Voodoo management announced today that Wu-Tang might not be performing after all. A statement issued earlier today reads:

Wu Tang Clan may not be able to honor their commitment to perform at this weekend’s 8th annual VOODOO MUSIC EXPERIENCE, event producers have just learned. The organizers wanted to make the public aware of this in advance as they continue in their efforts to secure a definitive answer from the group’s representatives.

“Though the band had initially committed contractually to this performance months ago, in the past few days their management representatives have been unable to give us a straight answer on whether or not they’ll be performing this weekend. At this point I have no idea if they’ll show up or not,” says VOODOO MUSIC EXPERIENCE producer/founder Stephen Rehage.

I doubt this will float well with a lot of festival goers.

This is a big week for music in New Orleans. Before Voodoo Fest gets underway this weekend, The Decemberists will grace us with their presence at House of Blues this evening. You may remember that the band was actually supposed to play Voodoo Fest last year but backed out of the show following Hurricane Katrina. Strangely, they’re making their return to NOLA just days before this year’s Voodoo Fest. That’s OK though, because I’d much prefer for them to perform a full set. Doors open at 7 and I believe tickets are still available for about $20.

One Eyed Jacks recently played host to N.Y.C. based singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia. She, and her backing band, played an intimate, haunting, and fragile set to a handful of attendees, who may or may not have known of Nastasia before, but surely left as fans. After being converted by her astonishing voice and magically structured songs, as well, we had the opportunity to speak with Nastasia. In a narrow back stage room, we spoke until “Rock-n-Roll Karaoke” drowned out all hopes for conversation.

Nastasia has been playing music for about 12 years. She began playing “seriously” sometime after moving from L.A. to New York. “I had a guitar. I had a friend who was a singer and a songwriter.” She continued, “I was influenced by him…It was fun. I never really sang before that.” Despite her relatively late start as a songwriter, Nina has, in the years since, released four albums, including the most recent release On Leaving.

“I don’t really think about how or why I write or anything like that… Usually I write music on the guitar first…It is always the music first…then the lyrics go, then the music will go.” And when talking about her latest release, she added “It’s usually not just a finished thing” which may explain why the songs that appear on On Leaving sound so seamless. No wasted space, or noise, appears on the album. Despite the modesty and bashfulness Nastasia portrays when she proclaims, “I don’t have any philosophies [to writing]” it is obvious that all has fallen into its intended place on On Leaving.

Nastasia does, nevertheless, eventually admit that she is “a lot more thoughtful” than she used to be. “I used to not care,” she adds before confessing: “I always feel like I sound silly talking about my stuff. It’s a funny thing to try to explain or make someone understand.”

As she finished that last statement the heavy riffs of live, rock-n-roll band “karaoke” came spilling through the thin wall and shiny curtain that separated the stage and us. She laughs, “It’s really quiet back here.” (We had picked this spot assuming it would be the quietest.) My tape-recorder, I knowingly presumed, was being drowned in distortion, so I asked what was to be my last question. To which she responded, “I used to do short stories. I haven’t in a while and I would like to do that some more.”

And now for the conclusion of our interview with Nick Diamonds: (more…)

The first few times I listened to Sufjan Stevens’ Seven Swans and Illinois (for some reason I had neglected to get Greetings from Michigan!), I heard a delicate guy and his banjo, but I had a perpetually quizzical look whenever someone would talk about him as the zeitgeist. But then came Hurricane Katrina and everything crashed down in this strange, wonderful city in which we live: our faces were long, our resolves fragile, and it seemed impossible to listen to any music. The all-too-familiar sounds reminded of us a time before.

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The Islands are coming! The Islands are coming to the House of Blues in New Orleans on November 19. Low and behold their tour has already started and their Decatur Street show is still nearly two months away. And that is a very long time to live with our Paul Revere-esque excitement. So as a small treat to us all, we here at AudioMonger sat down with Nick Diamonds to discuss: the good life, comics, great conspiracies of Rock-n-Roll, the departure of J’aime Tambeur, and grappling with our own existence. We are such, such martyrs. Enjoy.
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I saw Art Brut at Jacks earlier in the year and absolutely loved them. While Bang, Bang, Rock and Roll is indeed great, it’s nowhere near as good as their live show. Up-and-coming indie rockers We Are Scientists are the coheadliners for the evening. The Spinto Band will start the night off. Doors open at 9PM and tickets are $10. This will be an excellent show.

England’s most prominent house duo Felix Burton and Simon Ratcliffe, better known as Basement Jaxx, have been putting out Prince-worshipping funky house since the early 90’s. Their diverse and eclectic style has evolved over the decade resulting in their 2003 album Kish Kash, a testament to the unbridled fervor of maximalist house. But they are no more immune to the inexorable march of time than any other band and for better or worse, we find in their latest album Crazy Itch Radio a more mature and subdued Basement Jaxx shying away from the excesses of their past work.

Crazy Itch Radio doesn’t deviate from the Basement Jaxx formula of a stellar cast of guest vocalists and a healthy dose of musical eclecticism. The concept behind the album is a loose narrative of the trials and tribulations of an everyday romance, lending the album a thematic unity not seen in their earlier LP’s. The Latin rhythms of “Hush Boy” tell the tale of a less-than-perfect dinner at a Mexican restaurant, while the bouncing banjos of “Take Me Back to Your House” describe the encounter from a female perspective. As the story unfolds, the album continues its frenetic shifts in style with the riotous Gypsy saxophones of “Hey You” and the hyperactive hooting chorus of the samba-inflected “Run 4 Cover”.

Sadly, the album begins to settle into a plodding R&B groove by the midpoint of the album and the last half of the album is something of an unfulfilled promise, as the Jaxx close out with uninspired house cuts that never come close to matching the ecstatic kitsch of “Good Luck” or “Romeo.” “Everybody” reaches hard for an elusive hook but instead settles for a sped-up Bollywood sample, while album closer “U R On My Mind” fades to black without ever establishing a sense of identity and finality.

In the end, the Jaxx have fared far better than most musical acts that have lasted this long. Well into their second decade of existence, the duo still have a seemingly endless supply of musical ideas and no shame in their cultural pilfering. Crazy Itch Radio is subdued and at times predictable, but it’s only glaring fault is that it never aspires to reach the heights of the previous Jaxx albums, instead settling to be a enjoyable album content to follow the formula set forth by its predecessors, albeit with a great deal more restraint. Still, at the end of the day I’d take an average Jaxx record over most any other house album, a testament to the enduring playfulness and inventiveness of those two oddball Brits.

Grade: B