Dumpstaphunk has a few simple missions on its second full-length CD: To make a modern album steeped in the funk tradition; to show the strengths of its new lineup (with drummer and sometime-singer Nikki Glaspie) and high-profile friends; and, oh yeah, to change the world. Other than that it’s a pretty modest record. From the [...]
This flashy sextet, committed as always to their un-ironic white boy rock-funk, sounds bigger than ever on their second EP, Painkiller, continuing to expand their traditional chicken scratch with literally and figuratively brassy horns, some old-school vinyl scratching, and even a little bell-bottomed synth. The better news is that the expansion hasn’t complicated what they [...]
An excellent confluence of factors make Shannon McNally’s new record of Bobby Charles tunes a record to which you can listen, sing along, and even dance. The first is Bobby Charles himself. He is a quintessential unsung artist both in his own records and his songs. Everyone from Clarence “Frogman” Henry to Fats Domino, Ray [...]
Tom Leggett was part of the generation of transplanted musicians who created a new landscape in New Orleans during the latter part of the 1990s. Like so many of his peers he played in a lot of different configurations but was best-known for his work with Idletime before that band became one of the numerous [...]
These days the brass bands fall into two basic yet malleable categories, the raw, street parade bands and the more polished stage/club oriented band. Brass-A-Holics add keyboard, guitar, and trap drums to the basic brass band lineup, so they end up on the stage/club end of the scale. They bill themselves as the “Go-Go Funk [...]
After nearly a decade on the jam-band circuit, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes are clearly swinging for the rafters on their latest album, 2000 Days, and not just because Kermit Ruffins alum Tracey Freeman produced it, either (along with some apparent uncredited help from Harry Connick, Jr.). A crew of classically trained jokesters who [...]
Percussion rules, at least downtown, in this stripped-down, old-school offering from Fi -Yi-Yi and the Mandingo Warriors, here represented by the trio of Big Chief Victor Harris along with Jack “Master of the Needle & Thread” Robertson and Wesley “The Drummer” Phillips on percussion and vocals. Built on rock-steady rhythms, this is the Mardi Gras [...]
It’s a crime that Tommy Malone isn’t better known around the world. He is a triple threat—beautiful singer, fine songwriter, and killer guitarist. Most of those talents are showcased on his new disc Natural Born Days. Malone has a fantastic voice. It is soulful and gritty at points, and simply pretty at others. It is [...]
“Some songs developed slowly, while others—like souvenirs—seem to have been picked up along the way.” Andrew Duhon explains in the liner notes of The Moorings, the singer-songwriter’s third record. Upon listening one can absolutely sense the urgency of place in Duhon’s writing, as well as in the pace of the record itself.Buy on AmazonBuy on [...]
He has crept up on us slowly but surely, and now Johnny Sansone has become one of the best bluesmen/roots musicians on the scene. His last few records have been excellent, but this one combines the laid back sound of Poorman’s Paradise and the in-your-face agression of The Lord Is Waiting and the Devil Is [...]
