As leader of the seven-plus-member The New Pornographers, indie darling A.C. Newman knows his wickedly inventive supertroupe is still the sum of its parts. Be it Neko Case’s angelic pipes (“The Bones of an Idol”) or Dan (Destroyer) Bejar’s alluring Bowie-esque donations (“Jackie, Dressed in Cobras”), the indie rock group…
Former Go-Go’s bassist Kathy Valentine contributed some of the songs that clinched her band’s claim to fame, so you’d think her first solo album might echo her gal pals’ giddiness. You’d be mistaken, unfortunately. Valentine has traded her bass for a Stratocaster and recorded a perfunctory rock and roll record…
If musical styles are skyscrapers, then Degenerate is the sound of towers falling. Though it traverses the ruins of dubstep, industrial, hip-hop, and jungle, the album is mostly defined by its aggressive sparseness, the product of the pair’s Timbalandesque reverence for between-beat space. It’s so desolate there isn’t even a…
Heavy breathing. A sultry moan. In the distance a discordant celesta. No, it’s not an elaborately textured prank call from some hot and bothered musician; it’s “Pearl,” one of eleven tracks composed by Björk for arty beau Matthew Barney’s latest visual tribute to Vaseline, Drawing Restraint 9. Those hoping for…
As brilliantly laid-back as her flow on the agitated “Shut Up,” Lil’ Kim won’t survive the slammer by acting this soft. Over Nintendo-meets-reggaeton minimalism (think the Neptunes with spice), Kim sharpens her shiv for gossips like Wendy Williams and Star Jones. But when jail takes up your foreseeable future, it’s…
There’s desperation (like when a Latin pop star suddenly goes hip-hop with Scott Storch), and then there’s desperación. Ricky Martin knows both on the misguided, lopsided “I Don’t Care.” With Amerie and Fat Joe providing vacant counterpoints, Ricky’s maximal emotion clashes with Storch’s sitarlike minimalism. It’s less comeback single and…
It’s as if the mashup preceded the original — Cybotron’s electro classic “Clear” doesn’t get much tweaking as the backbone of this one. But it’s hard to get tired of Missy rhyming things with Lamborghini and flowing as a smooth party hostess over up-rock beats…
After months of coyly denying speculations, the puppy love between the former “Lil”/now legal Bow Wow and the R&B sensation is officially outed with this sappy duet. The song isn’t much of a musical highlight for either performer, but they do harmonize well together…
Danger Mouse busts out the British library-music funk, Doom makes like Doom (“Cut the cranky attitude/When I’m like a handkerchief on a stanky fatter dude”), and drama-rap kingpin Ghostface sounds uncharacteristically giddy. Then Brak from Space Ghost butts in at the end trying to sing “Turn the Beat Around” and…
From a distance Delia Diaz de Villegas moves with the self-confidence and flair of a Hollywood starlet. Strikingly attractive with expressive green eyes, cherry lips, pale skin, and long red hair, she barely shows any emotion while approaching a visitor amid the rumblings of Little Havana. Her music conveys that…
Alvin Youngblood Hart’s life is deceptively simple. In the central Mississippi town Youngblood calls home, the man enjoys family, fishing, and horseback riding. But beyond this rather prosaic life, the gentle Hart makes beautiful music. Refusing to be pigeonholed into a blues-only niche, this dreadlocked, well-traveled cross between Howlin’ Wolf…
“Electronic music,” DJ Paul van Dyk says in a hyper German accent, “is about so much more [than partying]. People donate money to charities [because of it].” Well, really, because of him. One of the world’s most popular trance DJ/producers advocates for poor children, public schools, democracy, and Greenpeace. Still,…
Palm Beach County-bred emo outfit Cru Jones responds to its electrifying 2004 debut album, The Conversation — which showed a kinship to Saves the Day, Hot Water Music, and Jimmy Eat World — with an appealing acoustic EP. And what began as a forceful rock and roll troupe (with a…
Rock is dead. Long live rock! What fad are we on now? The year 2003 opened the door to the garage rock revival. New New Wave crashed onto our shores last year. Ask bomb-blastic NYC psych rock trio the Secret Machines and they might tell you we’ve hit reset and…
The first things I notice about Cuban hip-hop MC Don Dinero are the long multicolored collares hanging down over his white tee. The beads are artifacts of Dinero’s faith, a form of worship known as Santería, which fuses aspects of Catholicism with African religions such as Yor¬bá. It ain’t the…
“It’s okay to eat fish because they don’t have feelings,” quips Kurt Cobain on one of Nirvana’s most hyperanalyzed tracks, “Something in the Way.” The line is a potshot at hypocritical animal-rights activists, but don’t tell that to the Kings of Leon. The four boys from Tennessee — Caleb, Jared,…
Seventeen-year-old ’round-the-way-girl Teairra Mari’s airy but rock-solid soprano and wanton girl-next-door charm have earned her the title “Princess of the Roc” and landed her a spot in Jay-Z’s Midas whip. And for that she can thank her lyricist dudes: They got teen-anxiety zeitgeist down. Teairra tears through juicy jilted-girl anthems…
Slinky and portentous, Broken Flowers is a mood piece of an album, giving sonic shape to the existential crisis facing the lonely Lothario (Bill Murray) at the center of Jim Jarmusch’s new movie. The disc casts a spell from note one — the Greenhornes’ “There Is an End,” featuring a…
Hustle & Flow is the feel-good tale of Memphis pimp DJay (Terence Howard) pursuing his musical dreams. And it’s a humble film, for the most part, with its street-corner swagger cut with a healthy dose of old-fashioned Hollywood sentamentalism. The soundtrack, however, makes no such concessions. Dirty South superstars such…
From the swampy, shambled, drunken, broken, blues- and jazz festridden streets of New Orleans comes the most romantic, stately, and, hell, best band to come out of the South since R.E.M. On its second full-length, World Leader Pretend keeps its influences in its pockets (not on its sleeve) as it…
It doesn’t happen often on Time Well Wasted, but on “Alcohol” the two Brad Paisleys — the amazing post-James Burton guitarist and the conventional country singer — finally get together and make one of the year’s best singles. Rendered in funky triple time, it’s narrated by demon drink himself: “Since…
With the whispering and snaps, “Play” is an obvious rip of the Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait.” But Banner’s sighs and acknowledgment of the female orgasm bring it back to the original Velvet Jones of rap — LL Cool J — an assertive participant rather than a consensual sadist. (Though the…
