Discspace

Carmel Count

Mayor Sue McCloud back for a sixth term; City Council challenger Burnett wins big.

Carmel's municipal election tally: Mayor's race: Mayor Sue McCloud: 789 Adam Moniz: 674 City Council: Jason Burnett: 1081 Paula Hazdovac: 646 Gerard Rose: 588 Sue McCloud begins her second decade in office, while Hazdovac enters ...

Too Thirsty 4 Love

QUINTRON

Quintron and puppet master/spouse, Miss Pussycat, can’t quite put together a record that holds the excitement or spectacle of their shows. Too Thirsty 4 Love follows the New Orleans organist’s dive into such big, bounding ...

The New Game

MUDVAYNE

Listening to Mudvayne’s The New Game is about as enjoyable as being castrated. Alongside Slipknot and Disturbed, Mudvayne brought a new element of sickness over the past decade, but The New Game is nothing more ...

Rattlin’ Bones

KASEY CHAMBERS AND SHANE NICHOLSON

Forget everything you know about Australian alt-country chanteuse Kasey Chambers before sitting down to listen to the album she co-wrote and recorded with husband, Shane Nicholson, who, we gather, used to be a pop-rock star ...

Speak Low

BOZ SCAGGS

That bluesman turned ’70s pop superstar Boz Scaggs would one day turn to jazz is no surprise. “Harbor Lights” from Silk Degrees and “Heart Of Mine” from Other Roads are just two examples of how ...

The Ball Street Journal

E-40

E-40 is a shrewd businessman and competent rapper who at times verged on being a great rapper. But usually his desire to remain marketable outpaces his creativity – 40’s endless repetitions of certain slang words ...

The Only Color That Matters Is Green

PACEWON AND MR. GREEN

PaceWon is bitter that Eminem, his former Outsidaz groupmate, didn’t bring him along when he blew up. He airs out his antagonism on “The Joker,” the last track on his new album with producer Mr. ...

Dirt Don’t Hurt

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY AND THE BROKEOFFS

During a career of more than 15 years, British singer Holly Golightly has performed garage-punk, R&B, girl-group pop, swing and cocktail jazz, but for the most recent couple of albums, she’s pretty much stuck to ...

A Thousand Shark’s Teeth

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND

When singer-songwriter Shara Worden conceived her debut under the moniker My Brightest Diamond, the classically trained vocalist’s sole accompaniment was to be a string quartet. Displeased with the results, Worden shelved the project, instead making ...

I Am… Sasha Fierce

BEYONCE

If her album title seems like the moniker for a transgendered entertainer, it wouldn’t be the only thing that’s gay about Beyonce’s third (rushed) solo project. From the hippy, J-Stepping choreography on “Single Ladies (Put ...

Souls for Sale

VERBENA

When Fat Possum added obscure Alabama folk musician and ex-Verbena frontman A.A. Bondy to its roster this year (with the stunning solo debut American Hearts), the Oxford, Miss., blues label knew what it was getting: ...

Things Are Getting Sinister and Sinisterer

EDIE SEDGWICK

This side project by Justin Moyer, a veteran of such Washington, D.C., art-punk groups as El Guapo and Antelope, is lo-fi in its execution but sophisticated in its sassy conception. On this second album (which ...

Winter Sunshine

SHEILA JORDAN

Sixty-year jazz veteran and vocalist Sheila Jordan recorded this live CD on the week of her 80th birthday in February of 2008, and like jazz stalwart and singer Alberta Hunter’s resurgence at the age of ...

Murs for President

MURS

Released a year behind schedule but at a timely moment nonetheless, Murs for President retains the qualities of backpacker hip-hop, despite its new Warner Bros. patina. It is, by turns, nerdy, self-flagellating, irreverent, bitingly funny ...

4:13 Dream

THE CURE

After hearing news of a new release from an act like ’80s goth-rock legends The Cure, most fans’ response is, “Right, so when’s the tour?” Cure fans have reason for caution following 2004’s poorly timed, ...

Road Shows Vol. 1

SONNY ROLLINS

Arguments for Sonny Rollins to be considered the greatest hard-bop saxophonist, if not the best tenor saxophonist of all time, outnumber those against. His full tone, unending inventiveness, willingness to take rhythmic chances, and long ...

Black Ice

AC/DC

The Song Remains the Same may be the title of an old Led Zeppelin album, but it’s also the best way to describe AC/DC’s new studio album, Black Ice. Black Ice is yet another “new” ...

Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8

BOB DYLAN

The first of two discs on Bob Dylan’s latest foray into the bootleg series is riddled with songs about being trapped and boxed in. There are narrators stuck geographically (a breezy, stripped down take on ...

Broadcast Sessions 1958-1959

Acrobat Music

This collection of previously unreleased performances by Miles Davis’ groups featuring John Coltrane, culled from live radio broadcasts, quickly reminds one of how inventive, imaginative and original Miles’ music always was. The 10 selections are ...

2 Grover, With Love

JASON MILES

While this follow up to keyboardist and producer Miles’ 2001 recording honoring Grover Washington Jr., To Grover With Love, has less compelling music, it is a more sincere tribute. Whether due to the live-in-the-studio recording ...

The Unknown

ANIMAL FARM

The Oregon-based, backpack-rap quartet Animal Farm’s first album, The Unknown, is a collage of philosophy, politics and humor, soaked in classic soul and R&B samples. It’s like Del the Funky Homosapien meets Blackalicious, with a ...

Sunshine Lies

MATTHEW SWEET

Ever since his power-pop masterpiece, Girlfriend, in 1991, rocker Matthew Sweet has suffered– perhaps unjustly– from perennial comparisons to that landmark album. On the other hand, many of us who love the melodic melancholy of ...

Day After Tomorrow

JOAN BAEZ

Jack White did it for Loretta Lynn. Ryan Adams did it for Willie Nelson. And now Steve Earle has done it for Joan Baez– and by “it,” I mean a younger talent has infused new ...

All Hope Is Gone

SLIPKNOT

Forget what the Bible has to say about hellfire and brimstone: Slipknot has now redefined the term. Following a three-year hiatus to allow its members to focus on side projects, the nine-piece masked marauders from ...

All U Need Is Mosh

PLASTILINA MOSH

It’s been 10 years since Mexico’s Plastilina Mosh garnered buzz on both sides of the border with their genre-mashing, electro-hip-hop-rock debut, Aquamosh. The duo of Jonaz Gonzalez and Alejandro Rosso rocked the mic like a ...

Furr

BLITZEN TRAPPER

Blitzen Trapper’s 2007 CD, Wild Mountain Nation, approached ’60s rock, folk and country with a fractured sound reminiscent of Pavement’s scattershot 1999 opus Wowee Zowee. On their latest, Furr which is also their debut on ...

The Standard

TAKE 6

It doesn’t seem possible considering how consistently good they are, but this vocal a cappella group keeps getting better. While many performers’ voices falter with age, Take 6’s vocals have a greater sense of blend ...

Dear Science

TV ON THE RADIO

TV On The Radio is officially the sexiest band in indie rock. Or at least the most sexed-up. Most of their indie-rock contemporaries either treat love like something epic and metaphysical, or bury it under ...

Death Magnetic

METALLICA

Metallica’s last album, 2003’s St. Anger, with its raw, messy, unfocused songs and dingy production, was like group therapy on CD, and spoke to the personal demons that the band members were dealing with. It ...

Acid Tongue

JENNY LEWIS

It’s all about the casting. When former child star Jenny Lewis plays Lucinda Williams (“See Fernando”), Blue- period Joni Mitchell (“Acid Tongue”) or even Stevie Nicks-led Fleetwood Mac (“Black Sand,” “Pretty Bird”), she nails the ...

Only By the Night

KINGS OF LEON

Amid the myriad alternative releases that look to Brits like Joy Division or the Clash for inspiration, Nashville four-piece Kings of Leon’s Only By the Night hones a no-frills American rock sound decisively more meat-and-potatoes ...

Nobody Left to Crown

RICHIE HAVENS

A new era and a new social climate can sometimes restore meaning and depth to a song long taken for granted. Such is the case for folk-rock legend Richie Havens’ amazing interpretation of The Who’s ...

Daylight Kissing Night: Adam Marsland’s Greatest Hits

ADAM MARSLAND

The first song on Adam Marsland’s 20-song collection from his solo career and his former band, Cockeyed Ghost, is called “My Kickass Life.” Marsland ain’t kidding: He used to share a practice space with Weezer; ...

Epic Journey Volumes 1 and 2

ADAM NIEWOOD & HIS RABBLE ROUSERS

Known for being the woodwind-playing son of famous former saxophonist Gerry Niewood, Adam Niewood is beginning to turn heads in New York. With a strong educational background including the Berklee College of Music and Juilliard, ...

Cream Cuts

TUSSLE

Humming a Tussle song is hard work. Trying to sing any track from Cream Cuts, the San Francisco quartet’s third full-lengthed, is the kind of quasi-spiritual drum-guru pursuit to which Mickey Hart would dedicate three ...

The Stand Ins

OKKERVIL RIVER

The Stand Ins is Okkervil River’s follow-up to their critically acclaimed The Stage Names, but don’t call it a sequel– it’s really a collection of deleted and extended scenes, scrapped when frontman Will Sheff, fearing ...

Carried to Dust

CALEXICO

For those who know Calexico primarily through its collaborations with other, more notable musicians– including the masterful 2005 EP In the Reins (with Iron & Wine) and last year’s I’m Not There contribution “Goin’ to ...

Here With Me

JENNIFER O’CONNOR

With any luck, indie rock will never die, thanks to efforts as painstakingly constructed and brashly executed as Jennifer O’Connor’s Here With Me. Produced by John Agnello, a man with far too many subtly awesome ...

Symphonica

JOE LOVANO

Throughout history, jazz musicians, seeking the widest palette to perform with, have longed to record with a full symphony orchestra. Interestingly, critics tend to pan such recordings; witness Wes Montgomery’s work on A&M and Charlie ...

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

DAVID BYRNE AND BRIAN ENO

Two of the most influential and groundbreaking musicians of all time have joined forces for the first time since 1981, so of course the resulting music will be excellent. The question is: How excellent? What ...

Untitled

NAS

Bill O’Reilly’s attack on Nas was one of the more bizarre dust-ups of the last year. The roots of the controversy are preposterous: O’Reilly took issue with the lyrics of Nas’ “Shoot ’Em Up.” The ...

The Love Chronicles

DIVINE BROWN

If Amy Winehouse were remixed by the B-52’s, they might concoct something like “Bebe,” but it dances into your head courtesy of Scarborough wunderkind Slakah the Beatchild. On it, a rich assortment of brass instrumentalists ...

Oh! Mighty Engine

NEIL HALSTEAD

The twilight-saturated folk-pop of Neil Halstead is a pleasure to listen to, even if, like soy products, his music diminishes manhood and makes dudes feel twee. The jaunty yet melancholy title track, in which the ...

Here&Gone

DAVID SANBORN

David Sanborn is one of the most influential saxophonists of the 20th century. His influences, however, are the less known saxophonists Ray Charles featured in his early bands: Hank Crawford and David “Fathead” Newman. On ...

The Gleam II

THE AVETT BROTHERS

Two summers ago, The Avett Brothers performed at our 100-person-capacity venue, Monterey Live. Boy, have things changed for the North Carolina trio since then. The group has sold out amphitheaters, played the country’s most revered ...

Don’t Do Anything

SAM PHILLIPS

It’s hard to tell if this is the end of the third, or the beginning of the fourth phase of Sam Phillips’ career. In the mid-’80s, she was a popular, if undistinguished, Christian artist who ...

Here & Gone

DAVID SANBORN

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Ear Food

THE ROY HARGROVE QUINTET

Trumpeter Roy Hargrove is the definition of a questing musician, having tried his hand at a number of different styles. From funk/hip-hop work on Hard Groove to Latin on Habana, Hargrove hasn’t always succeeded but ...

Evil Urges

MY MORNING JACKET

My Morning Jacket’s latest is the sort of album that critics adore, because it allows us to flex our smarts by pointing out the different styles that a talented and ambitious band incorporates into its ...

Conquer

SOULFLY

Although we were all raised to not judge a book (or a CD) by its cover, an exception can be made with Soulfly’s sixth studio effort, Conquer. The cover depicts an ancient warrior with six ...

Live At The 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival

SHIRLEY HORN

Long overlooked by jazz historians, vocalist and pianist Shirley Horn is featured with her longtime trio, bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams, on this concert concluding the Festival’s 37th anniversary. While always known for ...

50 Years Of Dave Brubeck: Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival 1958-2007

DAVE BRUBECK

The latest collection of six Monterey Jazz Festival archival recordings, which highlight either a single night’s concert or a career of performances, includes a stunning collection of pianist Dave Brubeck’s work. The 10 pieces, from ...

Live At The 1977 Monterey Jazz Festival

TITO PUENTE

Puente’s big 15-piece Latin jazz band plays with all of the charisma and virtuosic skill with which he was long associated. Interestingly enough, it was this concert that’s credited with bringing the great timbale player ...

Fire Songs

THE WATSON TWINS

The vibe of this first full-length album from The Watson Twins is wholly American, and that encompasses a whole lotta elements: soul, country, R&B, folk, indie rock, gospel and jazz. Once one learns that the ...

Modern Guilt

BECK

Produced by hot beatmaker Danger Mouse and bearing an ominously portentous title, Modern Guilt raises expectations that its creator, Beck, has no interest in living up to. A moody run-through of the thematic preoccupations that ...

Two Men With the Blues

WILLIE NELSON AND WYNTON MARSALIS

Even if you know Miles Davis titled one of his pieces “Willie Nelson” out of respect and admiration for the country crooner, you still might think this pairing with Wynton Marsalis might be a disaster. ...

Sax For Stax

GERALD ALBRIGHT

Saxophonist Gerald Albright made a name for himself in 1991 with the release of an astoundingly first-rate live recording. His technical brilliance was perfectly matched by a soulful honesty that made him widely popular, not ...

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

COLDPLAY

From 2000’s piano-based, virgin-mopefest debut, Parachutes, to 2005’s X&Y, Coldplay morphed into a bombastic, synth-heavy arena-rock group, like U2. For Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Coldplay enlisted Brian Eno, a frequent ...

At Mount Zoomer

WOLF PARADE

Three years later, Wolf Parade’s breathless debut Apologies to the Queen Mary is as exhilarating and, by Canadian indie-rock standards, charged as the day it came out. Follow up At Mount Zoomer doesn’t reach that ...

Seraphic Light

SAXOPHONE SUMMIT

Saxophone Summit pairs the three most influential tenor saxophonists of our era—Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano—with a rhythm section. Their previous release, Gathering Of Spirits, put new life into the “tenor battle” concept so ...

Weezer

WEEZER

On Pinkerton, regarding the subject of committing to a relationship, Weezer once implored listeners, “Why Bother?” Now, as that cult album approaches its 12th birthday, listeners can return the favor with each new Weezer release. ...

Smile

BORIS

Japanese metal trio Boris have spent the past five years subjecting their music to the same kind of violent experimentation and abuse that members of Megadeth generally reserved for their frontal lobes. They’ve made albums ...

AL GREEN

Lay It Down

Although he reunited with famed producer Willie Mitchell for his previous two albums, legendary R&B singer Al Green has delved into the world of neo-soul to create his latest CD, and the resulting songs sound ...

IRVIN MAYFIELD&ELLIS MARSALIS

Love Songs, Ballads and Standards

The concept is solid: Pair pianist and master teacher Ellis Marsalis with a young, immensely talented former trumpet student, Irvin Mayfield, whose shared stalwart defense and promotion of jazzís purest sense of history makes them ...

IRVIN MAYFIELD & ELLIS MARSALIS

Love Songs, Ballads and Standards

The concept is solid: Pair pianist and master teacher Ellis Marsalis with a young, immensely talented former trumpet student, Irvin Mayfield, whose shared stalwart defense and promotion of jazzís purest sense of history makes them ...

NICK CAVE&THE BAD SEEDS

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

The only negative thing about Nick Cave’s latest opus of degradation and hope is the vulgar excess of punctuation in the title. Otherwise, this record is among the best in an oeuvre that is threatening ...

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

The only negative thing about Nick Cave’s latest opus of degradation and hope is the vulgar excess of punctuation in the title. Otherwise, this record is among the best in an oeuvre that is threatening ...

Lifecycle

THE YELLOWJACKETS

Beginning their life more than 25 years ago as guitarist Robben Ford’s backing band, the rhythm section of Russell Ferrante on keyboards, bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Ricky Lawson eventually went their own way becoming ...

Blame It on Gravity

OLD 97’S

Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller says the band’s seventh album is a return to its earlier high-energy sound, a “second childhood” and a re-focus on songwriting. From the first searing tube-amp-distorted lick of “The Fool,” ...

Coal

KATHY MATTEA

Once a Grammy-winning country superstar of the ’80s and ’90s, Kathy Mattea finds herself releasing material via her own label. Now she’s free to be an artist as opposed to a glorified beer saleswoman. The ...

The Golden Age

AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB

“Nobody here will ever save you,” sings alt-crooner Mark Eitzel in “Decibels and the Little Pills,” a devastating character sketch of a girl gone wild. “Your rebel cowboy hat,” he continues, “all it says is ...

Foreign Feeling

Juan L. Sanchez Ensemble delivers a special show before returning to Spain.

The music of Monterey’s Juan L. Sanchez Ensemble does not recognize international borders. On their second CD titled Hijos de la Tierra, the crack group of local musicians allows Latin, African, Middle Eastern and American ...

Do It!

CLINIC

Clinic, a quartet from Liverpool, claims to be an experimental band, but their mash-up of punk, metal, folk-rock, psychedelia and ‘50s R&B won’t sound unfamiliar to anyone with a knowledge of 20th-century pop music. How ...

Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO

Ladysmith Black Mambazo unites native South African musical traditions with Christian sentiment and political context. It makes sense that the country’s premier vocal group would record an album honoring the iconic warrior Shaka Zulu. But ...

For All Mankind

THE PHENOMENAUTS

The Phenomenauts come roaring out of the gate at warp speed on their third album with 13 inspired blasts of sugar-coated adrenaline guaranteed to slap a sap py smile on your face. “Man Alone” is ...

Sinti Swing

Gypsy jazz guitarist Lulo Reinhardt follows his muse.

When it comes to Gypsy jazz, these are the best of times. The blazing musical style created by Sinti guitarist Django Reinhardt and French violinist Stephane Grappelli has maintained a devoted following since the Quintette ...

Rhythm & Romance

KENNY G

It’s not news to anyone that Kenny G’s last few recordings have been, to be kind, less than stellar; this all changes with the release of Rhythm & Romance. In this outing the biggest-selling instrumental ...

April

SUN KIL MOON

Whether recording under the moniker Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon or his given name, Mark Kozelek always captures the sonic essence of driving on a wide-open highway just as the light of dawn seeps ...

Dreaming of Revenge

KAKI KING

Kaki King is an excellent example of how Ani DiFranco-inspired guitar playing can be anything but derivative and annoying. King’s incredible handling of her guitar comes not so much from obsessive devotion to that righteous ...

Trouble In Dreams

DESTROYER

In between working on releases with his other projects (Swan Lake, Hello, Blue Roses and the New Pornographers), Dan Bejar somehow had time to record Trouble In Dreams, the eighth Destroyer studio album. More grandiose ...

Mountain Battles

THE BREEDERS

Though the title of the Breeders’ latest seems to promise arena-sized guitar riffing (cue a mental picture of the Deal sisters surrounded by lightning strikes, crossing guitar necks like swords), Mountain Battles is more easy ...

Flight of the Conchords

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS

Like Spinal Tap and Tenacious D before them, the New Zealand duo Flight of the Conchords pokes fun of popular music from the inside by making outrageous songs that skewer genre conventions. Unlike Spinal Tap ...

Let’s Go Everywhere

MEDESKI MARTIN & WOOD

Once purveyors of traditional Jimmy Smith-esque, Verve!-era, dusty Hammond B-3 grooves, Medeski Martin & Wood started down the avant-garde road of experimentation with 2000’s The Dropper, dropped X for 2002’s Uninvisible and had seemingly forgotten ...

Rabo de Nube

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