Listen Localy: Rant Globaly

In all of its potential for presenting flawed and misleading information, Wikipedia pretty much hits the mark when it comes to math rock. The oft-vilified source for universal information calls the genre "a rhythmically complex, guitar-based style of experimental rock music ... characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant chords."

That sounds about right. And it's pretty much the same string of adjectives that most respectable journalists have been rearranging for years when trying to describe the sound. But the legitimate media harbors a somewhat skewed perception of North Carolina's accidental math rock foursome Polvo.

Throughout the '90s, the Chapel Hill-based group seemed like just another math rock band. Their albums were good, earnest and distinctive; but not the stuff of legend. At least they didn't seem so at the time. They were akin to the musical legacy kicked off by Slint in Louisville, Kentucky in the late '80s, which came to a head with Chicago's Thrill Jockey Records scene that dominated indie rock real estate during the Clinton years.

To say that Poison Arrows vocalist Tuk Smith has matured since his days spent jamming on plasticine punk chords with his former band the Heart Attacks isn't quite accurate, but he is more focused these days. The same can be said for the rest of the fashionable young lads who make up Poison Arrows; Mikey Portwood (bass), Joey O'Brien (drums) and Josh Hitson (guitar).

The budding glam punk crew finds former Heart Attacks cohorts Smith and Portwood exhibiting the benefits of digesting a broad swath of rock 'n' roll history that began in the 1950s and comes to a screeching halt somewhere in Britain circa 1975. Trace elements of Nick Lowe, Cheap Trick, the Boys, and Slade bare a distinct mark on the group's strutting guitars and sneering pop songwriting. Portwood decrees that he doesn't want to be thought of as a record collector band, but Smith chimes in to the contrary. "I don't want to make the same mistakes the Heart Attacks made," he says. "I don't want to be thought of as a little kid band. I would like to take it to another level where we actually write good songs and play good songs. To me the Heart Attacks were a gimmick band. I was 19 and we were crazy."

For more than 40 years, Neil Diamond has been a fixture on the world's music scene. He's had countless hits and hit records, been the butt of jokes and created numerous sing-a-longs that are heard just about everywhere -- "Sweet Caroline" among them.

Surprisingly, it was his 2005 album, 12 Songs, that brought him back up toward the top of the charts and his 2008 release, Home Before Dark, that scored him the first number-one album of his career. Many give credit for that achievement to uber-producer Rick Rubin who got Diamond to strip away all the glitz and glam and go the way of James Taylor. Diamond has recently stated that he'll work with Rubin on his next album, but that it will probably different from the last two.

"I wasn't aware that we were trying to distill the essence of my music when we first started recording this stuff," Diamond says during a recent conference call with journalists. "Rick may have wanted to hearken back to simpler days of my career -- he was shooting to capture that in the sessions. Basically, we were going in to kind of find out what these songs would sound like and what they would feel like in a studio setting with a couple of additional musicians aside from myself."

Diamond says Rubin never discussed any intentions in those first sessions and acted more as a casual observer to what the band would do in the studio space. Diamond says he went into the studio simply to "create something wonderful, something magical."

Auto-Tune? You may know it by its previous incarnations as a Vocoder or Talkbox. It's an audio processor developed by Antares Technologies that corrects vocal pitch, but its trademark effect is the robotic sound it can add to singing.

The main perpetrator of the scourge is T-Pain, a hack who sings, near as I can tell, everything through Auto-Tune. He's been highly rewarded for this gimmickry with several hit albums and a bevy of guest vocal appearances on hip-hop singles. In fact, Diddy reportedly paid T-Pain a royalty to work Auto-Tune "magic" on his new recording.

 Long-distance duo SUN CIRCLE--former Chicagoan and "laptronica" artist Greg Davis, who's now in Vermont, and Montana-based Zach Wallace, who also plays bass in Memorize the Sky with another former Chicagoan, reedist Matt Bauder--stick to sustained drones on every track of theirs I've heard so far. One piece on their self-titled debut CD-R is built around intersecting vocal chants--low, guttural notes, drawn out Tibetan-monk style and amplified till they're strident and grainy, a la Tony Conrad--but most of their material is purely instrumental, combining organ, bowed strings, and gongs in slowly shifting epics that sometimes hover and sometimes pulsate vigorously. Beneath its surface each drone swarms with microscopic activity--tiny changes in texture, density, and pitch that keep your ears busy once you surrender to the sumptuous sound.

The Deal: Teen country sensation releases sophomore album, follow up to triple-platinum self-titled debut, one month before her 19th birthday.

The Good: First off, credit has to be given to the fact Swift wrote or co-wrote all the tunes on her album. The album's tone sticks to the pop side of the country road. She's got a solid voice with strength at the right times and enough of a breezy tilt when needed. The album gives Swift a second building block in a strong foundation that is sure to lead to a lengthy career. Cliches are never good, but I'm sure the best is yet to come from the young singer. Part of Swift's appeal is that she teeters on the country fence - "White Horse" would do well on just about any pop station that plays ballads. Other songs use violins or other instrumentation to give it more of a country than pop feel, but it's definitely a fine line - see "You Belong With Me" and "Change."

Britney Spears, who has totally regained her hottie status, is back, and playing the St. Pete Times Forum on March 8. Here's the info:

(TAMPA, FL) - Britney Spears will bring her highly anticipated The Circus Starring Britney Spears 2009 Tour to the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, FL on Sunday, March 8.  The 27-city North American trek, her first arena tour in five years, follows hot on the heels of Spears' long-awaited sixth studio album, Circus. Emmy Award-winning choreographer and director, Wade Robson, is helming the incredible tour production, which also features special guests The Pussycat Dolls.

Tickets will go on sale Monday, December 8^th at 10:00am and can be purchased at the McDonald's Box Office at the St. Pete Times Forum box office and all Ticketmaster locations, via Ticketmaster charge-by-phone at 1-800-745-3000, Ticketmaster Express at 866-448-7849 (automated only self service line) or online at Ticketmaster.com. Tickets are subject to applicable service charges and event time and date are subject to change.

I've been pretty amazed by the variety and quality that the loose group of New York musicians affiliated with the Desco/Daptone Records juggernaut has maintained over the past decade, combining funk, Afrobeat, and hard soul. Flagship band the Dap-Kings have enhanced the already considerable appeal of singer Sharon Jones to the point that they're headlining the Vic with her on Thursday (it wasn't so long ago that they were playing the Double Door), and their members have also turned up in various combinations backing Amy Winehouse, Al Green, and Lily Allen, among others. Other label-affiliated groups, some of which predate the Dap-Kings, include the Daktaris, Antibalas, the Soul Providers, the Sugarman 3, and the Budos Band.