Reviews

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.

The latest incarnation of the band has been touring for more than 20 years, including founding member Bill Payne. Shaun Murphy, who played with the band since 1993, appearing on five albums, left the band this past February and will not be replaced.

Despite the foreboding title and bleak black and white cover art -- a curious nod to the first Danzig album -- Bonnie "Prince" Billy's Beware is an inviting entry into Will Oldham's haunting repertoire.

But a closer look reveals the layers of dark imagery hiding inside some of Oldham's most gorgeous, complex songs about the nature of love, happiness and existential rumination. Each song serves a cautionary tale, arriving as a Trojan horse that charms with a comfortable glow before opening up to expose its damaged character. The bucolic, acoustic strum and declaration -- "I want to be your only friend" -- that opens the album on "Beware Your Only Friend" suggests something more destructive than the naïve affections evoked by Oldham's words and sweet voice.

The Deal: Charlotte quartet Brandon Kirkley & The Firecrackers independently releases six-song EP, What We Thought We Knew.

The Good: The band offers up pop-rock tunes on its debut. "One to None" has a radio-friendly groove to it and building chorus that you can easily see might be a live staple in their set. Singer Kirkley shows a bit of range in his vocals on "You Don't Know" with moments of falsetto and a bit of that rock 'n' roll power scream. The harmonica gave a nice touch on "Sunset City."

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?

Brian Jonestown Massacre played a compellingly mellow show on Friday night at Variety Playhouse. The tambourine guy is still in the band and he is still very hard to look at, yet his placement at the front and center of the stage feels like a distractionary tactic.

After 20 years, it's no surprise the co-founders of the band Bloodkin have been through their share of ups and downs. Daniel Hutchens and Eric Carter first started playing music together when they were in elementary school. Though the duo has had different bandmates over the years, they've released eight albums and are currently fueled by a new-found sobriety that has sparked new life into a band that was just about written off by its primary players.

Dan Deacon's live shows are communal experiences, in which ecstatic crowds twist and turn in time with the knobs on the Baltimore electronic music performer's jury-rigged DJ station.

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.

The Deal: Primus bassist Les Claypool releases his latest solo album, spawned from video game and motion picture work.

The Good: Instead of Claypool solely focusing on the video game song "Mushroom Men" and songs from the motion picture Pig Hunt, he decided to keep writing and release an album. The bassist extraordinaire has forged on down the path of weird noises as he continues to experiment with unusual tones and instruments. "Red State Girl" is an easy dig at Republicans and those who like them. "Bite Out Of Life" comes from a jam session that he did with Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz - probably before last year's Bonnaroo Super Jam with the two. There's a definite heavy influence of Hutz on the track and may be the album's best track. One can only assume that "What Would Sir George Martin Do" is a reference to the "fifth Beatle." Funky drumming and vocal effects give "Primed by 29" a hint of the Primus Claypool of old.