On Late Registration Kanye West ventures into the sort of rough psychological waters few MCs dare to tread. Moments of self-doubt crop up, while thorny questions regarding personal integrity and undue entitlement seemingly threaten to capsize West’s platinum-plus career. But in the end no one — especially not the man…
With degenerate drones dripping from their 808s, drum machines, and effects boxes, Excepter is dance music for noise nerds. But for the rest of us, the group hews far closer to Throbbing Gristle than anything you’ll find in a club, at least this side of Armageddon. Excepter’s most recent releases,…
On its major-label debut, Plans, Death Cab for Cutie captures flashbulb moments of melancholy — the dissolution of a summer romance, growing apart from a lover, being dumped by an egotistical jerk — with wrenching honesty. A solitary piano chord floats through the tear-inducing “What Sarah Said” as lyrics reveal…
Juan-Carlos Formell’s Cemeteries & Desire, a solo guitar work scented with a hint of bossa nova and tropicália, blows in like a cool Cuban breeze. On sweet toe-tappers such as “Domitila, Donde Vas?” and “Agua Bendita,” Formell’s honeyed voice bears more than a passing resemblance to Caetano Veloso, Brazil’s preeminent…
For 2003’s Polaris, hill-country boogie monsters the North Mississippi Allstars tried modern rock, but the results weren’t nearly as satisfying as the trio’s hypnotic hoodoo jams, their sonic signature. Now it’s back-to-roots time with a little help from friends. Lucinda Williams and North Mississippi singer-guitarist Luther Dickinson exchange tangy vocal…
There’s no better way to decompress from the celebrity overload of VMA week than to spend a little time investigating South Florida’s burgeoning indie scene. And out of all the bands that have emerged these past few years — and there seem to be more every day — none is…
Here’s one of those cases of a band making it purely on perseverance and positive attitude. The group 311 has come a long way from unsuccessful stabs at studio work in L.A., prodigal sonlike returns to the Midwest, dog-food poverty in Van Nuys, and the great exploding RV incident of…
Laid-back rocker and avid surfer Jack Johnson brings his handful of sun-streaked hits (“Sitting, Waiting, Wishing,” “Flake,” and “Taylor”) plus a cooler of feel-good album favorites to Boca Raton’s Mizner Park Amphitheater on Tuesday. Augmented by a talented, minimalist band that includes bassist Merlo and drummer Adam Topol, the singer/songwriter…
Synth seamstress Oly knows all about moving around and absorbing new cultures. On her first EP, A Hot Hooray, this Miami diva’s musical rearing and geographical displacement are evident on every turn. Born in Los Angeles to Mexican parents and reared in South Florida in the turbulent Eighties, Oly’s musical…
Missy Elliott is one of the few artists whose videos are still considered events. From her introduction as the fly girl in Hype Williams’s 1997 fish-eyed masterpiece “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” to the buzzing mindfuck of 2002’s “Work It,” Elliott has repeatedly proven herself a master of the medium…
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be in music videos. Yes, sometimes they do get to act, but more often women are little more than silicone-stuffed blowjob machines. It’s especially true in rap, where women-as-pleasure-objects remains the dominant visual paradigm. Many call them video hoes, but we’ll be…
Duran Duran, “Girls on Film” (1981) The Brit modelizers introduced the original scandalous video chicks. Even the estrogen-filled WWF offshoot GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) took notes on this rowdy, R-rated smackdown. Robert Palmer, “Addicted to Love” (1985) Palmer must regularly turn over in his grave knowing his video of…
They might be the apex of pop glitz and video glam, but historically the VMAs haven’t really been an oasis of new, progressive sounds — and to be fair, award shows rarely are. But this year MTV is at least trying to be hip. The MTV2 award highlights new and…
Though they lack the prestige of the Grammys, the MTV Video Music Awards are at least honest: Pop consumers want the whole package, both the image and the music, and to separate the two would be a disservice to that genre. We’ve assembled a crack team of pop music experts…
For a brief moment in the late Nineties it seemed as if the hip-hop revolution was at hand. The community was still reeling from the deaths of Tupac and Biggie, with many of the genre’s diehard fans turning away from the bling of mainstream hip-hop. Leading the revolt were two…
A lesser man might try to ride out pop for pop’s sake, but Jorge Gonzalez Graupera — a.k.a. Jorges — elevates the genre with a firm grasp on arrangement and technique. Jumping onto the local scene via master popsters The Brand and then touring with Latin rock darlings Volumen Cero,…
In 1992 Karrin Allyson was an unknown jazz singer from Nebraska. A dozen years and two Grammy nominations later, she is regarded as one of the most versatile and talented singers of her generation. Her vocal range is nearly unmatched in jazz circles, and her masterly inflection has drawn comparisons…
Themes of spirituality and renewal reign on Induce’s debut album, Cycle. The DJ has been a fixture in South Florida’s underground scene for several years, spinning at hot spots such as I/O and the Pawn Shop as well as events in Wynwood and the Design District. And his work on…
Far away from anything remotely resembling South Beach cool, at a strip club called Playpen South, an African-American dwarf stripper named Mini-Me scuttles naked across the stage. Behind the little person, friction dancers wrap their worn, tattooed bodies around brass poles. Amid the flesh and freaks, a group of some…
In clubland word travels in bits and pieces. “You done look like a god dime,” warbles Melissa, a talented R&B singer I’ve been trying to talk with for the past fifteen minutes. “WHAT?!?!” I holla back. Melissa and I are merely inches apart — so close that her large Afro…
Although Mick Jagger, notorious connoisseur of the fairer sex, may have traded his brown sugar for a spoonful of reality with a Bush-bashing ditty called “Sweet Neo Con,” rest assured that today’s younger rock stars are still loving the ladies. Take the upstart San Diegans of Louis XIV: “Finding Out…
Singer/guitarist Richard Thompson’s songs of darkness and despair aren’t an easy listen, given his doleful vocals; tangled, turbulent melodies; and observational narratives that strike a not-so-delicate balance between irony and invective. Nevertheless as a founder of Fairport Convention, the Sixties band responsible for Britain’s folk-rock fusion, Thompson is still revered…
