Music OnLine : race

Containing the Euro-favorite "The Race", this 1988 record runs the gamut from choppy, pulsating electronics to wind-swept light-rock ballads. It's a smooth listen, but lacks some of the intriguing European strangeness found in their earlier releases.

Despite the title--come back, Ry Cooder, all is forgiven--this isn't completely disgusting. "Bicycle Race" is even funny. Put them down as 10cc, with a spoke, or a pump, up their ass. (Grade - C+)

Despite the title--come back, Ry Cooder, all is forgiven--this isn't completely disgusting. "Bicycle Race" is even funny. Put them down as 10cc, with a spoke, or a pump, up their ass. (Grade - C+)

Snarling guitars growl with the plaints of a race car at low idle, anticipating the great surge forward that never comes. All build and no release for sluggish rhythms and phlegmatic vocals.

Lopez shines a teasing light on the Hispanic experience in America, but in a way that anyone, regardless of their race, can laugh at. Sure, "Chicanospeak" and "Spanglish" will speak louder to Latinos, but by incorporating the Hispanic experience into topics such as going to Disneyland and dogs, he touches everyone's funny bone.

Not bad, very New York, almost like a horse race at OTB: Bruce Springsteen's street tough, Elliott Murphy's media addict, and Buzzy Linhart's f*ckup, with the f*ckup ahead by a nose. Glorious exception: "The Sweetest One." (Grade: B-)

Not bad, very New York, almost like a horse race at OTB: Bruce Springsteen's street tough, Elliott Murphy's media addict, and Buzzy Linhart's f*ckup, with the f*ckup ahead by a nose. Glorious exception: "The Sweetest One." (Grade: B-)

With soaring falsettos over guitars that border on shoegazer, you'd swear this Icelandic group was British. Sure, they share elements of their sound with such Brit rock bands as the Verve and Starsailor, but the Leaves' melodic, scorching beauties ("I Go Down," "We," "Race," "Catch") transcend the "sounds like" tag.

Lopez shines a teasing light on the Hispanic experience in America, but in a way that anyone, regardless of their race, can laugh at. Sure, "Chicanospeak" and "Spanglish" will speak louder to Latinos, but by incorporating the Hispanic experience into topics such as going to Disneyland and dogs, he touches everyone's funny bone.

There are bands that rock, and bands that (for lack of a better phrase) really rawk. MarsNeedsWomen fall into the latter category. With songs that clock in far under two minutes and guitars turned up to eleven that race at speeds only radar guns can detect, these guys are about anything but sweetness and light. And that is a good thing.

The drummer and guitarist sound like they're in a heated contest to see who can play the fastest, and who cares whether the singer can keep up or not. StarSixtyNine take Emo and put it in a formula race car. Hold on to your heart!

Chris Crass has written many articles on anarchist theory and how its practices can be applied to race, gender and class struggles. This San Francisco-based activist devotes much of his time to the Food Not Bombs organization, which feeds San Francisco's ever-increasing homeless population.

Compared to the very nearly aerobic pace of Ska-Punk, Steady Earnest's more traditionally focused revival of ska sounds downright slow -- like a sap leak from a tree. It's not that they're moving at the rate of turtles though; the horns, drums and guitars simply aren't in a huge rush to finish the race first.

Roots-rock program music about the southernmost city in Illinois. He doesn't detail much vice, which was once the town's bread and butter, but there's lots of race--1909 lynch mob, segregated bus crosses big river, 1967 vigilantes, young Jesse Jackson stops by. Better researched than Sufjan, but not as evocative, nor any longer on answers. (Grade: B+)

"Bicycle Race" may be the weirdest song ever to get on the radio but the rest of Jazz reaches similar levels of oddity, from the accent Freddy Mercury puts on for "Mustapha," an ode to girls with big butts from the gayest band of all time (except for maybe Wham!), to an overall sound that crosses Brian May's 1970s guitar squall with the airiness of the coming '80s.

Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner recorded this oddity in 1970 with help from the Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills and Nash and practically anyone else he could find. A concept album about enlightened hippies stealing a spaceship and restarting the human race on another planet, Blows… actually was nominated for a sci-fi Hugo award and sold a ton of copies.

Like many angry young men before him, Winston Rodney has mellowed with the gathering years and assets. And like many angry young men before him, he's surrendered some edge. Innate musicality plus the right cushy production will sometimes benefit victims of this syndrome, and here he finds the formula, keyed to a horn section that happens to comprise three American women. So all hail unity and the honorable disc-race. (Grade: B+)

Griffin comes out swinging, using explicit language the second you hit play and covering a wide variety of sensitive subjects such as AIDS, the war in Somalia and post-Rodney King race relations. In between the winces, Griffin's irreverent style finds humor in less abrasive subjects such as Star Trek, opera and jaywalking. Definitely not for the easily offended!

A gifted melodist in a time of modernist flush, postwar composer Sir Malcolm Arnold was not always in favor with the critical establishment. Known for his film work, he preferred to be judged by these, his nine symphonies. Always close to his loves -- Mahler and Berlioz -- Arnold's work packed some surprising gestures, such as the post-race riot Caribbean percussion section of the 4th and the Charlie Parker tribute of the 6th. He passed away in September, 2006, at 84.

George Lopez tends to lean on that most tired formula for ethnic comedians -- white people do this, Latin Americans do that -- but his politically motivated jokes are still vital to this country's discussions on race and immigration. Plus this set isn't all reheated rhetoric. Take his impersonation of Schwarzenegger, which is totally different from, and way better than, any of the zillions of other comedians who have done one.