Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

In August 2000, Be released their alternative guitar rock debut, Avalanche, and the recording barely made the radar screen. So, these Arkansas rockers moved to Dallas, Texas to complete work on Thisstupidream, and self-produced a moody and hazy Brit-Pop inflected collection of lushly plied rhythms and dreamy sonicscapes, similar to ...

What is "New Math"? Let's take an example: Ben Folds Five minus two equals Ben Folds. Make sense? It will when you listen to the new Ben Folds album "Rockin the Suburbs." (Don't like math? Neither do I.) For those who haven't heard Ben Folds before, he is one hell ...

Although Beulah has a horn section, the band is no Blues Brothers. Nor are they No Doubt. It's rather difficult to pin down their sound. Beulah creates a unique Beach Boys meets 90's indie mix without the sloppiness sometimes inherent in the genre. These arrangements are tight and thoughtful, and ...

Evidently, Norwegian death-gods Emperor weren't getting job done with enough brutality, so former guitarist Tchort fled to option this project with ex-Satyricon fretmaster Dod. Blood Red Throne exudes nothing but destruction and murderous mayhem. Using classic Scandinavian intensity, their razor's edge riffage and caustic vocals are intense without becoming too ...

Bongo Poets are a duo, from Massachusetts as near as I can tell (their website tells precious little about them), consisting of Jeff Root and Kim Miller. Miller handles the percussive end, while Root handles everything else, including the quirky compositions. Their music reflects a hodgepodge of influences spanning 40 ...

When Was/NotWas was releasing CDs with some semblance of regularity I used to get really cheesed off about the fact that they could put out great, fat funky tracks and then follow them up with musical armpit farts, stupid juvenility that would bring whatever groove and momentum they had established ...

In the Album "Wonderland," The Charlatans UK have developed a new sound out of a dead style. They began as an uncelebrated addition to the Madchester genre but now have become the only surviving members. Madchester was a dominant British rock style in the late 80's and early 90's distinguished ...

This is...well, it's a bit of a curiosity piece. I'm gonna recommend it, but keep in mind that this isn't even your standard world music. It makes demands. I'm not the world's biggest fan of klezmer, or jewish folk music. But this CD is worth a listen on at ...

Coma Doses' "Re-up" is a killer album that has all the elements a modern metal band should. As for comparisons, "Re-up" is most closely a combination of Snot and Godsmack with a hint of Sevendust. Original and inspired lyrics line the booklet of this not-so-run-of-the-mill album. At first glance Coma ...

Jazz, notwithstanding coffee table books and PBS specials, doesn't get much commercial respect these days. There are a lot of reasons for this. Popular music has been dumbed down to the extent that the familiar, the expected, the shortened attention spans are rewarded. The lesson that the notes which ...

There are producers, mixers, DJs, all over the diddle-damn place. I can't keep up with it. Can anybody keep up with it? My 23 year old son has people handing him CDs they made when he's riding the bus. I mean, it's all over the place. And the funny thing ...

New York DJ Louie DeVito is to the current state of disc jockey entrepreneurs what John "JellyBean" Benitez was back in the early 80's. JellyBean took a young Madonna and soaked her with material with streetwise lyrics, laced with a kind of hip-hop pulsation (e.g. "Sidewalk Talk"). As JellyBean really ...

Having a famous father is a pain in the ass. Every time you do something, someone brings up your old man. I'm gonna do that here, but I'll jump off of it quick, so bear with me. Part of the problem is that I'm a freak for Don Cherry, a ...

What's a wannabe soul diva to do when the playing field is overrun and overcrowded with other divas -- some of whom have stronger pipes, better songs, and more talent to offer the masses?One option would be to improve upon your vocal skills and hire better songwriters. Another option would ...

Hailing from Lousiville, KY, Flaw is a no-nonsense band who knows exactly what they want. After several years of lineup switches, the current lineup has come together to create their latest release, "Through the Eyes." The heartfelt songs on this album are sure to move its listeners. Dynamic songs exhibit ...

The brothas' are back! This time they gave me some of the classics that I only have on wax (and my turntable is broke) and I couldn't keep up to this sound, but now I can!The Full Force sound has been heard and still stands after years. I am ...

"Regular rock made by regular guys." That's the main impression coming from Ginger Moon's "Celebrity Volunteers" album. In the liner notes, there's a quote from one of the band members about how there's "One tune in here for everybody's tastes," and that pretty much sums up the album. The band ...

I've never really followed the Gipsy Kings, but I was at least peripherally aware that they had been m.i.a. Since 1997's COMPAS. They are back now with a new label (the always brilliant Nonesuch), and a new CD, SOMOS GITANOS, but I don't see any immediate plans to tour. In ...

In the end, the best way for guitarist Warren Hayes and drummer Matt Abts to respect and remember their late friend, bassist Allen Woody, was to head back into the studio. This time with a bunch of fellow players and just let the music flow, serving as closure to their ...

There are some record labels that have identity. This is not a new thing. Sun Records had a personality, as did Okeh, and Atlantic at one time. Most of the current labels with identity are independents. Vanguard, Rounder, and Arhoolie are examples. In world music, Putumayo is developing a ...

If funkiness is a word Jamiroquai knows how to spell it. "A Funk Odyssey," the fifth album from singer Jay Kay and his British cohorts, is a tour-de-force of the boys' musical abilities, and the result is a retro-fied album that thumps and bumps its way through the ears from ...

John Train is a Philadelphia quintet that is incrementally building an audience with quietly interesting songs with occasionally intriguing arrangements. LOOKS LIKE UP, their followup to 1999's COUNTRY STANDARD TIME, doesn't deviate much from their tried and true formula so that while there are no new surprises, there is nothing ...

John Williams must have chuckled when he got the commission for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." What other project has he done that was such a guaranteed success? Sure, he scored, "The Phantom Menace," but that film had to put up with the expectations of a generation of moviegoers ...

Listening to "Feeding the Wheel" is a bit like being on one of those pendulum-style fairground rides, constantly swinging back and forth. Unlike the ride, where one extreme is pretty much the same as the other, except for the view, the fourth solo album from Jordan Rudess careens back and ...

Ready for some grooving bass beats, brassy trumpeting in the background, and aggressive rap? Miracle makes a definite impact with his album, Keep it Country. The album contains a fusion of east coast style rap with James Brown funk and soul, especially in tracks such as the jivin' ...