AltWeeklies Wire
Lionel Loueke's Guitar Playing Bridges Continentsnew
Despite Art Blakey's admonition that "jazz doesn't have a damn thing to do with Africa," musicians everywhere have never stopped trying to establish the link. Guitarist Lionel Loueke, who's from Benin, fuses his jazz with melodic West African pop.
Washington City Paper |
Michael J. West |
03-20-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Karibu, Lionel Loueke
Senor Flavio: Continental Drifternew
On Supersaund 2012, Flavio sticks his neck out to embrace a host of genres.
Washington City Paper |
Alfredo Flores |
03-13-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Senor Flavio, Supersaund 2012
Apes' New Singer Fits Right Innew
The group's best work has always teetered between avant-garde skronk and pop euphoria. On Ghost Games, the line is completely obliterated.
Washington City Paper |
Casey Rae-Hunter |
02-28-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Apes, Ghost Games
Drone of Artnew
Earth's new album is an inspired merger of repetition and twang.
Washington City Paper |
Brent Burton |
02-28-2008 |
Reviews
Deeper Into Fretnew
The guitarists on Wayfaring Strangers reveal the extent of John Fahey's influence.
Washington City Paper |
David Dunlap Jr. |
02-21-2008 |
Reviews
Living in Synthnew
These days there’s no shortage of retro-styled cosmic rockers: Black Mountain, Witchcraft, Dungen, Comets on Fire, and even the likes of Bigelf. The question for Portland quartet Danava is how to distinguish itself from that undifferentiated blur of longhaired reenactors.
Washington City Paper |
David Dunlap Jr. |
02-08-2008 |
Reviews
Forest Slumpnew
Dead Meadow has somehow misplaced its shuddering, guitar-rock effervescence. Perhaps the band members left it in a truck stop after they decamped from D.C. to Los Angeles last year.
Washington City Paper |
Casey Rae-Hunter |
02-01-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Dead Meadow, Old Growth
Beck's Old Pollutionnew
There are 19 extra tracks on this reissue, and it's hard to recommend them. You get a couple of decent B-sides and some intriguing demo versions, but mostly, I guess, you're supposed to marvel at the variety.
Washington City Paper |
Andrew Beaujon |
01-24-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Beck, Odelay--Deluxe Edition
'Jukebox' Give Us the Same Old Channew
Jukebox could've been a mere promotional ploy, good for an iPod commercial or a House of Blues New Year's Eve gimmick. But as a loving salute to the idea of back catalog as salvation, the album is more convincing than Amy Winehouse's career.
Washington City Paper |
Jason Cherkis |
01-17-2008 |
Reviews
Black Mountain's Time Lapsenew
The band's idea of looking forward sounds an awful lot like 1970.
Washington City Paper |
Brent Burton |
01-17-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Black Mountain, In the Future
Pitbull Gives a Shipshape Performancenew
On The Boatlift he sticks to his strategy of blending English and Spanish lyrics on a slew of club bangers, rhyming a blue streak over Miami bass and crunk tracks.
Washington City Paper |
Alfredo Flores |
12-06-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Pitbull, The Boatlift
A Beast of a 'Belly'new
FFA's second disc, Belly, picks up where 2004's criminally ignored Scavengers left off: Its beats are constructed almost exclusively from crackle and fuzz, and its rhymes veer from the personal into the impressionistic.
Washington City Paper |
Joe Warminsky |
11-29-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Belly, Food for Animals
Analog Jetpacks Leaves Politics Off 'And How They Flew'new
The group recently toured in support of D.C. voting rights and is attempting to sell MTV on a reality series about the subject. But its debut album is a largely apolitical series of easygoing (if verbose) good-time tunes that bend over backward not to take themselves too seriously.
Washington City Paper |
Ben Westhoff |
11-29-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Analog Jetpack, And How They Flew
Dillinger Escape Plan: In Livid Colornew
The group's membership woes have only fired up and brightened its music.
Washington City Paper |
David Dunlap Jr. |
11-15-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Dillinger Escape Plan, Ire Works
Extra Golden: Rockers Without Bordersnew
Hera Ma Nono deftly merges indie rock and African music. Are you listening, Sasha Frere-Jones?
Washington City Paper |
Brent Burton |
11-08-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Extra Golden, Hera Ma Nono
