Some people dread reunions. It would be easy to assume that about Charles Thompson — the charismatic Pixies front man who shrieked and howled under the name Black Francis before launching a successful solo career as Frank Black, his current moniker — who is infamous for being a grouch. Interviewing…
It’s hard to imagine any modern band that has made as durable and dramatic an impact on the rock world as R.E.M. Over the course of a remarkably diverse and prolific career, there are few avenues they haven’t explored, seemingly without regard for outside expectations or commercial considerations. Few outfits…
Real Gone finds Tom Waits continuing his deconstruction of traditional song structure with an imposing series of ramshackle rumblings that nimbly skirt the divide between random noise and deliberately plotted soundscapes. Waits dabbles in several disparate styles — the sturdy R&B of “Make It Rain,” a Kurt Weill-like “Dead and…
Hot Snakes’s Audit in Process, the third and best LP issued by these lively rock lifers from Rocket from the Crypt and Drive Like Jehu, is possibly this year’s most beautifully coasting, satisfying hard rock effort to date. John Reis’s vocals come straight from the deep as always, as if…
Hope of the States’s new album, The Lost Riots, is part of a larger trend in rock towards social consciousness. With a name derived from an essay written by Albert Deutsch on schizophrenics, the British band’s debut reads like a love/hate letter to the United States. Songs with titles such…
It’s been a busy seven days for Grae. The songs give This Week a diary feel, illustrating conflicts, regrets, frustration, and loves lost. Grae’s flow streams out of her conscience, as if she’s having a revelatory dialogue with each listener. “P.S.” pours like gasoline dousing an old flame, and Grae’s…
Special Gunpowder is the first original recording from DJ /rupture, a producer who initially caused a stir with his 2001 mixtape, Minesweeper Suite. On that disc, he deftly blended everything from disco classics to hardcore techno and dub reggae tracks, earning widespread acclaim as one of the top DJs of…
The “clown” prince of the big beat, Fatboy Slim uses a gentler approach on his fourth, self-deprecatingly titled album, Palookaville. Although there are moments of goofball head-banging/fist-pumping madness (“Jingo,” “Slash Dot Dash”), the presence of guests such as Lateef, Blur’s Damon Albarn, Bootsy Collins, and fellow DJ-turned-crooner Justin Robertson make…
Brazil has spawned its fair share of great musicians, and Flora Purim and Airto Moreira are prime examples. The two have been married and living in the States since the late Sixties, collaborating regularly with renowned jazzmen such as Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke, and Stan Getz. Purim won…
What do you get when you mix elements of ska, punk, horror, and Elvis? The Independents. That’s right, the band that has kids everywhere saying, “Try it, Joey Ramone likes it” are back. The Independents have opened for everyone from Ronnie Spector to Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach, and now they…
Since the time of Woody Guthrie, artists have used music to protest the ugly side of American politics. Now, there’s Vote for Change, a tour benefiting left-wing political action committee MoveOn.org on which musicians from every genre will hit the battleground states and lobby voters to boot Bush out of…
Caetano Veloso has often been called the Bob Dylan of Brazil. But it’s just as accurate to say that Dylan is the Caetano Veloso of America. Both are founding fathers of modern pop music, deified as icons in their respective countries. Each has written poetry, worked in film, and is…
Hurricane Jeanne’s torrential rains have devastated the northern Haitian port city of Gonaives, where resulting mudslides have claimed more than 1600 lives. Another 1200 people are missing. In an effort to obtain desperately needed food, water, funds, and medical supplies, Noel and Cecibon Productions, alongside C.A.M., have organized Hurricane Relief…
2004 continues to be an exhilarating year for local music. The Number 3 Pencils’s first EP, Delicate Subjects, is the newest entry to this growing list. This six-song, twenty-minute assault of mellifluent pop gems opens with a wall of sound crash and closes with a cappella harmonics. Driven by Beatles-minded…
In her native South Africa, 29-year-old folk-rock singer Karma-Ann Swanepoel was a smashing success. At the age of 21, she soared to the top of her country’s charts with her band Henry Ate, winning numerous awards, giving concerts to crowds of 45,000, and touring with other South African pop stars…
It’s a humid September night at Dick Whiskey and Adam Cheef’s house, a two-story, three-bedroom rental in a Kendall townhouse complex. The two members of Miami’s newest/rawest rock and roll trio live here with another roommate who currently has some friends over, filling the living room to capacity. “I told…
Why is the Alley still open? Just this past August 27, the Allapattah all-ages nightclub posted a desperate Website message announcing it was closing its doors. “The Alley has officially been closed until further notice,” the message read. “We are trying to raise money so we can reopen but we…
Midnight Movies aren’t your stereotypical rock act. They don’t bang out tortured, obsessive love songs about past paramours and current flames. And, although they’ll be hitting Miami this weekend for a Swing the State concert with neo-New Wave band Metric, they aren’t exactly agit-popsters eager to demonstrate a tenuous grasp…
When it comes to musical exports, Colombia takes the whole bakery. Carlos Vives. Sofia Vergara. Shakira. Gabriel García Marquez. But right now, none is as relevant as Juan Esteban Aristizabal, who delivers Mi Sangre (My Blood), arguably his finest work to date. While 2002’s Un Dia Normal conquered the hearts…
Talib Kweli often serves as a lightning rod for critics disenchanted by the unfulfilled promise of the late-Nineties indie hip-hop movement. Much of The Beautiful Struggle probably won’t satisfy them, thanks to fluffy cuts such as “Around My Way,” where guest John Legend sings over a smooth jazz interpolation of…
On the heels of Tijuana’s Julieta Venegas alt-pop smash hit and Latin Grammy winner Sí comes yet another Mexican norteña that should make as much noise. Monterrey-born Ely Guerra’s fourth album is truthful to its name. It has a strong pop element during the “sweet and sour” segment (the first…
Rejoicing In The Hands, vagabond twentysomething troubadour Devendra Banhart’s unimposing debut, proved an unlikely success, propelling the itinerant folkie into the pages of the New York Times and onto the airwaves of NPR. Its follow-up, Nino Rojo, is billed as a companion piece of sorts, sixteen tracks recorded during the…
