Search results for

Several recent DVDs take up the history of punk music. Don Letts' Punk Attitude focuses on the ethos of teen rebellion, while All Dolled Up tells the story of the influential New York Dolls.

Commentator John Moe takes on the word "friend," a big word with a shifting definition. His band, Chicken Starship, has a MySpace page. And among the people listed as their friends are Elvis Costello, The Dixie Chicks, and Lucinda Williams. John knows that They Might Be Giants won't drive him to the airport -- but their friendship has to count for something.

Balkan Beat Box fuses clarinets and horns with hypynotic trance music and a techno beat. The band's Israeli-born founders Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat tell Jacki Lyden about their first-ever CD.

The heart of the blues-rock group Heartless Bastards is Erika Wennerstrom, who wears hers on her sleeve. Her band's new album, The Mountain, features a bold, hard-hitting sound.

The East Village Opera Company is a New York City musical group that mixes opera with rock. The group is made up of a five-piece band, a string quartet and two vocalists. Barrett Golding reports on how the group finds inspiration in music from another era.

The new album Regard the End is by The Willard Grant Conspiracy, a band comprising more than 30 musicians from all over the world. The players get together as their schedules permit, making music tinged with the blues, jazz and folk influences. David Greenberger has a review.

Nicole Willis is a retro soul singer from Brooklyn. Her really tight band, the Soul Investigators, is from Finland. The group sounds like it's from Memphis – and it's one of Oliver Wang's favorites of the year so far.

The Boston band Tarbox Ramblers has roots in prewar gospel and blues. The group's latest album takes off from their first record, using the old songs as a jumping-off point for leader Michael Tarbox to write primal gut rock and roll. The CD is called A Fix Back East. Meredith Ochs has a review.

The Ride is the latest album from Los Lobos, a band known for mixing folk, blues, rock and Latin rhythms. The group, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, was formed by classmates at an East Los Angeles school. The Ride, their 12th album, is on the Hollywood Records/Mammoth label. Critic David Greenberger has a review.

Brinkley native Louis Jordan had a profound effect on the pioneers of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and post World War II blues.