Finn (dirty Misfits MC #6)

Mizuki Nana (水樹奈々) is a Japanese pop singer and a popular anime seiyuu. She was the winner of "Best Musical Performance" in the first annual Seiyuu Awards.

In New Orleans in 1977, the Original Sixth Ward Dirty Dozen band was born in the city's Treme neighborhood. Coming out of the 100-plus-year tradition of the local social club scene – in this case, the Dirty Dozen Social and Pleasure Club – they started rehearsing with no other goal than playing in the club. Eventually renaming themselves the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, they played for years before they began performing steady gigs at a Seventh Ward night spot and later at another uptown club. The DDBB built an enormous repertoire, and in the process innovated on the brass brand tradition, which was flagging very badly at the time. They incorporated funk, bebop, and more into their sound. The DDBB started a renaissance; they influenced every brass band that came after them. Twenty Dozen, produced by Scott Billington, is their twelfth album.

The Kinks became arena rockers with Sleepwalker, and its follow-up, Misfits, follows in the same vein, but it's a considerable improvement on its predecessor. Ray Davies has learned how to write within the confines of the arena rock formula, and Misfits is one of rock & roll's great mid-life crisis albums, finding Davies considering whether he should even go on performing…

Well over a decade passed since they took the U.S. charts by storm with their infectious single "Elevate My Mind." Since then, much has passed underneath the radar of the dance community when it comes to Stereo MC's. Through the 18 tracks here, the finest moments of their career unravel. And while this may have been compiled with those uninitiated to their other songs in mind, this is also a very nice compilation to have for the dedicated fan who has followed the group religiously. Their two biggest hits ("Connected" and "Elevate My Mind") stand firmly as the crown jewels of the release, but this is definitely not a detractor from the other quality numbers on Retroactive. It's a solid guidebook to a band both ahead of its time and sorely overlooked.

The Bowery becomes a nexus of shattered dreams when a merchant has 72 hours to pay his rent. Facing extinction, his ramshackle tent of antiquities lures a troop of misfits, freaks and renegades who form a tableaux full of carnival pageantry, white lies and victimless crime in a fleeting glimpse of Downtown New York.