Aloe Blacc has been unfairly smeared as the indie R. Kelly, an onerous association that shortchanges Blacc’s depth, versatility and amazing absorption of everything from A Tribe Called Quest and Isaac Hayes to slippery salsa and down-tempo electronica. Covering Sam Cooke’s spare hymn “Long Time Coming,” Blacc transforms the cut…
As the Terror Squad’s official DJ, Miami-based DJ Khaled has made a name for himself on the mixtape scene over the past few years. So when it came time to make his inaugural record, he had a long list of artists he could use on the project. Typically, a DJ…
Kelly David is one of Colorado’s most unusual recording artists — a lawyer and sometime radio DJ who also happens to be a skilled producer of electronic/ambient music. While his latest recording may not be as immediately striking as his 2002 masterwork, Broken Voyage, it’s (moderately) more accessible and eventually…
The transformation of No Fair Fights has been absolutely stunning. Just two years ago, the group was churning out mediocre, cookie-cutter pop punk. But the outfit’s musicianship has taken a quantum leap since then, and its latest effort, a self-titled, seven-song affair, is killer from start to finish. The prog-inflected,…
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, I Stand Alone (ANTI). Primarily a collection of short country-folk vignettes in the Bob Dylan vein, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s I Stand Alone is at once poetic and homespun. With bare-bones acoustic production and little derivation, Elliott expands on the traditional lyrical themes of lost love and wanderlust…
It’s no surprise that our most soulful president tapped Buckwheat Zydeco to play both of his inaugurations. Slick Willy knew that no one other than the oft-labeled “world’s greatest party band” could, you know, get the party started. Buck, born Stanley Dural Jr., refuses to follow a set list, opting…
I’m sick to death of instrumental rock. There are just too many mathy, proggy, wanky outfits these days, trying to impress us with their fretboard acrobatics, fractal time signatures and abstract harmonies. With more notes per minute than Charlie Parker, some of today’s vocal-less ensembles practically numb the ears and…
Imagine it’s 1925, and you and yours have decided to spend Friday night at the club. On stage is a new female duet with a forward-thinking way of melding jazz, swing, tightly woven harmonies and vaudeville-era musical theater. There’s a tall drink o’ water on the mandolin and dulcimer –…
As a graf artist, DJ and MC, AWOL came up in the same California underground scene that gave birth to such respected hip-hop artists as the Shape Shifters and the Project Blowed crew. He’s released a handful of projects with the likes of Daddy Kev and Fat Jack and has…
Potter and her band hail from Vermont, a state with a musically Phishy image, and Nothing but the Water, the title of the Nocturnals’ first CD, does nothing to dispel this reputation. But if some of the picking and playing showcased on the album draws from the same well Trey…
You might have heard this one before. The guitarist channels his emotive heroes while the rhythm section pounds with aggression and class. They start out rocking hard, proudly displaying their harder influences — maybe Budgie, Fugazi or Mission of Burma. But faster than you can say “Yoko Ono,” the female…
Back in 2002, DJ Paul Oakenfold released Bunkka, a disc that presented him as a recording artist rather than a superstar spinner. Withering reviews followed, but he scored a major dance-music hit anyway, courtesy of “Starry Eyed Surprise,” a melody-happy slammer warbled by one of the most unlikely collaborators imaginable:…
Around our house, a new Gourds album is anticipated like a sacred tablet coming down from the mountain — or, at the very least, a new unearthed episode of Kung Fu. If Quentin Tarantino were to make a movie based on a recording session for the Gourds’ latest analog-tracked album,…
Liza Oxnard could give Norah Jones a run for her money any day of the week. Straight out of the People’s Republic, the erstwhile Zuba frontwoman and new mother has a bewitching voice that’s easier on the ears than Katherine Heigl is on the eyes. Make no mistake, though: Liza,…
After establishing himself as one of the founding fathers of the East Coast rave scene during the early ’90s, New York’s DJ Micro became one of the most recognizable faces in American dance music. As founder of the seminal label Caffeine, Micro created one of the key underground forces that…
Picture yourself as singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. Now imagine that virtually every article written about you over the better part of a decade (even the complimentary ones) has portrayed you as something of an oddball — a gifted but fragile artist who thoroughly dislikes the interview process. If that’s the case,…
Maybe it was the complimentary Coors everyone was sucking down. Or perhaps it was the savory slabs of roast beef and turkey that folks were shoving into their gullets. Ultimately, I wasn’t sure exactly what had put everyone in such high, ahem, spirits this past Monday night at the twelfth…
The Coup’s Boots Riley sounds like he’s dying. “Naw, my voice always sounds like this in the mornings,” the rapper croaks. “It’s just part of it, for me — like riding in this van for ten weeks.” Riley is traveling with half a dozen other people in support of his…
What’s in a lead singer? Audioslave and Velvet Revolver have gotten along quite nicely without their prima donna leaders, thank you very much. Certainly, the Mark Burnett-produced reality series Rockstar has become the television equivalent of the world’s biggest band ad. After rescuing INXS’s remaining members from oblivion, the second…
L.A. rockers the Bronx have never had to work too hard to get noticed. After just a few gigs, the quartet was beating back A&R reps because of its brutal tunes and punishing live shows, until Island Def Jam finally got through. The major-label story often ends in broken promises…
The latest installment of Johnny Cash’s epic American series, American V: A Hundred Highways, is the most poignant, cohesive album in the collection to date. Released two and a half years after the singer’s death, the introspective American V centers on spirituality and mortality. The opening cover of Larry Gatlin’s…
Busta Rhymes has recently embarked on a career makeover. He’s got a new label, a new haircut and a new body. But his latest album, The Big Bang, is reminiscent of the Busta of the ’90s: hungry, charismatic and crazy. The Dr. Dre-produced opening salvo, “Get You Some,” finds Rhymes…
