i, the long-awaited followup to the Magnetic Fields’ acclaimed tour de force, 69 Love Songs, finds genius founder Stephin Merritt doing everything to fend off the threat of stardom that 1999 triple-disc set augured. Eschewing the giddy layers of guitar and dense, synthesizer-laden arrangements that yielded such genre-bending jump-ups as…
Rock fans search for a new band to kick-start their lives by casting fishing lines into the pop-culture abyss. Rarely does one bite that’s worth taking seriously, and only once every five to ten years does one hit, pulling fans into the depths of reality for a rush that seems…
The Beta Band excels at willful awkwardness. A few years back, its weirdo edge made the Scottish quartet hip, thanks to its reckless and High Fidelity-approved album, The Three EPs. Unlike some byproducts of pre-Dubya days, however, the Beta Band still has a pulse. That’s not to say the jams…
After the commercial and creative peaks of its “La Bamba” cover and 1992’s Kiko, respectively, Los Lobos owed themselves — and us — another great record. The Ride, a mix of rearranged band classics and sublime originals, is such an album, not just as strong as the last few outings,…
After four major-label albums and a growing reputation among Nashville’s inner cartel, Allison Moorer was ready to arrive. She possessed the aptitude and the attitude that usually means stardom is merely a hit record away. She apparently wasn’t happy, however, with the star-making machinery, especially after witnessing their impact on…
At the entrance to Miami Velvet, a list of disclaimers is headlined by a forthright suggestion: “If you’re offended by sex, please do not enter the premises.” Miami Velvet is a “lifestyles club,” which is a politically correct term for “swingers club.” Truth is, the Velvet resembles a SoBe hot…
Aside from being a clever album title and a symbol for optimism in a country that continues to recover from its 2001 economic collapse, “Argentinidad al Palo” (“Hardcore Argentinism”) is a great song on which party rock octet Bersuit epitomizes the myth of Argie superiority over the rest of the…
Lanterna is guitarist Henry Frayne’s (the Moon Seven Times, Area) solo project, with Highways being his fourth album under this guise. Although primarily recorded on guitar, the music does not sound as if it is missing something, nor does he get carried away with excessive, showy noodling. Leaving just the…
At 30 years old, the prodigious vibraphonist Stefon Harris already has three Grammy nominations and four albums for Blue Note under his belt. For Evolution he has assembled a band called Blackout, with the intent of injecting some of the bump and groove of hip-hop and R&B into the jazz…
San Diego production duo Sound Providers specialize in the art of the loop — sampling a jazz track’s choicest four bars and then repeating the results ad infinitum. It sounds annoying, but many of hip-hop’s sonic breakthroughs in the early Nineties — such as Gang Starr’s “Take It Personal” –…
Most of the time, it seems like you need to be or at least look like a Very Important Person to get into hot clubs in the Magic City. Even joints that have no business pulling velvet rope snobbery (i.e. State and Butterfly Lounge) are shunning the “masses” in favor…
The sound of Tortoise defies categorization. Like the fusion jazz artists of the Seventies who traversed rock and jazz forms with time signature shifts, the Chicago quintet — John Herndon, Doug McCombs, Dan Bitney, Jeff Parker, and John McEntire — makes instrumental music with everything but the break-room sink in…
Walk into any jazz show these days and you’re likely to find a crowd of older men sipping Scotch and studiously listening to a horn player’s arcane solo. Then step into a gig by the avant-jazz group Sex Mob and it’s a different story: You’ll find young people, particularly women,…
Until now Ron Sexsmith has appeared to be a reluctant rock star, one whose willingness to lay his heart on his proverbial sleeve underscores a sensitivity and naiveté that’s readily apparent in his boyish demeanor and confessional songs. His new album, Retriever, suggests Sexsmith may be ready to steer his…
Kieran Hebden appears to be a normal 25-year-old living in London’s Camden Town who spends a lot of time at home. He’s a guy who wakes up when he wants to, watches television as long as he likes, and spends most of his pocket money on records, stumbling out to…
After performing into the wee hours, any gig before noon can be challenging, especially for a guy who readily admits he’s not a morning person. Rod MacDonald’s not complaining, though. When you’re a folk musician who writes and records original material and you’re trying to scratch out a living in…
Wimme Saari is more than unplugged on Instinct. He’s completely unhitched from any kind of instrumental accompaniment. Wimme, as he is most often known, made his name on four previous albums for the Nordic roots label Northside, marrying the joik chants of the Scandinavian Arctic Sámi people (once known as…
Andrew “DJ Le Spam” Yeomanson has dubbed his house, a two-bedroom cottage nestled within North Miami, the City of Progress Studio. But it is more akin to a sprawling, overstuffed thrift store. There are toys: kaleidoscopes, dolls, and action figures. The walls are lined with posters for shows the 34-year-old…
Vacating the dense alien space station of Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein, rapper Vast Aire falls back to his native New York with a laundry list of goals obtainable. After copping the latest Nikes and visiting his moms (in that order), the formidable and disgruntled Lobo dials the right numbers…
Chicago’s John Hughes III has operated Hefty Records for nine years. The independent label has released albums by artists such as Telefon Tel Aviv and the Aluminum Group and has built a following among listeners seeking out music in that catchall category of “postrock,” a tag rooted in the early-Nineties…
Yesterdays New Quintet’s Stevie originally began life in late 2002 as a promo-only CD manufactured by Triple Five Soul, given out through its Website, and occasionally sold during Stones Throw showcases. Its limited availability turned it into a collector’s item, fetching upward of three figures in online auctions, which eventually…
There’s a wondrous duality to the Southern California coastline. In the daytime, it’s a carefree paradise of sand, surf, rays, and an endless loop of Beach Boys songs running through the mind. And at night, as bonfires and blankets dot the beaches, the same turf takes on expansive, reflective, near-mystical…
