There are tons of great DJ Shadow concert bootlegs floating around out there on disc and vinyl, but the stunning clarity and seamlessly mixed content of the official Live! In Tune and On Time puts all the rest to shame. This 20-track, 78-minute CD (packaged together with a 24-track DVD)…
Though best known for his collaborations with German electronic jazz outfit Trüby Trio (“High Jazz,” “Bad Luck”), Nigerian/Scottish soul singer Joseph Malik has been recording his own music for ten years now, heading up various projects (as MF Outa’ National and Blacka’nized, among many others) before issuing a proper debut,…
Using different languages and musical styles as vehicles, Lila Downs’s new album, Una Sangre (One Blood), is an emotional journey undertaken to show us our similarities. While cultural exploration is undoubtedly her focus, poetic social commentary and themes of empowerment lie under the rich tapestry of music. On “Dignificada,” subtle…
On her last album, Black Ivory Soul, Angélique Kidjo sang a duet with Dave Matthews, who later invited her to open for him on his 2001 American tour and introduced her to a whole new, mainstream audience. Most artists would have followed up that coup with something a bit more…
Bonga Kuenda, the politically outspoken Angolan athlete turned pop star, hasn’t changed much since his music career began in the Seventies. His voice is still endearingly raspy, his lyrics still speak of the heartbreak his country continues to endure, and his music is still a gorgeous mix of styles culled…
Modernage Sure, when you hear the name Modernage, you may think of pricey white leather sofas with matching ottomans and not necessarily rock and roll. But that’s where you’re dead wrong. The band that bears the same name will have you bopping and swaying in that La-Z-Boy. Modernage plays semidark,…
On a recent Friday night I began my weekend follies walking down Lincoln Road with no itinerary in mind. I was thirsty for my new favorite drink: guava margaritas. The place to get the delicious cocktail is the hangout flavor of the month, Cafeteria. The restaurant/lounge, which features great-tasting portions…
Induce Thursdays, the District; Saturdays I/O; Sundays, Purdy Lounge When promoters need a DJ to hold down their side rooms with cool chillout music, they turn to this producer who, in addition to his weekly residencies, frequently pops up at Revolver and other Miami hot spots. Best known for his…
Okay, so Corey Harris isn’t the easiest guy to pin down. Never mind that an attempt at an 8:00 a.m. phone interview — one that was admittedly scheduled unreasonably early by musician standards — was circumvented with a message left on his answering machine. “I’m not a morning person,” he…
Dear Chris Carrabba: Hi, this is Annie. Um, I feel kind of weird writing this letter to you. I interviewed you a few weeks ago, and I don’t normally do this kind of thing — violating the whole journalist/ subject, objective/distance thing, you know. However, I couldn’t help but scribble…
Brian Vander Ark If one looked at it from the record industry’s point of view, it could certainly be argued that the Nineties were a more successful period for Brian Vander Ark than the new millennium has been so far. Once upon a time, the Verve Pipe frontman and his…
Four years after her last album, PJ Harvey has abandoned the elegant, Mercury Prize-winning slickness that made Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea such an anomaly in her edgy and provocative oeuvre and frightened long-time fans who remembered the raw, poisonous wit of her striking 1992 debut, Dry…
Midlake comprises five guys from Denton, Texas who sound like they’ve been shipwrecked on a deserted island for a couple of years with only a steamer trunk full of Victorian English novels, Flaming Lips and Sparklehorse CDs, and some really dodgy acid tabs to keep them entertained. That is, until…
Sonic Youth, rock’s most consistent band over the past two decades, returns with its nineteenth album, Sonic Nurse. Judging from the album’s title and the languid pace of many of its songs, the quartet appears to be in a healing mode. As Thurston Moore sings on the folksy “Stones,” “We’re…
Having a name like !!! has raised all sorts of issues for the (mostly) Brooklyn-based seven-piece dance-punk troupe, with myriad pronunciation problems ensuing over the years. In an adaptation of subtitled lines from the seminal Eighties comedy, The Gods Must Be Crazy, the band’s name is properly pronounced using any…
What’s next for Bebel Gilberto? That was the question posed by many impressed by her acclaimed debut album Tanto Tempo (2000), a delicate bossa nova update dominated by the cut-and-paste mentality of producers such as Amon Tobin and Suba, and the reported 1.2 million copies it sold in the world…
Marriage material is something you just don’t find much of in clubland. Most party people lack the mindset to settle down, even as they keep their eyes peeled for that one and only Mr. or Ms. Right. In fact Prive, Mynt, crobar, and other joints that deal in decadence and…
Sheldon Prince Fridays, Opium Garden By day, London-born Sheldon Prince works as promotion director and product manager for the Fort Lauderdale company Soulfuric, South Florida’s fastest-growing distribution outlet for quality dance music. At night, he builds his reputation as a DJ who keeps the house flame burning in a town…
The Kendall-area home of Harry Varela is framed by the backdrop of the balcony’s sliding glass door as he points at a cramped corner of the dining room. Attired in a thuggish-looking wife beater and jeans, he chuckles when he calls it “Chocolate Thunder Studios.” The name seems like the…
Sheyenne Rivers oozes pure rock goddess appeal. It’s her singular presence — blond, beautiful, and undeniably erotic — that commands the crowd’s attention during a recent gig at Tuscany Trattoria in Coconut Grove with her band, I Digress. As the other musicians dutifully run through the repertoire onstage, she glides…
The official story of the Legendary Pink Dots’ name mentions a keyboard player who needed nail polish to mark which notes to play. Yet leader Edward Ka-Spel has picked up the kaleidoscope dropped by Syd Barrett and brought it blazing into the 21st Century with a distinctly Floydian hue. Not…
An eerie silence crept down Washington Avenue this past Saturday on Memorial Day weekend, even though the street was lined with young blacks (and, to a lesser extent, Latinos and whites) streaming in and out of clubs such as crobar, Mansion, and Krave; sitting against storefronts and in front of…
