Rakim The Master (Universal Records) When Rakim hit the scene in 1987 with Paid in Full, he was Michael, Jermaine, Marlon, and Jackie; Eric B., the DJ he nominated for president in the late ’80s, was Tito. Back then, Rakim “held the microphone like a grudge,” but he never stood…
It’s that time of year again, the season for eggnog, pine wreaths, ribbons and wrapping paper, and — shudder — Christmas albums. Every year, a blizzard of holiday records falls upon the record racks, most all of them filled with a certain spirit: the spirit of commerce. Because I actually…
We’re still a couple of weeks away from the final onslaught of best-of lists, but we’ll go on record right now as saying that Cary Pierce has to be the best sport around, whether you’re talking about this year or any other. Last Thursday at Trees, following a set by…
Earl Harvin Trio makes one of its infrequent appearances on December 22, with a performance at the Gypsy Tea Room along with Hairy Apes BMX. Expect the group’s shows to become even rarer next year, since Harvin will be on the road with The The. Harvin — who’s toured with…
Calling Pinkston a new band is a bit of a misnomer, even though it hasn’t yet been a year since the quartet’s first show. Sure, that was Pinkston’s first show together, but it wasn’t each member’s first ever — not by a long shot. Pinkston is a band of young…
It only grows bigger the further away it moves; object in rear-view mirror may be smaller than it appears. After all, it was only one album, one small collection of songs — many of which have been officially released over the years. Who’s to say how the world might have…
Everything involving Pleasant Grove seems to take a long time. Take the band’s songs, sweet and sour tunes that shuffle quietly along their way, burning so slowly that they appear to be standing still. “Nothing This Beautiful,” one of the tracks on the group’s self-titled debut, discreetly unravels over the…
Luna The Days of Our Nights (Jericho/Sire) Galaxie 500 fetishists loved that extant band because it evoked the Velvet Underground without, ya know, all that noise and shit getting in the way — and, come to think of it, all those notes. Trying to find a song on a G500…
Pleasant Grove Pleasant Grove (Last Beat Records) Pleasant Grove’s long-time-coming debut is seven songs strong, but it could be pared down to just one — the haunting “Nothing This Beautiful” — and remain one of the most compelling records of this year. Rarely does a song so long (a shade…
Billy Joel I’ve seen Billy Joel in concert twice — once when I didn’t know any better (like, oh, Randy Newman and Richard Thompson and Paul Simon), once when I did. And both shows were pretty tolerable and maybe downright enjoyable, if only because Joel used to write songs that…
Z.Z. Top Word on the street had it that XXX was the Top’s best record since God knows when. Christ, word on the street must have come from the concrete, because this thing couldn’t make an impression on a pillow. Aw, seriously, it ain’t that bad — if, that is,…
When the Wu-Tang Clan released its first single, 1993’s “Protect Ya Neck,” Notorious B.I.G. was still a chubby crack dealer and hip-hop was several years away from civil war. Everyone was high on The Chronic, which had been released the year before: Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg were hip-hop’s most…
Quick, name five Japanese bands. Chances are, some of the more intense music nuts out there might name-check the Boredoms, Pizzicato Five, and Shonen Knife, and some might even recognize Melt-Banana or Guitar Wolf. But the reality of Japanese pop music — or J-pop, as it is referred to by…
Half of my enjoyment of music stems from listening without knowing whether or not I’m going to hate something, while many people are like radio programmers who just want the hits and rarely stray from a chosen format. And unlike most folks, I still own records. Lots of stupid ones…
For a while, it looked as though the death of the Dark Room — the Green Room’s performance space — would mean the death of The Enablers. After all, the band had been more of a fixture there than the stage, playing every Wednesday for three years. They liked it…
Even when we don’t mean to, we can’t help causing trouble; guess it’s just in our nature. For example, last week’s Street Beat featured an item on Crash Vinyl and its new CD, Precious Platinum. It was a fairly innocuous story that mentioned the two girls who dance onstage during…
The Mag Seven Eighth Round Knockout (333 Industries) 12Lb. Test Harm’s Way (Self-released) It’s hard to escape your past, even harder if you’re a musician. There are very few fresh starts, if only because there are old albums to refer to, hazy memories of live performances. New projects are defined…
Metallica S & M (Elektra Records) If Load and Re-Load and an album full of Bob Seger, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Thin Lizzy covers (last year’s Garage Inc.) didn’t succeed in putting Metallica over as just another Rock Band, then this surely will. No matter how the group cares to spin…
You couldn’t invent a better parody of the brain-dead, testosterone-crazed, wanna-be hip-hop buffoonery that has captured the video-damaged imaginations of the Musicland-shopping-mall suburban pubescentry circa the millennium. Which doesn’t mean that the idiotic Insane Clown Posse isn’t ripe for satirizing. New York writer Mike Rubin and Detroit comics artist Mark…
Bands like G. Love and Special Sauce ain’t so special now, as though they ever were. Love and the boys are just another blues-folk-rap trio, a combo too often heard in the form of mediocre white guys fumbling for grace, soul, and wit. It’s a concept that’s neither promising on…
Moby (Richard Hall) is a hard guy to figure out. Over the course of his career, he has followed a variety of different musical muses and professed a range of beliefs. He says he’s a follower of Christ and often writes songs that indirectly praise God, yet he doesn’t consider…
Probably the only positive thing that can be said about the “new” Bob Marley album, Chant Down Babylon, is that it doesn’t include yet another version of “Buffalo Soldier.” Assembled by Bob’s son Stephen Marley, the disc features digital-age duets between the late Marley and Busta Rhymes, Rakim, Lauryn Hill…
