Madonna live in concert can be a religious experience — especially for the performer herself. On 2004’s “Re-Invent Yourself Tour,” Madge mixed spiritual iconography of various faiths the way a DJ mashes up records, while her current “Confession Tour” finds her kickin’ back atop a giant crucifix. Alas, we don’t…
Sela McCray lived in New York City in the early Eighties. “I was a Billie Holiday head. Then one night my wild roommate brought me to a punk club. I was fascinated by the whole culture, so I became a punk … one of the three black punks in New…
Five Across the Eyes (F.A.T.E.) looks like a typical South Florida new-school tough-guy hardcore punk group. The bandmates’ T-shirts feature elaborate lettering and spider webs with designs printed on the side. The cover of their self-released EP, Empty Bottles and Liquor’d Spit, features an outline of a brass knuckle. Imagine…
Renowned for the tango hits he made over the course of his roughly twenty-year career, the late Adolfo Tudisco (stage name: Horacio Deval) would appreciate the tango-tinged event being held in his honor. “This is an homage to him, a tribute to who he was as a person and as…
At the age of seven, when you’re supposed to be eating Oreo cookies and watching Batman cartoons, Paquito D’Rivera was already a paid musician with an endorsement deal from Selmer saxophones. Born in Cuba and musically trained at age five by his father, he has performed with the National Theater…
Having made mix albums for parties hosted by P. Diddy, Lenny Kravitz, and Shaquille O’Neal, DJ Tom Laroc has become a popular musical source among those who are incredibly popular. However, it’s not just celebrities who appreciate Laroc’s unique ability to mix R&B, reggae, and hip-hop into energetic, danceable music…
Makeout Party doesn’t possess the hard-hitting lyrics and gangster thump that often whet the palates of hip-hop lovers, but the group’s candy-coated hopscotch beats won’t leave your mouth dry. Those with more of a sweet tooth and an appetite for the lighthearted antics of Peaches and Avenue D will enjoy…
To say Edwin Bonilla is an accomplished musician is an understatement. The Latin percussionist has been involved in more than 1000 recordings over seventeen years and is renowned for his work with Gloria Estefan. Other notches in Bonilla’s belt include Madonna, Shakira, and John Secada. Bonilla skillfully plays the djembe,…
Dmitriy Klevenskiy is a pianist. He has been a bandleader, composer, arranger, programmer, engineer, teacher, and world traveler. But most important, he is an artist of the highest order. Born in the seaport city of Kaliningrad in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast (separated from mainland Russia when Belarus, Lithuania,…
Jazz. Music that says so much yet rarely uses words. Known as the only true American music form. Fans will travel just about anywhere to hear a great jazz musician. New Orleans, Montreal, Chicago, and New York have welcomed jazz with open arms and have thus acquired distinct reputations on…
Writer’s block’s a bitch. But the effect is twice as evil if you do most of your work alone (solo artists, graphic designers, freelance writers; we’ve all felt it). When the pool of ideas is bone-dry, you’ve just got to ride out that drought until your head stops bugging —…
Cut Chemist’s The Audience’s Listening could be from a time capsule buried in 1998, when epic instrumental albums like Return of the DJ and Q-Bert’ s Wave Twisters were all the rage. And that’s a good thing. Unfairly maligned in recent years as a province of bedroom geeks disconnected from…
After shedding his trademark dreadlocks, joining the Dr. Dre-run Aftermath Records, taking a new approach to his rhyming style, and bulking up his physique to Juggernaut status, Busta Rhymes shows a new side. Speaker bangers “Flipmode Bitch” and “Survival” showcase Rhymes’s Kamikaze-fast style, while “How Ever You Want It” is…
After establishing himself as one half of indie duo Emanon and in quickie Stones Throw spots, CA-based Aloe Blacc’s self-produced trials of hip-hop, soothing electro, and sparse salsa rhythms on Shine Through seldom mature in error. His capable pipes on “Want Me” ooze with seductive multiple harmonies dressed in mischievous…
Polite but firm anti-neocon postpunk/Eighties-ness began as a powwow between early Cars and Sonic Youth before gradually revving into a not badly done AOR experiment, which leaves it up to the sage minds behind commercial radio to give it a push out of the starting gate. A one-man operation, Palumbo’s…
Wallflowers, beware: We’re approaching a point in which leaning back will no longer be a suitable response to a banger. A dance-music revolution is taking hold of R&B (electro abounds!) and even hip-hop (snap music ain’t snap music without the snapping). No surprise the dance-rap fusion is being realized undergound:…
Chicago quartet the Cairo Gang represents pathos in its many forms — sometimes enraged, other times outwardly tranquil, mostly just sorta blah. Frontman/singer Emmett Kelly is content to let his sensitively expressed complaints and disappointments go almost overshadowed by effects-free, naked guitar-playing in the main, with bongos, flutes, and recorders…
Fleetwood Mac’s incestuous entanglements have nothing on the romantic spark of the Submarines, a Boston-bred duo whose relationship with one another was seemingly as cursed as it was creative. With a recent reconciliation, the group’s debut disc is brimming with lovelorn sagas about betrothal and betrayal, amply illuminated by a…
Not to be confused with the Argentine reggae undergrounders, this Swedish house duo played four venues during the 2006 Winter Music Conference in Miami, twice at Amika. The Danceband is the group’s official debut full-length after having released its past seven years’ worth of singles on last year’s Rebounces, and…
If not for their roles in Canadian indie-dance duo Death from Above 1979, MSTRKRFT’s bandmates have evidently made their way into hipster dialogue with steep, significant remix cred. Members Jesse Keeler and Al-P (DFA 1979 bass/synth man and producer, respectively) have spruced up their resumés with sultry, uncaged second takes…
At the age of eighteen, Niña Pastori became one of the youngest rising Spanish stars when she released her flamenco-pop debut album, Entre Dos Puertos, which sold more than 150,000 copies and spawned a hit single, “Tú Me Camelas,” that was played on radio stations and in clubs across Spain…
Jamaican-born Monty Alexander shares more with Bob Marley than a homeland. Though Alexander is a jazz pianist, his penchant for reggae runs deep throughout his music. One of his first albums released was Stir It Up, a Marley tribute, and although Alexander has since experimented with other genres such as…
