It’s not easy being the furrowed-browed, pompadoured patron saint for all of the shy guys, shut-ins, and sexually ambiguous folks out there. For the better part of the 1980s and 1990s, Morrissey has carried you all on his shoulders, crafting beautiful pop songs that have served as therapeutic lullabies. Romanticizing…
RJD2’s 2002 album, Dead Ringer, was a pitch-perfect mix of soul-filled, funky instrumental hip-hop and a showcase for guest rhymers like Copywrite and Blueprint. But the Columbus-based producer seems determined to prove that he can succeed without help — and with a wider array of styles than just his trademark…
Arrive at the party after midnight and the dancers look dull and bored. Same old music. Slip the hostess The Venezuelan Zinga Son, Vol. 1. Suddenly everyone is as beautiful as the girl from Ipanema, as ba-a-ad as Superfly, and as fab as a shirtless boy shimmying at Paradise Garage…
Roni Size and Goldie may have the celebrity market cornered, but it is Dieselboy who has the hardcore following. On his eighth mix CD, The Dungeonmaster’s Guide, the junglist pursues a fantasy theme narrated by Peter Cullen, the voice behind Venger from the animated series Dungeons & Dragons (as well…
Have you seen that new commercial on TV where shit like stray basketballs and clumsy bicyclists and spurts of water from hoses start hitting the sides of a car? All those random thumps start speeding up and blurring together until they coalesce into a funky, polyrhythmic symphony of percussion. It’s…
The official story of the Legendary Pink Dots’ name mentions a keyboard player who needed nail polish to remember the notes. Yet leader Edward Ka-Spel has picked up the kaleidoscope dropped by Syd Barrett and brought it blazing into the 21st Century with a distinctly Pink Floydian hue. Not the…
While helping customers pick out dance singles during his day job at Karma Records (821 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Oakland Park), Corey Malloy flashes a mischievous grin and heavily tattooed arms that hint at the existence of a somewhat sinister alter ego. But the shop manager’s business card says it…
Like a mixture of Postal Service and Iron and Wine, singer/songwriter Bill Cruz pens quiet, acoustic ballads that have an electronic kink in them. It’s rustic music with a coffee buzz. A close listen to the lyrics, however, reveals Cruz has a real soft spot for the Man Upstairs. The…
In the intimate practice space of the Seventh Circuit in North Miami, six guys with varying amounts of facial hair tune their instruments. A fog machine sits on the floor coughing puffs of smoke into the air. On a large screen behind the stage, geometrical shapes and slides from vacations…
No British rapper has a bigger hurdle to overcome than the Streets’ Mike Skinner. His second full-length, A Grand Don’t Come for Free, comes two years after the critical and fan favorite Original Pirate Material, an album the “British Eminem” used to turn the world on its collective ear with…
In the smoke-filled confines of Morning Drinker Studios in Fort Lauderdale, there was a rap-off a-brewin’. Weed aficionado Afroman and Florida’s own Blowfly, two rappers who like to spout off about drugs, drinking, and all types of ill shit, were poised to offend anyone within earshot. Blowfly, the original dirty…
Electroclash was just a 15-minute cocaine high on the pop time line, so Miss Kittin is deservedly cranky on her solo debut-cum-comedown, I Com. She kicks off a liturgy of her sub-A-list duties (adding people to the guest lists, kissing cheeks) on the opening track, “Professional Distortion,” before reminding us…
After the commercial and creative peaks of its “La Bamba” cover and 1992’s Kiko, respectively, Los Lobos owed themselves — and us — another great record. The Ride, a mix of rearranged band classics and sublime originals, is such an album, not just as strong as the last few outings…
This ain’t no never-never land. This ain’t no tweehouse fort. This ain’t no Disney-go-round. But somewhere in the ether, savvy counselors at a cult day camp broadcast Sung Tongs over the PA during ‘shrooms-and-cookies hour. Animal Collective’s fuzzy-wuzzy instigators, Avey Tare and Panda Bear, sacrifice folk, cracked Beach Boys vinyl,…
The Hold Steady is the current project of former Lifter Puller vocalist — and security broker — Craig Finn. After the legendary Minneapolis band went belly-up, Finn left his job in the finance trade and moved to New York City to create stories of the underworld. A street punk with…
The intro to Tanya Stephens’ latest album asks this question: “At this stage in my life/I really don’t care if I have the approval of a few of my peers/I diverted for a little while/And the calls from my so-called friends stopped/I guess they thought I lost it/’Cause if they…
“Second verse, same as the first!” When Joey Ramone, innocently enough, heisted this line from Herman’s Hermits, little did he know that it would one day become a battle cry. Since then, untold scores of punk and indie acts have clung fanatically to a simple, profoundly imbecilic idea: making every…
So, I can’t stop listening to American Idol reject William Hung’s CD. And I can only chalk it up to its overwhelming guilty-pleasure aspect. The mutilated notes, the castration of everything decent about the human voice; it’s all there waiting to make love to my ear. Violent, atonal love. His…
These days, mash-ups of Jay-Z’s The Black Album are becoming as common as massive egos on reality shows. Not to mention that the whole DJ mash-up phenomenon is getting to be as played out as trucker hats at Old Navy. But regardless of the impending irrelevance of the novelty blends,…
Munich’s Chris de Luca and Michael Fakesch (Funkstörung) are better-known for their remixes (including those for Wu-Tang Clan and Björk) than for their own productions, which fuse playful melodies, granulated textures, and fractured, cubist electro-rhythms into crunchy, metallic hip-hop. Disconnected is Funkstörung’s first album since 2000’s Appetite for Disctruction. By…
Like pre-Iraq War British intelligence, U.K. hip-hop is regarded as suspect at best. After all, the classic hip-hop mantra “Fuck tha police” doesn’t seem as relevant when the fuzz comes armed with billy clubs and funny hats. Upwards, the new album from long-time U.K. scenester Ty, marks a sea change…
With the title of his new album, standup performer David Cross has a point. Abortion, Gulf War II, and Family Circus aren’t inherently funny, but he successfully mines them for big laughs. The balding, bespectacled Cross has been in the spotlight recently as the neurotic psychologist-cum-actor Tobias Funke on Fox’s…
