British bird watcher Alison Goldfrapp digs spaghetti Western soundtracks and can sing and whistle to beat the band. Having provided vocals for both Tricky (Maxinquaye) and Orbital (Snivilisation), she expands Bristol’s artsy acid-jazz scene with a remarkable debut — one that waxes nostalgic for sultry torch songs (think Eartha Kitt…
Used to be, if you wanted to make a record, you had to get out of the house, even if it was only to go to the garage. Technology has rendered even that locomotion optional, as DATs, drum machines, sequencers, and samplers allow just about anyone — agoraphobics included –…
You know, evolution is a funny thing. The vagaries of climate and isolation at the tip of our peninsula have given us such quirky critters as the manatee, the roseate spoonbill, and the sensitive singer-songwriter who happens to be revered by a sect of teenage punk rockers. Yes, I’m talking…
Various Artists Calypso Awakening (Smithsonian Folkways) In his notes to Trinidad Carnival Roots, musicologist J.D. Elder calls calypso “undoubtedly the national song of Trinidad and Tobago.” Today that “national song” has all but gone the way of its 19th-century predecessor, kalenda. A collection of 1962 field recordings by Alan Lomax,…
Somewhere in the Midwest, in the mid-’80s, in the middle of what rock critics will later call their heyday, the Meat Puppets are preaching to the converted. In the concrete and red-tile bar student union that often hosts the worst kind of campus cover bands, the best band the place…
When Fort Lauderdale banished the under-21 posse from live-music venues within the posh city’s limits, the kids cried foul. After all, they charged, who wants to carve out an emo-punk scene in Pembroke Pines, Sunrise, or Davie? But persevere they have, in exactly the noxious, nefarious suburban squalor they claim…
Cypress Hill has very little left to prove in the genre it helped to shape and revolutionize over the last decade. Among its peers Cypress Hill has seen an amazing amount of success, with all seven of its albums certified gold or better, an incredibly consistent track record considering the…
You did not grow up in the world over which the Backstreet Boys presently reign: Your treacly pop songs didn’t feature cell phones with batteries cutting out, for example, and your teen idols usually included only one “thanks to the fans” number on their albums, not three. One-hit wonders were…
The older Frank Black gets, the less he sounds like himself, which probably happens to everybody at some point. But ever since Pudge let his monkey go to heaven, he flat out refuses to scream at traffic anymore — or at the powers that be. He’s like a tired, prospectin’…
It hardly sounds like a compliment, calling someone a “croaky ’70s pop singer,” a “gravelly voiced flash-in-the-pan,” or an “excavated folkie,” but Melanie doesn’t let it bother her. Since the 53-year-old has virtually dropped out of sight after hits like “Brand New Key,” “Look What They’ve Done to My Song,…
Whereas such Latin singing sensations as Selena and Ricky Martin built their followings by singing in Spanish and then crossed over to English-speaking markets, Christina Aguilera made her mark as an all-American pop princess before attempting to conquer the hemisphere. She’s playing concerts in Mexico, Chile, and Brazil in support…
Whatever your opinion of Moonshine Records and its amazing tendency to fill store racks with an endless procession of Keoki remixes and comps inevitably featuring Cirrus, the label has definitely helped to bring electronic music to America’s attention. Over the past few years, Moonshine has also provided a massive boost…
Somewhere in the landscape of modern blues, between the country fields of Corey Harris and the smoky nightclubs of Robert Cray, lie the commercially polished soul-blues of Keb’ Mo’. On this, his fourth release since emerging as a solo artist, the man born Kevin Moore continues to stake out a…
At Bandwidth’s advanced age, recalling each and every New Year’s Eve celebration or determining how a particular year stacked up in the grand scheme of things isn’t always easy. That’s why I have plotted a graph of my New Year’s Eve celebrations, looking for spikes in the data, when I…
So let’s say the missing piece to your perfect record collection is the essential Ska Boo-Da-Ba by the Skatalites, an original Top Deck issue. Or let’s say your triple-LP Grounation, by Count Ossie and his Mystic Revealers of Rastafari, met its end in that unfortunate bong incident. Or maybe the…
A lot of local CDs crossed the Bandwidth desk this year. I’d like to say I listened to each one promptly. But with all the modern gadgetry at our disposal on the cusp of the year 2001 — monorails, underwater cities, robotic underwear — it’s easy to get distracted. Some…
Coming from the mouth of Zack de la Rocha, even a song as sardonically sly as Devo’s “Beautiful World” sounds like a subversive call to arms. The smirking irony of Devo’s robotic homage to domestic tranquility becomes, in the hands of de la Rocha and his Rage Against the Machine…
Tagging Erykah Badu as retro R&B or neosoul is to pigeonhole her and damn her with faint praise simultaneously and unfairly. Although Badu faithfully references any number of like-minded brothers and sisters from the vaunted heyday of ’70s soul, she remains firmly rooted in the now, as contemporary as any…
Oranger is three guys playing guitars and whatnot, singing songs that sound like the Beatles’ about girls who sound like fun. Like Denver’s Apples in Stereo (who sing about drugs that sound like fun) or Canada’s Sloan (who sing about being in bands that sound like fun), Oranger doesn’t churn…
Compiling the year-end best-of list is an old rock-crit trick to avoid doing real work. There are so many cookies yet to be baked, and there’s maintenance needed on the nativity scene (we’re replacing the miniature sod roof this year and doing a little touchup work on Joseph), so cranking…
Even though they’ve lost a step or two, the members of the Wu-Tang Clan still generate a dangerous vibe on their third group effort. But considering that they once revolutionized hip-hop’s raw, hardcore sound, the lack of innovation on The W leaves their future uncertain. Hopes were high when the…
Solo albums are supposed to be like extramarital affairs, giving artists the right to enjoy complete freedom and perhaps to try a few things they wouldn’t normally do with their regular mates. Apparently Rush frontman Geddy Lee wasn’t really aware of these options — or chose not to take them…
