culturecultuurre |||| TTHTHEHE MOMMONTHONNTTH AHEAD

Key Changes Three artists, three new releases, three career turning points All Jamie Lidell, Jamie Lidell: On this self-produced the British singer reprises Politics the mix of glitchy Is Loco free jazz and radio- friendly soul A New YoYork comedian swagger he exploress the funny side showcased of globall hegemony on his 2005 breakthrough, Multiply. Be er INTERVIEWINGINTERVIEWW JAMIE KILSTEIN yet, he recorded isn’t exacexactlyc a walk in the in a place that’s park. First,, he tends to be quite long specialized in sweary, emittingemm a torrent of mixing genres: Nashville, a city unprintabunprintablel words in a mono- he now calls home. FEB. 18 logue so rapid-firer that you Two Lanes of Freedom, worry he’lhe’lll asphyxiate. Then Tim McGraw: Country star there’s hiss preferred subject McGraw has split with Curb matter: povpoverty,ov reproductive Records—where he’d been rights, Noamam CChomsky. since 1990—and signed with “I’m the lealeasta funny person in Big Machine. The benefi ts of interviews,” says the New York–based the move, he says, are refl ected political comedian, who’s taking his manic, indignant standup routine to in his latest release. “I think you can feel the horses gallop the U.K. this month. “I’ll be going on about the war in Iraq and then I’ll on this record.” FEB. 5 remember, Oh, right, I’m plugging a comedy show.” Kilstein allows that being a die-hard le y isn’t necessarily the best starting Free the Universe, Major point for a comedy act. “It’s hard enough to make people laugh,” he says. Lazer: For the second “If you want to make them laugh while convincing them we shouldn’t be full-length installment bombing civilians, the material had be er be funny.” of this hip-hop/ There is one advantage to Kilstein’s political slant: He’s go en a ton of stew “fronted” by a cartoon one-armed Jamaican renegade, publicity sparring with Glenn Beck, Jonah Goldberg and other right-wing dance music superstar pundits. But even this has a potential downside. “At fi rst I was nervous,” parted ways with longtime he says. “I thought I’d get all this crazy online harassment. It ended collaborator and up being 15 confused old people on Twi er who didn’t really know how brought in names like Bruno to use it. You could almost hear them—‘How do I hang this thing up?’” Mars, and FOR TOUR DATES, GO TO JAMIEKILSTEIN.COM. to support. FEB. 19

Buff alo Noir The heroine: “I wanted The intrigue: “I was The setting: “Buff alo was her name to mark her growing up in South one of the fi rst Rust Belt Even a fl eeting synopsis of as an outsider in this very Buff alo around the time towns that peaked and the new thriller Black Irish— insular Irish-American that IRA guys were being then fell. That darkness, Det. Absalom Kearney hunts neighborhood of South smuggled into the city, that decline, really works a serial killer amid historical Buff alo, even though it’s right over the Peace Bridge for a detective story. When IRA intrigue in Buff alo, N.Y.— where she grew up. No from Canada. People think it comes to decaying raises a question or two. So good Irish Catholic would South Boston when they cities, Detroit gets all the we decided to call up the author, ever think of calling a kid think Irish, but there was attention; when it comes noted journalist (and Hemispheres Absalom. In Buff alo, that a lot of what you’d call to Irish enclaves, it’s always contributor) Stephan Talty in his fi ction name would be a whole republican sentiment in Boston. I demand attention debut, for some enlightenment. feb. 26 hour of conversation.” my neighborhood.” for Buff alo!”

40 FEBRUARY 2013 • HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM

R2_p039-44_HEM0213_Culture.indd 40 11/01/2013 15:26