When he reviewed a Throbbing Gristle gig in 1979, Melody Maker’s Chris Bohn described the “in joke” that was the group’s nihilistic stage presence. “They can smile smugly if you stay, snigger derisively if you leave. Either way it’s a hollow, depressing victory,” he wrote. Otto Von Schirach, whose music…
By the time Usher Raymond appeared before a horde of journalists, photographers, videographers, and city officials during a press conference announcing the MTV Video Music Awards nominees outside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the morning sun had risen completely into the sky, threatening to scorch the gathering beneath it. But the…
On Sunday, August 29, the MTV Video Music Awards will be presented in a location other than New York or Los Angeles for the first time in its history. It is the latest coup for a locale that already boasts a World Series champion in the Florida Marlins; features an…
Congratulations Miami, you’re officially in bed and between the sheets with MTV. All of the world’s twinkling, teenybopper eyes are on y-o-u, so twerk that TV-14 culo and act irresistibly coy as the crisp Benjamins and soaring Nielsen ratings assuredly roll in. But before you take a celebratory dip in…
While MTV’s hitmakers may make their second home here (Missy and J.Lo, we’re talking to you), what are our real residents doing during Video Music Awards weekend? Well, stealing some of that warm MTV spotlight and taking advantage of the extra exposure. Miami’s best qualities will be on display, including…
While Waylon, Willie, and company turned Nashville on its collective ear back in the Sixties and Seventies, they never opined as freely, wore their political posture so defiantly, or, for that matter, fully mirrored the outlaw persona quite like Steve Earle. Setting a standard for alt-country insurgency, Earle established his…
Dorothy Parker once wrote that Katherine Hepburn ran the “gamut of emotions from A to B.” Well, it’s not as if Lhasa de Sela can’t sing, but she conveys a range of emotions that goes from A to A-and-a-half. The Mexican-American musician first introduced us to her husky alto on…
Impresario Madlib has adopted a new alter ego and created a new genre. In the UK, they call it “breakbeat.” In the U.S., we use the term “broken soul.” Although some may view Madlib’s transition into DJ Rels as a radical change, Theme For a Broken Soul isn’t too much…
For years, British rappers were ridiculed in the States for mimicking our American hip-hop traditions. Recently, however, as they’ve begun to firmly embrace their own distinct culture, authentic UK hip-hop has blossomed across the pond. Wiley is the latest personality to break out from this still-nascent community, offering a unique…
It’s so easy to be jaded when you’ve heard all the great jazz of the twentieth century and can sing Miles Davis’s solo on “So What” in your sleep. It takes a really special artist to snap you out of your nostalgia, forcing you to hear fresh things. Enter Grammy…
It seems like a lifetime ago when DJ Craze was acknowledged as one of the best, and most controversial, hip-hop turntablists in the world. He has seemingly abandoned boom-bap beats for boom-clack tracks, cutting up junglist tracks with the same dexterity he once applied to Super Duck Breaks. His new…
What’s up with all the freestyle concerts lately? First, there was a concert at Bongo’s Cuban Café; then Miss “Funky Little Beat” herself, Debbie Deb, showed up at crobar for an Eighties flashback. Now comes Freestyle Reunion Concert Uno, an electro-pop blowout with Debbie Deb, Lisa Lisa, Shannon, Joyce Sims,…
The man behind the Bedrock empire needs little introduction in these parts; as one of the chief beneficiaries of the American rave explosion of the late Nineties, his epic trance tag-team sets with Sasha, captured on mix CDs such as Northern Exposure, helped define electronic music for a generation. Today,…
M.I.A.M.I. (Money Is a Major Issue), the debut album from super-prospect Pitbull, arrives in stores with considerably high expectations. There is his reputation as one of the most industrious MCs in Dade County; the ubiquitous presence of Lil’ Jon, who produced and appears on much of the disc; and the…
What makes for a healthy local music scene? Is it a spirit of friendly competition, or one of cooperation, that brings out the best in musicians? Do major labels and big money help or hinder creative development? Where can you get a good bag of pot? These are questions that…
In a sense, More Adventurous is what Rilo Kiley has been building toward since the rickety country licks of 2001’s Take Offs and Landings and the sugar-spun indie-pop heartbreak of 2002’s The Execution of All Things. The L.A. band’s first disc on its own imprint is a startling modernization of…
Erin Moran, a Jersey girl who calls herself Eddy, writes the kind of songs steeped in a melancholia so deep they suggest dark clouds perpetually circling overhead. Drawing on personal experience, the pretensions of producer Richard Hawley, and myriad inspirations (Scott Walker and the Carpenters, as well as more recent…
The Stuttgart, Germany, combo of producers and DJs known as Dublex Inc. has finally released its debut album after four years of slowly merging into the worldwide club scene with three Latin-tinged singles and numerous remixes. Eight Ears sounds a bit like their freestyle DJ sets, combining jazzy uptempo tunes…
The New Jersey duo known as Blaze remains the pinnacle of what it likes to call “soulful house music.” Infused with a spiritual quality and grounded in faith without proselytizing, Blaze’s tunes are light-years away from the typical hedonistic clichés driving any given dance floor on a Saturday night. In…
It might trip some people out to discover that there are some lucky individuals who have an uncanny ability to see sound. Whereas the rest of us must ingest massive amounts of acid to Technicolor our world, these people are born with a gene that produces kaleidoscopic visuals 24 hours…
For the past several months, design firm Tekmind, Inc. has been releasing a smattering of twelve-inch records, positing the company as the newest local electro imprint on the block. Its flagship artist is Xerodefx, a collaboration between two brothers, Amer and Khar. The duo’s three releases, including their latest, the…
Boston birthed some of the most influential groups of the hardcore scene. Gang Green, a founding father of East Coast hardcore, was one such band. But even in the trenches of anger and pubescence unrest lay an equally youthful need to have a good time. There were the Dogmatics, Stranglehold,…
