Wisin & other: June 2008

Friday 27 June 2008

Kondo, Bernocchi and Laswell

Artist: Kondo, Bernocchi and Laswell

   Genre(s):
Other

Discography:

Re-Charged Remixes

Year: 2000
Tracks: 2

Thursday 19 June 2008

The Zutons, Bedgebury Pinetum, Kent

Liverpudlian rock'n'soul troupe the Zutons are better suited to a clammy city nightclub than the leafy environs of deepest Kent, but here they are, at the top of a bill with Noah and the Whale and Mystery Jets as part of a tour of seven forest locations. They open with their theme song, Zuton Fever, but they do not have a coherent identity: the bassist is a moptop, the new guitarist resembles Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, frontman Dave McCabe could be an extra from Almost Famous, while saxophonist Abi Harding is like a dishevelled version of her Dutch counterpart Candy Dulfer.

As brassy as Madness and Dexys, there are fewer awkward angles than you would expect from a group who took their name from a member of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. In fact, McCabe's refusal to dilute his accent when he sings makes you think of the Zutons as something like the Cavern-era Beatles. More than anything, they recall fictional band the Commitments: they have the same gritty intensity and sweaty power. It gets wearing.

Live, they are tight and punchy, with strong drumming, if a bit heavy on the bass, which reverberates across the field and up to our chests. The crowd goes routinely wild, with syncopated claps. One man even mock-blows a plastic sax. The barnstorming boogie of Always Right Behind You is a respite from the rocked-up R&B. But Valerie is most rapturously received, and deservedly so - it is by far their best song, the one that achieves everything they set out to do. It also makes you wonder where the Zutons can go next.

· At Delamere Forest on June 13 (0845 3673787), and the National Arboretum on June 20 (01666 880220).

See Also

Thursday 12 June 2008

Shemekia Copeland

Artist: Shemekia Copeland

   Genre(s):
Blues

Discography:

Talking To Strangers

Year: 2002
Tracks: 15

Wicked

Year: 2000
Tracks: 13

Turn the Heat Up

Year: 1998
Tracks: 14

Live Paris

Year:
Tracks: 10

The daughter of noted Texas vapors guitarist Johnny Copeland, Shemekia Copeland began qualification a spatter in her possess proper earlier she was even out of her teens. Projecting a maturity beyond her years, Copeland fashioned herself a potent, soul-inflected screamer in the custom of Koko Taylor and Etta James, hitherto besides proved capable of a subtler range of emotions. Copeland was natural in Harlem in 1979 and her father bucked up her to babble out proper from the beginning, even delivery her up onstage at the Cotton Club when she was just now eighter from Decatur age old. She began to engage a singing career in earnest at historic period 16, when her father's health began to decline ascribable to heart disease; he took Shemekia on hitch with him as his opening act, which helped institute her name on the blue devils circuit. She landed a phonograph recording deal with Alligator, which issued her debut album Turn the Heat Up! in 1998, when she was just now 19 years old (woefully, her father didn't live to go steady the occasion). While the influences on Copeland's style were quartz sack up, the platter was met with enthusiastic reviews praising its vitality and rage. Marked as a hot offspring newcomer to watch, Copeland toured the blues fete tour in America and Europe, and landed a fair amount of publicity. Her second album, Terrible, was released in 2000 and featured a duet with one of her heroes, early R&B diva Ruth Brown. Terrible earned Copeland a slue of W.C. Handy Blues Award nominations and she walked cancelled with three: Song of the Year, Blues Album of the Year, and Contemporary Female Artist of the Year. The followup phonograph recording, Talking to Strangers, was produced by legendary piano player Dr. John and featured songs that she proudly claimed were her best all the same. 2005 proverb the going of The Soul Truth, produced by Steve Cropper, on Alligator Records.

Pepe De Lucia