I’ve been listening to a lot of hardcore music lately and what most of it has in common is relentlessness and male vocalists who sound extremely pissed off that their mothers chose birth over abortion. Why are all these musicians so full of rage? I mean, isn’t this the greatest period in the history of [...]
Although I was handed a copy of this CD to review in late January of this year, I didn’t realize until I did a bit of Internet research and found a review of said disc by my female protégé, composed for another publication, that Total Death Benefit was released in May of 2004. Nevertheless, it’s [...]
For those comrades expecting a Marxist brass band musically espousing the teachings of H. Rap Brown, Huey P. Newton and Dr. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, accompanied by fleshy dancers in camouflage thongs, red berets and ammo belts gyrating their derrières before banners of Chairman Mao, heed the warning that the music is not that revolutionary. And [...]
Appearing In New Orleans: Nightly during Carnival, live from the parade routes on WDSU-TV and WWL radio. There is no “official spokesperson” for Mardi Gras, the planet’s largest party, but Arthur Hardy, publisher of Arthur Hardy’s Mardi Gras Guide, is unequaled as Carnival’s reigning authority. Now in its 29th edition, the Guide, with [...]
“So be my guest, you’ve got nothing to lose—won’t you let me take you on a sea cruise?” The lyrics to Frankie Ford’s 1959 hit “Sea Cruise” are embedded in the DNA of every lover of New Orleans music. The irrepressible, eternally youthful Frankie is a legend in the realm of rock ‘n’ roll. At [...]
The trombone, as composer Hector Berlioz once observed, can musically portray everything from “religious accent, calm and imposing…to wild clamors of the orgy.” New Orleans trombonist Mark Mullins seconds Berlioz’s notion: “Especially that part about the orgy!” Mullins’ own celebrated career is an orgy of work, touring and recording with fellow Orleanian Harry Connick, Jr.’s [...]
