Music

Even one listen to his My Love, Sex, and Spirit CD reveals James Hall to be another moody British pop auteur, crooning and posing in decadent affectation. But in fact Hall is a Nashville-bred Southern boy currently living in New Orleans, an appropriately steamy, seamy place for his brooding tunes,…

The selection of flamenco recordings in local music stores tends to be limited to a choice between the venerable Paco de Lucia’s classic albums and Eurohits by the dubious Gipsy Kings. Duende, a recently released three-CD box set with 48 pages of illustrated liner notes, substantially fills the gap: This…

On September 24, a Saturday, record stores across Ontario reported an odd but encouraging trend: People were lining up around the block to get into their outlets. Lining up, it might be noted, in freezing cold weather. That should come as little surprise to fans of the supermegacool band R.E.M.,…

Culminating with the release of Eric Clapton’s eagerly awaited roots return From the Cradle — the first straight blues record to hit number one on the Billboard charts — the blues has enjoyed a healthy year. The strength and diversity of recordings available in 1994, from the most electric to…

Now that self-proclaimed “fanatical music fan” Quentin Tarantino has been enshrined as America’s rock and roll arbiter of taste, he needs to be called on his musical pretenses (before his next film comes out). There’s been more pulp written about Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction than anyone — even the filmmaker himself…

Maggie Estep No More Mr. Nice Girl (NuYo Records) Concrete Blonde Still in Hollywood (IRS Records) Luscious Jackson Natural Ingredients (ERG Records) I have a tendency to annoy politically correct people by referring to a certain subset of music, unironically, as chick music. While it may not be the worst…

Brian Bell, who recently released the full-length His Own Way on CD, doesn’t want to think about how much the whole thing cost. “It was in many, many, many tens of thousands of dollars,” he says. “Let’s put it this way: International Sound [where the CD was mixed] was $95…

One of the pleasures of following the local music scene is the direct line of communication between performer and audience. An example: You buy a recorded work by a local artist or band. A) You think it’s great, or B) you think it sucks. Either way, you get to tell…

Those who enjoy — and by extension support — music made in South Florida by musicians who live in South Florida must constantly deal with naysayers. Stevo, of the Strength of Unity rap-fusion outfit, has a lyric about it in which he imagines all his critics gathered, wearing white robes…

Kathy Fleischmann Speaking Guillotie (independent CD) Just where do you put Kathy Fleischmann’s Speaking Guillotine in your record collection? Folk? Okay, you could make an argument for that category: Fleischmann writes poignant and personal tunes and strums acoustic guitar and even has long flowing hair. Rock? For sure the songstress…

The Goods, one of South Florida’s most danceable rock bands, is on stage at the Reunion Room pulling out all the stops: “Gypsy,” “Gotta Get It Back,” “I’m Not Average,” “Tonka Truck.” A sign on the wall warning that the establishment will not be responsible for any injuries sustained during…

In mock honor of my tenth anniversary as a professional music critic, I wonder if you might indulge my views of the future of music journalism: There is none. “Virtual reality” — an oxymoronic piece of linguistic rubbish to begin with — is now “virtuality.” We’ve gone too far. We’ll…

Who woulda thunk it? Tony Bennett, he of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” fame, and a fave of beehive-era moms and pops everywhere, flies back to the top on a ticket booked and paid for by a ragtag legion of nihilists relentlessly known as Generation X. This is…

Halfway through a recent Milk Can set at the Stephen Talkhouse, lead singer and guitarist “The Milk Man” (a.k.a. former Natural Causes guitarist Joel Schantz) stepped to the microphone in an attempt to set the record straight for any audience members who might still be confused about his new project…

Eric Allison and Jack Keller Live at Ziegfield’s (Wonderland Jazz) Just reeds and piano. Those are the only instruments you’ll hear on this disc from tenor-alto-flute-clarinetman Allison and pianist Keller, though at times you’ll swear there’s a full band cranking. As on “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” the swinging Basie staple…

Sugar Blue is not one to dwell on the past. Practically raised in Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater — his mother was a singer and dancer there — he doesn’t care to relate any stories, drop any names. Only when pressed about a rumored meeting with Billie Holiday does he unlock…

Dada American Highway Flower (IRS) Nirvana was not a great band. They were a good band with a talented frontman. The reason they were so hugely successful was because their sound was right. They came along in the maw of the Seattle movement, a sort of dorky, melodically attuned harking…

The first year in the life of ‘Cane Records — the student-run record label based out of the University of Miami — has been kind of like that of a baby: one long learning experience complete with tears, temper tantrums, and lots of late nights. After overcoming a number of…

Certainly much will be said beginning this coming Tuesday when If I Were a Carpenter hits record stores. The release is a collection of songs by the Carpenters, Karen and Richard, as performed by some of today’s hottest and coolest alternative rock acts, including Sonic Youth, Redd Kross, Cracker, and…

Trampoline dormer (spinART) One-man band Pat Ferrise writes ineffable, lazy-hazy pop melodies, while lyrically musing about nothing in particular in his unaffected, boyish voice. Reflective, wistful, and unself-conscious, Ferrise’s songs indicate sentiments more than coming right out and stating them (“big bones break, small ones bend”). He constructs these tunes…

In many parts of the world one of the biggest names in pop music is Aswad. If that’s a news flash, you have to understand that the world is a big place. It doesn’t begin and end with North America, although the British reggae band also has enjoyed a few…