Torche has been cutting mighty swaths with its down-tuned scythe for some time now; its full-length debut on Robotic Empire Records last year has garnered praise from both indie and major press camps. These veterans of the local scene are rumored to have most of a second album completed, and…
Ten years ago, in the unlikely town of Extremadura, in southern Spain near the border of Portugal, singer, songwriter, producer, and guitarist Fernando Echave, a.k.a. Gecko Turner, discovered Afro-beat master Fela Kuti. Gecko quickly absorbed and later applied that African sound to the bands he was involved with at the…
It has been nearly ten years since Coldcut issued its last album, Let Us Play. The wait was worth it. Eschewing the cut-and-paste turntable antics of the duo’s last album, Sound Mirrors pairs deep (if slightly glitchy) instrumentals over which a host of guests — from Ninja Tune stars like…
Allen Ginsberg is undoubtedly the greatest American poet of the latter part of the Twentieth Century. Bob Dylan’s innovative lyrics owed a huge debt to Ginsberg’s stream-of-consciousness approach to composition, and when the two met in the late Sixties, Dylan encouraged Ginsberg’s dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. The results are…
Arctic Monkeys, who have conquered the British charts with their debut singles and album, can be seen as the Stone Temple Pilots to Franz Ferdinand’s Pearl Jam. If Franz bandmates are icons of a new trend in British rock, the Monkeys reaffirm the success of that aesthetic while subtly removing…
Light years removed from her early harsh-whisper-to-raw-scream dynamic, this revered indie queen is all about Memphis-spawned, pure-as-honey pools like “The Moon.” It is a luminous lunar ode consisting of a single recycling full-bodied guitar motif, reverb-haloed and orbited by Marshall’s spectral, just-this-side-of-hoarse queries: “When they put me six feet underground/Will…
Parton’s iconic stature as an artist for all occasions, along with Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, reinforces this backwoods ramble’s affable impression. Yet despite Dolly’s knack for straddling both sides of the good-ol’-gal divide, her attempt to bind religious rebirth to transgender transfiguration still seems a stretch. Culled from the…
It doesn’t matter whom Pete Doherty is sleepily lashing out at here — former soul mate/fellow Libertine Carl Barat; on-again, off-again model squeeze Kate Moss; a rude skag dealer — fact is, he needs them more than anyone needs him or his perfectly named new band. As much an interminable…
Descemer Bueno, frontman for the Afro-Cuban fusion band Siete Rayo, says the art of making the apparently complex arrangements of cumbia, hip-hop, reggae, and other world beat sounds on his new self-titled album is surprisingly simple. And simplicity, he says, is the key to taking Latin fusion to new frontiers…
Many are quick to judge Kevin Federline. The word douchebag has been used more than once by the media to describe this singer/songwriter/some sort of dancer (or something). There are many other labels the media and the public have given Mr. Federline: for instance, “scumbag,” “loser,” “pile of garbage that…
The average resting heart rate of a human falls somewhere between 60 and 80 beats per minute. Triple that and you’ve got a bad case of sinus tachycardia, which at best means your heart is getting an intense workout, and at worst signals imminent failure. Neither is much fun, but…
Those who enjoy reading what Ego Miami magazine editor Jason “Fitzroy” Jeffers has to say will be psyched to hear what he has to sing. The Barbadian, who has worked as a journalist for the Miami Herald, the Miami SunPost, and the now-defunct Street Weekly, is beginning to explore his…
A name like Bombay Dub Orchestra whets the appetite with an expectation of exotic delights beyond compare — a hybrid of dub reggae, Bollywood pop madness, and electronica, a tsunami of global beats to wash away the humdrum riddims of a typical night out clubbing. BDO’s Andrew T. Mackay and…
The Netherlands’ Metropole Orkest, a jazz/pop/cabaret ensemble, recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. They’re famous for collaborations with visiting artists such as Stan Getz, Celine Dion, and now Elvis Costello. Recorded at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2004, with arrangements by Costello, the program revisits tunes old and new, and…
“Get set, now everybody rhyme,” announces Low Deep at the outset of “Get Set,” the jumpoff on Run the Road Vol. 2. “This is the new-age grime/Who’s gonna be next with sixteen lines?” Last year’s critically acclaimed edition introduced Lady Sovereign and Kano to American listeners. The new volume isn’t…
Singer/songwriter/ace guitarist Richard Thompson is nothing if not prolific. After almost 40 years and numerous albums both on his own and with the seminal English folk-rock ensemble Fairport Convention — plus countless anthologies, tributes and session appearances — he’s spawned a body of work that soars in dimension and ambition…
The Jim O’Rourke/Wilco supergroup’s sophomore shrug gets by on chummy, countrified twang decked with boughs of idle, Andy-‘n’-Opie-style whistling. What really sells “The Ruling Class” is Jeff Tweedy’s laconic, matter-of-fact account of the second resurrection of Jesus Christ: “Yeah, He’s back, Jack/Shootin’ smack/Find Him if you wanna get found.”…
The video shoves Tyson Ritter’s earnestness in your face, but on the radio, the catchy, swelling thunder of the band keeps you from having to think too much about what the guy’s actually saying (which seems to be “We will survive”) — one reason these emoids are really crossing over…
If your problem with “My Humps” is the lexicon, you might prefer this ode to bleep, which even features BEP’s will.i.am. It’s not even as musically effervescent as that infamous modern classic — I can’t imagine anybody being inspired to bleep — but bleep if America doesn’t seem to love…
How many amazing soul musicians are stuck performing in wedding bands, answering to the whims of brides and grooms who wouldn’t know Aretha Franklin if she showed up for the gig? A lot. Grieving the lost talent would take time and require that we pass through all the usual phases:…
It wasn’t anywhere I would’ve imagined myself before I moved to this city eight months ago, but around midnight on a recent Saturday I was partying at the former Versace mansion, now dubbed Casa Casuarina, on Ocean Drive. The occasion was the 50th birthday celebration of Boca Raton venture capitalist…
Getback frontman José Flores is an amiable, quick-witted guy. Awaiting the arrival of drummer Juan Rotulo, a freelance writer for a Spanish-language men’s magazine; and bassist Danny Palacios, an accountant getting the jump on tax season, he calmly sips a coffee. As Flores reminisces about his early days in the…
