Spins
Mulatu Astatke reviewed
New York – Addis – London (Strut) Fans of Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers might know Mulatu Astatke’s spy jazz for the way it soundtracked Bill Murray’s hunt.
R. Kelly reviewed
Untitled (Jive) Whatever its artistic merits, Untitled is Weird Al-proof, an utterly ridiculous R&B spoof with its creator an amalgam of Luther Vandross, Luther Campbell, and Steve Stiffler.
Michael Londra gets festive
Beyond The Star (Celt Productions) Locally based Irish native Michael Londra has taken the logical step and made a holiday album — and, like he told the Sun-Times, he doesn’t rock the house.
Daptone Gold reviewed
Various Artists Daptone Gold (Daptone) Lee Fields, Naomi Shelton, Charles Bradley: these are names that all fans of classic soul music should know, but likely don’t. Along with Sharon Jones, these are vocalists who have been baring their life on the mic for years yet weren’t given the proper platform until connecting with Brooklyn-based […]
Fuck Buttons review
Tarot Sport (ATP) The title of Fuck Buttons’ debut, Street Horrrsing, really opened my eyes. Suddenly I was envisioning a pirate barebacking a pony down Columbus Drive. And the band’s name? No more was it a salacious euphemism for a woman’s sweet spot, but a repudiation: “I love zippers and can never get enough of […]
Baling The Beatles
The Beatles Stereo Reissues At the Entertainer, we do it for you. We suffered through some 14 albums of some obnoxious old band called The Beatles, who’ve plagued the universe with new versions of their old albums. The following are our results. Beware.
Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard reviewed
One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur (F-Stop/Atlantic) Son Volt’s Jay Farrar and Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard met after being asked to record songs for the Jack Kerouac documentary that shares titles with this album. They then bonded and wrote some more. Appearing: Monday, October 26th at Lincoln Hall in Chicago.
Tinariwen reviewed
Imidiwan: Companions (World Village) Tinariwen are exactly the sort of guitar band who you feel could break Joe America’s skittishness toward “world” music, yet stand in their own way. The title of their fourth album translates to “companions,” which suggests an unfortunate, one-world Benetton pretense. If people only stayed to find out what’s meant by […]
Sleeping At Last reviewed
Storyboards (Asteroid-B) Sleeping At Last will be one of Chicago’s great what-ifs. Handpicked to open one of the first few Zwan gigs and given time to craft a sweeping, Radiohead-style debut, their success only seemed a matter of when.
The Antlers review
Hospice (Frenchkiss) Noise, even if it was just a texture, used to stand out. When some bebop saxophonist assailed you with a foul note you knew it, just as a rapacious feedback squeal could jump off a slab of vinyl and unseat you if even for the shortest moment. Appearing: Monday, September 21st at Subterranean […]
Thecocknbullkid review
Querelle (Iamsound) That Thecocknbullkid was born to Ghanaian parents and was reared mainly in East London isn’t much of a tagline these days. If she’s looking for an ethnic success story she need look no further than down the road to Stamford Bridge, where one of the world’s most expensive footballers is from Ghana. Musically […]
Woodstock revisited!
Woodstock: 40 Years On – Back To Yasgur’s Farm (Rhino) What better way to spend Lollapalooza weekend than with a six-CD set from a festival nine-years your senior in air-conditioned glory? Take it from someone who wasn’t there!
Baby Teeth reviewed
Hustle Beach (Lujo) We’ve all been there. You sit on the couch with a shit-eating grin, chuckling and guffawing away at a comedy you’ve seen a hundred times since high school while the person sitting beside you utters those infernal words, “This is stupid.” (This person who loves you?) And you say, “What are you […]
Dave Matthews Band reviewed
Big Whiskey & The Groogrux King (RCA) Big Whiskey & The Groogrux King will go down as the album Dave Matthews Band were making when saxophonist LeRoi Moore died, not that you’d know from the recording. Appearing: July 18th and 19th at Alpine Valley in East Troy, WI.
Ryan Bingham reviewed
Roadhouse Sun (Lost Highway) Of the criticisms levelled against Ryan Bingham’s major-label debut, Mescalito, was its obsession with establishing the author in a fabric of hobos, grifters, and drifters, an attempt to build cred through self-mythology. Appearing: Saturday, July 11 at Martyrs in Chicago.
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