Plain Jane Automobile Major radio stations are not exactly a goldmine of local indie talent. Ruthlessly focused on the bottom line, most stick to Top 40 acts supported by major labels — as if Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake don’t get enough exposure already. It is a wonder, then, that…
Green Lemon Question: How many white-boy rastafarian jam band members does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Answer: six. One to screw in the lightbulb and five to apologize to the rest of humanity for all the racket. Kidding! Just a little harmless jam band humor in honor of…
Elsten “Fulano” Torres flashed an impetuous grin last month as he gazed at the crowd grooving to his galactic Latin pop at Little Havana’s Kimbaracumbara nightclub. He and his band were delivering a funkified version of “Dando vueltas” (“Going in Circles”), with Torres supplying the playful refrain: “I may be…
Singer/songwriter Jorge Drexler was virtually unknown in the U.S. before an Oscar win in 2005, for his song “Al otro lado del río,” from Walter Salles’s film The Motorcycle Diaries. And what viewers saw of him on Oscar night might have been misleading. Those who saw the telecast remember that…
Because jazz sitarist and guitarist Rez Abbasi was born in Pakistan, studied in India, grew up in Los Angeles, and paid his dues in New York, it’s safe to say he’s the prime example of what it takes to have a genuinely global sound. Trying to hang a rudimentary genre…
Jamaican singer Richie Spice approaches dancehall music from a vastly different angle than most of his peers. Despite growing up in the rough parish of St. Andrews, Spice’s smooth vocals and delicate songwriting stand in stark contrast to most of the soundbwoy fi dead shit-talk now proliferating throughout the reggae…
Sexually inquisitive college girls have Ani DiFranco. Metaphysically minded faerie fetishists have Tori Amos. And aging Gen-X hipsters have Kristin Hersh. Of the three women, the latter is the most underrated and vital artist, and probably the most normal. On Learn to Sing Like a Star — her 21st release…
On his previous album, Joyful Rebellion, Canadian rapper k-os shouted defensive lyrics like “Hip-hop is not dead/It’s the mind of the MC.” That particular rhyme got him in trouble with critics who saw the Toronto-based lyricist as a preacher’s kid proselytizing the masses. But k-os actually is a preacher’s kid…
Fabrika Music Showcase It helps to have friends in high places when you’re trying to put a local scene on the map. Miami’s Fabrika Music imprint, the brainchild of Soniko drummer Toto Gonzalez, has just that: a Sony distribution deal. Some of the area’s best and brightest alternative Latin bands…
The ReBirth Brass Band It’s less than a week before Fat Tuesday, and Phil Frazier finds himself in a good place: watching a parade in his beloved New Orleans. He can’t resist putting his phone on speaker and holding it toward the marchers’ music, so the guy interviewing him (me)…
A Night of Drum ‘n’ Bass at Laundry Bar The spazzy beats of drum ‘n’ bass are certainly an acquired taste, but since 1997, there’s been no other vibe on the planet for Will Miles, a DJ and producer based in Chapel Hill. An old-school fan of genre pioneers like…
Goldenfingers If the nickname smacks of Liberace, rest assured, Goldenfingers (a.k.a. Alexis Ortega) has no interest in tinkling out nauseating rococo and delivering up lisping patter by the light of a candelabra. A native of Santiago de Cuba, Ortega is a Latin jazz maestro who plays thirteen different instruments (though…
Justin Timberlake Young men fumbling to grasp the power of their hormones usually look to the brawny lead singers of hard rock bands to learn machismo and sexual confidence. Unfortunately, these same impressionable teens simultaneously lap up the music’s misogyny, and so they only develop into self-pitying sexist pigs with…
Ann Hampton Callaway Toward the end of Robert De Niro’s acclaimed 2006 spy thriller The Good Shepherd, the camera lands on a sultry singer in a yellow gown in front of a society band. The credits list the character as “1961 Deer Island Singer,” better known, in real life, as…
Nicole Williams is in full postgraduate glow, having just earned her diploma via two turntables and a mixing console. Her final exam required that she blend together a six-song set of hip-hop, house, and R&B records, live, for a panel of famous DJs, who happened to be her professors at…
Michael Wolff is a jack of all trades, and an undeniable master of one. Over the past three decades he’s played many different roles in the entertainment world: actor, conductor, singer, producer, even standup comedian. But he always returns to his one true love — jazz piano. “I think that…
Two fans can be as affirming as two million, if they happen to be Steve Van Zandt and Bruce Springsteen. The E Streeters paid tribute to their hero, Gary U.S. Bonds, by making his classic pounder, “Quarter to Three,” an encore staple for years. They also ended up writing and…
New World Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas directed the creation of the New World Symphony in 1987, and during its two decades the organization has earned a reputation for bold programming. From attracting guest artists such as cello superstar Yo-Yo Ma, to presenting progressive, twentieth-century works such as Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird…
Harry Connick, Jr. Connick is one of those guys you’d love to hate: a fantastically talented singer, composer, and actor who also happens to be rich, famous, and handsome. Problem is, Connick is also a mensch. When Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans, Connick was one of the first celebs…
“I hope you crash your momma’s car,” Rhett Miller sang back in 1994. “I hope you pass out in some bar/I hope you catch some kinda flu/Let’s say I wish the worst for you.” The lyrics to “Wish the Worst” — a highlight from Hitchhike to Rhome, the debut album…
It doesn’t take much to get DJ Affect, a.k.a Ari Kalimi, to hold forth on the ills of the FM dial. “Regular mainstream radio sucks,” he says flatly. “I don’t know what FM radio is anymore. It’s like programmed radio, or a very small MP3 player stuck on repeat. That’s…
International Noise Conference From Thursday through Saturday, Churchill’s Pub hosts this year’s International Noise Conference, spotlighting bands that specialize in experimental musical forms. Beyond the cacophony of no wave is noise, a no man’s land of anything-goes art. To most ears it sounds like random, amateurish banging and clanging, but…
