Year: 2007

Luke Solomon has carved out a unique niche in the dance-music pantheon by spinning an enchanting, intriguing mix of tunes. He starts with a typical funky, soulful and slightly jazz-inflected deep house blueprint of laid-back beats, funky bass lines and groovy percussion. To this standard plan he adds science-fiction synth…

Breathe Carolina plays a particular brand of synth pop that has worn so thin, it’s practically transparent. Yet in the hands of the group’s architects, David and Kyle, the songs, which are tinted with a swirl of screamo, work in curiously refreshing ways. Recalling Jeff Lynne’s joyful abuse of pop…

Over the past week, I’ve spent more time on the 1900 block of Market Street than I have over the past ten years or so — if you don’t include my regular Sunday-night stops at El Chapultepec (1962 Market Street) for live jazz. The ‘Pec, which has been around for…

With the title of his 2006 CD, Clifford Harris, who goes by T.I., declared himself King, and unlike so many boasters before him, he backed up his braggadocio with bullion; the disc shifted more than a million units. His followup, T.I. Vs. T.I.P. , hasn’t been as widely embraced, in…

Buffalo, New York’s It Dies Today takes inspiration from a strikingly wide range of sources. For instance, The Caitiff Choir, the five-piece’s 2004 disc, is named for a passage from Dante’s Divine Comedy (“Commingled are they with that caitiff choir/Of angels, who have not rebellious been/Nor faithful were to God,…

The Sex Pistols gave anarchy a headline and a splashy photo, then left it to the caustic Crass to do the research and provide the content. Subhumans then took that message and packaged it into a more palatable form — not unlike the Pistols — spinning parables, with typical dry…

With a bevy of ex-punk rockers and faux bohemians exploring electro-pop and hip-hop these days, the field is getting a bit crowded. All Teeth and Knuckles sets itself apart by bringing a defiant, energetic attitude and an undercurrent of irreverence to its songs. Seldom has such a scathing set of…

When McCoy Tyner, longtime pianist with John Coltrane’s quartet, says Terell Stafford is one of the great players of our time, that carries some serious weight. Tyner, who’s been playing professionally for fifty years, knows a good player when he hears one. He thought enough of Stafford’s playing to recruit…

The Defectors, Bruised and Satisfied (Bad Afro). This slide-show of B-movies and ’60s garage punk has just enough menace to incite real fear. The cartoon “Bring on the Dancing Ghouls” seems goofy, but the underlying threat has to be taken seriously. Elsewhere, the nightmare-inducing “Bruised and Satisfied” could be the…

During a 2006 interview with Westword, blues legend Buddy Guy praised John Mayer for introducing his favorite genre to today’s listeners. Strange as it might seem, he’s got a point — but the problem is, newer blues-inspired acts often wind up sounding more like Mayer than Guy. Which isn’t to…

If Jad Fair had access to all the electronic gadgets and gizmos the Tudaloos have at their disposal today, the music he wrote back in the early ’80s might have sounded a lot like this. To call what the Tudaloos are doing simply indie pop would be to ignore the…

Take three Long Island-bred white girls, send them to Vassar, Oberlin and NYU, then bring them back together in New York to make some hip-hop tracks. Sounds like a recipe for precious, pretentious and potentially offensive disaster, right? Well, Northern State has been pulling this off since 2000 with mostly…

The New Pornographers have a leg up on most groups, in that two of their members are accomplished solo artists: Neko Case has her alt-country thing, and Dan Bejar has Destroyer, his retro-weirdo Bowie thing. Together with New Porns principal A.C. Newman, they make near-perfect power-pop albums, culminating with 2005’s…

Just as San Francisco’s late-’60s psychedelic scene was winding down, legendary concert promoter Bill Graham helped raise the Bay Area’s collective consciousness by bringing in artists such as Miles Davis, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding and B.B. King. By the time Oakland’s Tower of Power hit the scene in the…

After making the Eastern Hemisphere laugh for the past five years, Flight of the Conchords has finally taken off stateside, giving us a reason to hang on to that HBO subscription for a little while longer. Formerly promoting itself as “New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk parody act,” the Kiwi…

Korn isn’t what it used to be. In recent years, guitarist Brian “Head” Welch and drummer David Silveria have left the group, and the remaining members — guitarist Munky, bassist Fieldy and vocalist Jonathan Davis — aren’t in a rush to fill their slots. “It’s hard, because these are members…

Modern-day troubadour, educator, soul-stirrer, poet and hip folkster: Amos Lee is a man of many hats. Well, that is, when he’s not losing them. “I just really enjoyed those hats,” Lee says, referring to the headgear displayed on his album covers, which has become something of a trademark for him…

Every time one of my boys has a birthday, I make it a point to call or send a text message, to let him know that I’m thinking about him. But it’s really Sweetie who’s doing the thinking. While the pertinent dates of all my kinfolk are stored securely in…