Photo: João Wainer

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When Luisa Maita’s debut CD “Lero-Lero” first dropped in the U.S. in 2010, she joined the roster of many talented young Brazilian artists (Bebel Gilberto, Ceu, Seu Jorge—to name a few) to make it into the world music scene. Back then, she did a mini-tour that included small venues in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles that helped solidify her career and generate a buzz about her.

Maita’s sound is a mix of samba, rock and Afro-Brazilian influences. Read the rest of this entry »

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Music geeks should really be thankful that festivals like All Tomorrow’s Parties and Lollapalooza are able to toss around interesting sums of money, coaxing would-be disbanded acts out of the shadows. The Olivia Tremor Control, which was briefly summoned back to the stage in 2005 for ATP, has become another revival act of sorts after its ten-year hiatus. As a part of the Elephant 6 Collective, a wide ranging association of pop-psych bands including everyone from the Apples in Stereo to Jeff Mangum’s Neutral Milk Hotel, this group gained underground acclaim during its initial run between 1992 and 1999. Releasing a few long-players brought out the major-label vultures and, with reasonable suspicion, the group decided to take a break for a bit in lieu of signing away the rights to new music in order to pull in a big, corporate payday. Read the rest of this entry »

“I remember going to see the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia when the band was still at DePaul and standing at the railing,” recalls trumpet player Lee Loughnane of the band Chicago. “I was amazed with the brass section. I remember auditioning for the Civic Orchestra [the training orchestra of the CSO] and Adolph Herseth [longtime CSO principal trumpet] was right there, and it was like, ‘Oh, my God: I’ve got to play in front of the best there is?’ ”

Loughnane and his band mates from Chicago did eventually make it to the stage of Ravinia at the height of the band’s initial wave of popularity in August of 1972, but have not played the venue since. Late Ravinia executive director Edward Gordon described the aftermath of that concert “as if a B52 had flown by and dropped a ton of garbage over the park.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Anthony Dominick Benedetto, aka Tony Bennett, turned 85 earlier this month (August 3) but it’s hard to think of many other octogenarians still swinging the way that Tony is. Who else but Bennett could unite such diverse artists and icons for his 2006 “Duets” album as Barbra Streisand, Bono, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Sting, James Taylor, the Dixie Chicks, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Michael Buble, Tim McGraw, et al, to sing duets of the songs most associated with him over the last six-plus decades, not across coasts and even continents the lackluster way that Sinatra did late in his career, but one-on-one, live and in person alongside of him, working to make every phrase count? Read the rest of this entry »

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It wasn’t easy for Mexican alt-rockers Zoe since their 1994 inception. Like many indie bands, they took the DIY approach until they were discovered by a major label four years later—which subsequently dropped them—leaving them to fend for themselves until they finally got a distribution deal from Sony Music in 2000.

In the meantime, they made their name by playing in Latin alternative festivals and opening for established names like Gustavo Cerati (formerly of Babasonicos) and Franz Ferdinand—which helped broaden their fan base and led them to semi-superstardom in Latin America. Read the rest of this entry »

“There’s a cumulative mass that creates something,” says Sonny Smith, frontman in Sonny & the Sunsets, about the benefit of performing at the Pitchfork Festival last summer. “It’s not black and white.” At the time his Bay Area quartet hit the stage, they’d already issued a long playing album, “Tomorrow is Alright,” through Soft Abuse.

“It’s hard to know how that domino effect works,” he continues. “I had a tour with Neko Case, an opening slot in about 2006. I was on NPR, too.” It seems dogged effort as much as random happenstance had to do with getting signed to Fat Possum for the band’s latest full-length, “Hit After Hit.” That new disc doesn’t stray far from the Sunset’s earlier fare, just continues to channel fifties vocal groups, funneling it through seventies pop simplicity and into the new millennium with an independent fervor.

The sensibility is partially due to coming out of the Bay Area, where Smith grew up. And while there’s no real NorCal vs. SoCal attitude running rife through the underground, the Sunset’s instrumental “The Bad Energy from L.A. Is Killing Me” might lead some to believe otherwise. Assumptions, as they often are, don’t make hay. Read the rest of this entry »

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Mark Kozelek doesn’t write folk songs, he weaves them. From his earlier fronting of the slowcore founders the Red House Painters twenty years ago, to his more recent critically acclaimed incarnation as Sun Kil Moon, Kozelek has made a career from quietly building genre-spanning epics and constructing fables from imagistic lyrics. While he’s been compared to Neil Young in the past for his falsetto and psychedelic take on folk, where Kozelek diverges is the sense of place and autobiography he invests into every song. “Environment inspires me,” Kozelek said in an interview with the website Identity Theory. “It’s the background to a lot of my songs.” This sense of environment, of a gradually cultivated atmosphere, permeates many of his tracks. Characters like Katy and Michael reappear from album to album, as if his total work is an extended roman à clef. Nine-minute epics like “Lost Verses” craft grandeur out of what begins simply as Kozelek’s strummed guitar. Nowhere is Kozelek’s penchant for constructing sonic atmospheres more clear than his most recent release, “Admiral Fell Promises,” where he takes the minimalist’s route, honing his songwriting down to ten tracks of him alone with his nylon-string guitar. Some of the grandeur is lost, but the remarkably vibrant details of his lyrics and finger picking shine through. (Michael Gillis)

July 8 at Lincoln Hall, 2424 North Lincoln, 9pm. $20.

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This fully integrated South African band caught their first big break during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when they shared the spotlight with Colombian singer Shakira on the multilingual “Waka Waka,” the official anthem for that event. Since then, global fans have gotten small glimpses of their music via their collaborations with Les Nubians and their first record to get full release in the US, “Radio Africa.”

The band’s songs have a catchy pop vibe and a sense of humor. For instance, “Pot Belly” talks about how time passes and couples age, “fat thighs, flabby arms and a pot belly still gives good loving”—something almost unheard of in body-image-obsessed  American pop music. “Doo Be Doo” looks at an utopian time when people in the planet will finally be able to get along—a reflection on the changes in their own country, where Apartheid still ruled just a few decades ago.

Lead singer Zolani Mahola embodies the band’s attitude well. With almost a teenage-sounding voice, she has great confidence and a great stage presence—this can be seen on the “Waka Waka” video, when she almost steals the song from Shakira near the end. (Ernest Barteldes)

June 30 at Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion, North Michigan and East Randolph, 6:30pm. Free.

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The former child performer (and daughter of late producer and arranger Don Costa) shows on her new EP that she is in constant evolution as a performer. After dabbling in electronic and soul music on her previous efforts, Costa meets halfway by blending all her influences into a very personal musical form. The record opens with the bass-heavy “Head First,” a soul-inflected pop song that sounds ready for remixers and DJs to dabble with. “Never Wanna C U Again” shows her angry-girl side—it’s a female empowerment rocker about not allowing herself another lover’s deceit.

The title track is a bit unimpressive. Costa tries a bit too hard to mix a punk attitude with electronic elements, but the result is at least danceable even if it falls flat musically in comparison with the rest of the material on the disc. On the other hand, the downtempo “Chase the Thrill” has just the right blend of soul and psychedelics without sounding overproduced. The tune shift tempos towards the end, allowing for the instruments to take over and carry on its dreamy state—think of it as a cross between Alanis Morissette and the more trippy sounds of the late sixties in a well-balanced package. (Ernest Barteldes)

Nikka Costa
“Pro Whoa!”
(Go Funk Yourself/Giant Step)
www.nikkacosta.com

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On her second release, singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn comes up with a selection of acoustic-based songs that are easily reproduced in a live format. Backed by her own guitar and little else, she offers a selection of tunes that reflect on growing up (the album’s theme) and coming of age. For instance, on the catchy, psychedelic “Oo La La,” she narrates the story of how a chance encounter can change your whole life. On “Vibe So Hot,” she is backed by a simple trio (drums, Hofner bass, sparse keyboards and guitar) to sing about the growth of a love affair.

It’s not all about bliss, though. On the soft ballad “City Lights, Pretty Lights,” she cryptically wonders about what lies ahead, while “I Don’t Have Time To Be In Love” ponders what it takes to be in a relationship. The uptempo title track rationalizes about the whole idea of what you should be once adulthood kicks in. She is not jaded like John Lennon was on his cathartic “Working Class Hero,” but the message is clear: you have to do something about it before time passes you by. (Ernest Barteldes)

Priscilla Ahn
“When You Grow Up”
Blue Note