Here they are, creators of the Avocado’s “Best” “One-Hit Wonder” song. Continue reading Get The Groove In Your Heart — Deee-Lite Artist Spotlight

Michelle Jacquet DeSevren Branch (b. July 2, 1983) is not a tragic figure. Her achievements in the recording industry — teenage stardom, multiplatinum certifications, mainstream crossover success, even a goddamn Grammy — are nothing to sigh for. It feels weird to look at the career of someone who experienced so much fame and popularity and say “Yeah, but she deserved to be even MORE famous and MORE popular”. And yet that’s exactly how I feel when I go back and listen to her early work. I think the problem was, she was both ahead of AND behind the times. Arriving … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Michelle Branch

Richard James is a fairly common name…even in music. Today, however, I am talking about Richard David James, who is mostly known for his electronic music. He goes by many monikers such as AFX, Caustic Window, Polygon Window, and The Tuss. He is best known, however, as Aphex Twin. It is his work as Aphex Twin that will be my focus for this Spotlight, if only to prevent the number of Youtube embeds on this page from freezing up my browser this time. Fair warning: any information about his life or his opinions may be completely false, as James has … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Aphex Twin

When one thinks of iconic rap groups of the 90s, several names should immediately leap to mind: Wu-Tang, Tribe, De La Soul, maybe Outkast (arguably more of a 00s phenomenon), if we’re feeling ambitious, maybe Company Flow. Yet if that list does not include these quick-spitting, smooth voiced dudes from the harsh, bleak, hopeless streets of Cleveland, Ohio, it can’t help but seem incomplete. As cruel as the Key & Peele sketch is, it does have a point — these guys were HUMONGOUS in their prime, seemingly everywhere, popping up in movie soundtracks, being featured alongside some of the biggest … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

Anyone for some Drum ‘n’ Bass? My previous few Artist Spotlights were on musical acts that changed over time. This one, however, is about a musical act that found its lane and pretty much stayed in it. And that lane is noise rock. When I first heard Lightning Bolt, I thought that it was the dumbest stuff ever. The production was terrible. The vocals were terrible and incomprehensible. The guitar (I thought that it was a guitar back then) was just playing noise. The drumming was just flailing like a maniac and that snare drum seemed completely out of place … Continue reading Artist Spotlight – Lightning Bolt

I originally approached this Spotlight with a bit of snark, wanting to draw the reader in with jokey shenanigans. But I realized that’s dishonest. I don’t enjoy the distancing effect of irony or insincerity when it comes to things I genuinely appreciate. When I love something, I embrace it, and Michael Bolton’s low-key charm and dorky silliness (not to mention talent) make him someone to celebrate. Blessed with a multi-octave range and the hair of a god, Michael Bolton began his professional music career as a teenager in the 70s. Originally gravitating to a more folky sound, he was signed … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Michael Bolton – (Yeah, You Heard Me)

Gor’ blimey, strike a light and welcome to the artist spotlight of Chas n Dave. Pioneers of ‘Rockney’ music, which is rock and roll, pop and boogie woogie thrown together. In a Cockney accent. They are a weird act in that despite having opened for Led Zeppelin in 1979, being feted by The Libertines and having played Glastonbury to rapturous applause they are not, in any way , cool. They’re frankly, old fashioned and were so even when they started, But I’d argue there’s room for some occasional well placed nostalgia, even for times before you were born. Formed in … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Chas and Dave

Review courtesy of Pauli The Mars Volta are a polarizing band. Rarely will you come across anyone assessing their ambitious mish-mash of prog, post-hardcore, Latin, metal, funk, and whatever else with an “Eh, it’s alright.” Either you are transported into a realm of beautiful and terrifying genre-less bliss, or you reject their marathon-long “songs” as deluges of bong-water wankery, fit only for undiscriminating college students. I was certainly a college student – of, let’s say, “questionable” discrimination – when I got into The Mars Volta. I spent more time my freshman year listening to The Mars Volta’s first three works … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: The Mars Volta

“It seems to be OK for musicians to act, but it doesn’t seem OK for actors to play music.” — Rob Mailhouse, Dogstar Is Dogstar a celebrity vanity project? Or is it a legitimate musical act, hampered by the celebrity of its bass player? After all, that’s Keanu Reeves, a.k.a. Ted, a.k.a. Neo, a.k.a. John Wick, a.k.a. Keanu Reeves’s character from Speed. The answer, in no way surprising to those of us who appreciate life’s gray areas, is that it’s a little bit of both. Per last week’s Dare Me to Write a Terrible Artist Spotlight challenge, here is Dogstar. The band got … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Dogstar – Not That Terrible After All

This Spotlight has another long tangent that is more about me than the music, so you can skip the first few paragraphs and start where I say OKAY if you wish. Over a year ago, I posted my first Artist Spotlight about my favorite musical artist, Bonnie Pink. Back then,I tried to limit the number of Youtube videos to eight, worried about whether the time-suck would be too intimidating. Now, I am not quite as concerned with the runtime, especially since the 110 minutes for these twenty-six videos is not even that long of a runtime for these things anymore. So, on this … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Bonnie Pink (Redux)

After few more chapters the 40 minutes long dystopian arthouse movie used to open the latest tour is over. Just when the metaphor for Distorted Angels and the messiah about to save the world settles in your mind, a rather large number of black-clothed musicians take stage. There isn’t much talking from the group. Despite the mantric wall of sound that shakes the place to its core, all members of group look like they just came to a professional jazz concert. Trained professionals, rather than band members. DJs, guitarists, drummers, visual artists, singers… During the female driven vocal parts, a … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Archive

Bill Irwin is a perhaps unique multi-hyphenate in an entertainment field full of people who claim to do multiple things. Sure, plenty of actors have co-written scripts or directed an episode of a TV show, but how many of them worked as professional circus clowns? Or followed up a MacArthur fellowship with a long-running stint on Sesame Street, in turn followed by blockbusters like Interstellaror juggernaut TV shows like Law & Order: SVU? I’m going to lead you through this story of Bill Irwin on the same path by which I came to “discover” and respect him as an actor and performer. It … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Bill Irwin – Robot Clown Tony Winner

When the album poll results came out, I realized that not enough of us are fans of Adam and the Ants. Kings of the Wild Frontier was way down at #100 on my ballot, and there was no Ant representation anywhere on the results. I’m not an expert on Ant, and I don’t regularly celebrate his entire catalog, but I had to include this album. His swashbuckling confidence and unique sound left an indelible imprint on music as it shifted between post-punk and new wave. I mean, those drums, that bass line! That declaration – “A new royal family, a wild nobility, we … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Adam and the Ants

This dude was a whistler. As in, he whistled. As a job. For money. And he was basically the best at it. You may have heard his whistling before:       That last one is not the original movie version. It’s a cover version that topped the US and UK charts in 1968. You might also have Marcellino’s whistling here: The birds are him. The bird calls. That’s him. Whistling. Whistling wasn’t Marcellino’s first foray into music, but it was his most interesting. You ever seen a record cover like this one before? https://s-media-cache-ak0.p… Like I said, there was … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Muzzy Marcellino

Bienvenido a la Artist Spotlight of Francisca Valenzuela, American-born Chilean Singer/ songwriter multi-instumentalist, model, fashion designer and published poet at the age of 12 So, fairly accomplished. Also entertaining as heck. How much fun is this? Quiero Verte Mas, from her second album Buen Soldado there, but I’ll go back a bit and start at the beginning. Born in San Fransisco, Valenzuela’s family returned to Chile when she was 12, (after her first collection of poems, ‘Defenseless Waters’, was published.) She had studied the piano and guitar since childhood and at 17 travelled to the Berkeley college in Boston for an intensive jazz … Continue reading Artist Spotlight- Francisca Valenzuela

One of the things I love about Artist Spotlights, and about the Avocado in general, is how we personally relate to our pop culture totems. There’s an intimacy to how we talk about our influences and loves, a sense of history and context, and the stories about our favorite artist/song/movie/TV show allow us to know each other more fully. I love the B-52’s. They have an energy that’s embraceable, and they create a party atmosphere where everyone is welcome. I first encountered The B-52’s in music video form. I was in the juniors section of a department store (Fashion Bar’s … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: B-52’s

We Are Scientists are an indie rock/alternative/dance-punk band hailing from California. I became hooked on this band after hearing their 2006 major label debut With Love and Squalor (named after a J.D. Salinger short story) and have championed them since then. The band benefited a lot during the indie rock craze of the mid-2000’s, and found themselves successful in the UK, where their shows and albums sold like hotcakes, and they toured with bands like Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Art Brut and Kings of Leon. Unfortunately, they’ve long been underrated in their native United States. But the band has carried on … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: We Are Scientists

Artist Spotlight courtesy of thunderclap_monolith People who hear Leo Kottke (pronounced Kot-Key) for the first time always say variations on the same thing: “Wow!” Followed, somewhat suspiciously, by: “Wait, that’s just one guy playing?” Indeed, Kottke, a virtuoso instrumentalist and true trailblazer, can sound like he has four hands when he throttles an acoustic guitar, going way beyond simple strumming and fingerpicking to turn a 6-string or 12-string into its own orchestra, complete with textures that serve as rhythm, lead and vocals all at once. Even longtime listeners are often slack jawed—not only at the virtuosity but also how Leo … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Leo Kottke