Tampa-Sarasota

Mainstream America's embracement of Latin music really took hold in the latter half of the 1950s with the "mambo craze." Despite its faddish overtones and eventual disintegration into novelty ("Mambo Italiano"), this particular craze inspired some terrific music, none better than Tito Puente's Dance Mania, which in 2000 was named one of the 25 "most significant albums" of the 20th century by the New York Times.

By the time she released her sixth solo album -- Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea -- Polly Jean Harvey had pretty much stretched her sound in every direction it could logically go.

1992's Dry was her fully formed indie-encapsulating debut; 1993's Rid of Me her Steve Albini-produced exploration of caterwauling noise; 4-Track Demos her raw, immediate bedroom snapshot; 1995's To Bring You My Love her confident, theatrical blues masterstroke; 1998's Is This Desire? her electronica-dabbling incorporation of folk-rock touches. What was left but to streamline her sound, spruce up the recording studio and record a steamy slab of hook-driven pop-rock?

Got an email from State Media with their updated concert announcements and I literally gasped aloud when I saw that Bon Iver (the moniker of Wisconsin singer/songwriter Justin Vernon) will be making his way down to FLA before hitting Bonarroo, and will play State Theatre Wednesday, June 10. Bon Iver's stunning, austerely beautiful For Emma Forever Ago was No. 2 on my top 10 album of '08 list, Vernon a vocalist who takes your breathe away with his delicate, soulful falsetto.

Over 18 years and eight studio albums, Pearl Jam has proven itself to be far and away the most durable band to come from the original grunge movement. (Also the best, I would argue.) Nirvana trumps them on mystique and cultural impact, mostly because Kurt Cobain blew his brains out, but Pearl Jam had the courage to experiment, to risk failure, to grow up and shed the voice-of-a-generation pressure, to persevere.

Sign o' the times: Band records album, band plots April 13 release date, album leaks, band quickly unleashes album digitally, band moves physical release date up to March 31. Such is life for a hot young rock group these days, and even the artists can't get too worked up about it.

Black Lips play Orpheum in Ybor City next Thursday, March 26. Here's my feature/interview with the band:

"I want other bands like us to become as successful as we are so they can stay as shitty as we are," says Jared Swilley, bass player for Black Lips, talking on a cell phone as the band rolls out of Omaha in a van.
So why is Swilley standing up for shitty music? You have to understand his definition of such: music that comes from a raw, unfiltered place, that's not recorded using the latest computer technology, that doesn't concern itself with whether the vocals and guitars are exactly in tune or the rhythms are perfectly in time.

"I like the human side of music," he says. "I love imperfections and mistakes. Otherwise the cyborgs win. Look at 'Louie Louie.' It was No. 1 hit [actually a No. 2 in 1963] and it was sloppy and had the biggest vocal flub."

Swede pop trio Peter Bjorn and John is currently streaming their forthcoming release, Living Things, on MySpace. I'm only two songs deep and I'm already digging on it, though it's not really at all what I expected nor does it remind me of 2006's blissfully sublime Writer's Block or 2008's quirky Seaside Rock.

Just got a press release with the following headline: "No Doubt Fans To Receive Band's Entire Digital Catalog For Free With LiveNation.com Ticket Purchase." Very interesting and exciting news for fans, until you get down a little further and find out that only the folks willing to cough up $80 or more for "top tier" tickets are eligible to receive the digi-log for free. As if someone purchasing $80 tickets doesn't already have the entire No Doubt catalog, but at least said folks will actually feel like they're getting something even if they're not.

One of the hottest DJs on the scene right now isn't really a DJ at all. Girl Talk -- the stage name and dance-music project of 27-year-old Pittsburgh native Gregg Gillis -- is more an electronic music phenomenon than anything else. His fourth album, 2008's Feed the Animals, impressed respected music pundits despite being almost entirely composed of several hundred samples from other artists' songs.

Last year, Atlanta's Deerhunter came into its own with Microcastle/Weird Era Continued, a solid third album of garage psychedelia, with frontman Bradford Cox's beguilingly sedate vocals set against washes of pleasant fuzz and reverb-drenched sound. Sometimes the songs are breezy and ambient, other times driving and punk-insistent without ever becoming abrasive.