Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Seal Since Seal had his couple of big stateside hits in the Nineties (the seemingly immortal “Kissed By a Rose” being the most recognizeable), lately he seems to have been relegated to the role of Mr. Heidi Klum. So who goes to a Seal concert in…
When you think of dancehall music, it’s safe to assume that the island of Bermuda isn’t the first locale that leaps to mind. In fact, though Bermuda is often mistaken as a Caribbean island, its closest neighbor is actually North Carolina. Other Bermuda oddities include the Bermuda Triangle, Bermuda shorts,…
Life has provided percussionist Lazaro Alfonso with plenty of highlights, from playing the congas at Havana’s world-renowned club Tropicana, to sharing a stage with keyboardist Page McConnell, of the popular jam band Phish. These days Alfonso is best known as the nimble, dreadlocked conguero for the electro-funk troupe the Spam…
Things have never been easy for platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated, neo-soul crooner Anthony Hamilton. Before briefly touching superstardom with his 2003 So So Def hit Comin’ from Where I’m From, Hamilton bounced from short-lived label to short-lived label. Hamilton, who honed his gritty chops singing in his Charlotte, North Carolina, church choir,…
With the term “jam band” incorporating everything from blues to bluegrass these days, it’s an overused handle that barely describes all the disparate bands lumped within its parameters. Still, Assembly of Dust has found its fit there, mostly due to its freewheeling dexterity, a sense of retro revival, and a…
Sax player Ori Kaplan, keyboard player Tamir Muskrat, and MC Tomer Yosef, the madmen behind Balkan Beat Box, are spearheading the latest underground music trend — Eastern European mashup. Like their New York compatriots in Gogol Bordello, the trio takes the fractured rhythms of the Eastern Bloc and drops in…
There’s been something simultaneously low-rent and high-minded about the progressive funk that Aja West and his Mackrosoft co-conspirators have been churning out since the late Nineties. Total Recall 2012 nails that dichotomy beautifully. The retro-futuristic vibes evoke the loose-limbed weirdness that can come only from a skilled musician set loose…
Let’s face it, none but the hottest Canadian/Portugese MILF could get away with lyrics like “It’s okay, we could do it in the dark/If you got a candle let’s light a spark.” Despite Nelly Furtado’s inherent MILFness, it was a stretch for diehard fans to embrace her latest LP, Loose,…
The members of the successful, tour-happy New Orleans group the Dirty Dozen Brass Band could have long ago acknowledged the sousaphone’s presence in the band’s three-decade history, and, with a solemn nod, replaced the fifty-pound mega-tuba with the more practical electric bass guitar. They could have still called themselves a…
Seal visits Miami during the last leg of a U.S. tour on Thursday, and he arrives in the Magic City at a critical point in his career. He hasn’t released any new studio material since 2003, and since then his sum output has been — shudder — a best-of album…
He’s Dolemite writ large and in cartoon, a big mean black guy dressed like a pro wrestler from the Sixties; the self-professed inventor of the Miami sound, writer of tracks for Betty Wright and KC and the Sunshine Band, and he’s in my face. And yours. Ladies and gentlemen, I…
Back in 2001, Ricky Martin was invited to perform at the Presidential inaugural for President George W. Bush. On that cold and snowy eve, Martin sang his hit “The Cup of Life” in front of the Lincoln Memorial. To everyone’s surprise, the ultimate Latin party boy invited Dubya to join…
When Peter Gabriel coined the term ‘world music,’ he never meant for it to be put in a ghetto. It was supposed to be the world’s music for the world, without distinctions,” explains Richard Blair, the front man for the Colombia-based electronica band Sidestepper. Blair should know. He worked as…
The guys of Underoath love Jesus, make no bones about it, and want you to know that. But the St. Petersburg-based quintet isn’t about that hands-in-the-air, holier-than-thou proselytizing stuff. Theirs is a mission of integrity and respect. “Something we try to do is be a real band for kids that…
On Still Stuck in Your Throat, the band’s first album in six-too-many years, Fishbone once again presents us with its merry-go-round assortment of horn-driven ska, funk, punk, soul, metal, and reggae music all wrapped into the legendary band’s signature style. Although the energy jumps out of the speakers before the…
Most cover albums typically feature an established artist paying respect to some of his favorite musicians, and they’re lucky if they match the original material. But Version, the newest release from London-born, New York-bred DJ/producer-of-the-moment Mark Ronson, essentially smashes a group of remixes from homegrown English artists such as the…
Although standout actress Aishwaria Rai’s pretty face adorns the cover of the newly released Rough Guide to Bollywood Gold, the music presented here has little to do with the young crossover star of Bride and Prejudice. The tunes, however, are all representative of the golden era of Bollywood films —…
Guitarist James “Blood” Ulmer is a strange duck. Though he started out in jazz organ combos, Ulmer made his rep with avant-jazz icon Ornette Coleman in the latter’s ebullient “harmolodic” period. But in the mid-Eighties, Ulmer began upping the ubiquitous blues elements of his playing — and singing — until…
Since its modest beginnings, the Friday-night party Revolver has become a weathervane of the latest in underground/indie/whatever (all contentious terms) culture, name checked by bands like the Sounds and even Rolling Stone. The weekly party has fueled hedonistic drinking and dancing from its early days as a gathering for moddish…
Bebel Gilberto fans know better than to expect the sort of bossa nova plied by her father, Brazilian guitarist and singer João Gilberto. Although there is a clear bossa influence in her style, the younger Gilberto has gone beyond it, pushing the boundaries of Brazilian music to suit her own…
The Eighties were like a virgin, touched for the very first time (Madonna was everywhere). While some of us were sporting feathered hair, sleeveless zebra-print T-shirts, and tight leather pants, others were listening to Suicidal Tendencies and skateboarding through the mall. Whether your fancy was for cock rock, punk rock,…
The New York Times may have raved about the Spam Allstars to no end. S.O.B.’s (also in New York) may have become the band members’ second home. MTV might feature them with a page of their own, and the festival circuit might have latched on to their patented brand of…
