Teedra Moses grew up studying her mother, a successful gospel singer on the church revival circuit. She grew up listening to gospel on the radio in her mother’s car and jamming to Luther Vandross. Later, she graduated to every young girl’s first love: Prince. Moses studied Prince songs like calculus…
No woman is an island. But in 1999, New York-based electropunks Le Tigre suggested that one could be. The dance feministas — fronted by Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna — sounded equally idiosyncratic and didactic at the time, their sole peer being Germany’s Chicks on Speed. On Le Tigre’s third full-length,…
Though big beat never really exceeded its novelty status, artists like Fatboy Slim helped champion its thunderous dance-funk anthems into mainstream success. Songs such as “Praise You” and “Gangster Trippin'” became such commercial forces that they — deliberately or not — added to the soundtrack of our lives. So maybe…
Armed with a PowerBook, vocoder, some moogs, and a host of analog accessories, Toronto’s Solvent (a.k.a. Jason Amm) pre-sents us with his fourth full-length and first for the Detroit techno label Ghostly. And the knobs Amm twiddles produce some of the finest synth-pop to come out in years. Instantly nostalgic…
If LL Cool J’s most recent album seemed to prove that hip-hop wouldn’t allow its veteran stars to age gracefully, this is the rebuttal. Largely MIA since 2001, De la Soul has still seen the growth of its reputation as patron saint of the hip-hop underground. If you can get…
Hot Snakes’ Audit in Progress, the third and best LP issued by these lively rock lifers from Rocket from the Crypt and Drive Like Jehu, is possibly this year’s most beautifully coasting, satisfying rock effort to date. John Reis’ vocals come straight from the deep, as if he might upchuck…
Time Well Spent (Parasol) The genesis of the South Florida duo Time Well Spent is one of love — love for ’60s psych, ’70s soft rock, and a man named Burt. Vocalist Casey Fundaro (the nephew of Three Dog Night’s Danny Hutton) and guitarist/pianist Christopher Moll (formerly of locals See…
It was the fall or winter of 1995, and I was standing in front of the stage at the Edge in Fort Lauderdale, being throttled by a throng of sweaty, mohawked kids while trying in vain to chain-smoke the pack of cigarettes I had stolen from my mom. It was…
Brian Wilson’s story is one of creativity and commerce, about trying to make the most innovative, divine music in the world. It’s also about a dysfunctional family, about a tyrannical father who beat him so hard that he went deaf in one ear, about brothers who lent him the voices…
It’s gotta be the biscuits, because good things keep coming out of North Carolina. The Tarheel state is chock-full of Southern gems, and musically, it’s long been an incubator for such rock landscapers as Superchunk, Polvo, Archers of Loaf, and the little labels that could, Merge and Mr. Lady Records…
Real Gone, Tom Waits’ first record since the double-whammy of Alice and Blood Money in 2002, clanks and wheezes and wails and pontificates, alternating cacophonous, uptempo tunes with theatrical narratives and Quaalude reggae. It’s a great Waits record, populated, as always, with loners, losers, and outsiders. Recorded real loud, Real…
The Prodigy came of age when big pants and even bigger beats reigned supreme in England, but the band became known to most Americans in 1997 with the sadistic metal twang of “Firestarter.” Outgunned, its first proper studio disc since that time and first without spiky-haired barker Keith Flint, hasn’t…
On the heels of Tijuana’s Julieta Venegas’ alt-pop smash hit and Latin Grammy winner Sí comes yet another Mexican norteña that should make as much noise. Monterrey-born Ely Guerra’s fourth album is truthful to its name. It has a strong pop element during the “sweet and sour” segment (the first…
Not since the late Bobby Darin has there been a talent as protean as Dolly Parton: She’s straddled both the Top 40 pop and country music charts; she’s mainlined Vegas glitz into bluegrass; and she’s found time to sing with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, act in Hollywood movies, and open Dollywood,…
Talib Kweli has been called a revolutionary, a philosopher, a teacher, a social critic who waxes poetic on the black community’s travails. While he doesn’t necessarily accept these labels, his latest CD, The Beautiful Struggle, most definitely is a solid foundation for this talented MC. Kweli’s struggle doesn’t feature the…
Some people dread reunions. It would be easy to assume that about Charles Thompson — the Pixies front man who shrieked and howled under the name Black Francis before launching a successful solo career as Frank Black. He is infamous for being a grouch. And interviewing a grumpy rock star…
The mandolin, like the cowbell, is a misunderstood instrument. Is it bluegrass? Classical? Latin? And while you will most likely never hear an overzealous fan scream “More mandolin!” at a concert or hear a killer minute-plus mandolin solo, the instrument has its place in history. You can pretty much incorporate…
DJ Anthony B set dancehall ablaze in 1996 with the searing single “Fire Pon Rome,” which condemned several Jamaican leaders and was promptly banned from the island’s airwaves. He continues his lyrical denunciations on Untouchable, his first album for Miami’s Togetherness Records, addressing topics ranging from racial profiling (“Love I…
Interpol faces a tough challenge: how to top its rich, 2002 debut, Turn on the Bright Lights, an album that imported the enlightened desperation of Thatcher-era Manchester to our shores. Sophomore efforts have always been the fodder of scourge. Such is the dilemma of call and response, and hence the…
The voice and vintage-R&B vibe of Joss Stone’s 2003 debut, The Soul Sessions, were so at odds with reality — how could the second coming of Aretha be a lily-white British teen? — that it’s still hard to believe. But not only does Mind, Body & Soul repeat the trick,…
Last summer, MorissonPoe dropped a record called Leaving It All Behind, and then they did just that. The quartet ditched the South Florida music scene for New York City. But amazingly, they didn’t come back. Instead, they recorded an album with Ethology Records in New York, and the result is…
BY AUDRA SCHROEDER Helen Horal’s voice is familiar. Familiar like a face you see at a party, make eye contact with, and smile at briefly before looking away, even though you and that person are total strangers. It’s a voice that garners many comparisons, but there’s something more tangible than…
