You’ve got to be bold to include your appearance on TV reality show “Elimidate” as a resume builder in music, but with a name like Scotty Karate, boldness is probably just second nature. But the episode, which showed Karate throwing pizza on an arrogant competitor, shouldn’t dissuade anyone seeking out his high-energy honky-tonk. The […]
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OKC’s The Stringents rock out with classical instruments
While artists such as Elvis Costello and Sting recently have dabbled in classical music, four classically trained Oklahoma City musicians have joined forces to form what they call a “rock string quartet.” The brainchild of longtime friends Sarah Wilhite and Jenn Mills, The Stringents came to life in 2006 and quickly began winning over […]
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Tom Brosseau-Grand Forks
L oveless Tom Brosseau’s fifth release is a thematic tribute to the Grand Forks, N.D., which flooded in April 1997, displacing some 60,000 residents; 10 years later, Brosseau mourns for his hometown’s suffering while celebrating its elasticity. It’s an honorable effort, and his heart is in the right place. If only it weren’t so understated. […]
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Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass/Various artists-Whipped Cream & Other Delights Re-Whipped
Shout! Factory Every music collection needs at least one cover sporting a model in a Reddi-wip bikini. Chances are, your grandparents have one in the form of Herb Alpert’s classic 1965 album “Whipped Cream & Other Delights.” But a much more revealing one adorns that album’s 40th-anniversary remix collection, appropriately subtitled “Re-Whipped.” While not […]
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17 Pygmies-13 Black Birds
Trakwerx 17 Pygmies have been away for 17 years, but the 10-member 2006 version of the California consortium has returned younger than yesterday to produce its best work yet, a 30-track, two-disc beguiling behemoth. Even if you discount the fact that disc two is 13 versions of the same song, done in wildly differing ways […]
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Ghostface Killah-More Fish
Def Jam Scattered Wu-Tang Clan projects are better than none at all. Ghostface Killah’s “Fishscale” was one of 2006’s more accomplished rap records, competing perhaps only with Rhymefest’s “Blue Collar” for the crown of year’s best. Squeaking in at the end of the year, “More Fish” continues the bracing brilliance of “Fishscale,” a paranoid, poetic […]
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Massive Attack-Collected
Virgin Since its start in the late Eighties, Massive Attack has been a leading force in electronic music and DJ culture. Even if you don’t know the band by name, chances are you’ve heard one of its oft-licensed songs. When a commercial, movie or TV show needs some down-tempo trip-hop with an icy chill, Massive […]
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William Orbit-Hello Waveforms
Sanctuary William Orbit is better known for other people’s music than his own. He engineered Madonna’s late-Nineties comeback by producing “Ray of Light,” her Grammy-winning album of plugged-in pop, and when an LP under his own name actually moved units, it was comprised of covers of classical music stalwarts like Beethoven and Barber. It […]
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Karen Dalton-In My Own Time
Light in the Attic Records Bob Dylan and Devendra Banhart named her as their favorite singer. Nick Cave lists her among his faves. Enid native Karen Dalton was part of the early-Sixties Greenwich Village folk boom, but played the part of wallflower when it came to recordings, producing only two in her lifetime. Her […]
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Los Lobos-The Town and the City
Hollywood Los Lobos: proof that the family that plays together stays together. For close to 30 years, they’ve kept the same lineup, adding sax lad Steve Berlin along the way, and leaving a trail of good to great records behind them. They’re as rooted as The Band was, but they’re not afraid to splatter […]