CD exchange: Neil Young for president. What’s that, you say? Neil Young is Canadian! So Neil Young couldn’t be the leader of our fair democracy, but at least, we can muse, “What would Neil Young do?” With his newest release, Living in War, one can certainly formulate a solid hypothesis. The protest album unleashes Young’s […]
Music
Posted inMusic
No reinvention, no imitation
Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs Under the Covers, Vol. 1 (Shout! Factory) When it comes to covers, there are two schools of thought. Adherents of the first try to re-create the original song as closely as possible, which is pointless in theory yet rather lucrative in practice (could a gazillion tribute bands be wrong?). Those […]
Posted inMusic
Vinyl Static
Shows-a-Go-Go! Before Law and Order: SVU slapped a badge on Ice-T’s chest, the rapper had Tipper Gore hyperventilating. An original of gang-sta rap and former member of heavy-metal outfit Body Count, Ice-T penned such anti-establishment rhymes as “New Jack Hustler” while attracting the attention of the second lady’s pet censorship project, Parents Music Resource Center. […]
Posted inMusic
Case of the missing heart
Much has been made of Neko Case’s peerless pipes, and rightly so. Her voice, a resonant contralto, is as loud as a marching band, as bright as church bells, as delicate as peony petals. If it were a color, it would be maroon. It’s even more spectacular than her abundant auburn hair, which cascades down […]
Posted inMusic
Vinyl Static
SHOWS-A-GO-GO! The band is big, and the sound is bigger — if only the Abstract Giants could get a break. The eight-member Chicago-based hip-hop band is well known around Chicago’s established scene, but hasn’t gained much buzz outside the Windy City. It’s too bad. The Giants have the originality of the early Roots; their bass […]
Posted inMusic
This dog Van Hunt
Van Hunt is the protégé of American Idol judge Randy Jackson, but try to keep an open mind. (Yeah, I know — it’s hard not to declare a pox on all their houses now that Mandisa is gone, but technically that outrageous miscarriage of justice was the voters’ fault, not the judges’.) On his sophomore […]
Posted inMusic
Vinyl Static
CD EXCHANGE: You weren’t the only disgruntled Springfield inhabitant who tore the shrink wrap off Illinois, Sufjan Stevens’ ode to the Land of Lincoln, only to find that the sole track representing the capital city is a measly 47-second interlude titled “A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane for Very Good Reasons.” Not […]
Posted inMusic
Experiment with pleasure
They grow ’em weird in Brazil, and of all Brazil’s wonderfully weird cultural exports, Tom Zé may be the weirdest and most wonderful. Zé, who turns 70 this year, is one of the founders of Tropicalia, a musical, intellectual, and political movement that swept São Paolo by storm in the late ’60s and early ’70s […]
Posted inMusic
Music notes
SHOWS A-GO-GO! You will like the Boss Martians, because Steven Van Zandt likes the Boss Martians. The Seattle foursome won the coveted “Coolest Song of the Year” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage, Van Zandt’s Internet-broadcast radio show, in 2003. The Martians play garage rock, but if they’ve learned anything from the school of Little Steven, […]
Posted inMusic
The song’s the thing
You might not think you know who Jules Shear is, but you’ve probably heard at least one of his songs. Although the 54-year-old Pittsburgh native has been performing for almost 30 years now, his songs are much more famous than he is, thanks to several high-profile cover versions. Cyndi Lauper and the Bangles scored chart […]
Posted inMusic
True to form, brilliantly
Will Johnson, Centro-matic’s singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter, is more than a frontman; he’s a frickin’ franchise. Besides cranking out eight Centro-matic CDs, Johnson has managed to write and record a couple of solo albums and releases by Centro-matic’s slightly weirder and more downtempo alter ego, South San Gabriel. Meanwhile, he and his loyal cohorts […]
Posted inMusic
Contemporary antiquaries
Christian Kiefer and Sharron Kraus The Black Dove (Tompkins Square) On their first collaboration, songwriter/brainiacs Christian Kiefer (a Ph.D. candidate in American literature) and Sharron Kraus (a former Oxford tutor in philosophy) deliver 15 moody, mostly acoustic tracks that have one foot in the art house and the other in the moors. Kraus, who sings […]
