New York quartet Asobi Seksu’s album cover has a “dream pop” label stamped squarely top-left like a ’60s hi-fi Stones record. They obviously aren’t afraid of wearing their influences on their sleeves. Asobi Seksu is a pastiche of early ’90s indie rock, with flagrant overtones of My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab,…
Armed to the teeth, bloodthirsty, and more concerned with making profits than being prophets, the members of G-Unit sound like the perfect candidates to be delivering the keynote address at next month’s Republican National Convention (“G-G-G-G.O.P.!”). Fortunately, Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, and (of course) 50 Cent harness their…
Baltimore-based Nautical Almanac builds its own instruments — instruments that, if the liner notes to Rooting for the Microbes are to be believed, do not require the use of electricity. Dubious, indeed. Closer listening to this record suggests that NA principals Twig Harper, Carly Ptak, and assorted guests reside in…
Quantity over quality must have been the motto behind this compendium, which collects several hours’ worth of live footage — including camcorder bootlegs shot in a high school gymnasium — in its quest to compile a visual record of stark, strummy Galaxie 500. By far the most worthy portion of…
Born a simple country boy in rural Jamaica, Jepther McClymont, a.k.a. Luciano, has become the premier roots singer of his generation. As one of the few top-shelf artists to hold firm to the traditional reggae sound in a dancehall-dominated scene, he has earned the conscious mantle once worn by Jacob…
Hey, kids! You wanna look cool at the club, with a style that just screams “Look at me!”? Well, nothing will get you there quicker than downing one of the many trendy hip-hop-flavored energy drinks on the market right now. At least, that’s what Nelly, Ice-T, Russell Simmons, and Lil’…
In a sweltering, cavernous gym in Miami-Dade County, a crowd of about 50 young men and women, a few small, squealing children, and one really brave grandma gathers on a Saturday night, plopping down in a small, informal circle. In the middle stand ten guys — five on one side,…
What happens when you combine three quirky DJs, a bottle of George Dickel Tennessee whisky, a swanky downtown dance club peppered with white couches, girls in hot pants, and male bonding? A totally hot dance party, that’s what. Add a DJ booth adorned with Jesus bobble-head dolls, crates of new…
The Scissor Sisters exhibit a keen survivor’s instinct, with one platformed heel angled toward the past and the other toward the future. In 2001, they made a slapdash attempt to infiltrate Williamsburg’s electroclash scene. That big, neon ship went down, but like Peaches and Tracy and the Plastics, the Scissor…
To most people, world beat music conjures the sounds of ethereal synthesizers mixed with tabla beats and finger cymbals. But few know the modern world beat of Macha, a trio from Athens, Georgia, that fuses alternative rock with Indonesian folk as seamlessly as Talking Heads merged post-punk with African music…
When silly is your MO, the line between self-parody and business as usual is exceptionally thin. They Might Be Giants has had ample opportunity to explore both sides of that divide. In nearly 20 years of remarkably consistent recording and performing, it’s become the riot-nrrd AC/DC. A streak of early…
Tadd Mullinix (sometimes known as Dabrye, here referred to as Cotton, and never to be confused with the similarly named blues guitarist) knows that retro electronics are becoming passé. It’s not enough to rehash, so on his first album as Cotton, The Dancing Box, he rearranges history instead. The delirious…
When Nonpoint came straight outta Fort Lauderdale with its 2000 major-label debut, Statement, the band was inevitably whipped into the nu-metal frenzy of the Linkin Parks of the day. Nu-metal’s not so new anymore, but Nonpoint’s third full-length, Recoil, finds its sea legs among a more melodic wave of metal…
Mr. Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone isn’t just any indie-label rapper. This 1986 new-school graduate has become certifiably old-school as he nears his 20th anniversary of MCing professionally. Having renounced the path of criminal-mindedness after his DJ, Scott La Rock, was senselessly murdered 17 years ago, KRS has blazed…
At a dance party at the Fox and Hound in Fort Lauderdale last year, just as the DJ put on Dre and Snoop’s “Gin and Juice,” a young man casually slipped me a CD. He looked deep into my glassy, alcohol-fogged eyes and said, “Few DJs have mastered the very…
On a recent Wednesday, if you were playing (or being played) at Voodoo Lounge’s ladies night and looked past sweating ice buckets, through the dance floor, and to the DJ table above, you would have seen Cato K — baggy jeans, T-shirt, baseball cap — spinning his South Beach mix…
It was such a weird, surreal thing when emo became a commodity.” So says Rjyan Kidwell. For anyone familiar with the IDM-cum-menacing glitch-hop of his more notable alias Cex, this reflection might be surprising at first. But on second thought, it’s not. The 22-year-old Baltimore native’s inner conflict embodies emo…
His 2003 full-length, Leave Luck to Heaven, still induces compulsive gyration in even the most discriminating clubbin’ hipsters. This year, Detroit micro-house darling Matthew Dear returns with his extended EP, Backstroke. Like the three states of matter, Backstroke travels through phases of solid, liquid, and gas. Dear swiftly stimulates the…
The pop smorgasbord on Beenie Man’s previous major-label releases, 2000’s Art and Life and 2002’s Tropical Storm, disguised the vocal vigor of one of dancehall reggae’s most charismatic artists. But on his first authentic dancehall album in years, Back to Basics, he displays an impressive, at times astonishing DJ flow,…
Guess who has more gold and platinum records than any MC in the history of rap? Todd “Too $hort” Shaw, that’s who. It takes a lot more than just repeated usage of the b word to achieve that kind of success, especially considering how much the rap game has changed…
Listening to this Britpop band’s debut CD is like enjoying a perfectly dry martini only to discover that the olive is rotten. Playing the part of the olive is lead singer Greg Gilbert, whose voice takes disturbing turns from ethereal falsetto to raspy growl. If he stayed aloft — making…
Of all the bands swearing devotion to the Sonics/Stones/Stooges holy trinity of garage rock, the Hives have always seemed to have the most fun. Unhindered by the Strokes’ penchant for rock-star cliché or the White Stripes’ Machiavellian creepiness, the Hives reveled in the simple pleasures of three chords, a bare-bones…
