It’s an unusually breezy Thursday afternoon on Hollywood Boulevard. The vintage shops and restaurants that line the old district are mostly empty, and Latin music sensation Sito Oner Rock — or just Sito to his fans and friends — is doggedly trying to choose a restaurant for an interview. The…
Alanis Morisette is conquering the web with an unpredictable cover. The typically angst-ridden Canadian singer produced a satire of the Black Eyed Peas’ inane hit song “My Humps.” There is even a Will.i.am stand-in for the video, which, while faithful to the original lyrics, is delivered in Morisette’s usual slow…
Everybody sing together now: “Anoint my phallus with the blood of the FAL-LEN!” If you see the crowd gathered in front of the second stage at Ozzfest — girls and boys alike — singing along to these words, banging heads, and swooning in phallic-referencing glee, you can thank Karl Sanders…
Ozomatli formed in 1995, but it’s a true 21st-century band. The Los Angeles nonet blends a variety of native and folk styles and, in a process symbolic of our expanding music world, transforms the cacophony of competing global voices into a bubbling jazz-funk brew. Not surprisingly, the birth of Ozomatli…
You don’t have to scroll very far down the lengthy list of actors who have tried to pass themselves off as singers — William Shatner and David Hasselhoff, anyone? — to dash expectations that any other thespian will ever fare better. Still, Minnie Driver proved a rare exception when she…
The Bang Gang has attracted international attention as one of Sydney, Australia,’s sweatiest, most forward-thinking club nights, where techno trash and indie slop coexist happily. This double-disc mix set, a group effort by the night’s masterminds, is a hypercaffeinated mishmash, a snapshot of what would be one of the most…
Whether you consider Dub Trio’s approach to be a King Tubby-influenced take on spazz-rock or a rock-laced assault on dub conventions, the essential fact remains that its disorienting attack is best appreciated live. Cool Out and Coexist was recorded over the course of two nights of Brooklyn concerts and is…
In all the hoopla over the influence of ’60s and ’70s art rock on some of today’s most interesting bands, one salient fact is frequently overlooked: A lot of that stuff blew. For every Roxy Music and King Crimson, there was a Yes or an Emerson, Lake & Palmer (plus…
On her newest disc, Zingaro, Fort Lauderdale-raised jazz sensation Alexis Cole takes on several familiar standards and allows her captivating voice to stand out without much accentuation. She’s accompanied solely by guitarist Ron Affif and bassist Jeff Eckels for the entire disc except on the upbeat song “Walkin’,” which features…
Juan Luis Guerra Juan Luis Guerra isn’t much of a morning person. “It took me a while to gather all my senses,” said Guerra. “I’m not used to getting up so early.” But getting up early Wednesday morning proved to be beneficial as the Dominican singer/songwriter led the way with…
And you thought Bobby and Whitney were bad. Amy Winehouse and her husband, Blake Civil-Fiedler were recently photographed bloodied and bruised after a recent fight in London. It can’t help that paparazzi follow their every move and make matters worse, but the couple could certainly clean themselves up after they…
Autumn To Ashes Holding a Wolf By The Ears Vagrant Note to all you would-be rock scribes. When you’re reviewing a group fronted by the band’s drummer, have your earplugs handy. Drummers tend to crank up the volume and you don’t want premature hearing loss to hamper your career. Okay,…
They represent two different parts of Florida, but the MCs of Word Perfect stand in line together as they wait to enter the big show. Dirty Dem of Fort Lauderdale and Wiseguy of Orlando are trying to offer the rap world something more than the typical hip-pop, but these days…
Finally, it’s here in all its two-disc, 29-track, guest-star-studded, double-album glory: Underground Kingz, the most anticipated album out of the South this year and the most eagerly awaited Texas rap album since Scarface’s The Fix back in 2002. Not since 2001 have we heard a whole album’s worth of “country…
Unlike many of his rap contemporaries, Lonnie Rashid “Common” Lynn Jr. has matured artistically — but he did have a head start. When he released his Can I Borrow a Dollar? debut in 1992 under the name Common Sense, he was already sage beyond his age. Finding Forever continues this…
Gainesville’s Against Me! shares a hometown with Lynyrd Skynyrd and, discounting the redneck caricature Skynyrd became after frontman/spiritual leader Ronnie Van Zant’s 1977 death, a lot more. They’ve got a keen eye for the flaws of leaders and those being led alike and write songs with sentiments as potent as…
Just ask A.J. Croce (son of Jim), Louise Goffin (Carole King’s daughter), or Frank Sinatra Jr. — being compared to a famous parent will haunt you, maybe forever. Take Femi Kuti — his late father, Fela, virtually invented Afrobeat but the younger Kuti is categorically not riding on his dad’s…
This is the closest thing to a supergroup that the fledgling genre of reggaeton has spawned. In truth, though, it’s a sonic swing party: Wisin, Yandel, Jayko, Tony Dize, Franco El Gorila, Hector “El Father,” and Don Omar mix and match, creating several working partnerships on this disc of collaborations…
On the Rough Guides’ latest foray into Africa, where there seems to be an endless supply of music, they focus on the northern area of the continent, featuring Arabic and French-language songs, mainly from Algeria, Egypt, and Tunisia. The tunes have various flavors, and the grooves shift from traditional Middle…
The “World” section at your local music retailer is just a way to pile together all the stuff that isn’t from America or the UK. It really isn’t fair that Bossanova joints can be found right next to some Riverdance jams, but English-born Sri Lankan M.I.A.’s latest, Kala, truly deserves…
The hard part of being a musician in love is choosing between making music and making love. One wins at the expense of the other. If you’re lucky, like Jeff and Christine Maldonado, you’ll never have to make that choice. For the Hollywood-based singer/songwriter couple, music and love are like…
Jay Beckenstein makes it a point to be prompt. Maybe too prompt. Phoning from his home in upstate New York, the leader and sax player for the jazz band Spyro Gyra duly checks in for an interview scheduled for 9:30. Only problem is, the call’s on tap for 9:30 p.m.,…
