If music is a journey, then John Abercrombie is a tour guide through a strange and wonderful land. A ride on the back of his guitar takes a listener through what appears, at first glance, to be a jazzy pastoral landscape. And just when you think the scenery is predictable,…
If you’re not a Spanish speaker, “Contrabando y Traición” by Los Tigres del Norte on the Mexican-music anthology Corridos y Narcocorridos sounds every inch as innocuous as a wedding polka. Jorge Hernandez’s sweet vocals ride a bouncing oompah bass while accordion tootles suggest a nostalgia-laden ranchera that wouldn’t offend a…
Don’t let the title of guitarist John Scofield’s latest album fool you. Ditto for the hallucinogenic, Haight-Ashbury-inspired cover art. This is not your typical jam band — no refried faux funk, aimless Dead-influenced noodling or ostentatious chops-mongering here. Just as he did on 1997’s A Go-Go (featuring Medeski Martin &…
On a rainy January morning in a bar open to the sidewalk in Sevilla’s riverside neighborhood Triana, a construction worker stomps a freshly laid ceramic-tile floor in boots stained with orange-colored clay. He is clapping, marking the rhythm of a flamenco song with palmas. Cigarette clamped between his teeth, he…
The figure wielding the baton is not the usual mature man with wild locks dressed in a fussy tuxedo. Instead a slim woman stands on the stage of the Lyric Theater in a long black gown — wisps of hair escaping from the chignon at the nape of her neck…
Nothing D.H. Peligro says sounds convincing. He’s afraid of each question, perhaps worried that he’ll come up empty-handed when asked, “Why?” Why did he help rob the grave of the dead Dead Kennedys, America’s best-loved primordial punks, after a 19-month legal battle during which singer Jello Biafra and his breakaway…
Nasdaq is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about dance music, but Sharam Tayebi — partner with Ali Shirazinia in the Iranian-born, Washington, D.C.-based DJ duo Deep Dish — recently told DJ magazine of his ambition to list their record label, Yoshitoshi, on the stock…
To every fiefdom, a festival. At least that’s the general rule in the Magic City, where one look at the musical lineup usually gives a pretty clear idea of who will be lining up for tickets. And then there’s the annual Bob Marley Caribbean Festival, the one festival that consistently…
I feel like funkin’ it up. Don’t ask me why. Maybe it’s the summer weather in the middle of January, or the hot sauce in my beans. Or more likely it’s the distant drums from an approaching brass band workin’ its way down the street, getting louder and louder with…
Many a musician has written a song about love, but few enjoy discussing their intimate lives. Andy LeMaster, singer and mastermind behind the rocking, synthesizer-heavy Now It’s Overhead, kindly volunteers his feelings about his relationship-themed, self-titled debut album and its painful inspiration. On the phone from Presto! Recording Studio in…
Desaparecidos might sound like a Latin alternative band concerned about the disappearance of innocent citizens by some repressive South American regime, but this aggressive rock and roll outfit hails from Lincoln, Nebraska. And these Nebraskans are pissed about the disappearance of the American landscape beneath mammoth chain restaurants and stores,…
In the United Kingdom — indeed throughout much of the European Union — Craig David has been accused of, well, walking on water. His debut single and debut album both went to number one in the U.K. The album sold more than 1.5 million copies there, prompting Britain’s New Musical…
ue the song “Last Night” by the Strokes, a band with a jangly hard-driving punky sound everyone says is so New York — sneering latter-day Lou Reeds. Immediately follow it in the randomizer with electronic artist Jega. The Manchester native’s dark, rapid-fire cut “D.M.C.” rips through the previous track’s guts…
Ed Hale and Transcendence touch down this week with a CD-release party for their new Rise and Shine. Atlanta transplant Hale first appeared on the Miami scene as one of the Broken Spectacles. When the Specs broke for good in 1994, Hale hit the road for two years, traveling the…
“You learn how to play music so you don’t have to talk to people,” says Nick Valensi. “Then you do something good and everyone wants to talk to you about it.” It’s a discussion the Strokes aren’t quite in the mood to be having. They’d much rather be sitting poolside,…
Nursing a lingering cold that’s rendered him “somewhat incoherent,” Adam Goren rests on the counter at a Philadelphia deli and waits for someone to make a hoagie for him. “Thanks for being interested in what I do,” he sniffles politely to the reporter on the other end of his cell…
The diva anthems at crobar this Sunday may be kept to the legal minimum. Monthly resident Victor Calderone is in desperate need of a change. The superstar DJ has spun nearly every gay-circuit bash nationwide and quickened the pulse of New York’s underground diva-house vibe. The remixer to the stars…
Patrons flip through songbooks on a typical Saturday night at the Main Street Café in Homestead, eager to sing along with house band the Pathfinders. Packed with couples and friends sitting around small square tables, the large, airy room is warmed by votive candles, familiar greetings, and the strum of…
Ever wonder what old Specials or Madness songs would sound like in Yiddish? Or hear a reggae memorial to those who died in the Holocaust? King Django will let you know, as well as sound out plenty of funky drums, reggae backbeats, and rockin’ guitars, with a dose of loop…
Time has passed, memories have lapsed, and the revolution has all but collapsed in the decades since The Last Poets first hit the black-arts and civil-rights movements with their unique blend of political fervor, poetic justice, and righteous rhythms. Inspired by key figures of those turbulent times — from Malcolm…
This is Danny Jessup: Danny of the one-liners, Dan of the local music scene, the man onstage with the microphone and a quip, the impresario, the promoter, the artist, the handyman, the erstwhile talk show host, the poor man’s Letterman, the jokester friend on a barstool near you. This is…
The Politics of Dancing. For DJ Paul van Dyk that’s both an album title and the catch phrase of a scene at a crossroads. Since crashing the industry nearly a decade ago, the German native has become an international sensation in electronic music. His name draws sell-out crowds in clubs…
