The new album by Tinariwen could well have been called Exile on Main Street. But other people have already thought of that. It also could have been called A la recherché du pays perdu (‘Remembrance of a lost country’). Except that would have been a tad Proustian for musicians who grew up pretty much between a rock and a sand dune, in the midst of their goat herds and camel caravans. But the idea is apt. As is the painful paradox, if you consider that while Tinariwen were busy criss-crossing the globe on their recent triumphant tours (160 concerts played in the past three years), expanding their audience on all five continents, becoming one of the latest musical phenomena of truly universal calibre, the frontiers that encircle their desert home were closing down and double-locking, forcing them into exile to record this their 8th album. Over the past five years, their beloved homeland in the Adrar des Ifoghas, a Saharan mountain range that straddles the border between north-eastern Mali and southern Algeria has, in effect, been transformed into a conflict zone, a place where nobody can venture without putting themselves in danger and where war lords devoted either to jihad or trafficking (sometimes both at the same time), have put any activity that contradicts their beliefs or escapes their control in jeopardy. Even though the 12 songs on this new record evoke those cherished deserts of home, they were recorded a long way away from them. And, as a result of this separation, at a time when the political, military and humanitarian situation in the region has never been so critical, the feelings and the emotions that the band managed to capture on record have never been so vivid. In October 2014, making use of a few days off in the middle of a long American tour, the band stopped off at Rancho de la Luna studios in California’s Joshua Tree National Park. The place has become the favoured refuge of the stoner rock tribe. Josh Homme and his Queens of the Stone Age were the first to make it their hive, and since then, whether in use by P J Harvey or the Foo Fighters, Iggy Pop or the Arctic Monkeys, neither the mixing console nor the kitchen ovens have had a moment to cool down. For Tinariwen, the geographical location of the studios – lost in the middle of that horizontal desert, that mineral immensity, where Man is reminded of his own insignificance in ways that can only, in the end, either kill him or sublimate him – proved to be particularly propitious in terms of creativity. Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Bilingual rapper and singer Claudia Feliciano, who goes by the name Snow tha Product, switches between hardened rhymes and bright melodic hooks with an emphasis on the former. Easily mistaken for a drug reference, Feliciano’s performing alias was inspired instead by Disney character Snow White and the artist’s desire to prevent her musical and personal lives from blurring into one another. Born in San Jose and raised in San Diego, she appeared as Claudia White on “Alguien,” a 2009 single by Latin pop artist Jaime Kohen, prior to basing herself out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. For several years she was an underground artist, though she eventually attracted some high-level guest appearances on her mixtape releases, including the likes of Tech N9ne and Ty Dolla $ign. In 2013, she went aboveground and started issuing singles for major-label Atlantic, such as “Play,” “Doing Fine,” and “Hola,” which alternated between pop-oriented material and more aggressive, lighter-hearted tracks tailored for club play. In 2016, Atlantic released an eight-track EP, Half Way There…, Pt. 1. From there Feliciano had success with a series of singles and featured appearances. 2017 included the viral breakup anthem “Waste of Time,” as well as “Nuestra Cancion, Pt. 2,” both showcasing a smoother and more pop-friendly side of her style. The next year she continued with trappy singles “Help a Bitch Out (featuring O.T. Genasis),” “Dale Gas,” and “Today I Decided” as well as the more lighthearted “Goin’ Off” and “Myself (featuring DRAM).” She ended the year by contributing to several tracks on the VIBE HIGHER mixtape with Castro Escobar, Lex the Great, Jandro, and others. ~ Andy Kellman Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube

KOLARS is one of those rare acts which descends from another dimension, struts its sequin skin, blares it’s unabashed musical thrill ride and leaves audiences with their mouths on the floor. Rob Kolar twists and turns as he sings imaginative lyrics with a raw swagger. He spins his guitar as notes sail and scramble through the room. A presence that embodies elements of Elvis and Marc Bolan with a ragged punky edge. The magnetic, one of a kind, Lauren Brown uses her whole body as a percussion instrument, tap dancing rhythms with her feet while simultaneously playing a full stand up kit with her arms. An alluring hybrid of Mo Tucker and Gene Kelly with a dash of Iggy Pop wildness. Yes, there have been iconic duos before but none like this. On record KOLARS are slightly more subtle and nuanced. Rob produces and mixes the music and has created a genre melding soundscape influenced by his film scoring. The band has inspired evocative descriptions such as “space blues,” “glam-a-billy” and “desert disco.” The style combines elements of new wave, blues, pyschedelia, glam, folk, disco and punk. The production experiments are infused into the live show. In essence, the duo are a hybrid of modern technology and raw rock and roll. KOLARS have toured extensively across the US, Canada and Europe, playing many festivals and concerts in front of thousands. They have headlined national tours and have shared bills with Spoon, LP, Julian Casablancas & The Voidz, STRFKR, The Kills, Best Coast, Shonen Knife, RZA, Pussyriot, Built To Spill, The Horrors, The Growlers, Alanis Morissette, Funkadelic, The Revivalists, Father John Misty, The Roots, Nikki Lane, Strawberry Alarm Clock and many others. The Sh-Booms There’s this dynamic that churns hard in The Blurred Odyssey, the debut full-length album by ascendant Orlando garage-soul enterprise The Sh-Booms, out March 22, 2019 on Limited Fanfare Records. The music pumps with the hot, red blood of life irrepressible. But there’s a cloud on the horizon, the doomed sense of life’s finitude, that fueled these songs. Rather than dead-end nihilism, though, it’s resulted in the kind of urgent, creative friction that Hunter S. Thompson could get down with. In making this album, The Sh-Booms have dug through the blur of life, swam through a sea of booze, to find love and truth in the shadow of the void. Although a soul band through and through, the grease and bite they’ve been picking up in the years leading up to this big step out have been forged in the bad company of punk and garage bands. From that underground now rises a new hurricane of big orchestration, maximum stomp and fresh intent. It’s a little ache and a lot of party all wrapped up in a wrecking ball. Since their 2011 inception, The Sh-Booms have become kind of a thing in their native scene and beyond. Besides perennial winners of “Best Soul Act” in the Orlando Weekly’s big annual Best of Orlando issue, they’ve been tapped to share the stage with national names like The Roots, Of Montreal, Talib Kweli, KRS-One, Jacuzzi Boys, Budos Band, Big Freedia, Lee Fields, St. Paul & the Broken Bones and The B-52’s (whom the band toured with in 2017 and 2018). They’ve been featured on NPR, their music has been made it on TV (CW’s Supergirl) and they’ve played Austin City Limits, Okeechobee Music Festival, SunFest and Gasparilla Music Festivals.

Oakland based garage rock sweethearts Destroy Boys are showing expansion and demanding reaction on their latest newest EP, “Crybaby/Vixen”. The female founded and fronted hi-fi rock band has grown since crossing the radar of music fans after a mention in the pages of Rolling Stone. After releasing their first album, band members Alexia Roditis and Vi Mayugba were then introduced to rock fans worldwide. Their new EP is a departure from the angsty relationship driven anthems of their debut album “Sorry, Mom” and a look into the inner thoughts of this generation’s riot girls. Since inking their deal with Uncool Records in 2016, Destroy Boys has been rocking stages and festivals throughout the country including an invitation to House of Vans at 2017’s SXSW. Destroy Boys’ new EP “Crybaby/Vixen” showcases the duo’s growth as songwriters and musicians with Mayugba’s driving sonic guitar creating a raw, gritty canvas for Roditis’ ethereal, haunting, and sometimes comical vocals. A raucously introspective road trip to early adulthood, with the feeling of a cross between Blondie and Tragic Kingdom-era No Doubt. Destroy Boys are the perfect soundtrack for slaying the patriarchy or going skating with your friends. Words by Andru Defeye Links: Website | Facebook | Instagram