Rough Guides: Salsa Clandestina, Latino Nuevo, Latin Funk
Various Artists
(WORLD MUSIC NETWORK)
I tend to anticipate the new crop of World Music Library’s Rough Guides with the same enthusiasm I anticipate the ripening of blood oranges. Unlike blood oranges, the Rough Guide series discs seldom taste like fruity toothpaste when unripe.
Sweet Jesus, the latest batch is no exception. These three selections focus on contemporary Latin music with an emphasis on danceable, modern, urban style. Thematically, they don’t stray too far apart, and there’s significant crossover in the artists included. Ozomatli, Bakú and the Spam Allstars provide common ground.
All the material is pretty consistent and accessible without sounding too commercial, so choosing a favorite is tough. Choice boils down to geography. If I had to throw a dart, I’d aim for “Latin Funk,” because I happen to be partial to Joe Bataan and Up, Bustle and Out.
¡Que Chevere! —Michael Steiger
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Spottiswoode & His Enemies celebrate 10 years with east coast tour, Louisville stop
Spottiswoode & His Enemies
Spouse
D.W. Box & One Long Song
------------------------------
Tuesday, Dec. 11
Pour Haus
1481 S. Shelby St.
Louisville, Ky.
9 p.m.
By Mat Herron
Jonathan Spottiswoode has issues. Not drugs or drink, caffeine addiction or gambling.
“I can’t listen to very much music,” the Briton turned New Yorker says by phone. “If I listen to something that I like, I’m gonna write another 12 songs, and that’s not necessarily very good for me.”
The namesake of New York impresarios Spottiswoode & His Enemies isn’t kidding. For the band’s album, Salvation, Spottiswoode estimates they recorded 33 songs in six days, and 29 made the cut. That’s a healthy dose of music for a market dominated by iTunes and iPods.
“It really is a problem actually, and I’m thinking about getting counseling for it,” he says, his dry British wit searing through the conversation. “There are so many songs out there in the universe, and now with MySpace, everybody’s got at least four or five songs. It certainly doesn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense.”
Once an intern for Foreign Policy Magazine, Spottiswoode lived in D.C. and spent six years in a band called The Zimmermans before relocating to New York and starting up his own project. Ten years into their career, the group is embarking on a tour with Massachusetts band Spouse, whom Spottiswoode met when the two shared a bill at the now-defunct New York club Brownie’s eight years ago.
Spottiswoode’s collective has been characterized as a quasi-jazz group, but he says whether they tap into that vibe depends on how they feel on a given night. “There are several jazz players in the band — the two horn players; the drummer went to Berklee School of Music (in Boston). There are definitely some jazz influences on some songs; probably right now, there are slightly less. I’d say it’s still there …”
D.W. Box & One Long Song joins Tuesday’s bill at Pour Haus in Germantown. Look up myspace.com/pourhaus for more information.
Contact the writer at mherron@leoweekly.com
Spouse
D.W. Box & One Long Song
------------------------------
Tuesday, Dec. 11
Pour Haus
1481 S. Shelby St.
Louisville, Ky.
9 p.m.
By Mat Herron
Jonathan Spottiswoode has issues. Not drugs or drink, caffeine addiction or gambling.
“I can’t listen to very much music,” the Briton turned New Yorker says by phone. “If I listen to something that I like, I’m gonna write another 12 songs, and that’s not necessarily very good for me.”
The namesake of New York impresarios Spottiswoode & His Enemies isn’t kidding. For the band’s album, Salvation, Spottiswoode estimates they recorded 33 songs in six days, and 29 made the cut. That’s a healthy dose of music for a market dominated by iTunes and iPods.
“It really is a problem actually, and I’m thinking about getting counseling for it,” he says, his dry British wit searing through the conversation. “There are so many songs out there in the universe, and now with MySpace, everybody’s got at least four or five songs. It certainly doesn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense.”
Once an intern for Foreign Policy Magazine, Spottiswoode lived in D.C. and spent six years in a band called The Zimmermans before relocating to New York and starting up his own project. Ten years into their career, the group is embarking on a tour with Massachusetts band Spouse, whom Spottiswoode met when the two shared a bill at the now-defunct New York club Brownie’s eight years ago.
Spottiswoode’s collective has been characterized as a quasi-jazz group, but he says whether they tap into that vibe depends on how they feel on a given night. “There are several jazz players in the band — the two horn players; the drummer went to Berklee School of Music (in Boston). There are definitely some jazz influences on some songs; probably right now, there are slightly less. I’d say it’s still there …”
D.W. Box & One Long Song joins Tuesday’s bill at Pour Haus in Germantown. Look up myspace.com/pourhaus for more information.
Contact the writer at mherron@leoweekly.com
Peter Bjorn & John w/ The Besnard Lakes
Peter, Bjorn & John
w/ The Besnard Lakes
Headliners Music Hall
Louisville, Ky.
11.30.07
By Roxann Slate
A year ago, the most pretentious boy I’ve ever known showed me an animated music video that included whistling and bongos. “This song is so now,” he said. The song played on repeat for days. Then we were done.
If my old friends knew that I was seeing Peter Bjorn & John, they would forget our initial enthusiasm and snub them as old news.
Putting my pretentious past behind me, I went with new friends to their Headliners show last Friday. The scene was the usual Louisville spectacle of “casually dressed up” couples with single males standing along the edges of the room. By the end of the evening, the place was so packed that the awkward special gap most people use to get to the bathroom or bar was filled in.
The opener, The Besnard Lakes, a six-piece group from Canada, struck me as a sign that maybe everyone in Canada is part of a large band that plays songs that grow exceptionally loud. Live, they came off as a generic, wall-of-noise band, but I do believe that perhaps on their albums, the instruments are more defined, and the songs have more character.
Watching Peter, Bjorn & John perform was fun in a playful, innocent way that only Swedish men in suits can pull off. The kind of glee I experienced made me feel that, if they had signed to a different label, they could have easily been targeting the ever-growing “tween” market. (How you would say teeny-bopper in Swedish?)
As performers, they ate up the crowd’s energy, jumping about the stage. They had come an awfully long way to play from their 2006 album Writer’s Block, and a few songs from their self-titled debut and second record, Falling Out.
My new friends and I had a great night. I kept most of my critiques to myself and instead of picking the band, apart I worked on my shoulder-based dance moves. The next time I speak with a snooty old friend, I’ll remember this show as an untold guilty pleasure.
Contact the writer at leo@leoweekly.com
w/ The Besnard Lakes
Headliners Music Hall
Louisville, Ky.
11.30.07
By Roxann Slate
A year ago, the most pretentious boy I’ve ever known showed me an animated music video that included whistling and bongos. “This song is so now,” he said. The song played on repeat for days. Then we were done.
If my old friends knew that I was seeing Peter Bjorn & John, they would forget our initial enthusiasm and snub them as old news.
Putting my pretentious past behind me, I went with new friends to their Headliners show last Friday. The scene was the usual Louisville spectacle of “casually dressed up” couples with single males standing along the edges of the room. By the end of the evening, the place was so packed that the awkward special gap most people use to get to the bathroom or bar was filled in.
The opener, The Besnard Lakes, a six-piece group from Canada, struck me as a sign that maybe everyone in Canada is part of a large band that plays songs that grow exceptionally loud. Live, they came off as a generic, wall-of-noise band, but I do believe that perhaps on their albums, the instruments are more defined, and the songs have more character.
Watching Peter, Bjorn & John perform was fun in a playful, innocent way that only Swedish men in suits can pull off. The kind of glee I experienced made me feel that, if they had signed to a different label, they could have easily been targeting the ever-growing “tween” market. (How you would say teeny-bopper in Swedish?)
As performers, they ate up the crowd’s energy, jumping about the stage. They had come an awfully long way to play from their 2006 album Writer’s Block, and a few songs from their self-titled debut and second record, Falling Out.
My new friends and I had a great night. I kept most of my critiques to myself and instead of picking the band, apart I worked on my shoulder-based dance moves. The next time I speak with a snooty old friend, I’ll remember this show as an untold guilty pleasure.
Contact the writer at leo@leoweekly.com
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Ja Rule this Saturday at Club Villa Fontana
Murder Inc./Mpire/Universal Motown artist Ja Rule brings his 15-date club tour to Club Villa Fontana in Theatre Square this Saturday night (12/8). The two-story club is across the street from the Brown Hotel in the 600 block of South Fourth Street.
Ja Rule is out promoting his forthcoming album, The Mirror.
All things Rule at: www.jarule.com. The site says he's not on tour right now, but we just got word from Universal/Motown today saying otherwise. —MH
Ja Rule is out promoting his forthcoming album, The Mirror.
All things Rule at: www.jarule.com. The site says he's not on tour right now, but we just got word from Universal/Motown today saying otherwise. —MH
Universal Records' 90-Second Rule
According to the website MediaPost Communications, Universal Music Group, which runs Universal Republic and Universal/Motown, is prohibiting MySpace from streaming entire songs of artists on its label. Instead, UMG is only permitting 90-second samples of songs to stream.
MediaPost reported today in its "Just an Online Minute" e-release/blog that UMG actually instituted this policy several months ago, but only now is the media finding out, thanks in part to Wired magazine.
Wired posted a note from Colbie Caillat, a California singer-songwriter who played Nov. 28 at Headliners Music Hall in Louisville, to her fans, in which she says: "Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have to swap the songs out on my page for 90 second versions instead of full length versions." Full versions are on her website.
Universal handles distribution for the local Label X/Toucan Cove (www.labelx.us). the label, which releases for local groups Digby, The Muckrakers, Peter Searcy and Code Red, says its artists are not affected by this decision.
UMG is in litigation with MySpace, which it is accusing of copyright infringement.—MH
MediaPost reported today in its "Just an Online Minute" e-release/blog that UMG actually instituted this policy several months ago, but only now is the media finding out, thanks in part to Wired magazine.
Wired posted a note from Colbie Caillat, a California singer-songwriter who played Nov. 28 at Headliners Music Hall in Louisville, to her fans, in which she says: "Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have to swap the songs out on my page for 90 second versions instead of full length versions." Full versions are on her website.
Universal handles distribution for the local Label X/Toucan Cove (www.labelx.us). the label, which releases for local groups Digby, The Muckrakers, Peter Searcy and Code Red, says its artists are not affected by this decision.
UMG is in litigation with MySpace, which it is accusing of copyright infringement.—MH
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tim Krekel Orchestra hits No. 1 on XM
Soul Season, the album by Tim Krekel Orchestra that was released nationally in September, has hit numero uno on XM Radio's Channel 12, beating out Emmylou Harris, John Fogerty and Lyle Lovett, respectively. Soul Season was released by the Nashville record label Natchez Trace, and features members of the Whole Wheat Horns, who did time in NRBQ.
Channel 12 will interview Tim this coming Monday, Dec. 3.
Special thanks go out to Laurie Spezzano for the tip.
Channel 12 will interview Tim this coming Monday, Dec. 3.
Special thanks go out to Laurie Spezzano for the tip.
Feist w/ Jason Collett
Feist
w/ Jason Collett
Brown Theater
11.20.07
By Roxann Slate
There is much to say about Leslie Feist. About her life in general, her talent and her show at The Brown Theater. I have broken it down into lists.
Basic information about Feist:
1. She is part of the disjointed Canadian collective Broken Social Scene.
2. Her songs have been featured in various commercials that have subtly but significantly boosted her fame.
3. She is an indie female sex icon.
Facts Feist and I have in common:
1. We both have difficulty with the proper colloquial pronunciation of
“Louisville.”
2. We both have bangs are that getting out of control.
3. No one has yet to tell us to just give up on the bangs.
Things I found surprising:
1. Her recorded voice is not at all doctored, not even in the slightest.
2. She does drink bottled water despite an interview where she implied otherwise.
3. Although she had a bandaged leg, she couldn't help but stand to sing one of her songs.
Overview of the opener Jason Collett
1. Collett (as far as I know) has been opening for Feist for almost every tour she has headlined.
2. He told us a charming (but slightly inappropriate) story from his Canadian Catholic high school experience.
3. The people sitting behind me really didn't like him at all. They proceed to talk loudly about some CD of which they only like the first three songs.
Writing this concert review:
1. I have read countless reviews of Feist shows.
2. This is because there are numerous males in the 18- to 25-year-old demographic that write for obscure blogs that have an incurable infatuation with Feist.
3. Every complimentary word I have read about Feist (typed by some skinny indie boy) is true.
Contact the writer at leo@leoweekly.com
w/ Jason Collett
Brown Theater
11.20.07
By Roxann Slate
There is much to say about Leslie Feist. About her life in general, her talent and her show at The Brown Theater. I have broken it down into lists.
Basic information about Feist:
1. She is part of the disjointed Canadian collective Broken Social Scene.
2. Her songs have been featured in various commercials that have subtly but significantly boosted her fame.
3. She is an indie female sex icon.
Facts Feist and I have in common:
1. We both have difficulty with the proper colloquial pronunciation of
“Louisville.”
2. We both have bangs are that getting out of control.
3. No one has yet to tell us to just give up on the bangs.
Things I found surprising:
1. Her recorded voice is not at all doctored, not even in the slightest.
2. She does drink bottled water despite an interview where she implied otherwise.
3. Although she had a bandaged leg, she couldn't help but stand to sing one of her songs.
Overview of the opener Jason Collett
1. Collett (as far as I know) has been opening for Feist for almost every tour she has headlined.
2. He told us a charming (but slightly inappropriate) story from his Canadian Catholic high school experience.
3. The people sitting behind me really didn't like him at all. They proceed to talk loudly about some CD of which they only like the first three songs.
Writing this concert review:
1. I have read countless reviews of Feist shows.
2. This is because there are numerous males in the 18- to 25-year-old demographic that write for obscure blogs that have an incurable infatuation with Feist.
3. Every complimentary word I have read about Feist (typed by some skinny indie boy) is true.
Contact the writer at leo@leoweekly.com
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