Don’t let Tera Melos fool you with its textbook cover. For this California three-piece, “math rock” means much more of an affinity for chaos theory than for the staid and stoic world of algebraic expressions. In fact to the uninitiated, the term might call to mind things like precision, restraint,…
A couple of years ago, Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy was seen as the last great Southern hope. He had the hood respect of T.I. and garnered the admiration of practically every drug dealer in North America. It’s not that he’s overly gangster or that his rhymes aren’t crisp. He’s plenty…
Down Home Southernaires were at one point known as Pygmy, and as Pygmy, they were great. As DHS, they are even better. Imagine some country-fried soul R&B in the vein of Hialeah’s pride Coke (the band!) mixed with Clarence Reid’s “Blowfly” high jinks. Add Elastic Bond’s eclectic Dashiki express and…
After two years of touring and recording with sunn0))), Ghost, and Merzbow, longtime Japanese psych-prog band Boris is back with a double album. Regarding its last, mind-melting sludge masterpiece, Pink, the band has no comment, instead offering eight formally bounded songs bristling off-kilter with gonzo effects and absurd pop girl/guy…
Though this Gonzalo Rubalcaba fellow is an ace jazz pianist originally from Cuba, don’t tag him a “Cuban” or “Afro-Cuban” jazz musician. Although he’s been influenced by his homeland’s traditions, Rubalcaba’s approach has been likewise affected by classical music and the whole post-WWII jazz continuum, from bop to free to…
Engineering postindustrial dub since the mid-Eighties, when he founded production conduit Meat Beat Manifesto with former partner Jonny Stephens, British expat Jack Dangers is a self-proclaimed, self-medicated OCD sufferer. And it has shown. He’s amalgamated a free-jazz sensibility with a hip-hop aesthetic, peppering in political overtones and unintentionally helping germinate…
“Honestly I’d rather fuckin’ be drawing a comic strip like Garfield and have it be syndicated,” laughs Mindless Self Indulgence frontman Little Jimmy Urine. “I’d just draw one joke every day and collect giant wads of cash.” For now, though, that dream will have to wait, because Mindless Self Indulgence’s…
With Mother’s Day fast approaching, we at New Times have spent a lot of time mulling over what makes a great mom. In the end, we each wrote down a trait, tossed these little slips of wonderful into a hat, and then, with a stick of glue, assembled them into…
“I’ve known Trick Daddy for a while,” Miami rap diva Trina says of the fortuitous friendship that gave her the first leg up in the fickle music industry. “We went to junior high school together, and we’ve always kept in touch. Trick was like the crazy dude. He was everybody’s…
Eric Nally wants to change the world, at least a little, with his music. And he seems pretty sure it’ll happen eventually if he tries his damnedest. “I want to go down in history. And I want to change what’s happening now,” says the 23-year-old frontman of the gonzo quintet…
That’s the question British police are asking her and according to this storyfrom MTV, as of today she’s being detained for the second time in as many weeks by authorities. This time, it’s over a video that’s been circulating the blogosphere for several months that clearly shows Winehouse smoking crack…
Seminole Hard Rock/Tom Craig Eric Clapton and Robert Randolph Hard Rock Live Monday, May 5, 2008 Better Than: Watching TV pundits continue to treat Hillary Clinton’s campaign seriously. Is Eric Clapton God or just a higher power some choose to call God? Unfortunately, the decades-long debate over Clapton’s exact theological…
Ari Rothenberg RADIOHEAD CRUZAN AMPHITHEATRE MONDAY, MAY 5, 2008 Better than: Singing about the techno-apocalypse by yourself in your room. Thom Yorke wears a white linen jacket, Jonny Greenwood’s mop of hair dangles in front of his stooped head like the curtain in front of the Wizard of Oz. Stalactites…
I won’t give much credit to the guy holding the video camera. As a head’s up, whoever captured this footage is moving around so much that you might get a headache. But hang in there If you’re into the spectacle of 50 touring Africa…then watch the whole thing. It’s really…
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND BANK ATLANTIC CENTER FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2008 Better than: Watching Steven Van Zandt on reruns of “The Sopranos.” The lines between rock ‘n’ roll show and revival meeting were effectively blurred beyond distinction Friday night as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band…
B.B. King and Joe Bonamassa at the BankAtlantic Center Saturday, May 3, 2008 Better Than: When you ask your baby for water and she brings you gasoline. At 82, the good news is that B.B. King can still play and sing with aplomb. The bad news is that he’d rather…
We’ve just received official word from Dave Slifkin, Studio A’s general manager. The long-term future of the club still remains unclear. But all currently booked shows will still take place there, with the exception of the all-ages May 22 Sophomore Attempt/Mercy Mercedes/Settings show. Says Slifkin: “Studio A will 100% be…
Sayre Berman Carlos Santana and Derek Trucks Hard Rock Live Wednesday, April 30, 2008 Better Than: Sitting home and watching the speeches of Rev. Jeremiah Wright loop constantly on every channel. There are three sure things at a Santana show: 1) Carlos will display the highest level of improvisational virtuosity;…
They were hailed far and wide as digital visionaries last fall, when they offered up their newest album as a “pay as you like” download. But Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke says it’s not likely to happen again. “It was a moment in time,” he tells the Hollywood Reporter. In…
Air’s Moon Safari would knock Marcel Proust’s dick in the dirt. The distinguished French author would fete the equally distinguished French pop-men for the group’s association with one of his pet concepts: involuntary memory. Rather, both Proust and Air explore the idea that everyday life can evoke pure recollections of…
New Zealand twosome Concord Dawn is the biggest drum ‘n’ bass thing in its native country. The band’s deliriously danceable tunes have been played for years by international heavyweights such as Grooverider, Goldie, DJ Hype, Ed Rush, and Dieselboy. They — Matt Harvey, a.k.a. Matty C, and Evan Short, a.k.a…
Imagine, for a moment, that there are whole worlds of music about which you know nothing. Stars rise and fall in these other spheres, completely uninfluenced by the mechanisms of popular Western music. From time to time, one artist will galvanize an entire nation; one song will become an intrinsic…
