2012 is the next in a series of theoretical breakout years for New Orleans-via-Lafayette indie rockers Brass Bed. That big pop hasn’t happened yet, despite two excellent LPs and a masterful live show. Melt White, the band’s most recent and best-realized full length, displays a maturity that only years of writing and playing engenders. Standouts [...]
Cindy Scott’s life has, as she puts it, clearly defined “chapters.” Starting as a high-powered executive (“I was involved in all of these big international projects, and I was miserable.”) and ending up with a free mansion after winning a home-improvement reality show (“At the end of the show, the viewers voted and the winners [...]
Harry Nilsson is no stranger to album-length cover projects. At his creative peak, the hedonistic early ’70s in L.A., Nilsson dragged an obscure American songwriter named Randy Newman into the public eye with the tasteful Nilsson Sings Newman. That record finds him interpreting Newman’s work as well as anyone since, showcasing Nilsson’s rich voice and [...]
It’s a fairly common jeremiad: there isn’t much national-caliber comedy in New Orleans. There is stand-up and a few sketch/improv groups, but they hardly measure up to the scenes in Austin or Atlanta, much less Chicago or L.A. But, according to Tami Nelson and Chris Trew, that’s about to change. “Anyone who says you can’t [...]
Mardi Gras Indians are, at this point, a well-understood phenomenon. There have been scholarly studies, pop-culture head-nods, and heaps of plaudits from the larger community. This should have been the fate of the Baby Dolls, Millisia White thinks, and it’s a gap in our Carnival consciousness that she and her Baby Doll Ladies are looking [...]
It’s hard to imagine a more literal case of someone picking on the “little guy” than this: the powerful Krewe of Rex has pushed the satirical Krewe of ‘tit Rex (‘tit being a common Cajun shortening of “petit”) into altering its name due to perceived copyright issues. ‘tit Rex parades through the Bywater with shoebox-based [...]
Starfucker, much like Republican hopeful Rick Santorum, has a bit of a name problem. The band began life in Portland, Oregon with the (purposefully) absurd moniker of Starfucker, then attempted to change course after finding a surprising amount of success (and landing in a Target ad) after their first self-titled LP in 2008. That name [...]
This year’s Gretna Heritage Festival prompted the question: When there’s only one original member, is Lynyrd Skynyrd still Lynyrd Skynyrd? A New Orleans version of this question arose when it was announced that drummer Bob French would be stepping down as bandleader of the Original Tuxedo Brass Band, to be replaced by his nephew, Gerald [...]
So, just for fun-shine and joy-bows, indulge me in a hypothetical. Imagine you have the power of a major international media conglomerate fully behind you. Right at your fingertips: record label, television networks, publishing, film studio, web presence and functionally unlimited funds. Imagine that you can more or less fabricate pop culture movements on a [...]
On marks the first release of New Orleans’ own e.company, a quintet of young, skilled instrumentalists crafting intricate jazz and funk-steeped songs. The band cut its’ teeth on Frenchmen, playing first as a more traditional trio until evolving into the lineup that produced the beautifully packaged On. The point of entry for most listeners will [...]
