Search Results for "j. poet"

Youssou N’Dour was born in Senegal to musician parents; he began performing at circumcisions and baptisms while still a child. His first single, “M’ba,” was released when he was thirteen; he became a radio star. By sixteen, with a high, sweet tenor that can cut to the bone, N’Dour was the featured vocalist with the…

Lyricist/singer Adam Sherburne, drum programmer Philip Steir and keyboard “operator” Mark Pistel have said that their mission as Consolidated is to take revolution to the dancefloor. Using house, hip-hop, rock, funk, rap, industrial noise and an endless flurry of samples, the band’s devout message includes anti-sexist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist rants as well as a militant…

Bhangra is a product of Britain’s growing Asian community, a mixture of Punjabi folk music and techno, jungle, house, rock and dancehall reggae. Traditionally, bhangra was played at harvest festivals where one of the chief products was hemp (bhang), which helps explain the trance-inducing beat. Although considered too Western by Indian parents fearful of assimilation,…

Nobody knows how or why, but the early ’90s saw dozens of San Francisco bands pulling out their best retro-’60s chops and pickin’ away on twangy, reverb-heavy guitars. In a city known more for foggy B-movie atmospherics than suntanned beach bunnies, a cult began to grow, led by new wave and world beat dropouts like…

The Violent Femmes burst out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the early ’80s, a remarkably original trio playing acoustic instruments and singing intense, personal songs with remarkable candor and love. Initially resembling a punk version of the Modern Lovers, the Femmes — Gordon Gano (vocals, guitar, songs), Brian Ritchie (bass) and Victor De Lorenzo (drums) —…

Aster Aweke grew up in Addis Ababa, surrounded by traditional Ethiopian sounds, Euro-pop, disco and American soul music. She got her start singing with various traditional and “popular” groups, although Ethiopian pop music is heavily based on traditional styles. Her first cassettes, recorded by Ali Tango (one of the country’s best producers), were hits, but…

Launching his solo career, The Big Heat turned Stan(ard) Ridgway’s pulp fiction/film noir aesthetic — always an element in Wall of Voodoo, the Los Angeles band he formed in 1977 and exited in 1983 — into a full-blown cinematic musical experience. The singer/songwriter’s bizarre characters and tales are as vivid as any vintage Robert Mitchum…

Tom Robinson wasn’t the first openly gay recording artist, but the Tom Robinson Band was the first group led by a proudly uncloseted rocker to really make an impact on mainstream Anglo/American pop fans. Robinson’s saga began in Finchton Manor, a home for “maladjusted” boys, where he came out and met future lead guitarist Danny…

Atlanta’s Big Fish Ensemble is one of the best relatively unknown pop bands in America. The Georgia group’s laid-back music combines snatches of folk, rock, country and blues, adding a lyrical slant that mixes satire and an exaggerated kind of peculiar populism that goes back to the tall tales of the rural South. Now and…

On The World We Live In, San Francisco’s Voice Farm was a trio — two guys who appear on the front cover dressed only in their underpants, and a less-exposed female — employing synthesizers, vocals and acoustic percussion to weave moody instrumentals, some of which are paired with incisive, intelligent (and, in one case, horrifying)…

Zap Mama is an intercultural five-woman a cappella ensemble that sings songs from all over Africa, Europe and North America. Group founder and leader Marie Daulne is of mixed African and European heritage. During the civil war in Zaire, her Belgian father was killed; her mother sought refuge with the Pygmies in the rain forest…

Laika and the Cosmonauts (bassist Tom Nyman, guitarist Mikko Lankinen, guitarist/organist Matti Pitsinki and drummer Janne Haavisto) are Finland’s entry into the global surf revival. With a rave review from Dick Dale on the back cover of Instruments of Terror (“Listening to Laika and the Cosmonauts’ new CD makes me feel that I’m standing toes…