Essence Music Festival July 1-3, 2005 Evening Music: Louisiana Superdome 1500 Poydras St. Daily Seminars: New Orleans Convention Center 900 Convention Center Blvd. Tickets: Ticketmaster 522-5555
By: Billy Thinnes, Managing Partner, Where Y’at School of Music Journalism
Essence, we salute you. Your essential presence in the dog days of summer makes us happy. Thanks also for not up and moving to Houston or Atlanta. I mean, sure, those are two bustling metropolises with ec ... Read More >>
As hip hop music continues to expand from a fledgling fad to an internationally appreciated genre, it’s no surprise that factions and fusions have been sprouting up for as long as 15 years now. Digable Planets mixed jazz with hip hop; Anthrax and Body Count blended it with rock and roll; and underground acts like the artists of Anticon are even bringing an emo mentality to the music. So it should come as no surprise to learn that hip hop has even managed to imbue its influence ... Read More >>
When “Big Daddy” Willie Cole boasts, “I’ll put my soul food up against any soul food in the city,” he speaks the patois of New Orleans’ Creole circles where bragging rights, pride and passion for down-home cooking articulate themselves in the city’s neighborhood soul food restaurants. Cole is owner/chef of Williams Restaurant, a 35-year-old soul food fixture on Toledano Street. Cole recently hired “Miss Zee” (Zina Cooper), a for ... Read More >>
Out on old man McCallister’s Tennessee farm – a 700-acre preserve of leafiness, muddiness and endangered species like the tattooed dirtsurfer – a festival called Bonnaroo celebrated its fourth year. The festival, which derives its name from Dr. John’s seminal 1974 album, Desitively Bonnaroo, was an all out assault on the senses, the body and the mind. This unruly beast ran roughshod over the weak, the confused and the complainers, the all day and all night ... Read More >>
MTV always finds a way to push it over the top. At the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards in Miami, the display of decadence was at an all time high. As Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel would say, they took it to eleven. Celebrities and musicians arrived in monstrous yachts to a dock-based red carpet, dawning the glitz and glam that one has come to expect from musicians and movie stars of the 21st century: Dolce & Gabbana suits; diamond necklaces worth more than the GDP of most sma ... Read More >>
Ellipsis plus Moonshine Still Friday 6/24, 10 PM Tipitina’s (501 Napoleon, 895-8477)
In the last year, local rock band Ellipsis has started to ascend into the national spotlight. In September 2004, they opened for Incubus at UNO Lakefront Arena. Since then, they have found themselves on stage at the French Quarter Fest, Jazz Fest and various points across the country supporting their debut album, But a Breath. These talented young musicians also double as s ... Read More >>
