Kassav’ is to zouk music what Louis Armstrong is to jazz, the Carter Family is to country, and Chuck Berry is to rock 'n' roll. Created in the late 1970s, zouk is a mash-up of carnival-borne rhythms, initially from Guadeloupe, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Now, it incorporates pan-Caribbean influences, from reggae to salsa, in [...]

Som Records is worth the hunt for parking along 14th Street NW. Just got the store's latest e-mail of new arrivals and it's fairly packed. The store has got solid new releases from Real Estate, Broadcast, Cold Cave, Girls, Kings of Convenience, Circuit Rider (reissue),  Jay Farrar, Odissee, Chain and the Gang, The Clientele, Felix, [...]