The Maytals

You might think that Coco Sumner – frontwoman of the band I Blame Coco – has an unfair advantage over her indie-pop rivals this year. Read More

You might think that Coco Sumner – frontwoman of the band I Blame Coco – has an unfair advantage over her indie-pop rivals this year. Read More

I think one of the reasons I initially was able to get into African music, especially highlife and Chimurenga was due to the fact that I loved Reggae first and that served as a great branch to to familiar sounds. Read More

Despite its pitch-perfect harmonies and rocking bass lines, rocksteady is the perennial third-place finisher behind reggae and ska in the Jamaican popular music race. Read More

"She's sixty-eight, but she says she's twenty-four. Read More

When Jack Kerouac first coined the term 'the Beats' for his loose-knit group of world-weary bohemians, he meant it in the sense that they were outsiders - a dangerous, free-thinking underclass. Read More

You don't get much more roots reggae than the Maytals. Read More

Considering the stunning global impact of reggae over the last four decades — the images of Bob Marley that commingle with mass-market iconoclasts like Che Guevera, the reggae-infused riddims and language that permeate both rap and rock, California's steady stream of amphitheater-filling reggae-punk groups, the Nike, Cole Haan, and Ben Sherman sneakers designed in the yellow and green colors of the Jamaican flag — one might be tempted to think of the island nation as quite large. Read More

A couple days before my first Toots and the Maytals concert experience, a friend told me "when you see Toots in concert, you forget he has so many good songs; you hear a song and you're like, 'oh yeah!. For me, this moment occurred halfway through the show, when the 63-year-old Jamaican legend and his crack band launched into " Sweet and Dandy ", the divine Harder They Come soundtrack classic. Read More

If you've got $80 lying around, you can buy yourself a sealed copy of the 1970 Louie and the Lovers vinyl album Rise , or at least you could a few days ago when I searched for it on eBay. Read More