Music

If you haven’t already gotten onboard with Roots Manuva, the original savior of U.K. hip-hop, now’s your best chance. Predating the Streets, Dizzee, and Merry Ol’s latest export, the foul-mouthed firecracker known as Lady Sovereign, Roots has been on a steady roll since last year’s Awfully Deep. That album, his…

On its debut disc, Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count, California’s From First to Last combined screamo energy with electronic noise, spazzy art-funk, and occasional lapses into acoustic balladry. The result was one of the few albums of post-hardcore shrieking still worth returning to three years later…

In the past, New Orleans’ Terius Gray, who’s over 30 but still Juvenile, has cared more about coochie than about current events. “Back That Azz Up” doesn’t exactly qualify as a political statement. It’s little wonder, then, that “Get Ya Hustle On,” a Reality Check track about the Hurricane Katrina…

Ouch. Not sure how we got here, but somehow hip-hop has arrived at the point where it’s not only unpopular to be a thinking fan or MC, it’s plain uncool. If you ain’t trappin’ with Jeezy or snappin’ with D4L — if you actually have something, dear God, thematic and…

A week after the techno-glitterati shot its wad at Miami’s Winter Music Conference and returned to its incubators of slick in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Chicago, Fort Lauderdale hosted a sort-of multimedia bacchanal of its own. It wasn’t at the beach or in the swanky pastel confines of a $400-a-night art…

“When people meet us, they think we’re gonna be shootin’ LSD into our eyeballs,” Ween guitarist Mickey Melchiondo says. “Or that we’re a lot crazier than we actually are. I’m actually a fuckin’ sports junkie. And I love military history. That’s pretty much exclusively what I read.” As eager to…

Gathered around the low, round hotel table, four booze-broken musicians out of Orange County, California, lean forward with goofy but tired smiles and introduce themselves to the tape recorder that stands before them. “Hi, my name is Robb.” “Hi, my name is Patrick.” “Hi, my name is Justin.” The fourth,…

It’s often difficult to critically analyze a much-beloved artist, because the reviewer’s tendency is to excuse irksome traits or loathsome sonic detours simply because of past greatness. And so while it’s tempting to give Morrissey a free pass for hauling in a children’s choir for several songs on his eighth…

Before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O strutted, spit, and cooed her way to indie-rock icon status, the last dynamic female to front a rock band was arguably Courtney Love. The grunge widow propelled Hole to stardom in the 1990s with her inimitable martyr poses and baby-doll fashion on the…

You don’t really notice it until it’s pointed out, but Hialeah’s treeless streets do make for a rather bleak environment. The famed “City of Progress” has recently become a cradle of rock ‘n’ roll for South Florida amid the bump ‘n’ grind of hip-hop and reggaeton. Bands like Humbert and…

If recent breakouts by Mylo and Vitalic have proven that there’s still life left in house music and upbeat electronica (and they have), Idol Tryouts proves that there’s also life beyond it. This double-disc set, compiled by the soothsayers at the edgy Ann Arbor label Ghostly International, is split into…

Quick, name your favorite Irish DJ. Come on, we’re waiting. OK, maybe you see our point. Even though it supports a flourishing underground scene, the Emerald Isle isn’t known stateside as a dance music hot spot. Which is why we’re just as surprised as you that this year’s New Times…

Schematic Records. On seeing that name, any rational consumer would infer a record label with a distinct plan, a blueprint. And why not, seeing how much regimentation most electronic music has exhibited over the past 30 years? Most, that is, except Miami-based Schematic Records — celebrating its tenth anniversary during…