There are few kinds of music more evocative of the place from which they come than that made by the Malian desert nomads known as the Touareg. One can almost see the endless stretches of sand laid out in all directions when listening to the sparse guitars and minimal but…
For some Lemonheads fans, their album It’s A Shame About Ray was the end of the line. 1990s Lovey album crystallized the fusion of tightly wound pop, punk energy, and acoustic flourishes that had made the group so appealing to various sects of the college-radio scene; even the punks who…
Skilled musicians Chick Corea and Gary Burton used to make challenging and experimental jazz albums that verged on the avant-garde. These albums eschewed the spastic joy of the free-jazz movement for a more studied approach, and both artists entered the early days of the fusion game with high-minded artistic ideals…
The first thing one notices about Live at Newport ’58 is the sound quality. In a jazz world defined at the fidelity extremes by pristine Rudy Van Gelder remasters of legendary studio sessions and near-bootleg-sounding live performances listenable due only to their rarity, this previously unreleased concert from the 1958…
It seems strange to say this as a point of differentiation, but Webb Wilder plays rock ‘n’ roll. Not a hyphenated form of rock ‘n’ roll, not an ironically rendered reconfiguration of rock ‘n’ roll… just good ol’ rock. In fact, Wilder’s roots-based approach is so basic that his latest…
There’s an uncomfortable sense of placelessness to the sound of Saba’s debut CD. Though it could be attributed to her press-release ready biography (Italian/Ethiopian parents, Somali birthplace) or the diverse array of musicians on the disc (from Cameroon, Senegal, and Italy), there’s also the nagging sense that it’s simply a…
The release in 1987 of Pato Banton’s Never Give In was, in retrospect, something of a watershed moment. Though it may not have been immediately recognized as being so, it turns out that Never Give In marked the beginning of the contemporary era of reggae. After the 1981 death of…
There’s something rather adorable about Angels & Airwaves. Since former Blink-182 guitarist/vocalist Tim DeLonge debuted A&A, his constant proclamations of his new band’s superlative greatness — “the best music made in decades” — have all but set him up for failure. But he simply does not care. He’s so convinced…
It’s hard to approach electronic music of the sort that Alexander Ridha (AKA Boys Noize) creates without acknowledging the accidental tidal wave of success that has crashed upon Justice. While the Justice duo is (steadfastly) French and Ridha hails from Germany, the peculiarly rockist take that these and quite a…
If you’re reading this hoping for some postmodern exegesis on early ’80s hard rock or some guilty-pleasure about “Sister Christian,” read no further. Night Ranger never pretended to be anything more than a melodic hard-rock band, so there’s no point in pretending otherwise. But, as San Francisco’s best practitioners of…
It may be more than a month before Mardi Gras, but South Florida-based Monkeykrewe has no problem scratching its New Orleans itch a little early. Centered around performances by the krewe’s favorite band — the Radiators — this three-day series of shows also brings the Wild Magnolias and an introductory…
There’s a photo on the inside of Lagos by Bus that shows 13 of the group’s members backstage before an opening gig for Femi Kuti in Lagos. It is, needless to say, a prestigious show for the Afrobeat-oriented collective. More interesting, though, is how the white faces in the photo…
After more than 30 years as a reggae musician, Cocoa Tea should be either a cutting-edge groundbreaker or a torchbearer for easy-does-it standards. As Biological Warfare disappointingly makes clear, he’s neither. The dancehall vibe he’s worked with for most of his career has seen him occasionally flirting with progressive electronic…
Not to minimize Buck 65’s abilities as a rhymer, but it must be said: the greatest thing this man has brought to contemporary hip-hop is dirt. There’s dirt and noise and grime and spilled drinks all over Buck’s records, and his rough, full-throated voice is just part of it. The…
It’s difficult to say that the Goo Goo Dolls have done anything “cool” since they abandoned their brash, sloppy, early-Replacements roots. But the fact that their first compilation — 2001’s What I Learned About Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce — didn’t include their biggest hits and instead focused on album…
The bands Drop Dead, Gorgeous; Alesana; The Number Twelve Looks Like You; and Idiot Pilot are touring as a package titled “Fathers Guard Your Daughters.” As most of the metal-core musicians here are just past the age of consent themselves, the implication is clear: They want you to think they’re…
It’s not every compilation of house music that starts out with a Sun Ra track. In fact, this may be the only one. Still, coming from Henrik Schwarz, this isn’t all that surprising, considering that he opened his 2006 DJ-Kicks set with a number by Moondog and wove a slew…
Serving as a direct challenge to the mindset that has deemed Vashti Bunyan the patron saint of freak folk, this two-disc collection of demos and unreleased songs from the singer’s earliest era demonstrates an approach far less common than the one for which she is known. Some Things Just Stick…
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 20 years since the Rev. Horton Heat released his first album… and he hasn’t changed a bit. Of course, the whole point of psychobilly is an unabashed dedication to purity of sonic identity (that and getting just fucked up enough to let…
Quite a few people went to great lengths to praise the divergent path that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took on its third album, Howl. The disc saw the band embracing a more organic sound, replacing the hypnotic layers of psychedelic guitars that marked its first two discs with a more…
If you didn’t catch the Cult’s last “reunion” lap around the States, then you may have missed one of the most libido-crushing doses of rock ‘n’ roll reality since Axl Rose stuffed his ’00s body into his ’80s spandex. The image of Ian Astbury that’s been etched into the general…
The idea of a collaboration between Prince Paul and Bernie Worrell — with guest appearances from George Clinton, Shock G, and others — is a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? The quirky hip-hop producer and the P-Funk keyboard wizard are going to make some sort of Dope Dogs ’07, because, well, that’s…
