Redheaded Lena Katina and brown-haired Julia Volkova are t.A.T.u., two Russian teenagers who may or may not be lesbians involved in a steamy underage relationship; 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane, their English-language debut, is scorched-earth teen-exploitation pop nearly as good as “My Boyfriend’s Back” and “Leader of the Pack.”…
Mere minutes into the set, he throws himself on the floor, white suede dress shoes flailing, in a spectacular display of rock ‘n’ roll grand mal. The crowd backs up, bristling with confused looks. But it’s not long before the witnesses are also seized by the “just gotta dance” reflex…
Massive Attack’s slow-paced release schedule has made each of its albums a de facto statement on the UK dance-music scene: 1991’s Blue Lines practically ushered in trip-hop; ’94’s Protection and its companion, No Protection, introduced us to electronica’s dub roots (not to mention Tricky), and ’98’s Mezzanine posited group members…
“I’m just a soul whose intentions are good/ Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” Ol’ Eric Burdon ran through my mind when I got an angry e-mail from Jeff “Monoman” Connolly. I had asked for a high-resolution photo of his band Lyres that would be suitable for print…
It’s 6:30 a.m. in the Stony Hill area of Kingston, Jamaica, and Joseph Hill is having one of those rare mornings where he’s actually able to spend a few precious hours at home with his wife. Days from now, the founding member of the visionary reggae group Culture will find…
Never know what to expect from Raiford Starke, but rest assured that it won’t be soft, fluffy, cuddly, sissy stuff. Whether the 40-year-old singer-guitarist is blasting electric blues with a full band or sittin’ on a stool with his acoustic on his knee, Starke’s Southern swamp-boogie always confirms a raw…
Lemon Jelly is onto something. It has transformed the cold, sterile, repetitive nature of electronic music into comforting, infectious, cotton-candy-flavored jams. Let’s call it slap-happy hip-hop, shall we? The duo’s second full-length serves up eight tracks of quirky kitsch and melodic daydreaminess balanced out with an abundance of samples. “Space…
The late Julian “Cannonball” Adderley’s near-legendary album Radio Nights, recorded live at New York’s old Half Note in 1967 and 1968 for radio broadcast, has long been hoarded by vinyl collectors. Now producer Joel Dorn has transferred this gem to CD on his new Hyena label. The nightclub mics are…
If nothing else, DJ Quik is responsible for “Safe + Sound,” the greatest, most emblematic gangsta-rap chorus of all time: “Some believe in Jesus/and some believe in Allah/But niggas like me/believe in makin’ dollaz.” But if you think that’s all he has to say, the rest of this collection –…
Venus Hum, a Tennessee trio that includes not a single guitar, actually derives its name from what is possibly the coolest medical condition since narcolepsy: Tony Miracle, credited with computers and electronics, hears the pulse from his jugular vein in his ear. Hummingbirds contains three re-recordings from the band’s first…
In the cultural Gobi desert that is the American public school system, choir practice might lead somewhere later in life. Forced to practice patriotic dreck like “In the Spirit of Hope” in Mrs. Fazoli’s class, our youth have only screeching some abominable Whitney Houston song on American Idol to aspire…
Austin Leeds has just wrapped up a track with Orlando-based pal DJ Jimmy Van M at a Miami studio. In a few days, he’ll ship off to Australia and New Zealand for shows with German trance DJ Timo Maas. Back at the ranch — actually, his parents’ home in Coral…
In 1995, reflecting on the toll that Beatlemania took on the Fab Four, George Harrison said, “They gave their money, and they gave their screams, but the Beatles kind of gave their nervous systems.” Harrison spent his solo career trying to reconstruct some semblance of normalcy while aspiring to the…
Are you ready to get liberated? Have you accepted Rock ‘n’ Roll as your personal savior? Has sweater season got you itchin’ to see some skin? Go on and head down to Churchill’s for humpday and catch the Demolition Doll Rods, the greatest go-go/rock outfit going. Known as much for…
Pirate radio reaches more eardrums in South Florida than anywhere else in the country, says the FCC. Which is fine by Bandwidth, cuz such illicit sounds are among the few interesting offerings on local airwaves. Except for one, shiny, corporate exception that proves the rule: Native Noise, the newly reinstated…
It’s obvious from “LA Breeze,” the brilliant Big Beat/Magical Mystery Tour hybrid that opens Simian’s sophomore album, that this music could have come only from Britain. Both this song and “Sunshine” sound like surefire chart-toppers, assuming people still want to hear indelibly flatulent analog-synth hooks, chikka-wikka guitars, and beautiful backing…
The soundtrack to the new Laurence Fishburne motorcycle fiasco, Biker Boyz, skews toward those hip-hop loyalists enticed by big-screen Ruff Ryders iconography — typical Jadakiss bluster; a tasty Redman joint; Mowett & Loon’s awful, Toto-sampling “Tru Rider” — but it also takes a cue from Kid Rock (who turns up…
Although the band was somewhat obscure in America during the original days of punk, the Buzzcocks’ esteem among the faithful has risen until now, when the band ranks right up alongside the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and Wire as punk’s founding fathers. This new self-titled album, featuring original members Pete Shelley…
Never understood why the Hives were the ones tagged as Your New Favourite Band (from Sweden, anyway), when the (International) Noise Conspiracy does virtually the same thing, only better. Actually, I do: The Hives play it Swede and lowbrow, hoping to move heads (but definitely not brains) by mimicking Mick…
Jonathan Bates’ claim that his major-label debut was “lovingly recorded in a bedroom” is slightly misleading: With his solo career in a fledgling state, Bates caught the attention of Tony Berg, an A&R executive who signed Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Beck. Soon after, the magic of studio-enhanced remastering transformed…
That movie Rock Star should have been based on Black Flag, not Judas Priest. Sure, Judas Priest replaced Rob Halford with an unknown, but that was well after the band’s prime. By contrast, punk pioneer Black Flag replaced its lead singer with an unknown man who jumped up on stage…
As America searched its soul after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Tori Amos searched America. The trip began that Tuesday morning in midtown Manhattan, where Amos stayed in a hotel before beginning her Strange Little Girls tour in South Florida a few weeks later. Traveling the country, she…
