Forget the Foo Fighters — the true champ when it comes to blending melody and mayhem is a tumultuous trio known as Dinosaur Jr. These art-rock heroes were making heads bop and torsos flail back when Dave Grohl was still taking his cues from Kurt Cobain. The group’s bassist, Lou…
The new CD by Phoenix-based industrial metal band the Iris sounds like a sonic blueprint for a band that’s finding its sound and getting hotter by the minute. But the blueprint isn’t new — Marilyn Manson, Deftones, and a dozen other bands drew it. What’s great about The Vanity Fair…
Dyslexic Postcards are a little bit roots punk, a little bit Pink Floyd, and a lotta Spacemen 3. But mostly the quintet is way overdue to release a CD, so catch ’em at Churchills while it’s cheap. “Right now we have nothing for sale but our asses,” says guitarist/singer Joshua…
With machines replacing instruments and songs manufactured on an assembly line, it’s hard to find the soul in music nowadays. But there was a time when bands boomed with rich brass, and singers gained notoriety for their talent without having to compete on a TV show first. This era, known…
In what’s been a Sunday tradition since February, Fourth Dimension once again offer the Jazid crowd a unique blend of reggae, dancehall, dub, and ska. The show is presented by Kulcha Shok Muzik, one of Miami’s better-known record labels. A four-piece outfit seemingly tailor-made for Jazid, Fourth Dimension offers a…
We all know that when people think Chevy, the musical genre that leaps to mind is hardcore rap? Yes, it seems our favorite macho auto company is undergoing what the pros call a little brand alteration. Gone is the down-home, redneck appeal. These days, it’s all about keeping it rizzle…
Jimena Fama, the elegant frontwoman for the electronic fusion band Tango Conspiracy, can call her ensemble of male musicians to task with a quick dart of her piercing brown eyes. But once in a while, the quiet intensity becomes too much. There was, for instance, the gig last summer at…
It felt like deja vu all over again when I first heard Band Marino. Weren’t these the alternative folk kiddies with the Nettwerk Records deal, who sound like Bread, and were doing soundtrack work for Deadwood? Well, no, as it turns out, that’s the Format, from Arizona. The whippersnappers in…
Back in early 2003 the Killers were just another name littered in the demo piles of A&R departments across the country. Few people in the music industry knew much about the Las Vegas-based rock group, or if it would amount to anything beyond a four-man band with a heap of…
A remastered reissue of an out-of-print underground hip-hop classic, Ruff Draft is the late, great J Dilla at his creative apex. It took him a week to turn the whole thing out, but that was more than enough time to unleash a maelstrom of lo-fi breakbeat jams that paid tribute…
After a six-year recording hiatus, Redman returns to the mike with the engaging and stimulating, yet not particularly memorable, release Red Gone Wild. Languishing for more than a year on the proverbial Def Jam shelf, this album is plagued by the same poor promotion that delayed other recent label releases…
Sharon Stone makes another movie, bands of the 1978-1982 epoch reunite, technology advances, trans fats are banned — yet the Fall perseveres, with Mark E. Smith the sole remaining founding member. Tart-tongued leader Smith still rants like he’s got the world’s number, though portions of Reformation find phone-it-in weariness creeping…
Warning: This will hurt, but kindly access your memory banks and retrieve two commercials: “Seagram’s golden wine coooolers/They’re wet and they’re dry/My my my” and that heinous Chili’s bit — not the faux doo-wop tune but the smoky blues number — “Chili’s … baby back riiiiiiibs …” Got ’em? Good…
Be prepared for your teenybopper to hit up the family rainy-day fund: Chayanne’s coming to town, and hormone hell follows with him. The 38-year-old Latin heartthrob, born Elmer Figueroa-Arce, entered showbiz at age eleven when he joined the Puerto Rican boy band Los Chicos. The group set its sights on…
At age 63, Joe Chambers ranks as one of the most notable drummers and percussionists of his generation, and a staple of the venerable (and once-independent) Blue Note label. Not only have his highly imaginative compositions been covered by the likes of Freddie Hubbard and Bobby Hutcherson (with whom he’s…
The booming rhythms of drum ‘n’ bass are not meant to be just heard — they’re meant to be felt as well. The vibrations sent forth from mega amps invariably inspire dancing, and Photek’s music is no exception, despite its classification as “intelligent” drum and bass. Since the early Nineties…
To say that Mr. Tyner “tickles the ivories” would be akin to suggesting that his old bandmate John Coltrane “toodles the horn a bit.” Not just a massive understatement, in other words, but an outright mischaracterization. In fact, Tyner pounds the keys with a savage precision, particularly with his explosive…
The hard-rocking members of Torche have been back in South Florida for two weeks or so, and they’ve been filling their time with decidedly softer pursuits. Guitarist Juan Montoya spent a recent weekend morning helping out at a garage sale. Frontman Steve Brooks took a day trip to Busch Gardens…
Long before the birth of modern boytoy crooners, long before Justin would volunteer to bring sexy back, long before sexy would need bringing back, women by the scores (pun intended) excitedly tossed bras and panties at a stage occupied by a curly-haired hunk of singing beef named Tom Jones. Possessed…
The least known and perhaps most talented son of Bob Marley is finally stepping into the limelight. Though Stephen Marley is usually working behind the scenes on his family members’ projects, his long-awaited solo effort, Mind Control, lives up to its musical lineage with eleven tracks of pure roots-rock-reggae. Marley…
Ozomatli’s latest effort, Don’t Mess with the Dragon, is a fusion of Spanish rock, hip-hop, reggaeton, and funk, the perfect crossover release. The nine-man Ozomatli has put together a dozen tunes for the group’s fourth full-length CD, most of them happy dance tracks. The opening song, “Can’t Stop,” is polished…
There’s something rather, uh, funky about neo-Eastern European music. Not funky in a Clyde Stubberfield backing up James Brown kind of way, but then again, when you combine a Slavic blend of accordion, tuba, darabouka, and clarinet with the trombone, it’s hard not to smell the funk in the air…
