As we all know, the “blond MC” issue in hip-hop has gotten a little ponderous. So, an announcement: To all you indie boys who disown Eminem’s objectionable (or objectionably lousy) lyrical themes but defend his supposed “skills,” you now have an out with whom you can identify: San Francisco-based rhymer…
Songs titled “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” and “I’m Still Your Fag” sleep together like lions and lambs on You Forgot It in People, which is finally seeing its U.S. release this month. Winner of the 2003 Juno Award for Best Alternative Album, People’s musical range is defined by…
Apparently, the sight of the winsome, wizened Caetano Veloso sensuously purring his way through the song “Cucurrucucu Paloma” in Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, Talk to Her, has caused a run on the Brazilian pop legend’s back catalog. If perhaps you’ve gone to your local Record Hut and found…
It’s Memorial Day weekend, and Miami is partying. With no alarm clocks set for Monday’s workday world, South Beach sidewalks and nightclubs have turned into a rocking planet hip-hop. But a few miles away and across Biscayne Bay on NE 11th Street, another huge (if not overlooked) scene is building…
Not even Michael Caine walks both sides of the credibility fence like punk icon Henry Rollins. On one hand, his 2.13.61 publishing house has reintroduced pulp-fiction masters like Hubert Selby Jr. On the other, he’s appeared in GAP ads. Last year came the ultimate Rollins dichotomy: Just when it seemed…
Something magical was in the air back then. Maybe not everyone knew it, but there would be change a-comin’. The year: 1976. Neo-hippies dominated fashion, forcing kids in L.A. and San Francisco to peg their jeans, rip their shirts, and spike their hair as a big middle finger to all…
Darryl Worley’s song “Have You Forgotten?” attempts to split the patriotic difference between Toby Keith and Alan Jackson, waving the flag while showing some class, to erratic effect. The country star deserves points for rhyming “forgotten” and “bin Laden” (it’s certainly better than, say, “income-tax deduction” and “weapons of mass…
Thanks to the follies of ex-New York Times scribe Jayson “Worse than Linda” Blair, it’s more difficult than ever for writers and reporters to get away with truth-tinkering. Rather than submit to having my floorboards ripped up à la “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Bandwidth has elected to come clean regarding some…
The surge of great rock bands streaming out of Northern California continues with this quartet. 2 Over Ten, recorded in Memphis, is the Cuts’ second album. It’s a stunning collection showcasing the band’s immense melodic gifts with a range of fine tunes like the effervescent opener, “How Can I Get…
Texas-born Roy Hargrove, part of the second wave of Young Lions to emerge in recent years, has made his name as a reliable trumpeter, a distinctive player, and an imaginative soloist. He has released a dozen albums since 1989, including a pair of notable concept discs: He teamed with Christian…
Manchester, England,’s Sean Booth and Rob Brown (a.k.a. Autechre) create music that often veers dangerously close to difficult listening. But on the group’s fantastic new CD, Draft 7.30, the project seems to have come in from the cold, offering a remarkably warm fusion of the human and the machine. As…
The last several releases by former Spacemen 3 guitarist Jason Pierce’s psychedelic-gospel outfit Spiritualized — Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997 Live, and 2001’s Let It Come Down — have been as much about Pierce’s tendency toward staggering production costs as his…
It’s Trapped by Mormons’ CD-release party at Churchill’s Hideaway, and as usual, trouble has found them. Right before TBM’s midnight slot, Orlando punk ruffians the Stud Dogs bum-rush the stage and start setting up. Harsh words are exchanged. TBM bassist Mark O’Toole grabs one of the Stud Dogs for a…
Belgian-born Natacha Atlas has been impressing the rest of the world since the mid-1980s. Her forlorn, aching vocals on solo LPs like Halim and Gedida have graced the recordings of artists as varied as Peter Gabriel, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and ethnotechno collective Transglobal Underground. But Atlas’ appeal has…
When all your artists are dying off, what’s a hip Delta blues label to do? If you’re mid-Mississippi indie Fat Possum, the answer is: diversify. Although the Black Keys are two white kids from Akron, Ohio, their rot-gut rhythm an’ blues is good enough to render any musical judge colorblind…
Today’s mash-up craze — grafting the a capella version of one popular tune to the well-known instrumental backing of another — finds a “band” like Columbus, Ohio’s Evolution Control Committee upping the ante beyond anything that London’s Freelance Hellraiser claims to have introduced to the dance floors last year. Simply…
For much of the ’90s, Germany’s left-field techno scene projected a gray face to electronica’s global audience, as po-faced Berlin outfits like Basic Channel and Pole mercifully contrasted the Clinton era’s raging humanism with a shadowy brand of pulsing, minimalist dub-techno. Though the sound would eventually become influential, it often…
Since genre godfather Fela Kuti’s death in 1997, a void has opened in Afrobeat that’s been only partially filled by New York City’s Antibalas. The 17-strong Najite Olokun Prophecy further eases the pain caused by Kuti’s departure with vigorous orchestral firepower. Nigerian master drummer Najite Agindotan studied under Kuti and…
For 40 bucks, you can buy a device that emits some of the most irritating and beautiful sounds imaginable, a device that not only presents an international kaleidoscope of opinion but also receives secret spy transmissions. Best of all, every time you turn it on, the thing behaves differently, depending…
Unless you’ve a habit of reading the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s obituaries, the news of George Montague Holton III’s untimely passing may not have made it your way. Indeed, Bandwidth may not have found out if not for Hollywood musical prankster Steve “Mr. Entertainment” Toth, who sent in the notice about the…
Three of Brazil’s brightest rising stars have joined forces to create an extraordinarily beautiful, alluring blend of soul, trip-hop, and bossa nova, a sure sign of the continued creative vitality of their native land. Vocalist Marisa Monte, samba-funk pioneer Carlinhos Brown, and pop trickster Arnaldo Antunes are leaders of the…
Inside their sweltering rehearsal space, the Marauders are waiting for the air conditioner to suck the humidity from this Fort Lauderdale night and spit the air back inside, all frosty and cold. Dr. John, Shamus, and Rich steel their collective composure and head away from the a.c.’s reach, back into…
