We don’t rehearse,” deadpans Black 47 leader Larry Kirwan. A rowdy bar band if there ever was one, Black 47 is an audaciously vibrant, politically charged, gurgling hodge podge of Celtic and American folk, country, swing jazz, reggae, and hip-hop. As Kirwan suggests, the band likes its edges rough, even…
Champagne buckets glistened beneath a full moon on the upper terrace of Pure, a South Beach hideout for has-beens, as break dancers popped, locked, and spun in the green and purple glow of electroluminescence. It was the nether region between Saturday night and Sunday morning, and Felix Da Housecat was…
The great rock ¹n¹ roll swindle continues! Music-journalist sheep still hold to their claim that we¹re in the middle of a rock ¹n¹ roll revival. Nonsense. Rock ¹n¹ roll would first have to go away in order to be revived, and anyone can tell you that (since 1955) rock ¹n¹…
The cover of Hard Times for Dreamers, the first full-length release from See Venus, is a collage of blue-hued buildings stacked on top of one another, stretching across a twinkling cityscape. And the music mirrors that simple cinematic elegance with a soundtrack of kaleidoscope pop. “I’ll Bet You Know” has…
It doesn’t get much catchier than the collage of infectious hooks the Wrens present on The Meadowlands. That’s not to say there’s anything facile about the New Jersey quartet’s long-awaited follow-up to 1996’s Secaucus. Rather, its latest pastes a keen understanding of major-key pop over an assortment of attractive guitar…
After months of drooling anticipation, Liars have unloaded a large, mysterious object into the dying fire of pretentiousness. And while it is moderately intriguing to hear those flames crackle again, it is doubtful either fans or haters expected a sophomore album as stubborn and obtuse as They Were Wrong, So…
As Mo’ Wax label chief and main conspirator behind the intriguing UNKLE project, James Lavelle has already carved a successful path for himself as entrepreneur and producer. In between day jobs, though, it seems he can’t shake his roots, which lie behind the decks on the dance floor. On the…
Ani DiFranco might be the Johnny Cash of her generation — an innovative and independent musician haunted by heartbreak, indignation, and talent. After Evolve admitted DiFranco’s personal need to do just that, she “suited up for the long walk back to [her]self,” a recrudescence she documented on this album. Absconding…
If you hear something you don’t like on Tripping Tropicana, the first U.S. release from Colombian rockers Superlitio, just wait a second. Even in this era of global musical promiscuity, the sextet from Cali is remarkably wanton with genres and moods. The disc opens with a hard-rock guitar riff that…
It’s not uncommon at a major record label’s headquarters to see a hip, bald man in his late 30s cleaning out his cubicle. In his four years as a business analyst at Universal Music, Rob Coe has seen more than 200 people pink slipped and escorted from the building. What’s…
In 1984, David Lowery was the primary songwriter, guitarist, and lead singer of the newly formed Camper Van Beethoven. In 1994, he was the primary songwriter, guitarist, and lead singer of Cracker. In 2004, he is the primary songwriter, guitarist, and lead singer of both bands. And he’s in Alaska…
This has been touted as the year’s most anticipated release — less because of what Kanye West has achieved as half of Roc-A-Fella’s hit-making house production team and more because of what he represents: the long-awaited bridge between hip-hop’s over- and underground. He’s a guy who admits that he wants…
Sometimes, the heckler is right. Many moons ago, a young Millie Jackson wrecked some poor tuneless hackette’s act in the famed Harlem nightclub, Small’s Paradise. The would-be diva dared Jackson on-stage. Oops! After dusting the object of her ridicule with her gorgeous, soaring alto, Jackson embarked on a monster career…
An acoustic version of the Misfits¹ ³Last Caress² right next to a trippy Massive Attack-ified space-pop spinout, followed by an ode to Robert Stack? One word: Finally! The man behind the music is Timb, a Boca Raton singer/songwriter/guitarist whose attitude is ³labels be damned.² He¹s put out two albums a…
“What kind of music is it?” “I dunno, kinda like emo-ish hardcore.” OK, for serious. That was an excerpt from an actual conversation between two kids behind me at Publix. Now, this is only my second column, but I’m going to declare that after today, the word emo will never…
Go-go music was Washington, D.C.,’s contribution to the world of funk during the late ’70s and early to mid-’80s. It burst on the scene as complete party music, with slower tempos and a premium placed on crowd interaction. Hardly song-based, this was all about the rhythm and stretching out that…
In terms of Detroit garage-punk street cred, Mick Collins is more bulletproof than a horde of flesh-eating zombies. The Stooges and the MC5 may have introduced blistering scuzz-rock to the Motor City, but the singer-guitarist almost single-handedly resurrected that glorious grime in the mid-’80s as the leader of the now-fabled…
With the latest in the Blue Series Continuum — a conceptual pairing of nonjazz artists with famed New York pianist Matthew Shipp and his talented cohorts — El-P has whipped up another stimulating recording. This time, though, the intellectual rapper/producer belies the mic throttling to focus on the potential beauty…
Air makes great softcore-porn music. At least seven of the ten songs on the new album Talkie Walkie could back the drawn-out, slow-motion sex scenes to those old, dubbed-in-English Emmanuelle skin flicks and, in some of those instances, actually improve the aesthetic. The tunes really are that evocative of the…
If you want to learn, you go to an expert. Rick Miller, lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for North Carolina-based Southern Culture on the Skids, knows about a lot of things, not the least of which is life on the road. Later this month, Miller, bassist Mary Huff, drummer Dave…
Well, it’s official — more than a decade after their acrimonious split, seminal alt-rockers the Pixies are back. Sure, this comes as terrific news to some, but for a fan like myself, the idea makes me shudder. After all, it goes against one of the most immutable laws of the…
“The songs are all done, and as they go down on tape/The critics click their pens/Comparisons made and names dropped in all boldface/To sound like his best friends.” So begins “Sing a Song,” the first track on the debut solo effort by Denver Dalley — otherwise known as Statistics. Dalley…
