As the host of MTV’s entertaining Pimp My Ride, Xzibit’s stock has risen as a celebrity, even as it recedes as a rapper. His latest album, Weapons of Mass Destruction, isn’t generating much of a buzz, probably because many of its tracks are perfunctory, addressing hand-me-down themes like “Ride or…
On her latest disc, Gangsta Blues, Tanya Stephens replaces the male-bashing and stereotypically X-rated dancehall persona that characterized her previous albums with skilled storytelling peppered with some raw language. She nimbly details the uncertainty of relationships on the tender “It’s a Pity” and the hilarious “Tek Him Back,” while her…
A twenty-song concept album about one soldier’s mind-shift from patriotic devotion to disillusionment, New Roman Times would be an ambitious undertaking for any band, let alone one that hasn’t recorded together since the late Eighties. Mirroring America’s new imperialism, Camper Van Beethoven offers a rambling song cycle revolving around fascists,…
As creator of the Silos, Walter Salas-Humara has played with guitar in hand for nearly twenty years and in that time has recorded an impressive discography. Back in the Eighties, The Silos’ sound matched the tones of Americana acts such as Los Lobos, X, and R.E.M., helping to define the…
Mighty Mos Def sure has changed. Six years ago, he was the ultimate backpacker, dropping classic hit singles like “Universal Magnetic”; today, he’s acting in movies and making scat rap tracks like “Sex, Love, and Money.” His latest album, The New Danger, has divided fans; some charitably call it a…
Though Art Basel is over, there’s always an in-store party going on somewhere around town. This Saturday brings a launch party for Bedroom Rockers, a limited edition book and CD featuring photographs of the world’s bedroom DJs by Christopher Woodcock. It’s happening all afternoon, so feel free to stop by…
Big Brooklyn Red specializes in freestyling. No, not the kind of freestyling where some rapper matches syllables for hours on end. Red just sings, playing and twisting the chorus from Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” for example, until he’s fueling a freeform jam session all on his own. His style…
What is Popvert? It’s Jose “Pepvert” Tillan, the Latin music industry player responsible for mentoring Nil Lara and coordinating MTV Latin America’s Unplugged series; Volumen Cero guitarist Marthin Chan; and former Rocking Horse Winner vocalist Jolie Lindholm. Popvert is not a new band, though, but a onetime collaboration between the…
Past the traffic jams on 836 West with cars blaring bachata music, and beyond the hysteria of crowded strip malls with plastic signs advertising everything from Pizza Hut and Office Depot to Cuba-bound courier services and Don Pan arepas, three members of Locos Por Juana (or, as they call themselves,…
Every month, it seems, there is a new reason for people to go out and party themselves into a tizzy. This past week, it was Art Basel, the annual international art exhibition that, naturally, engenders dozens of parties, gallery exhibits, and performances throughout South Beach and downtown Miami. Noticeably absent…
Someday it will happen. Hell will freeze over. Pigs will fly. Every star and planet in the universe will align in perfect harmony, and the original Guns N’ Roses lineup will reunite for an album and a tour. Don’t hold your breath just yet, but it’s bound to occur eventually…
One of the most improbable developments in underground dance music this year has been the continuing relevance of the broken-beat genre. Hastily named to commemorate the lethal dance beats European producers have made by plundering, chopping, and flipping Afro-Cuban polyrhythms, its standard bearers have issued several great singles (Jazzanova’s “renumber”…
The Fiery Furnaces seem to have written a rock opera in 2004, and, oddly enough, it’s a barnburner — a rich 76-minute excursion that employs piano, tasty guitar licks, fuzz-synthesizers, odd beats coupled with manic drums, sleigh bells and the singsong vocals of brother-sister duo Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger, who…
Adam Green was half of the Moldy Peaches, an anti-folk duo (Kimya Dawson was his female counterpart) known for its singsong melodies and scatological humor. Now, as a solo artist, Green has taken a quantum leap with Friends of Mine. Its lush melodies are instantly memorable and supported by a…
Ken Stringfellow, one-half of power-pop duo The Posies and sometime stringer for R.E.M. and Big Star, steps out with his sophomore solo set, the aptly titled Soft Commands. Sensual and sublime, the songs are dominated by mellow, doe-eyed reflection and wistful sentimentality. There’s the shimmering, seductive “Known Diamond,” more a…
On her self-titled Grammy-winning debut, Brazilian Maria Rita shows that she is more than the daughter of the late Elis Regina. She has a talent and style of her own, which she proves through strong renditions of the bluesy “Não Vale a Pena” (“It’s Not Worth It”) and Milton Nascimento’s…
Domenico+2 works in vast, imaginary spaces, where its experimental bossa nova and jazzy tendencies can effortlessly meld with present-time electronic instruments into a sound that marks the group as part of Brazil’s talented new generation. If you are still waiting for Moreno Veloso’s followup (as Moreno+2) to the excellent Typewriter…
The cumbia is a frenetic Colombian beat that’s part cha cha cha and part ska. A slower, more laid-back form (usually performed with acoustic instruments — accordion, percussion, bajo sexto — that give it a less electric, more folkloric feel) is also massively popular in northern Mexico and Latin communities…
Asheville, North Carolina singer/songwriter Christine Kane has enjoyed some sweet success below the major label radar. For ten years she has left her thumbprint on the folk community, earning admirers that range from North Carolina Girl Scouts to country star Rosanne Cash. On her fifth release, Right Outta Nowhere, her…
Roger Sanchez will always hold a place in Miami’s heart for making the first two editions of the Dancestar Awards tolerable with his quick and hilarious punchlines. But he’s also a pretty good DJ, having just won an award for DJ of the Year at the inaugural House Music Awards…
Why should any self-respecting hip-hop fan go out on a school/work night? How about a chance to see Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Kool G. Rap, J.T. Money, and MC Lyte, among other scheduled (but by no means guaranteed) guest appearances by rap legends? This…
What’s with the name “Art” and jazz musicians? There’s Art Pepper, Art Farmer, Art Tatum, and Art Blakey. Then there’s Miami’s own Arturo Sandoval. A tenured FIU professor who is fluent in jazz, Latin, classical, and popular music styles, the virtuoso trumpeter is a national treasure who has earned four…
