If you’ve ever thumbed through an edition of our “Music + Travel: Worldwide” guidebook to musical scenes from around the globe, you’d know that we have a soft spot in our hearts for the bouncing Afro-Pop beats that flowed out of the Africa starting in the 1970s. Specifically, we’ve dedicated an entire chapter to “Ethiopop”, the heady mix of ... Read More »
South African artist Pieter Hugo gives us a somewhat disturbing tour of Nollywood—that’s the Nigerian version of Hollywood for all you Nollywood novices out there. (Vulture) Turns out that both Matt Damon and Jake Gyllenhaal turned down the lead role in “Avatar”, most likely because they read the script. (SlashFilm) If you need to get to Oakland ... Read More »
Having been reared on a steady diet of sugar, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven as children, we’ve become a little desensitized to Hollywood’s often stale attempts at horror. Sure, once in a while something wicked pokes its head out of California (did you see “House of The Devil” yet?) but for real screams, we often have to turn our ... Read More »
As Fader reports, the Excellence in Music and Entertainment Awards (the Jamaican equivalent of the Grammies) was just last week, and one of their favorites (and ours) was not in attendance. Vybz Kartel may have been the big winner (or the Taylor Swift) of that particular ceremony, but its Busy Signal that has the tastemakers over at Fader dancing. ... Read More »
When Russell Slater wrote to us from Montevideo, Uruguay, about the capital city’s signature sound. We had to find out more. Thankfully, he gave us the scoop: It’s impossible to spend anytime in Montevideo, Uruguay, without suddenly feeling like you’re in the middle of a parade. The sound of drums are everywhere … maybe even moreso than in Brazil. ... Read More »
Most of those who love their Kung-Fu flicks lost faith in the world’s biggest movie star, Mr. Jackie Chan, sometime around “The Tuxedo” (2002). While most of Chan’s catalog leans toward the humorous side of high kicks and throat punches, the actor, director, and producer, now 56, has become more notable stateside for child-tailored pablum (i.e. last month’s “The ... Read More »
Home of Sun Records, Elvis Presley, and blocks of blues joints, Memphis, Tennessee is where rock was born, where white bluesman stirred together black energy with Country tunesmithing to create the sound that defined the latter half of the 20th Century. But of all American music forms, it may be Soul that lies closest to the heart of this ... Read More »
Daylight gang hits in narrow streets. Aggressive pimps in low-ceilinged bars. Orbiting nogoodniks angling to slip sailors and greenhorns the mickey. If it sounds like the Big Apple of old, the Manhattan of the Bowery Boys and “Gangs of New York”, you’re right and you’re wrong. According to an article in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, the economic slowdown, which ... Read More »
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