young age?

WELL, I USED TO LISTEN TO MY FATHER AND HIS RECORDINGS ALL THE TIME SO I JUST ABSORBED HIS TECHNIQUE OVER THE YEARS. MOSTLY I PLAYED PRECUSSION THOUGH (CALABASH) DURING MY EARLY YEARS, I REALLY ONLY STARTED STUDYING GUITAR SERIOUSLY WHEN I ENTERED THE CONSERVATORY IN 2001.

2. Did you and your father record the songs you played together on, live in the studio, or separately with overdubs?

EVERYTHING WAS RECORDED LIVE, MOST OF IT IN ONE TAKE.

3. Do you listen to rap? Do you ever think you might want to incorporate newer genres into your own?

I LISTEN TO RAP, I LIKE ALL KINDS OF MUSIC …IN SPITE OF MY NICKNAME “VIEUX” (WHICH MEANS OLD IN FRENCH) I AM YOUNG SO I LISTEN TO JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT IS OUT THERE: REGGAE, RAP, ROCK, SALSA,.MY MUSIC IS FIRMLY ROOTED IN TRADITIONAL MALIAN MUSIC BUT I FEEL THAT I HAVE TO ESTABLISH MY OWN STYLE SO I BUILD IN LOTS OF ELEMENTS OF WHAT I AM HEARING ALL THE TIME.

4. Do you feel pressure because of your father’s accomplishments to try to keep up with what he did and to be compared to him?

NOBODY CAN EVER WALK IN ALI’S FOOTSTEPS, MY FATHER WAS A GENIUS.ALL I CAN HOPE TO DO IS SOMEHTING DIFFERENT, HOPEFULLY BETTER . HE WAS ALI, I AM VIEUX…

Maybe I’m setting up a double-standard, but I don’t care: When indie rockers go ethnic and Mediterranean (that means you, Beirut), my gut reaction tends to be skepticism. (I guess I’m slightly more tolerant of Gogol Bordello, because Eugene Hutz is actually, y’know, from another country.) So why am I willing to give hip-hop producer Oh No a total pass for testing out the bouzouki tip? Maybe it’s because Dr. No’s Oxperiment, his “audio tour of Turkish, Lebanese, Greek & Italian psyche funk,” doesn’t purport to be a broad statement about cross-cultural unity (or emotional authenticity, for that matter). He’s merely sticking to a theme and indulging an urge, while managing that urge very closely. The results are unencumbered by over-arching identity issues, and yet the disc still seems to respect its source material deeply. Hip-hop can be good like that.

Former Silver Spring resident and University of Maryland grad Erez Safar, aka DJ Handler, has launched Shemspeed, which he calls “the largest and most diverse Jewish music site.” Safar–who also plays in “breakbeat klezmer jazz” band Juez, runs the Modular Moods label, and oversees the Sephardic Music Festival–says he built Shemspeed as an alternative to the narrowcasting that limits most Jewish-culture sites. “I always wanted a one-stop shop for all sorts of Jewish music, from Orthodox to very unorthodox,” he says.

I’ll admit, there are a few bands that I wouldn’t mind sending to jail. But while our country may not be able to provide the majority of its musicians with health care, a decent living, or an audience, at least bands don’t have to do time in the gulag–unless it’s gulag of their own creation built under the recommendation of a PR firm for promotional purposes.

This was not the case for the Czech Republic’s Plastic People of the Universe. Throughout its career (1968-1989) the band suffered at the hands of the Communist regime, which imprisoned or deported numerous members of the band after their Zappa-influenced jams were found to be an “Organized Disturbance of the Peace.” In Soviet Russia Hot Rats plays you…in prison.

The surviving original members reunited the band in 1997 and have performed slightly jazzier mellower post-Velvet Revolution material ever since that is well loved by the current Czech government.

The last time they played in D.C. (in 2003?) a band that I was in somehow got to open for them–which put us in the surreal situation of performing on the Black Cat’s main stage in front of Madeleine Albright and Vaclav Havel. I can’t promise they’ll be there this time. I only mention it because I’m no doubt the only person who remembers…

Anyway, The Plastic People of The Universe return to Black Cat:

Tue Sept 25- THE PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE $15 Mainstage 8:00

Birchmere offers two interesting performances:
Mon. Sept. 17: NICK LOWE $25.00
Mon/Tue. Oct. 1&2: HENRY ROLLINS $25.00

The 9:30 welcomes ex-Weezer-bassist-4-life Matt Sharp’s band The Rentals as they return from the grave with a new EP. “Friends of P” was pretty catchy–but $25!?
Sun., Aug. 26: The Rentals $25

Finally, the Cure will perform at the Patriot Center, Wed., Sept. 14, The Cure $57.50. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m.

Unfortunately, there’s no “Gypsy Music” category in either the Billboard charts or the Arbitron ratings, so it’s awfully hard to know exactly how many people are even interested in hearing, let alone have actually heard, the music of the Roma (or Romani) ethnic diaspora. But for those of you with a closet curiosity, you have until tomorrow night to see the documentary Gypsy Caravan. (Mark Jenkins’ review of the film is here.)

Directed by Jasmine Dellal (who also made 1999’s acclaimed American Gypsy) and shot by the legendary Albert Maysles, here follows five Romani music acts on American tour together: Two (Fanfare Ciocarlia and Taraf de Haidouks) from Romania; Maharaja, from India; Antonio El Pipa, from Andalusia, Spain; and Esma Redzepova, from Macedonia. Their music, though strongly founded in folk forms, is complex and unexpectedly polished, and is one of two major themes in the film; the other is of the musicians hanging out between shows and getting to know each other. Dellal also fills in the blanks by telling stories about the musicians: particularly pleasurable are anecdotes about Taraf de Haidouks’ leader busking around Berkeley while the band was playing there, and about Esma Redzepova and her 47 adopted children. Oh, and Johnny Depp gives his insights as a fan of Romani music, too.

Though it sounds arcane, like an ethnomusicology project, Gypsy Caravan is warm, human, and features lots of thrilling and deeply moving music and moments. You can see it either today or tomorrow (Friday, July 12) at the Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Avenue NW, where it shows twice each day (3:20 and 8:15 pm).