On the heels of Tijuana’s Julieta Venegas alt-pop smash hit and Latin Grammy winner Sí comes yet another Mexican norteña that should make as much noise. Monterrey-born Ely Guerra’s fourth album is truthful to its name. It has a strong pop element during the “sweet and sour” segment (the first…
Rejoicing In The Hands, vagabond twentysomething troubadour Devendra Banhart’s unimposing debut, proved an unlikely success, propelling the itinerant folkie into the pages of the New York Times and onto the airwaves of NPR. Its follow-up, Nino Rojo, is billed as a companion piece of sorts, sixteen tracks recorded during the…
Wolf Eyes wants to use its art to leave the deep mental scarring of a car crash. At its best, the band creates a sadistically yummy toolbox of secretly courteous noisecore analogous to the sonic warmth felt from shutting one’s eyes at a NASCAR race, and just dirty and fringe…
Whereas New York fashion plate quartet Interpol’s brooding 2002 debut, Turn on the Bright Lights, was ladled with reverb-laden post-punk, the band’s sophomore entry Antics is finely honed pop. The dense barrage of spiritedly sawed guitar hits glistening strides while buoyed by bombastic four-on-the-floor, tension-building, fevered breaks, and the bass…
The term “lost album” was virtually created to describe Smile, Brian Wilson’s long unreleased masterpiece. For 37 years, cruddy sounding bootlegs were all fans had. Remarkably, he has now completely re-recorded and rearranged the original tracks for official release. Its ambit is wide: nothing less than the entirety of American…
Irreverently campy and surprisingly accomplished, the Olympia, Washington, duo known as IQU should prove a perfect fit for Miami. Kento Olwa and Michiko Swiggs’s music is a party-hearty mix of electronica, rock, talkbox vocals, and tongue-in-cheek lyrics — one track on their new album, Sun Q, is tellingly titled “The…
You’ve got to love a band that inspires a wide range of reactions from fans. The Heroine Sheiks have seen it all, from flying tables and chairs to a couple getting it on by the side of the stage. Fronted by Shannon Selberg (ex-member of Nineties noise rockers The Cows),…
In case you haven’t noticed (clean up under that rock, would ya?), there’s an election coming up. And as one of the most important states in this election, musical acts have been convening en masse to educate and rock us all into voting. Sure, you’ve got your Springsteen and your…
On their latest, Seventies-inspired disc Sin Verguenza (Shameless), Latin Grammy-winning band Bacilos continues to fashion traditional Latin and Caribbean rhythms together with ironic lyrics the way vintage clothing junkies combine kitsch paisley, polyester, bell-bottoms, and straw sombreros into eccentric ensembles. But unlike their last album’s title track, “Cara Luna,” this…
Sundays, crobar DJ Entice is a relative newcomer to the Miami club scene, but he’s coming up quickly. In the past two months alone, the precocious 22-year-old was named the official DJ for the Miami Dolphins during its home games, and has secured a residency at crobar alongside mixtape legend…
Negroni’s Trio is the product of Jose Negroni, a Puerto Rican pianist who has accompanied several leading Latin pop stars, including Chayanne and Jose Luis Rodriguez, and has served as creative manager for Sony Music Latin. On his trio’s major label debut, Piano/Bass/Drums, he plays melodies in a contemporary style,…
Fridays, Amika, Wednesdays, Cafeteria As Amika soars through the promotional skills of Tony Guerra, resident DJ Shawn Rudnick’s reputation as a top mixmaster grows in the local club scene. Rudnick spins a fun blend of deep French house that is both appealing and resonant, making him one of the few…
Wordsworth says he doesn’t like politics. Much of the Brooklyn MC’s career has been devoted to noncommercial hip-hop culture through his recordings with partner Punchline; memorable moments on A Tribe Called Quest’s The Love Movement and Mos Def and Talib Kweli’s Black Star album; and his involvement in creating the…
It is a little over a month before the November 2 national election, and I’ve been slammed by a hurricane of pop culture protest. As I write this column, my email system is clogged with announcements of tours, rallies, voter registration campaigns, and protest records. Every few days, I get…
During a recent CD release party for glitch punk Otto Von Schirach at I/O, a crazy-looking couple stood out from the crowd, seeming as if they just left the Greyhound bus station and happened to wander into the club on a whim. He’s clad in a neon-splashed tracksuit, fishnet muscle…
When legendary Brazilian rocker Rita Lee was admitted to a São Paulo hospital for exhaustion in July, her fans feared the worst. But she says the event was foreshadowed long ago. “During the Seventies, I wrote a song with [The Alchemist author] Paulo Coelho called öSuperestafa’ [öSuperstress’], so feeling exhausted…
Diplo’s view of music is undeniably assured and on point. Anyone who has had the opportunity to hear Hollertronix’s Never Scared mix CD, his collaboration with associate Low Budget, understands that this Philly DJ is making some of the most incredible and important “now” music available, using turntables to blend…
The lead single from producer Alchemist’s debut album, 1st Infantry, is the uncharacteristically formulaic “Hold You Down” featuring Prodigy, Illa Ghee, and Nina Sky. Musically, the song employs the same subtly grimy chords and percussion that have made Alchemist a favorite among New York’s most street-earnest MCs, but he also…
I-20, who lent his deep voice to Ludacris’s “Move Bitch” and Houston’s summery R&B hit “I Like That,” brings a similar brand of catchy, aggressive tunes to his debut, Self-Explanatory. Named after an interstate highway in his native Atlanta, I-20’s music is appropriately fast-paced, with concerns that range from breaking…
Hip-hop fans who can’t wait for Little Brother’s major-label debut on Atlantic next year should pick up Foreign Exchange’s Connected. The result of a collaboration, initiated by telephone, between Dutch producer Nicolay and Little Brother rapper/vocalist Phonte, it finds the latter riffing with various MC friends on real-talk issues over…
Toronto’s Kheaven Brereton challenges hip-hop conventions with his sophomore effort, Joyful Rebellion, just as he did on his 2002 debut, Exit. He sings as well as he raps (which he demonstrates on the hook of his breakout hit, “Superstar”), and handily flip-flops from reggae to rock, flowing beyond the looped…
The title track of Martin Luther’s sophomore album, Rebel Soul Music, is a dose of fun Eighties rock in the vein of ZZ Top, proving why he stands out from all the Andre 3000 wannabes the industry is currently throwing at us. Musically talented but not vocally gifted, Luther’s sincerity…
