When long-feuding Hüsker Dü vets Bob Mould and Grant Hart took to a Minneapolis stage together this past October to play two of their old band’s songs during a benefit concert, mouths began drooling at the prospect of the Hüskers joining the big reunion party already attended by numerous seminal…
Babyface knows a thing or two about catching flies with sugar. He almost single-handedly sweetened Nineties pop music with a string of hits that delighted audiences and angered critics. The then-derided, now-ignored, and consequently underrated super-songwriter/producer’s seventh album, Grown & Sexy, is a tasty, subtle rebuttal to pop culture’s youth…
As the title suggests, Early 21st Century Blues finds Cowboy Junkies reinterpreting some well-tapped covers as a haunting series of hushed, plaintive narratives and low-key laments that are mellow to the point of being morose. The Junkies strain little to place their signature sound on Springsteen’s brooding “Brothers Under the…
Former Stray Cats frontman and swing purveyor Brian Setzer is one of a handful of guitarists who’d dare attempt to put his own spin on the classic Sun Records catalogue, and perhaps the only who can actually reinterpret the raucous Memphis pre-rock without embarrassing himself. A rumbling doo-wop chorus and…
Tomiie’s house music resumé is impeccable. His record label of eighteen years, Def Mix, has been home to genre gods such as Frankie Knuckles and David Morales. But despite this pedigree, Es peters out about three-quarters of the way through. Fans of Danny Tenaglia’s dark DJ sets will go into…
Nortec, an abbreviation of norteño-techno, may sound like an oxymoron to some, but the five-man Tijuana-based Nortec Collective thrives on contradictions. They deconstruct norteño, ranchera, and banda sinaloense and add loops, samples, and globally minded club beats. The result is a bright, bouncy sound that’s miles away from the Tijuana…
On June 3, 1993, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were arrested for the ritual-like murders of three young boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. At the center of the prosecution’s case against the teens was an allegedly coerced confession from Misskelley (who is mentally handicapped) and a public gripped…
Roots punk party trio Dash Rip Rock personifies the Louisiana State University anthem “Let the Good Times Roll.” While “Let’s Go Smoke Some Pot” (a parody of the Fifties dance hit “At the Hop”) was a college radio hit, tracks like “DMZ,” “BFE,” and “Locked Inside a Liquor Store” have…
Arturo Sandoval is one of the most accomplished and versatile musicians in Miami. A Cuban-born trumpet player and former Dizzy Gillespie protégé, Sandoval has performed with artists as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Patti LaBelle, Gloria Estefan, and many others. His solos on Sinatra’s Duets II album still induce goose bumps…
How do four degenerate punksters from the dengue-infested swamps of South Florida sign with über-cool German indie Crazy Love Records? The old-fashioned way: hard work and a little luck. With individual influences steeped in jazz, metal, punk, and rockabilly, as well as a shared passion for broads and B flicks,…
“I once told someone that I’m so high up, the only way I can go is down. What I didn’t know is I’d have to climb three flights up to get to the basement,” Sir Lawrence the piano man laments. His one-liners sound as if they could be straight out…
As we duck the hurricanes, crank up the A/C, and flock to the beaches, it’s become perfectly clear that summer is upon us. And the two things that epitomize summer for Apollo Kid are those sugary summer hip-hop jams and a good book to read while lounging at the pool…
Faith Evans is nothing short of an urban icon. And it’s not because of the notes she can’t hit or the skimpy outfits she doesn’t wear. We love Faith because she’s tough, a survivor who has weathered battles that would’ve driven lesser women crazy (Mariah and L-Boogie, we’re looking in…
Listening to Missy Elliott’s albums has always been like entering a pop playground where beats stop, stutter, and then slink toward a fusion of world music, classic electro, and good old-fashioned boom-bap swagger. From the tabla beat science of her breakout single, 2001’s “Get Ur Freak On,” to the chocha-shavin’…
When they released their debut Melody A.M. three years ago, Norwegian duo Röyksopp held boundless promise as auteurs of the new millennium’s dance pop thanks to a knack for distant yet quirky house hooks; think a Nordic, mellowed-out Basement Jaxx. And the haunting purr of guest singer Erlend ÿye certainly…
With 10 arrangers working with a 22-piece classical group, Alarm Will Sound’s excellent reinterpretations of Aphex Twin’s catalogue make the original efforts sound small in comparison. Aphex Twin is the celebrated British electronic producer who habitually tears apart his computers only to later resurrect them as supermodified weapons of digital…
Known more for his coke-smoking exploits in Vice magazine than his robotic tenure in New Wave descendents Six Finger Satellite, The Juan MacLean walks a tenuous line between retro and futuristic on his debut full-length. The synthetic surfaces of “Shining Skinned Friend” shimmer like sweaty cyborg midriffs, while vocoder-rendered voices…
Jaguar Wright’s sophomore album, Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul, comes just as people were beginning to ask, “Whatever happened to that bad-ass chick from Jay-Z’s Unplugged?” Alas, Divorcing only glances at Jaguar’s potential. Sure, the addictive “My Place” is the perfect soundtrack for intimate back rubs. “All the drinks are…
A DJ is oftentimes judged on how well he can thread together seemingly disparate genres while stealthily hiding the seams. And by all accounts New York’s DJ Language is a genius with the needle. Language’s latest, Real Music for Real People, proffers a brilliant patchwork of hip-hop legends such as…
Son Volt’s recent A Retrospective: 1995-2000 is a must-have for altcountry partisans, but it “isn’t a tombstone,” according to the liner notes. We beg to differ. The first edition of Son Volt, led by ex-Uncle Tupelo member Jay Farrar, is now defunct. In fact Farrar is the sole survivor from…
Maestro, a feature documentary by Cuban-born Josell Ramos that attempts to chronicle the origin of dance music culture, forces the viewer to draw parallels between the past and the present. It does this not simply by comparing the golden spoons of disco’s coke days to the Vicks inhalers of the…
It’s not only the coarseness of their rabble that keeps power-pop’s jangling tunesmiths from ruling the world; they’re forever looking backward and are no better for it. Louisville’s Digby, however, has no unhealthy obsessions with genre pioneers such as Big Star or Squeeze. From beginning to end, the quintet’s twelve-track…
