In the increasing conceptual and spectacle-laden world of indie music, few bands are willing to simply succeed or fail solely on the strength of their songs. Sybris, a strangely average-looking quartet from Chicago, breaks from its contemporaries on its self-titled 2005 debut with a batch of songs drenched in Smashing…
Since its inception in the Nineties, Converge has been on a path frequently dotted with the telltale signs of your average American aggro-hardcore band: blood, sweat, broken instruments/ bones, and a rabid testosterone-fueled following. Taking cues from the finest punk, metal, and hardcore, Converge continues to produce solid albums and…
Go ahead — roll your eyes at Bono’s persistent messianic complex. But maybe the guy’s got good reason to think he’s bigger than Jesus. Don’t forget, Jesus has had 2000 years to firm up his reputation, while the U2 singer has only been alive since 1960. And — sorry, Pat…
The misunderstood phenomenon of XBXRX is best explained after a large glass of tequila and a handful of barbiturates. Imagine the creative noise manipulations of mid-Nineties anarchic noisemaster Flammable Child thawed by the artistic impulses of Melt Banana and finally tempered by the technological misuses of the Residents. XBXRX has…
On Carnaval Eletronico, Brazilian Daniela Mercury commissioned electronic DJs to retrofit classic compositions such as Gilberto Gil’s “Amor de Carnaval” with snappy, electro beams. The songs manage to balance sensuous rhythms with complex modern arrangements. “I have always been eclectic,” Mercury says. “Axé is still a genre in development, and…
Los Lonely Boys are a trio of brothers — Henry, Jojo, and Ringo Garza, Jr. — rocking out of the great state of Texas with a tornadolike twist of classic American rock (the Chuck Berry kind), conjunto, country and western, Tex-Mex, and classic Latin American rock (the Carlos Santana kind)…
Think about South Florida’s intimate relationship with Cuba and the Caribbean and the influence it has had on our indigenous music scene. The same sort of cross-cultural, stylistic leg-humping goes on in Southern California across the Mexican-American border, and there’s no better example than L.A.’s Ozomatli. The bilingual, genre-smashing, Latin-funk-rock-rap…
These days albums are anointed classics before they’re even released, and artists are deemed legends after partying with Paris Hilton. But jazz bassist Ron Carter has earned the moniker. The National Endowment for the Arts recently anointed Carter as a Jazz Master — a title intended to recognize “living legends”…
As hard as we may wish and pray for it to happen, Alicia Keys will probably never serve any of her acolytes a steaming cup of hot chocolate (made with cream, not water). It’s something we dream about every time we hear her cell phone conversation in her current chart-topper,…
Sometimes the heckler is right. Many moons ago, a young Millie Jackson wrecked some poor tuneless hackette’s act at the famed Harlem nightclub Small’s Paradise. The would-be diva dared Jackson to come onstage. Oops! After dusting off the object of her ridicule with her gorgeous, soaring alto, Jackson embarked on…
The first thing you notice about Lucinda Williams is her voice: raspy and brittle, yet supported by a husky tone that rubs against you. It is rough and comforting, a thin blanket that somehow manages to insulate you from a cold, heartless environment. Her songs, in contrast to her surroundings,…
In the fickle world of pop music, evolution is essential. That’s been the operative rule for Elvis Costello, an artist whose stylistic flip-flops have veered from rebellion to respectability. While punk was engulfing England in the late Seventies, Costello (a.k.a. Declan McManus) made his debut as a bitter, barb-tongued nebbish…
For many people the Nineties ska revival was an uptempo bubblegum pop hell where anything deeper than a birdbath was discarded and skanked on until it died. But while the third wave has crested and receded into oblivion, N.Y.C. rocksteady kings the Slackers are the last men standing. Unlike its…
If you’re among the culturally fortunate, then you’ve stumbled into a dive bar in Anywhere, U.S.A. in the last few years and heard: “We’re Supagroup from New Orleans, Louisiana, and we’re here to kick your ass.” Sure, you tried to act cool. But before you got the chance to snort…
Colette Marino emerged from Chicago in the late Nineties as one-fourth of the house collective Superjane. What distinguished her from partners Lady D, DJ Heather, and Dayhota wasn’t her strong DJ skills, but her penchant for spinning records and singing at the same time. This is far from a gimmick;…
While most South Bitch DJs are resolutely earthbound in their advocacy of the good thug life, Richard “Q-Bert” Quitevis is from planet Mars, a UFO with lightning-quick hands. Since emerging from the Bay Area’s potent hip-hop scene in the early Nineties, Q-Bert has evolved from a dominant hip-hop DJ with…
Back in the Sixties, at a time when the only male jazz singers on the scene seemed to be the swingers of Rat Pack notoriety and lounge lizard fame — Frankie and Sammy and Deano — Mark Murphy was keeping the true flame alive with his post-bop renditions of standards…
The late, great Shel Silverstein was celebrated for his children’s books (The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic), but he also created plenty of challenging work for adults, from his provocative and satirical illustrations for Playboy magazine to his cutting-edge songwriting for Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. The…
The first question that pops into mind when considering the inaugural Jam Cruise: Why book fifteen jam band acts? Despite the presence of Disco Biscuits, Umphrey’s McGee, and members of the String Cheese Incident, this isn’t entirely a Phish-ing expedition; there’s also the jazz-funk of Galactic, manic drum and bass…
Chan Marshall, who goes by the name of Cat Power, is mostly known as a media star, part of a dazzling but frequently maligned universe that includes Rufus Wainwright, Meshell Ndegeocello, and too many others to mention. It’s a category usually reserved for staunch individualists who confound audiences and critics…
Over the past two years the Funk Jazz Lounge has hosted numerous soul singers of varying quality, from relative unknowns to burgeoning stars like Dwele. But this week’s showcase should be a keeper: Maya Azucena is known for putting on exciting, dynamic performances, thanks to a promising self-released CD, Maya…
Indie music veteran Ted Leo may be too hip for his own good. The East Coast rocker was retro before it was cool, leading the mod/punk band Chisel from 1990-1997 and paving the way for the rise of newcomers Mooney Suzuki and Delta 72. His next band, the hard-rocking Sin…
