Unlike neighboring Sweden, Finland has not had luck in introducing its music to the American pop market. But the dance floor is the great equalizer for all nations, a place where a good song is appreciated regardless of its origins, and 30-year-old DJ/producer Jori Hulkkonen is Finland’s leading representative of…
The Postal Service should consider itself the lead candidate for official band of long-distance relationships. Death Cab for Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard (from Seattle) and Dntel’s Jimmy Tamborello (from L.A.) met when their bands were touring and remained in touch, sending each other piecemeal musical parcels like tweens caught up in…
In lunfardo, the down-and-dirty language of the cobblestone streets of Buenos Aires in the last century, words get turned inside out. The illicit hideaway where you take your lover for a tryst is not a hotel, but a telo. And the music of melancholy and forbidden passion is not tango,…
Eye pressed to a digital video camera, Chris Blackwell pans the view from the wood hut on stilts overlooking an inlet in the Caribbean that he calls his main office. A long table surrounded by batik-upholstered chairs and littered with DVDs, books, and CDs dominates the sun-filled room, where on…
In Brazil, choro continues to be heard amid a rich musical landscape. After nearly becoming extinct during the emergence of bossa nova in the early Sixties, choro (pronounced “shóro” in Portuguese, the word literally means “I cry”) has fluctuated in popularity, finally benefiting from a more lasting, if unlikely, renaissance…
For the past twenty years, through surviving lineup changes that could rival Spinal Tap’s; helplessly watching white, manufactured ska-punk outfits climb the pop charts; and undergoing its own search for truth and soul, Fishbone has persevered for one simple reason: talent. Angelo Moore, Norwood Fisher, and Walter Kibby continue to…
Barring some major misstep — like releasing an album of gamelan-styled Monkees covers — the White Stripes’ followup to White Blood Cells was the preordained album of the year, whichever year it happened to come out. So now that Elephant is here, it seems oddly purposeless to quibble with this…
Warning: A.R.E. Weapons have come to fuck up your children! The aural equivalent of Larry Clark’s Kids (not surprisingly, the band is managed by actress Chloe Sevigny’s brother Paul), the music of A.R.E. Weapons is the product of teenagers who grew up listening to both glam rock and hip-hop. Despite…
As a vocalist, Caroline Herve a.k.a. Miss Kittin is a familiar name among followers of what’s been termed electroclash. In case you’ve managed to escape the media hype overload, electroclash is populated with young bands attempting to pay homage to and put their own spin on early Eighties electronic-based pop…
With all sorts of Eighties-birthed strains floating through the pop underground, it was only a matter of time before white noise, that misbegotten homage to the Velvet Underground propagated by the Jesus and Mary Chain, reappeared as an avant-garde tactic. Thank Dan “Manitoba” Snaith for hastening its return in the…
The Winter Music Conference spanned seven days, more than 200 “official” and “unofficial” parties, and several thousand people. By its end most of them had “hit a wall,” the inevitable result of drinking, drugging, and partying for a week with little or no sleep. But there were a handful of…
Winter Music Conference week went mostly by the numbers. Most of the same labels showcased the same artists at the same parties as last year and the year before. The hotel gigs were predominantly filled with fat-free cheese as background music for sunbathing playboys, models, and strung-out club kids. It…
In 1989 Ani DiFranco released her self-titled debut album. Her photo showed a shaved head with brows and eyes arched like question marks on a young face, seeking an answer to youth’s eternal question: Who will I become? There was heat from the friction of taped fingers rubbing off their…
You won’t confuse Indonesian songstress Idjah Hadidjah with Alicia Keys, Dolly Parton, Brenda Lee, or any other American singer. The verse-chorus structure of her album is familiar enough, and so is the pop atmosphere, even if the mood is more austere than what we’re used to. But Hadidjah’s husky alto…
Over the past decade, Mystikal has had a surprisingly long and fruitful career for a rapper best known for maniacally catchy novelty hits like “Shake Ya Ass” and “Danger.” Part of the appeal, of course, lies in his distinctive voice, a wild and loud bark that sounds like someone yelling…
Ever since Björk and Beth Orton made it safe for female singer-songwriters to explore electronica, an aural land-grab of sorts has now ensued as different acts stake their own piece of emotional territory. Australian native Tania May-Bowers finds herself standing in the shady DMZ between the indie-rock and electronic communities…
Wayne Wonder is a ladies’ man who’s down with the thugs, equally at home crooning solo love songs over dancehall beats or lacing rude-boy anthems with buttery choruses. His panty-wetting tenor is never nasal and is refreshingly free of the breaks and yelps that other heartthrobs use as shorthand for…
The Iguanas, purveyors of an irresistible blend of roots rock, Crescent City R&B, swamp pop, and Tex-Mex, define themselves by a certain sexy and genuine New Orleans swing. By that we’re not talking four-on-the-floor walking and hi-hat sizzle. The band instead offers ample supplies of grease, grit, dance-floor grace, and,…
It’s been over a year since Dieselboy (a.k.a. Damian Higgins) dropped Project Human on the drum and bass world, eliciting praise and accolades from even the most hardened U.K. purists. Dubbed America’s best jungle DJ by fans and critics alike, Dieselboy has avoided any dropoff in interest with constant touring…
So many parties, so little time. This year WMC is offering up more than 150 club nights, pool parties, in-store events, boat parties, and other shindigs guaranteed to empty your wallet. With so much to choose from, it’s easy to miss out on the sights that make Miami such a…
Today Assassin is swiftly ascending the ranks of dancehall dons, exhibiting a remarkable intelligence, maturity, and creativity that rivals his DJ peers. But when he first tried to enter Jamaica’s competitive musical fraternity, he had no idea if he was capable of making it. Like most Jamaicans, Jeffrey Campbell had…
Three years ago, amid the sweltering heat, omnipresent 4/4 beats, and crowds rushing from nightclub to nightclub during that year’s Winter Music Conference, Mr. C found true love. “I said to her the night after we met, ‘Why don’t you meet me on the beach,'” he remembered. “She came down…
