Amid an overwhelming swell of symphonics, Venus Hum’s Annette Strean is exultant: “I am taken by the sun!/The golden glorious sun!/Arms spread wide and my face toward the sky!/I am singing at the top of my lungs!/I am taken by the sun!” These are lyrics from “The Bells,” among the…
What was going on in Jimmy Cliff’s mind when he named his 2002 album Fantastic Plastic People? Did he lose his grip on reality after spending 30 years helping to define Jamaican music? Or maybe, spinning off his song “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” he now finds himself surrounded by plastic…
Self-loathing is South Florida’s incurable cancer. The fact is, no one loves this part of the country enough to want to save it. There are dozens of other cities that care enough about themselves that they don’t chase their symphony out of town. And nowhere feeds its historic architecture and…
Eve 6 has managed a few blasts of radio-ready teen angst made palatable by expensive guitar crunch, snappy choruses, and front man Max Collins’ practiced bellow; the band’s debut single, “Inside Out,” still sounds pretty good on mix CDs, and 2000’s “Here’s to the Night” could pass for a featherweight…
The great horror movies aren’t about the gore. Rather, they linger in the mind, creep into your thoughts, spook your waking hours. Ilya has similarly subtle aims on its full-length debut; the group’s deceptively soothing trip-hop is both lovely and menacing. Poise Is the Greater Architect has the consistency of…
The practice of one artist or band creating the entire soundtrack for a film has become almost obsolete. Instead, music supervisors try to put together a “greatest hits” type of package with hip and/or notable musicians as part of the public-friendly soundtrack. Score composers are brought in separately. But David…
Banking on the dreams of would-be lyricists who’d answer want ads from “hit-makers” in the back pages of tabloid-style magazines, several low-budget song factories (based mostly in Nashville and Hollywood) once offered fame and fortune to any red-blooded Yankee willing to submit unwashed verse for “professional” studio consideration. “No special…
Classically trained Indian singer Susheela Raman has one of the most haunting voices in world music today. You could listen to it for years and never tire of it. Put her together with a couple of Tuvan throat singers, a kora player, and Afrobeat drum legend Tony Allen and you’re…
In 1986, Frank Zappa released Does Humor Belong in Music? — a smarmy, unfunny collection of borscht belt comedy and “Look, Ma — I can play!” chops that answered his postulation with a resounding no. Fortunately, James Dewees, the hyperactive and wonderfully deranged mastermind behind Reggie and the Full Effect,…
During the season most of us love to hate, it helps to set the hellacious days and stifling nights to music. A poor substitute in lieu of air conditioning, perhaps, though these recommendations are designed to distract you to the point that you forget about the pool of sweat collecting…
Despite what the mainstream press says, there are no winners on American Idol. The contestants, judges, and producers on the dumbest game show in the history of American television are all losers. Sure, in both previous years of the contest, the two finalists have gained celebrity. But American Idol fame…
Massachusetts singer-songwriter John P. Alexander has been here before. He hung out with fellow Vietnam vet and former Seminole Chief Jim Billie at a Hollywood nightclub. And he toured South Florida with his sticker-festooned acoustic guitar back in 1999. This information and more was gleaned from his website, johnalexander.com. And…
Thomas Wolfe once said, “You can’t go home again,” but he never ran into Perry Farrell. Repeatedly given up for dead, both literally and career-wise, the 44-year-old singer is darkening our doorstep again. This summer finds Farrell resurrecting both Jane’s Addiction and Lollapalooza, the traveling festival originally conceived as the…
We were going to start by bitching about how three of the first five tracks on Ashanti’s bloated, boring new LP are skits and intros, but then we realized that the filler was less annoying than the actual songs. “I don’t want to be this woman the second time around,”…
Miami’s Para has long toyed with the notion of operating as an acoustic duo along the lines of a Latin-tinged Mazzy Star, but singer Jaquelline Biver and guitarist Omar Elesgaray found that transforming their gentle tunes into fleshed-out rockers provided more fun. The band is a full five-piece now, but…
In our long thin sliver of occupied territory, enjoying nighttime entertainment requires a serious commitment. Only a few lucky souls are fortunate enough to live near the scattered outposts of fun and diversion, and many of them wouldn’t be caught dead walking to their destinations. When was the last time…
Although this band of Limey distorto-demons has made quite a name in the UK recording for Creation, the label that birthed My Bloody Valentine and Oasis, they’re hardly known Stateside. This compilation collects most of their stunning legacy in one place, and for those unfamiliar with the group’s sound, which…
Paradoxically, metal bands tend to take themselves too seriously, which keeps outsiders from taking their music seriously. It’s difficult to add levity to lyrics about ritual sacrifices, cannibalism, and other gnarly topics, but even heavy outfits that aren’t death-obsessed can burden listeners with tales of angst and alienation. The hard-stuff…
From H.L. Mencken to the Coen Brothers, patronizing Yankees have always been quick to giggle at the rubes down South. Three decades ago — after watching Harvard-educated Dick Cavett grill high school dropout and then-Georgia governor Lester Maddox on national TV — Louisiana-born singer-songwriter Randy Newman decided he had seen…
With Silver Lake, Chesnutt strides confidently into the realm of lushness — and for the first time, that’s not an alcohol reference. Because of his partial paralysis, his guitar leans toward spare necessity, and his voice, always a wry bittersweet instrument, often comes closer to spoken word than to singing…
The conventional wisdom about Ziggy Marley is that as he gets older, his voice more resembles that of his daddy, Robert Nesta Marley, and his music sounds less and less like that of his father. This maxim has been stated so many times by music critics who feign knowledge of…
After 30 years of LSD-friendly rock ‘n’ roll, the Grateful Dead requires no introduction. But perhaps the Dead needs one. After Jerry “Captain Trips” Garcia embarked on his final journey in 1995, the rest of the band got together and continued as the Other Ones. The resulting tour highlighted the…
