Pianist and composer Manuel Valera is not interested in the usual Latin licks over post-bop beats but in the shape of cubano jazz to come. Valera proves he can heat it up with the best. — Makkada The Manuel Valera Quartet and the McCoy Tyner Trio with Stanley Clarke perform…
Consider Washington, D.C.,’s musical heritage from a modern viewpoint: Dance music doesn’t usually register at the top of the list. The city’s lineage traces back to the 1980s era of Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and the Dischord dynasty. But in the past decade or so, an underground renovation has evolved…
During a recent CD-release party for glitch punk Otto Von Schirach in Miami, a crazy-looking couple stands out from the crowd, seeming as if they just left the Greyhound bus station and happened to wander into the club on a whim. He’s clad in a neon-splashed track suit and fishnet…
The Ocean Blue’s dreamy, melodic approach has changed little in the more than 15 years since Hershey, Pennsylvania,’s second-sweetest export committed its lush sound to vinyl. Waterworks stays that successful course with six gleaming and ethereal gems that simultaneously inspire hopeful stargazing and forlorn shoegazing while never taking themselves too…
Although Duran Duran holds a noteworthy place in pop history because of the way it encapsulated the appeal of early MTV, it’s important to remember that, musically speaking, Simon LeBon and company were never very memorable. OK, a handful of their songs were entertainingly silly, and because the videos that…
Waits evolved from the engaging but seemingly predictable barroom growler of 1973’s Closing Time to the artistic bomb thrower of 1983’s Swordfishtrombones in one astonishing decade — the rarest sort of creative transformation. Since then, he’s grappled with the implications of his innovations, and while the discs he’s made of…
It’s certainly not the best release of 2004, but Unfinished Business is easily the most confusing. Why would R. Kelly fans want another of his discs just two months after he dropped a pair of mediocre ones? Why would Jay-Z agree to a joint album and tour when he obviously…
When the great Electronica Rush of ’97-98 hit U.S. soil, it often sounded like the space-age promises of the Jetsons coming to fruition just in time to justify Y2K. UNKLE, the project of Mo’ Wax label guru James Lavelle, especially captured this futuristic mindset; 1998’s Psyence Fiction melded Matrix-style techno-rock…
Generally speaking, ’80s icons don’t fare well over the years in the looks department. The combination of cocaine, groupies, and incidents that may or may not have involved farm animals are to blame. The only exception to the “What the Hell Happened to Him — He Used to Be So…
Already a legend in the drum ‘n’ bass scene by the turn of the millennium, DJ/producer Grooverider has been a champion of the genre’s enduring hold on the dance floor. Renowned for his infamous BBC Radio 1 show in the U.K. alongside perennial DJ cohort Fabio, Grooverider has been a…
Your prayers for a Jimmy Eat World/Rush hybrid have finally been answered — as the teenager in Animal House exclaimed when a sorority girl crashed into his bedroom and landed on his bed, “Thank you, God!” Coheed & Cambria combine pointy-headed lyrical concepts with pop-punk choruses, giddy handclaps, and disquieting…
“They say we all look alike, cook alike/But they ain’t know that we all crooks alike/I changed the game when I took the mic.” — “Here Now,” from The Rest Is History There is a history of figures in sports, entertainment, or politics who have broken racial and ethnic boundaries…
Metallica used to get into fistfights onstage, turn dressing rooms into latrines, and rip through so many cans of beer that Alcoa stock would rise with each tour. So it’s little wonder that, two years ago, band members paid $40,000 a month to a sports therapist to help them deal…
Though Client’s initial presentation is that of germphobic damsels lodged in an Orwellian dystopia, the sleek production skills and faux-menacing vocals of Client B and A, respectively, make them more like sexy, detached women reveling in their own robo-pop dreamscape. Depeche Mode’s Andy Fletcher is no longer their mentor, and…
East Coast pub-punk troubadour Ted Leo is a mad pundit in the tradition of Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg, and Shake the Sheets is his tautest album to date. Slithering songs such as “Angels’ Share,” “The One Who Got Us Out,” and “Bleeding Powers” acknowledge the downward spiral of American…
While New York heads moan about a lack of solid indie rap fare this year, West Coast acts such as Blackalicious’ Gift of Gab and the Shapeshifters continue to bang out hits for anyone who’ll listen. Next in line is Libretto, a member of Portland, Oregon, outfit Misfit Massive; his…
For attitudinal, punk-infused girlie rock with decent musical chops, it doesn’t get much finer than Gold Medal. The Donnas expand beyond the formula that brought them a wider audience with 2002’s Spend the Night, assisted by producer Butch Walker. Though the differences are subtle at first, Medal showcases a taste…
Duran Duran has endured as one of the few survivors of the fabricated “new romantic” movement that produced such dubious hairspray queens as Spandau Ballet and Adam & the Ants. Solid material and a strong live show put the band over the top in the Atari age, but some usual…
The aftermath of the breakup of the El Paso five-piece At the Drive-In has yielded two very successful bands — Sparta and the Mars Volta. While the Mars Volta spiraled off into its prog/psych/world music wormhole, Sparta stayed true to ATDI’s driving sound. The group’s latest album, Porcelain, delivers more…
The following bit of convo was overheard outside Automatic Slim’s on a recent Wednesday night: Guy wearing sunglasses and tight girls’ jeans: You mean, like, with a vagina? Guy also wearing tight girls’ jeans: Yeah… Sunglasses guy: Ew. Advice of the week: Guys of South Florida, beware! If you buy…
Detention When the monthly Wednesday-night party known as Blowtorch came to an end early this year, many people didn’t know how to fill the void. Stretch jeans and dancing shoes were put back in the closet, and livers were forced to dry out. (Well, not really.) But hey, hey, hey!…
Nothing Rhymes with Orange Polite Gothic (self-released) One of the worst crimes a local band can commit is to sound “too local.” After a listen to Nothing Rhymes with Orange’s latest effort, Polite Gothic, it’s clear the band doesn’t need to be concerned about that particular offense. The album has…
