Dance the Pain Away
As the murder rate rises and the heroin scourge continues, so does the indomitable sound of Baltimore club music. After giving stressed-out locals an ass-wigglin' boost for more than 15 years, the secretive scene finally may be ready for the outside world.
By S. H. Fernando Jr. 12.03.05 1:19 PM
"Hey, Ball-i-more!" shouts Club Queen K-Swift, a mane of shiny black ringlets cascading over her face. Chants of "Hey, hey, hey," from Blaq Starr's "Hey, Motherfucker (Clean Version)," punctuate a wall of kick drums and bass as the tension rises.
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Madonna, 'Confessions on a Dance Floor' (Warner Bros.)
Madge goes disco -- again. Gay clubbers rejoice. Others, not so much.
By Caryn Ganz 12.01.05 4:00 AM
Madonna and George W. Bush may have less in common than Kabbalah strings and W.W.J.D. wristbands, but the pop politician seems to have learned a lesson from the president: When things are bleak on the home front, make waves abroad and appeal to your core constituency.
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Gretchen Wilson, 'All Jacked Up' (Epic Nashville) Big and Rich, 'Comin' to Your City' (Warner Bros. Nashville)
Purple-state country envisions a world united by product placement.
By Jon Caramanica 11.30.05 4:00 AM
Mainstream country music has always been popular, but last year it got idiosyncratic, with songs that quoted OutKast, video cameos from Kid Rock, and a rapping black cowboy. This was mostly thanks to the MuzikMafia, a tight collective of Nashville insurgents -- Big Kenny, John Rich, Gretchen Wilson, and assorted friends -- who became part of the Music Row machinery by breaking its protocols.
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The Darkness, 'One Way Ticket to Hell...and Back' (Atlantic)
Earnest glam rock by the kings of Queen.
By Jon Dolan 11.25.05 4:00 AM
The Darkness are the kind of English rock band Americans have never understood. When they arrived in 2003, looking like Velvet Goldmine if it'd been directed by Russ Meyer, our nation's lapsed indie rockers assumed they were an ironic hair-metal in-joke. But the Darkness weren't kidding around.
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System of a Down, 'Hypnotize' (American/Columbia)
Bipolar metal finds its second act.
By Will Hermes 11.23.05 4:00 AM
System of a Down toured arenas this year with Bad Acid Trip, a spaz-metal band whose moniker fits System pretty well -- although Half-Bad Acid Trip would be more fitting. System like to channel-surf between screaming death-metal freak-outs and dilated art-mosh celebration, with bits of Armenian folk music and cartoonish vocals thrown in for good measure.
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