1. T.I. , King (Atlantic) 2. Paul Wall, The Peoples Champ (Atlantic) 3. E-40, My Ghetto Report Card (Warner Bros) 4. LL Cool J, Todd Smith (Def Jam) 5. James Blunt, Back to Bedlam (Atlantic) 6. Toby Keith, White Trash With Money (Show Dog Nashville) 7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Show…
Jacques Brel and Morrissey walk into a bar. As Kurt Weill pours the Maker’s and glasses are raised, Marlene Dietrich pulls up a barstool. The liquor flows and the conversation percolates. Dietrich is considering a sex change, Brel can’t stop talking about abortions and the Holocaust, and Morrissey keeps bringing…
Chicago’s Carl Mitchell, a.k.a. Twista, isn’t a musical or lyrical innovator, but he’s got the fastest tongue in hip-hop, and his quick spitting — and the collaborators he’s attracted as a result — helps explain why his career’s on the upswing after nearly a decade in the game. His verbal…
Lila Downs wowed audiences as the tango singer in Salma Hayek’s Frida and won a Latin Grammy for Best Folk Album for Una Sangre (One Blood), which blended Mexican folk music with hip-hop and world beats from the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East. The arrangements on La Cantina:…
Opportunities for guilt-free — no, make that philanthropic — partying just don’t seem to happen enough, but this Saturday night’s MasquerAID gives you the chance to do just that. MasquerAID, at the Icehouse (429 West Jackson Street), is a benefit for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the…
It’s not uncommon to see art galleries doing double duty as live music venues around town, but music and art museums still don’t seem to mix. Not unless you count the unsung jazz and chamber music ensembles that give ambiance to events where guests are more into the cheese platter…
The title of this one’s a scam, as the 19-track comp only includes the earliest and latest of Johnny Thunders’ post-New York Dolls output, prior to his falling ill of leukemia, which caused complications that led to his death in ’91. But it does hit the obvious sweet spots (and…
A lot has been said about this Tucson man and his trademark public address system/helmet. Like, if Evel Knievel had been wearing Bob Log headgear back in the day, we would’ve heard “SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!” a whole mess of times as he plummeted down Snake River Canyon. And if Bob…
Despite the persistent hints of dread on Garden Ruin, Calexico manages its worried blues on these gracefully stripped-down acoustic numbers. After 10 years of sorting through multicultural influences, this Tucson collective has simplified its sound, allowing the occasional glockenspiel or Spanish lyric to gain a world-weary grandeur. Amidst the record’s…
Murs’ new album, Murray’s Revenge, is a follow-up to his last collaboration with underground producer 9th Wonder, 2004’s critically acclaimed Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition. While that album was moodily introspective — its cover image featured Murs under a freeway, tipping his hat toward the night sky — Murray’s Revenge…
Please excuse Nick Diamonds and Jaime T’ambour while they resurrect themselves. If you’ll recall, they bought the proverbial farm at the conclusion of The Unicorns’ landmark Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, a sort of fey, goofy, indie rock Final Exit. The Canadian pair have since jettisoned Alden…
Edvard Munch once wrote, “Illness, insanity and death are the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life.” The Black Angels tuck this cheery little epigram into the triptych of the beautifully eye-popping design of their debut album. They make good on their implied…
A monument stands at the center of What the Toll Tells, Two Gallants’ sophomore album, and like any dramatic reminder of a dark era passed, it inspires some serious introspection. At almost 10 minutes in length, “Threnody” is exactly what its title suggests, a poetic song of lament — specifically,…
I’ve seen the future of hippie music, and it’s called Sound Tribe Sector 9. Moreover, this phrase isn’t nearly as much of a backhanded insult as it initially appears. Sure, the Atlanta-based quintet is beloved by the I-swear-hemp-underwear-doesn’t-itch crowd. But unlike acts that spend their careers trying to rewrite “Sugar…
When it comes to turntablists in this town, nobody can fuck with DJ Radar. Not only has Radar composed and performed his classical Concerto for Turntable at Carnegie Hall, but the scratchmaster’s designed and built his own custom looping machine for making his beats, scratches, and wahh’s cascade over one…
Cincinnati/Brooklyn hip-hop trio Tanya Morgan’s debut album, Moonlighting, sounds ebullient. Its tone seems influenced by both West Coast indie rap (and that coast’s penchant for making freewheeling, carefree music) and the punch-line-heavy battle rhymes of East Coast underground hip-hop. Whether intentionally or not, the unusually named Tanya Morgan (the names…
1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Show Your Bones (Interscope Records) 2. Madlib, Beat Konducta, Vol. 1-2 (Stones Throw) 3. Hank Williams III, Straight to Hell (Bruc Records) 4. Various Artists, The Soul Side of the Street (Bacchus Archives) 5. Integrity, Palm Sunday (Spook City) 6. Aceyalone with RJD2, Magnificent City (Decon…
According to conventional rap wisdom, New York’s dead, Atlanta crunk is played, and Bay Area hyphy is poised to become the next phenomenon that dominates the mainstream. But for the moment, anyway, Houston hip-hop still holds the heavyweight belt; the woozy “screwed” style — first explored by legendary syrup-sippin’ DJ…
Striking album cover art aside, Colorstore’s debut full-length revels in tortured artist glory with 10 moody tracks that swell and recede like the ocean reflecting a violet and tangerine sunset. The fact that it’s so gorgeous should only make fans more antsy to actually get their paws on it –…
It’s often difficult to critically analyze a much-beloved artist, because the reviewer’s tendency is to excuse irksome traits or loathsome sonic detours simply because of past greatness. And so while it’s tempting to give Morrissey a free pass for hauling in a children’s choir for several songs on his eighth…
It’s interesting, yet not all that surprising, to learn that Young People singer Katie Eastburn — when not recording or touring with the bicoastal, avant-garde duo (she lives in New York,; multi-instrumentalist Jarrett Silberman is in L.A.) — is a dancer and choreographer. The band’s brooding third album bears aesthetics…
The only conceivable way this seven-song EP from Ambulance LTD — released as an appetite-whetter for the quartet’s second full-length, due later this year — could come across more British is if there were a scratch ‘n’ sniff circle on the booklet cover that smelled like fish and chips. Not…
