Email Author Piotr Orlov

2003 Stories by Piotr Orlov

• A Tale of Two Beats

  published December 25, 2003

  What does it say about the state of beat production in 2003 that as the Top 40 grows weirder (Kelis' "Milkshake," anyone?), songs that used to... More >>

• Basement Jaxx

  published November 20, 2003

  Talk about an overload! There's so much action inside Kish Kash, the Basement Jaxx's romper-stomper of a third album -- bells, clicks,... More >>

• Betting on ODB?

  published November 13, 2003

  When an infamous public life disintegrates, does anybody care to hear the moan? Was it always expected to be this way, especially as the life in... More >>

• NYC Re-Nu-al

  published October 2, 2003

  "Are you ready for more?" "Are you talking to me?" Just when the exported goods of New York's renewed dalliance with the... More >>

• Cedric IM Brooks

  published October 2, 2003

  Like other Jamaican musicians of the '60s, saxophonist Cedric Brooks didn't choose to make ska, rock-steady and reggae -- he got consumed by the... More >>

• TV on the Radio

  published August 21, 2003

  From the department of "You can't teach epic,' it's either bestowed on you or it ain't": In a single five-song EP, TV on the Radio has set up camp... More >>

• Madlib

  published August 7, 2003

  It'd be reductive to call Madlib the last of hip-hop's true jazz believers, but it'd be close to the truth. The Stones Throw Records studio rat... More >>

• Paws Across America, featuring Kid 606

  published July 31, 2003

  ,,, at. More >>

• Beyond Good and Evil

  published July 24, 2003

  The man formerly known as Daniel Dumile understands that today's heroes come a dime a dozen, doused in bravado, drunk on morality, and that it's... More >>

• Spoon, and (Smog)

  published July 17, 2003

  Sure, it might be possible to put together a better adult indie-rock double-bill in this day and age -- but you'd have to really strain. Here,... More >>

• Soft Pink Truth

  published July 10, 2003

  General consensus long held that in the history of popular music, avant-garde elements are rarely digested easily by the masses, and that when... More >>

• Dub Bomb!, Baby

  published June 26, 2003

  Dub is not a genre! It is a state of mind, with funhouse mirror eyeballs, a drop floor, a love of the unknown, and the knowledge that if a... More >>

• Original Soundtrack

  published June 12, 2003

  The PC forces may not want to hear this, but the porn industry of the 1970s wasn't all bad. It created numerous professional opportunities for... More >>

• The Dismemberment Plan

  published May 29, 2003

  The greater Washington-Baltimore area has certainly been involved in a lot of tension-filled, white music since Minor Threat's hard-core... More >>

• DAT Politics

  published May 29, 2003

  If you've been basking in the glow of grease oozing from your glad-they-renamed-'em "freedom" fries the past few months, find something else to... More >>

• Basement Ax

  published May 15, 2003

  Pop culture historians like to pontificate that punk killed the guitar hero. Though anyone who's seen Doug Martsch's Stratocaster lead Built to... More >>

• Manitoba

  published May 15, 2003

  Like other musicians whose primary instruments are laptop computers, Canadian-bred U.K. resident Dan "Manitoba" Snaith is simultaneously saddled... More >>

• Yo La Tengo/Dump

  published May 8, 2003

  Every great band has a so-called "quiet" one -- they're the ones you gotta watch. For indie-rock statesfolk Yo La Tengo, that's James McNew, the... More >>

• Howe Gelb

  published April 24, 2003

  Tucson's Howe Gelb is a premier American songwriter, the kind of guy whose career could only happen in the rock 'n' roll era. He's upheld its... More >>

• He's a Happy Rat Now

  published April 17, 2003

  As we at last rejoin Billy Corgan, he seems pretty much where we left him when the Pumpkins smashed their last corroded power chord against pop... More >>

• Postal Service

  published April 10, 2003

  One of the weird things about the ill '80s musical revival spreading through the Western world is the symbiosis between said revival and the... More >>

• Majesticons

  published April 3, 2003

  Mike Ladd is hip-hop's Baz Luhrmann and its Alvin Toffler. A maniacally brainy, thirtysomething lyricist-producer, Ladd fashions Luhrmannesque... More >>