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Monday, February 8,2010
CD Reviews

Gary Tanin

Natural Selection (Daystorm Music)

By Michael Popke
Gary Tanin’s name might not ring a bell with all local rock fans. But as a veteran producer, he’s worked with some of the city’s finest and best-known musicians—including the BoDeans’ Sam Llanas, the Violent Femmes’ Victor DeLorenzo and Genesis’ Daryl Stuermer. Natural Selection gathers 18 songs from...
Monday, February 8,2010
CD Reviews

Galactic

Ya-Ka-May (ANTI-)

By David Luhrssen
New Orleans has always been America’s most unique city, nurturing great music from the days of Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong through the present. Galactic, a contemporary Crescent City band, has second-line marching band rhythms and staccato horns in its bones. And like the city itself, Katrina or no...
Monday, February 8,2010
CD Reviews

SambaDá

Gente

By Morton Shlabotnik
On any sunny day on the beaches of Santa Cruz, Calif., a crowd might gather to hear a true world music hybrid, SambaDá. Formed by Brazilian immigrants and their Yankee neighbors, the band distills the easygoing lilt of bossa nova into a rock-funk format, with carnival rhythms and echoes of more ancient...
Monday, February 8,2010
CD Reviews

Jen Gloeckner

Mouth of Mars

By Morton Shlabotnik
On her second album, Jen Gloeckner digresses occasionally into the elastic whiplash chords of rock, or slips into a harsh-tongued vocal emulation of Americana. Mostly, Mouth of Mars is a layered, largely acoustic sequence of soundscapes involving febrile and agitated strings, percussive echoes and surreal...
Tuesday, February 2,2010
CD Reviews

Various Artists

Dengue Fever Presents Electric Cambodia (Minky)

By David Luhrssen
Mention Cambodia and the killing fields of the country’s Communist regime still come to mind. But since the toppling of the Khmer Rouge and, later, the restoration of a constitutional monarchy, Cambodians have taken steps to reclaim their culture from the devastation wrought by Pol Pot, one of the 20th century’s most...
Tuesday, February 2,2010
CD Reviews

Keller Williams

Odd (KW Enterprises)

By Michael Popke
On his latest studio album, Odd, veteran one-man band Keller Williams sounds perpetually stoned—just the way his fans like him. Williams receives minimal accompaniment on these dozen tracks, and he keeps the arrangements sparse enough that he’ll be able to handle them just fine at his whimsical solo gigs...
Tuesday, February 2,2010
CD Reviews

Prana Trio

The Singing Image of Fire (Circavision)

By David Luhrssen
At the heart of The Singing Image of Fire is the poetry of Rumi and other timeless literature from the Near East, India and the Far East. Led by drummer Brian Adler, Prana Trio’s music seems inspired by the atmospheric chamber jazz of the old ECM label—a rippling symphony of orchestral percussion and fluid...
Monday, January 25,2010
CD Reviews

Coco Montoya

The Essential Coco Montoya (Blind Pig)

By Sonia Khatchadourian
Coco Montoya's new album is a compilation of original songs and covers drawn from three albums released in the mid- to late-1990s, after a 10-year run with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. All three CDs received critical acclaim, and his debut album earned him a W.C. Handy Award for Best New Blues Artist, along...
Monday, January 25,2010
CD Reviews

Chuck Prophet

Let Freedom Ring (Yep Roc)

By Todd Lazarski
At the heart of hugely underrated singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet’s sound there’s always been a kind of tug-of-war among disparate eras. In turns Petty-esque, Springsteen-like and generally rife with Stones swagger, there’s also an undeniably coy, modern indie slant. Sure there’s “Born to Run”-style driving...
Monday, January 25,2010
CD Reviews

Melissa Czarnik with Eric Mire Band

Local Live: Live on 91.7 WMSE June 2 2009

By Jamie Lee Rake
Melissa Czarnik and Eric Mire are among East Side Milwaukee's more verbally dexterous rappers. Their sociopolitical M.C.-ing and the organic soul/jazz vibes on their latest studio projects transfer well to a live setting in one of the city's favorite noncommercial radio stations, WMSE. Saxophone, bass, guitar and...
 
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2009-11-11
2010-02-02

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