By Ben Edmonds/Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — Buffy Sainte-Marie. If you’re a baby boomer, the name surely rings bells. There’s probably a picture attached, circa the early-’60s folk music explosion, of a young American Indian girl with an acoustic guitar and a strange, singular vibrato as she performs protest anthems “Universal Soldier” and “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone.” If you’re a pop scholar, you think of her as the writer of “Until It’s Time for You to Go,” a hit for both Elvis Presley and Neil Diamond, and as coauthor of the 1982 Oscar-winning song “Up Where We Belong.”

In the decades since those pictures were fixed in our consciousness, the Canadian singer and songwriter has developed parallel and equally distinguished careers as a painter, computer artist and programmer, actor (there are those who know her only from her recurring “Sesame Street” role), educator and social activist.

She attributes our incomplete and out-of-date picture to U.S. government pressure resulting from her political activism, particularly regarding American Indian issues. “I was blacklisted, taken away from American audiences in my prime,” she says, “but that didn’t stop me. I had the rest of the world and lots of creative options to explore.”

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By Chris Catania/PopMatters.com

“… Side effects might include just being who you really are.”
—Lyric from “Niggy Tardust”

CHICAGO — Saul Williams wants to liberate you.

As an actor, screenwriter, poet, and musician, Williams has been offering you the opportunity for the last 10 years by releasing books of poetry, a feature film, and three albums, including his 2007 effort “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust” — a self-released concept album unveiled in a pay-what-you-like Radiohead-style purchase method via his Web site.

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Four years after releasing the critically-acclaimed “Revolutionary Vol. 2,” emcee Immortal Technique returns this week with his third studio album, “Third World.”

Six Shot.com sat down with the Harlem-born emcee recently to discuss his latest release.

“There are a lot of people that are conscious about lots of (issues). Think about this: How many people know how corrupt the society is, or how (messed up) their local government is? I’m not conscious; I’m revolutionary to address those things specifically, and to say that I’m going to take a stand in what I personally believe in. There are people that are willing to help us out, and I’m definitely looking forward to working with them.” - Immortal Technique

Related Links:

www.viperrecords.com

By JASON DEAREN/The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - Steven Garcia pulled into a Houston gas station recently to fill up the old Dodge van his punk band uses on summer tours.

For months, the 23-year-old singer-guitarist had been budgeting money and booking show dates for Something Fierce’s third tour - but skyrocketing gas prices have put the brakes on those plans.

“Once I ran the numbers it was a ‘There’s no (expletive) way’ kind of moment,” Garcia said. After much hand-wringing and grumbling from bookers who’d scheduled the band to play, Garcia canceled the tour.

Cramming into a rusty, creaky van and playing dive bars and house parties is a summer ritual for many young musicians and ambitious independent bands trying to get exposure, make a living and maybe build a solid future in music.

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In an interview with Tom Speed of All About Jazz, Alejandro Escovedo explains how his latest album, “Real Animal,” is a culmination of the sound his has been developing his entire career. “Real Animal” is very much an autobiographical album that takes listeners on a journey that is the life of the legendary songwriter. The album hits stores June 24. For the entire article, see the All About Jazz Web site.

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The News Journal in Daytona, Fla. recently profiled two of their local record stores as demand for vinyl records has continued to increase over the last four years. While vinyl LPs may never catch up to compact discs and challenge the ever-growing popularity of iPods and other MP3 players, it is nice to see music enthusiasts supporting their local record stores.

By Erin Podolsky/Detroit Free Press

For long time followers of Death Cab for Cutie, the news was a pleasantly unexpected sock to the tender-hearted jaw, just as it was for singer Ben Gibbard. Two weeks ago, the Seattle quartet’s sixth full-length album, “Narrow Stairs,” entered the Billboard Top 200 at No. 1, putting the band in such company as Madonna, Mariah Carey and George Strait, just to name a few artists who held the top spot in the past few weeks. It’s a milestone that cements the fact that Death Cab isn’t a little indie band that could anymore - this is an indie band that can, did and does.

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By Brian McCollum/Detroit Free Press

When she emerged on the music scene in summer 2001, it was clear Alicia Keys had all the makings for stardom.

Lovely, fashionable and gifted, she ably straddled the worlds of classic soul and modern pop, a classically trained pianist who gracefully infused her hook-laden songs with a cosmopolitan air.

Seven years and 11 Grammy Awards later, Keys resides securely in popular music’s upper tier. Her fall release, “As I Am,” spent four weeks atop Billboard’s album chart and became the fourth-bestselling record of 2007.

Keys has grown leaps and bounds since her early shows, where her sets were as notable for their limited material as for her sweet-hearted performances. Now she’s on her first full-fledged arena tour with a set list that’s certainly no longer lacking for hits.

“I’ve just come more into my own,” she says. “And really, with experience comes confidence, and a little bit more awareness of how I would like to do it, having learned from the past.”

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Al Green returns this week with his latest album, “Lay It Down,” off Blue Note Records.

The R&B legend collaborated with several of today’s young hip-hop producers and R&B artists including drummer Amir “?uestlove” Thompson of The Roots, John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae.

Check out this feature from Nate Chin of The New York Times as he sits down will Green and the various contributors to his album due out Tuesday, May 27.

To purchase the album from Amazon.com.

By JAKE COYLE/The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The breakthrough for Radiohead on “Reckoner” - a song that underwent multiple incarnations on its way to “In Rainbows” - came by way of what Jonny Greenwood calls a “big percussion fest.”

Recording in an English country house, all five members of the group make a loud, cathartic racket - a habit-busting trick the band has practiced since primary school, says bassist Colin Greenwood.

“And I’m happy to say that success hasn’t changed us at all,” joked Jonny Greenwood, who would rather leave the percussion to Phil Selway’s drums and Thom Yorke’s rhythm guitar.

Whether through the primal release of a “big percussion fest” or by severing ties with its record label, Radiohead is giving the distinct impression of a band that has exorcised something.

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By Tamara Warren/Detroit Free Press

DETROIT - When it comes to the dance music charts, Detroit native Quentin Harris seems to have wrapped things up. Harris, who is in mid-30s, lives in New York and is an integral figure in the house music scene.

He’s had a number of remixes that were dance chart hits, including Mariah Carey’s “Don’t Forget About Us” and Floetry’s “Superstar,” while his takes on India.Arie’s “Ready for Love ” and “Cloud 9″ for R&B singer Donnie have caught on in the club scene. On “No Politics” his first full-length album, released last fall, he solidified his stake as an innovator in deep-house territory, with a sound based heavily in programming but featuring added textures from the multi-instrumentalist. Long before he made the move to New York, Harris developed his talent during the mid-’90s in Detroit hip-hop circles.

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By Jordan Levin/McClatchy Newspapers

Sergio Mendes found fame as part of an era, symbolized in the name of his first band, Brasil 66, inventing a smooth, jazzy bossa nova pop sound that’s the very essence of the cooled-out ‘60s. Later versions of the group in subsequent decades - Brasil 77, Brasil 88 - didn’t have nearly the same impact.

But 40 years after he first became a star, Mendes has found new success by leaving dates behind. “Timeless,” released in 2006 and produced by Black Eyed Peas leader will.i.am, was chockfull of young urban stars like Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Erykah Badu and India.arie guesting on updates of Mendes classics like “Mas que nada.” It was a surprise hit that brought the 67-year-old musical legend back to life for a new generation of fans.

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In an interview with the Dallas Observer, Old 97s frontman Rhett Miller discussed the band’s seventh studio album, “Blame It On Gravity,” the bands departure from the alt-country sound and get a little nostalgic. It has been four years the Dallas-based quartet released “Drag It Up” in 2004. According the band’s Web site, “Gravity“ finds the band “turning up the amps and returning to the satisfying crunch of its early records.”

“Bands go through a phase where they age, as people,” Miller says. “During ‘Drag It Up,’ all of us had gotten older and started families. That record was full of songs about mortality and aging. This record is more like a second childhood. More guitars, and they’re loud.”