They may not be well-known in the States, but British girl group the Sugababes have been one of my favorite musical acts for about seven years now. Indeed, they’re a big hit in the U.K. generally, having notched up six No. 1 singles as well as a Brit award (our equivalent of the Grammys). This despite persistent rumors of infighting, and multiple lineup changes that perhaps make them the U.K. equivalent of Destiny’s Child.

They burst on the scene in their first incarnation in 2000:

Baby-faced Keisha Buchanan (left) and feisty Mutya Buena (right) were already friends from school, while the enigmatic-looking redhead Siobhan Donaghy (center) was added by Buena’s manager. Their first big hit single, when they were still in their mid-teens, was "Overload." It made use of the girls’ sweet, throaty, pop-soul harmonies (reminiscent of the group En Vogue) and their barbed-wire attitude, as well as their multiracial look (Buchanan’s background is Jamaican; Buena’s is Filipina, Irish, Spanish and Chinese; and Donaghy’s is Irish):
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I guess we already knew that Björk is living in a braver, newer world than the rest of us.

But a recent post on the Wired website revealed just how cutting-edge she is. The article describes the reacTable, a "tangible music interface." The first two sentences kinda made me drool:

"The reacTable, a new instrument that lets musicians manipulate sounds by moving glowing blocks on a round, transparent table, is wowing festival audiences after it was hand-picked by Björk for use on the singer's summer tour. The modular synthesizer mashes up shades of Tron, laser hockey and classic Moogs using open-source reacTivision software and an under-the-hood camera to track blocks that, when added, rotated or moved, combine to produce beeps, whoops and soaring synth lines."

Leave it to Björk to popularize something like this, right? She's sorta the patron saint of the off-kilter. … continue reading

People of the world, get ready to spice up your life … again. Apparently, the world just wasn't savory enough. By now, every boy and every girl has probably already heard that the Spice Girls are reuniting for a world (well, eleven cities) tour. My response to the (pre-)Fab Five’s announcement is a resounding “zig-a-zig whaaa?”

Listen, I’m not going to get into an academic discourse about the musical merits of a group whose lyrics include such profound social statements as “slam your body down and wind it all around.” While I was never a fan (I’m averse to all groups who have their own dolls), I didn’t hate the group. They represented a superficial kind of “Girl Power” (gosh, remember when that was all the rage?) that, while simply a by-product of its marketing machine, still seems downright scholarly compared to the trash-talking, lady parts–flashing and rehab-entering that is so in vogue with today’s starlets. … continue reading