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Strip away the music of an Andrew Bird song, and you're left with brilliant prose ("across the great chasms and schisms and the sudden aneurysms"), vignettes about mentally fending off plane crashes, infiltrating characters like the kings of Macedonia and Lou Dobbs, and titles such as "Yawny at the ...

Lay in a good round of cosmopolitans, ditch the rug and get ready to turn 2004 into 1944 with these retro swing kings. In an album where horns are king, the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Christmas disc will please fans and remind the elders that the big band sound has not left the building. While singer Scot...

Grunge angst got old. We wanted to have fun. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was there, ready with serviceable, pumped-up swing. Their music is straight, uptempo, dance floor jazz. There's nothing particularly original going on, but the sleazy horns and snappy arrangements get the job done. There's nothing cam...

Brian Setzer has spent much of his career revving up already hot retro styles to a booming pitch. While this generally worked in his early years with the rockabilly Stray Cats, it largely fails with his swing orchestra. Louis Prima--whose "Jump Jive an' Wail" is faithfully remade here--wasn't exactl...

From his most recent sold out tour of Japan, this release features some of Setzer's most searing guitar work to date. Includes his biggest hits ("Rock This Town", "Stray Cat Strut", and more) alongside songs from his recent "Rockabilly Riot" and "13", all with a new energy that could only be capture...

The Japanese might not know exactly what "jump, jive, an' wail" means, but they know how to rock--and so does Brian Setzer, who does just that throughout this 20-song, 85-minute concert, filmed in Tokyo during his 2001 tour. The former Stray Cat guitarist-singer and his 17-piece, horn-heavy orch...

No stranger to covers, Bryan Ferry has often opted for classics from other times and places. As Time Goes By focuses on music largely from the 1930s and '40s and conjures that era's aura of fine cigars, sateen gowns, and gentlemanly romance. The opening title track summons images of Bogie and Ingrid...

20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy...

Violinist Andrew Bird earned well-deserved acclaim for his 1998 debut CD, Thrills, and its cabaret-meets-hot-jazz energy. Oh! The Grandeur is the much-anticipated follow-up and is every bit as quirky and darkly perfect. It's got Bird's astringent fiddle cutting a wide swath through Colin Bunn's riff...

Modern Times...