Unlike the stripped-down rawk coming out of NYC these days, Oakland’s Heavenly States prefer a dense layered wall of sound with guitar upon guitar upon keyboard upon violin. It’s in those layers that the band’s multitude of influences fight it out. Its eponymous debut’s confluence of styles borders on the…
Every five minutes, rapper Mike West sticks a pair of fingers between his vertical blinds and peers out the window. A pair of drive-by auto detailers is in his driveway, giving West’s maroon Chevy Caprice the royal treatment. Operating from the back of a rundown van outfitted with a 150-gallon…
Once a crucial component in France’s downtempo electronica scene, Air now resembles Obscured by Clouds-era Pink Floyd and Serge Gainsbourg more than the passé acid-jazzers with whom it used to share deck time. City Reading is a brave detour for Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin: They provide music for Italian…
More than 40 years ago, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow called television programming “the vast wasteland.” But if TV is really that bad, what’s radio? The medium has become one cookie-cutter station after another, usually because Clear Channel likes to stick with the same model. But this leaves a…
You’d be hard-pressed to find an album with a more severe split-personality disorder than Hocus-Pocus, the latest from futuristic New York City rockers Enon. The first track, “Shave,” rides along to a laid-back electro groove and bassist Toko Yasuda’s breathy ultrafemme vocals. The second, “The Power of Yawning,” is a…
With its ninth release, Quebec, Ween has obliterated any doubt that it’s the greatest drug band in the history of drugs and bands. The album spans the cosmos of aural artificial bliss, from the metal scorcher “It’s Gonna Be a Long Night” (“You bring the razor blade/I’ll bring the speed”)…
Trans Am sure threw its fans for a loop with TA, last year’s self-described “party album.” Especially since the band began as an auspicious instrumental unit, its evolution, which has gradually allowed singing to take center stage, was unforeseen. The ironic edge of ’80s hair-metal and cheesy synth-pop has always…
Selling jazz albums in mass quantities usually involves some sort of trickery: Diana Krall’s blue jeans, for instance. Back in the late ’60s and early ’70s, a common ploy was to include a contemporary pop standard, reinterpreted instrumentally. Sometimes the end would transcend the means and the result would wind…
Skittish, high-energy dance anthems have not met the nuanced dynamic ear of English electronic music producer Matthew Herbert. Truly one of the world’s last great romantics, Herbert’s ongoing project has been to continue the tradition of the experimental music proferred by Glass, Cage, and even Ellington in the context of…
De La Soul’s legacy is impressive: The trio essentially invented the alternative hip-hop genre on its first album, 1988’s 3 Feet High and Rising, expanding the parameters of rap music’s aspirations. Produced by Prince Paul, the album introduced humorous between-song skits, sampled sources as diverse as Serge Gainsbourg and Steely…
In a nutshell, Kraftwerk drafted the late ’70s blueprint that Detroit’s Derrick May, Juan Atkins, et al. erected into techno’s gleaming new metropolis and that electro-popsters Depeche Mode and Gary Numan took to the bank in the early ’80s. Oh, and Kraftwerk invented electro too on 1981’s Computer World (ask…
Spearhead’s fourth album of beats and socially conscious lyrics accomplishes two rare things: Its moments of protest are eloquent without being preachy; and its elaborate range of styles neither comes up short nor sounds contrived. A band that has remained a staunch supporter of the San Francisco Bay Area music…
Nearly a century ago, Ezra Pound, perhaps the most Modern of the Modern poets, tore up everything that came before him with the battle cry, “Make it new!” Everything that had gone before was just a piss down the drain — n ot just the poets of yesteryear, but all…
It’s 6 p.m. at Dungeon Studios in North Miami, and, as Wire once said, there’s something strange going on here tonight. A shock wave of catchy, heavier-than-lead, industrial guitar is blasting from one cinderblock bunker. It’s the kind of thrash-core that’s allowed sloppy punk rockers to drink for free all…
Dave Matthews Band violinist Boyd Tinsley probably could have sold a helluva lot of records had he simply released an instrumental album of virtuosic fiddle-dee-dee jams. In fact, when the annoyingly redundant-yet-undeniably-talented band’s legions of frattooed fans first caught wind of the dreadlocked 39-year-old’s debut release, that is probably what…
Dear Drive-Thru Records, We in Broward County are best-known as a mullet-friendly, white-flight, overgrown suburb. And you, Drive-Thru co-owners, are from New Jersey. Hell, you took your love of Bon Jovi and applied it to mall-punk cuties. We should be simpatico. Why are you invading us? Broward gave you New…
www.britesidemusic.com Someone needs to find the template they use to make this omnipresent, post-adolescent, Broward County alt-rock, then smash it — or at least abduct and reprogram it. This Pompano Beach boy band includes Jason Knapfel, who pens a column on the local music scene for the Sun-Sentinel. Brite Side’s…
The days of underground, grungy, basement-like minimalist clubs are long gone. In the mid- to late ’90s, Miami Beach pioneered the high-profile über-clubs that soon became standard South Florida fare. Shortly after the much-hyped opening of Amnesia (now Opium Garden), preferred customer passes fetched about $400, unless you knew someone…
Bandwidth is the first to admit that a bout with vertebral subluxation is like being vexed by the devil. And nothing can make those pinched nerves happy like a good face-down adjustment on a leather table. But what is it with West Indians and chiropractic care? The preponderance of chiropractors’…
O.A.R. Guster. Hootie & the Blowfish. God Street Wine. Lisa Loeb. The Spin Doctors. Edwin McCain. The Wallflowers. Soulhat. The Cranberries. Jack Johnson. Toad the Wet Sprocket. The Dave Matthews Band. Vigilantes of Love. Shawn Mullins. Counting Crows. Tonic. Jewel. Jars of Clay. Rusted Root. Better than Ezra. The Freddy…
When it comes to his own recordings, Stefan Betke, a veteran sound engineer for respected techno musicians like Basic Channel and Maurizio, has an obsession with the tinniest sounds, including those accidentally created by faulty equipment. His delicate sparse take on production has often been recognized as an extension of…
The Nappy Roots’ sophomore release, Wooden Leather, stomps into retail stores with the clap-inducing “Roun’ the Globe,” a midtempo number with twangy guitar chords and snare drums. Inspired by their travels, it’s a celebration of humanity via a good ol’-fashioned country hoedown. Boasting a wide range of producers, Wooden Leather…
