Lyle Lovett Step Inside This House (Curb) Texas singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett has indulged himself in musical styles as diverse as gospel-soul and brass-driven pop, but he leaves no doubt where his heart lies on Step Inside This House. The 21-song, two-CD set is rich with the rugged, lyrical storytelling that…
Kiss Psycho Circus (Mercury) From 1974 to the present, Kisstory is a winding parable of greed, folly, and ego, but the basic facts are simple to comprehend: In the beginning, there were Paul, Gene, Peter, and Ace. First they rocked. Then they sucked. Then they fought, and two of them…
It’s always tough being ahead of your time, even if you get there by reaching into the past and pulling your shtick from the archives. The swing movement jitterbugging across the country (and only recently embraced by the media) may be seen by many as a retro fad, but to…
Ten years ago a group of graduates from Havana’s state conservatory formed a band and announced the arrival of the future of Cuban music. The members of Nueva Generacion (New Generation), since known as NG La Banda, would go on to employ their academic training in the service of virtuoso…
The harmonica is a curious instrument. Palm-size and usually made without moving parts, it looks so simple, like a toy. Mastering one should require no more than inhaling, exhaling, and fluttering a finger or two. But the innocuous little things have frightened many a would-be musician into a life of…
Marilyn Manson Mechanical Animals (Interscope) Some South Florida clubgoers will remember the days when Marilyn Manson was still known as Brian Warner, the lanky, insecure kid from Fort Lauderdale. Local music fans saw the meek suburbanite create a monster when he booked his act, Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids,…
Nick Tosches, author of the definitive tome Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll, asserts that rock and roll played out its entire life cycle, from birth to death, in the career of Bill Haley. Tosches writes that Haley cashed in his rockin’ chips for a piece of schmaltz…
Life can be tough when you’re known as the Madonna of the DJ set. Just ask Junior Vasquez, a man who has reinvented himself almost as many times as the pop diva. Vasquez is more than just a guy who plays records for a living. He is one of the…
So how do you get your band on VH1? An October 8 appearance on the national cable network by local rockers the Goods was highly anticipated by members of the South Florida music community. For nearly a decade regional media and many of the area’s key players and promoters have…
Few people can brag of having met while recording a “booty” track — a song made specifically for rump shaking on the dance floor or for being piped through speakers in certain car stereos. One exception is that of musicians Dan Warren and Keith Rosenberg. Four years ago, when Rosenberg…
“Folk art” is a term that terrifies many urban dwellers. Utter those otherwise harmless words in the company of your big-city friends and images of crudely painted farm scenes and hand-sewn rag dolls will leap almost telepathically from one troubled cranium to the next. Misconceptions about the true definition of…
Agnostic Front Something’s Gotta Give (Epitaph) Hardcore bands aren’t known for their longevity. Performing semi-harmonious riffs at supersonic speed and living a rebellious, less-than-healthy lifestyle causes most punks to either crash and burn, fade into obscurity, or, usually, mellow with age. Just ask GG Allen, Jello Biafra, or Henry Rollins…
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Left of Cool (Warner Bros.) Outside the bluegrass world and the few bluegrass-inspired, traditional country recording sessions that must still be booked occasionally somewhere, banjo players are pretty rare birds. Consequently, even if he were only a mediocre instrumentalist, Bela Fleck would stand out in…
Mentioning the name Vanilla Ice usually elicits looks of disgust, mistrust, and runaway cheeseball feelings. But there’s a new sheriff in Ice Land and he’s laying down tracks that could start to melt even the most skeptical attitude. Vanilla Ice, a.k.a. Rob Van Winkle, has a new CD, Hard to…
As controversial in Cuba as he is popular, Manuel Gonzalez Hernandez is a sign of his times. Gonzalez, known as Manolin, sings in a soft voice, performing catchy dance tunes that employ a rather formulaic mix of peppery percussion, punchy horns, and repetitive, chanted choruses. At his packed concerts in…
“What time is the PTA meeting?” asks the resonant voice on the other end of the phone, posing the question to someone in the same room. It’s not an unusual concern, seeing that the person being queried is Jane Thomas, schoolteacher and mother of five-year-old Spencer. The person doing the…
Bob Marley and the Wailers The Complete Bob Marley & the Wailers: 1967 to 1972, Part II (JAD) This treasure-filled three-CD box set, which showcases Bob Marley and the Wailers’ work with legendary producer Lee “Scratch” Perry in 1970 and 1971, is the second installment of JAD Records’ projected ten-CD…
For a while back in the mid-Sixties, it seemed like every city in the United States had one: a group of four or five guys so enamored of the reworkings of American rock and R&B by the British Invasion’s front line that they had to take a stab at it…
Bands’ Websites come in many configurations: from lifeless layers of static pages hyping outdated tour schedules and lame photos to tantalizing, up-to-date, Java-enhanced affairs with eye-popping graphics, video clips, and megabytes of press clippings. The occasional site even connects to its own chat room, where die-hard fans can debate the…
There’s always been an unflinching quality to Jay Farrar’s songs, a refusal to romanticize the facts into an ego-sparing balm or a conscience- calming salve. Not that he isn’t a romantic; like many other great lyricists, he attempts to transcend in song the weight of the everyday. The dignity of…
Mana is indisputably the commercial giant of Latin rock. The first rock en espanol group to score a gold album in the United States, the band’s status is truly — and internationally — gargantuan. Accordingly, it was apropos that, after an arty, soft-core porn video played on two huge screens…
Hole Celebrity Skin (DGC) Courtney Love’s glamorously defiant look on the cover of Celebrity Skin, the latest CD by her band Hole, fits with her penchant for blissful contradiction. Her tousled hair and skimpy see-through T-shirt are as punk and stylish as the burning trees behind her, but the antihero…
