Quick — name some things that Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson have in common. Forget the fact that these old masters both tour incessantly; cynics would suggest they’re each kinda craggy and croon as if suffering from terminal post-nasal drip. Whatever… the common bonds make their current double bill appear…
They say hip-hop is a young man’s game, and they’re probably right. Apparently, though, even rappers well past their prime can still hang with the kids if they never grew up in the first place. For proof, just check out the Old School Summer Jam. This throwback party of mid-’80s…
What is it about Scotland, anyway? This is the cradle of culture that spawned Sean Connery, Primal Scream, Trainspotting, and Austin Powers’ former enemy Fat Bastard. Add to that list Snow Patrol, related to fellow Scots Belle & Sebastian by friendship and musical influences. Where B&S couch their sardonic wit…
Memorial Day’s a time of remembrance, but for many of us daily grinders, it also means a welcome long weekend perfect for hitting the beach or hitting the clubs. If you’re into the latter (hell, if you’re into both), Destination Pangaea — four nights of DJ-fueled mania at Seminole Hard…
Chuck D. once said, “Move as a team, never move alone.” And that’s what musicians do, especially in hip-hop culture. Independent hip-hop heads argue over the merits of record labels the way everyone else charts the rise and fall of Def Jam and Cash Money Crew. These days, the hot…
The Raveonettes may hail from Denmark, but the duo’s all-American muse is unmistakable. Hatched out of love for an era when cars were long, women were glam, and rock ‘n’ roll was unadulterated, the Raveonettes are a foreign-born mirror of the American pop radio ideal of the ’50s and ’60s…
Guitar-rocking singer/songwriter Teri Catlin has been a pillar of the South Florida music scene since the mid-’90s. She was honored this past December when her song “Baby” was in the top five of the VH1 Save the Music Song of the Year contest, and she counts Lenny Kravitz as a…
Forged in the sweaty, Latin juke joints of late ’60s New York City, boogaloo is the fusion of hip-swinging Cuban montuno rhythms and hard-driving American R&B. If that sounds too encyclopedic for you, I’ll put it another way: Boogaloo is genuine dance music: sexy, smart, and thrilling all at the…
Cell phone cameras. MP3-playing sunglasses. Laser-pointing, voice-recording, de-ionizing salad spinners. Thanks a lot, technology — now everything that does anything does something else too. The musical equivalent is of course the Benevento Russo Duo, the Brooklyn-based drums ‘n’ keys outfit that might be the Optimus Prime of genre-crushing hybrid bands…
After several EP releases, The Secret Migration collates a series of crystalline, gossamer work by Johnathan Donahue and his confreres and illustrates the repeated lyric “Life is but a dream. ” Providing escapist hymns with merit, the disc proffers pastoral lullabies for the end of Gen X that’s now on…
Luaka Bop’s third volume in this series — following discs devoted to Brazil’s Os Mutantes and California’s Shuggie Otis — is subtitled The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa. That’s a far better descriptor than world psychedelia, because, while fans of the Grateful Dead and the Quicksilver Messenger Service may…
Most metal-electronica or electronica-jazz fusion experiments are born to fail, but one of the luckier scientists is DJ Spooky, a hip New Yorker with more contacts than God. Spooky has a new book and art movie out this year, in addition to this latest musical experiment, a collaboration with Slayer…
Being a knockoff band isn’t such a bad thing if you meet two requirements: (1) You can play your instruments, and (2) you’re imitating good stuff. The boys of Jupiter’s Boxelder measure up on both counts, which makes their Deep Water Influence EP a fun if unoriginal ride. Fortunately, their…
It’s not every day you get to talk with one of the architects of modern rock. When Beatcomber was offered the opportunity to rap with Michael Andrew McKagan, better-known to any head-banging child of the ’80s as Duff, he wrapped his bandanna around his leg, fluffed out his bleached locks,…
Studies indicate that rap-metal ages about as well as pig slop in the sun. But that hasn’t stopped venerable Fort Lauderdale combo Collapsing Lungs from reuniting every few years or so to wallow in it. Back in the Spooky Kids days — “before Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park made…
Once upon a time, family acts were a fairly common occurrence in music: Isley Brothers, Cowsills (the initial inspiration for the Partridge Family, oy), and perhaps the most (in)famous, the Jacksons. Reggae’s Morgan Heritage, though, has ’em all beat, if only by sheer numbers. Jamaica-born, Brooklyn-residing singer Denroy Morgan has…
In his Encyclopedia of Jazz, Leonard Feather describes saxophonist Red Holloway as “capable of generating great excitement with his big sound and hard-driving, mainstream-modern style.” In other words, the man from Chicago can blow. In his 60-year career, Holloway has shared the stage with many greats, from Dexter Gordon and…
Chicago native Ryan Raddon was weaned on ’80s new wave, but he chose his city’s monumentally influential house scene as his sonic muse. The everlasting imprint of Raddon’s hometown hero, Derrick Carter, led the blossoming DJ to adopt the musical alter ego Kaskade. With ambiguous name in tow, Raddon left…
Most people don’t realize that two tributaries of American music — rhythm and blues, country and western — are linked by more than geography. While, sadly, not the commercial force it once was, the R&B/C&W fusion is still with us: Elvis Costello’s The Delivery Man is one example, and the…
Good punk is all about vintage. Squeeze the grape before it’s ripe and the result is tart and shallow; let it stay on the vine too long and the fruit loses its freshness and vitality. The juice coming from the Wellington four-piece Odd Man Out is at its prime –…
“Frankie was definitely one of the best. He had his very own style, his very own momentum with the crowd. I don’t think that anyone else did it his way.” — DJ Paul Van Dyk Orgasmic, climactic, and maddeningly frantic, Frankie Wilde’s megahouse and two-step booty-trance might be some of…
The fact that rock ‘n’ roll never gets old is what keeps it churning out wild-eyed hopefuls, desperate to make a racket and rebel against… whatever you got. This is instinctual music; either you got it or you don’t. These days, there are a lot of pretenders to the rock…
