With all sorts of Eighties-birthed strains floating through the pop underground, it was only a matter of time before white noise, that misbegotten homage to the Velvet Underground propagated by the Jesus and Mary Chain, reappeared as an avant-garde tactic. Thank Dan “Manitoba” Snaith for hastening its return in the…
The Winter Music Conference spanned seven days, more than 200 “official” and “unofficial” parties, and several thousand people. By its end most of them had “hit a wall,” the inevitable result of drinking, drugging, and partying for a week with little or no sleep. But there were a handful of…
Winter Music Conference week went mostly by the numbers. Most of the same labels showcased the same artists at the same parties as last year and the year before. The hotel gigs were predominantly filled with fat-free cheese as background music for sunbathing playboys, models, and strung-out club kids. It…
In 1989 Ani DiFranco released her self-titled debut album. Her photo showed a shaved head with brows and eyes arched like question marks on a young face, seeking an answer to youth’s eternal question: Who will I become? There was heat from the friction of taped fingers rubbing off their…
You won’t confuse Indonesian songstress Idjah Hadidjah with Alicia Keys, Dolly Parton, Brenda Lee, or any other American singer. The verse-chorus structure of her album is familiar enough, and so is the pop atmosphere, even if the mood is more austere than what we’re used to. But Hadidjah’s husky alto…
Over the past decade, Mystikal has had a surprisingly long and fruitful career for a rapper best known for maniacally catchy novelty hits like “Shake Ya Ass” and “Danger.” Part of the appeal, of course, lies in his distinctive voice, a wild and loud bark that sounds like someone yelling…
Ever since Björk and Beth Orton made it safe for female singer-songwriters to explore electronica, an aural land-grab of sorts has now ensued as different acts stake their own piece of emotional territory. Australian native Tania May-Bowers finds herself standing in the shady DMZ between the indie-rock and electronic communities…
Wayne Wonder is a ladies’ man who’s down with the thugs, equally at home crooning solo love songs over dancehall beats or lacing rude-boy anthems with buttery choruses. His panty-wetting tenor is never nasal and is refreshingly free of the breaks and yelps that other heartthrobs use as shorthand for…
The Iguanas, purveyors of an irresistible blend of roots rock, Crescent City R&B, swamp pop, and Tex-Mex, define themselves by a certain sexy and genuine New Orleans swing. By that we’re not talking four-on-the-floor walking and hi-hat sizzle. The band instead offers ample supplies of grease, grit, dance-floor grace, and,…
It’s been over a year since Dieselboy (a.k.a. Damian Higgins) dropped Project Human on the drum and bass world, eliciting praise and accolades from even the most hardened U.K. purists. Dubbed America’s best jungle DJ by fans and critics alike, Dieselboy has avoided any dropoff in interest with constant touring…
So many parties, so little time. This year WMC is offering up more than 150 club nights, pool parties, in-store events, boat parties, and other shindigs guaranteed to empty your wallet. With so much to choose from, it’s easy to miss out on the sights that make Miami such a…
Today Assassin is swiftly ascending the ranks of dancehall dons, exhibiting a remarkable intelligence, maturity, and creativity that rivals his DJ peers. But when he first tried to enter Jamaica’s competitive musical fraternity, he had no idea if he was capable of making it. Like most Jamaicans, Jeffrey Campbell had…
Three years ago, amid the sweltering heat, omnipresent 4/4 beats, and crowds rushing from nightclub to nightclub during that year’s Winter Music Conference, Mr. C found true love. “I said to her the night after we met, ‘Why don’t you meet me on the beach,'” he remembered. “She came down…
The long arm of the law has never much cared for raves, so it’s no surprise that Electric Skychurch founder James Lumb was turned down recently for jury duty. “I didn’t have to go much further than say, ‘I’m a rave musician,’ before they said ‘You’re out of here,'” tells…
For a few years now, a handful of musicians have been trying to translate DNA codes as directly as possible into electronic music. Letting biology itself sing is an interesting enough concept, but the results so far have been a little placid. On his third album, Chopped Zombie Fungus, Otto…
Wild creatures are often fueled by force of habit, and the same applies to the Paper Lions, a recent merger from two other punk bands (Some Soviet Station and At the Price of the Union). So it’s no surprise that this Atlanta quartet sticks to the form on its debut,…
Mix a precocious talent with a rebel’s mentality and you get Clean, Cosmo Vitelli’s (a.k.a. Benjamin Boguet) deep trip into electronic shadings that produce a strangely alluring mix of hip beats, insightful lyrics, and fine oddities. Beginning with a piano tinkle and the artificial sound of a cat’s meow, Vitelli…
I remember those old “Are You Bourgie?” posters making the rounds at college campuses back in the Eighties (one criteria: “Do you have curls inside of curls inside of naps?”). “Bourgie,” which was shorthand for bourgeois — referring to those who straddle the top end of the blue-collar social scale…
“If anyone can come up with a name…,” struggles Turbonegro bassist/mastermind Happy Tom, attempting — via cell phone from an Oslo taxicab, no less — to hang a handle on the Norwegian death-punk band’s upcoming excursion to the U.S. Bible belt. Perhaps he’s trying to top last summer’s “Res-Erection” festival…
Over the past several years Los Angeles’s Chris Manak, better known as Peanut Butter Wolf, has established himself as one of the most intriguing personalities in hip-hop, one known for his impeccable taste in classic funk, rock, and rap breaks. Though he began his career in the mid-Nineties as a…
For British house music duo Freaks (Luke Solomon and Justin Harris), there’s something wrong if you’re on the dance floor and do not have a smile on your face. Not one of those ironic smiles that says, “Aren’t we trendy and retro?” They’re looking for one of those unconscious wide…
House music’s throbbing beats, feel-good vibe, and bare midriffs are never going to be mistaken for Rachmaninoff. But the genre’s bad rep can actually be attributed to DJs and producers who pander to the lowest common denominator with a steady stream of 4/4 beats and whooshy atmospherics instead of pushing…
