As a child growing up in suburban Pretoria during the 1970s, Louise Meintjes (MAIN-keys) vividly remembers hearing the growling male vocals, insistent female choruses and driving electric beats of South African mbaqanga music blaring out of domestic workers’ and gardeners’ radios. “Only later did I realize how odd it was,” Meintjes, who is South African, […]
Michael J. Kramer
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In photography
For the 1900 Paris Exposition, the renowned African-American scholar and activist W. E. B. Du Bois compiled an exhibition of black life. Seeking to counter negative portrayals and representations in other World’s Fairs of the era, Du Bois put together portraits of middle-class African-Americans, creating a dignified and stirring narrative of people seeking upward economic […]
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December edition
Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros Streetcore Hellcat I asked a British fellow last spring, “Why does Joe Strummer die of a heart attack while Dick Cheney survives multiple strokes?” The Brit, whose leather jacket, slicked-back hair and socialist politics reminded me of Strummer himself, replied, “Because you need a heart to have a heart attack.” […]
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In the next pop it girl?
Get a preview of the possible next teen queen, Fefe Dobson, an 18-year-old rocker. A native of Canada, like Avril Lavinge, she mixes rock and R&B, like Pink. She’s punky-stylie, like Gwen Stefani, and she currently has an eponymous debut release getting the major-label push from Island Records. The album is super-produced and designed for […]
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In skronk and beats
Nightlight has emerged as the coolest club west of Durham’s Ringside and east of Winston-Salem’s PS211. With its own cheap-beer-and-wild-sounds pulsating within the used-books-and-records skeleton of the Skylight Exchange, it’s a fab spot for listening, dancing, hanging with friends, and browsing the latest titles in pulp fiction, highbrow classics, and used opera records. This weekend […]
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In Nordic ululations
The three Finnish women in V … rttin … , along with a six-piece backing band, perform traditional songs and chants from Scandinavian and Baltic countries. They add driving, modern rhythms on both old and new instruments, including the violin, accordion, jouhikko (a three-stringed bowed lyre), cumbus tambur (a Turkish long-necked lute), bouzouki (an eight-stringed […]
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Preview Mode
Belle and Sebastian Dear Catastrophe Waitress (Rough Trade) Produced by Trevor Horn, the Glaswegian group’s new effort, their first for the revived classic-punk British label Rough Trade, is less quirky and analog-retro than previous affairs. But if the production sounds more space age, the songs remain the same: Beatlesesque pop-rock hooks that cling in your […]
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In above-average girl
She ain’t that average girl in your video, of course. But India.Arie seemed to spring fully-grown from the mind of Nina Simone and out into the media spotlight a few years back. Her down-to-earth grooves and reserved vocals nearly stole the Grammy Award Show in 2002. But Arie (pictured above) sings that she “don’t worry […]
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In word-of-mouth duos
They’re not a duo, as the moniker suggests, but Belle and Sebastian is certainly as cute as the boy and dog from the Madame Cecile Aubry novel that gave the group its name. Led by Stuart Murdoch (who could just be indie-rock’s answer to Rupert Murdoch), the Glaswegians have become something of a lightning rod […]
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In preserving a musical legacy
New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band has been going strong for over 25 years. With their historical name (Preservation Hall itself has been around since 1750!), and instrumentation (usually a variation of trumpet, trombones, clarinet, banjo, piano, drums) you might think they are preservers of the “Dixieland” jazz tradition. But they are careful to say […]