NEW ORLEANS | Every time I see the Wailers, I feel the love and have reggae in my head for days after. Reggae is such a powerful genre of music with an entrancing quality. This style of music does it for me without fail and profoundly affects me when it is played live.

My excitement coupled with anxious anticipation set in on Thursday when I found out I would have a reggae-filled Saturday night, even more so when I heard the Wailers would be playing the entire Exodus album. Excuse me, but WHAT!!! I'm pretty sure every reggae fanatic around the world knows this album cover to cover, word for word. Even casual fans know parts of the classic work, even if they don't know how or why they remember it.

NEW ORLEANS | The 4th Annual Hip-Hop for Hope benefit concert at Tipitina’s last night was overflowing with local talent.  The event featured almost two dozen headlining hip hop and rap musicians, including super-producer, Mannie Fresh.  Besides Mannie, who was primarily presenting his artist, The Show, there were plenty of other respectable names and their admiring fans in the building.  Performers included a cadre of local favorites: Mia X, Dee-1, DJ Raj Smoove, Dizzy, Truth Universal, Impulss, Lyrikill, Sess 4-5, 3DNA’TEE, Team Robot, Tygah Woods, Phat Word, Kourtney Hart, DJ EF Cuttin, DJ Tony Skratchere, DJ Miles Felix, and many more.

While everyone else executed one to five songs, Mannie had DJ Miles Felix spin nearly a dozen of his multi-platinum hits. He sang a verse of Back That Ass Up then switched to Still Fly and Real Big, and even his newest song, Drought, before introducing The Show.

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NEW ORLEANS | The warehouse district's Republic nightclub was filled with screeching noise, feedback, and all manner of distortion Tuesday night.

The cause of all the racket? Japan's foremost experimental noise-rock group, Melt-Banana.

NEW ORLEANS | Just about anyone who knows me knows that I love electronic music in almost any form. From seminal artists like Kraftwerk and Art Of Noise all the way up to the newest generation of producers, if it's produced with a computer, sampler or turntables, I am just all about it.

Sadly, there isn't much of a scene for this kind of music in New Orleans these days. With that in mind, I was beyond surprised when glitch-hop act Pretty Lights not only sold out the House of Blues Saturday night but did it in what has to be record time for an act who are still establishing themselves in the larger scene.

NEW ORLEANS | Saul Williams took the stage under the guise of his alter ego Niggy Tardust, with his hair a mess of feathers and his face painted with tribal-style symbols. He and his band ripped through a high-octane set of his half-spoken/half-sung conscious flows, with the excited crowd reciting his own lyrics back at him throughout.

NEW ORLEANS | The 40th anniversary celebration at Fritzel’s included two jazz acts that normally play there during the week. Fritzel's is open with live jazz seven nights a week. The club boasts being the “Oldest Operating Jazz Club in New Orleans ” with its debut in October 1969. Fritzel’s also boasts an impressive history during its 40 years and has had many legendary jazz musicians grace its tiny stage in the historic 1831 building. The bar at Fritzel's offers many different schnapps (usually served cold) and a variety of German beers to enjoy. Fritzel's has become a sort of mecca for jazz lovers in the local and international community amidst all the noise and rock bands playing nearby in other establishments on Bourbon.

NEW ORLEANS | Industrial rock fans were in for a treat this past weekend at House of Blues. After KMFDM's knockout performance in HOB's main hall Saturday night, The Parish played host to the Revolting Cocks' "LubricaTour" on Sunday.

With Ringmaster Jim Rose playing emcee for the evening, the show kicked off with an energetic and somewhat playful performance from Vancouver cyberpunks Left Spine Down. Frontman Kaine Delay spent a good portion of the set running around in the still-small crowd and ordering shots at the bar. LSD were followed up by the raunchy, tongue-in-cheek metal crunch of California's Blownload, performing unrepentantly lowbrow songs such as "Keep Sex Evil" and "Legalize It" while cracking jokes and generally playing to the crowd.

NEW ORLEANS | Your new band sounds too much like your guitarist's old project? You're done. New album recycling the same beats and samples as 10 years ago? Forget it.

It's this sort of industrial evolution that has kept the real heavyweights of industrial rock music looking toward new frontiers of technological noise for over 20 years. As one of the most prolific and long-running projects in the genre, Sascha Konietzko's KMFDM are well aware of the ongoing need to evolve and refine their sound, and it shows.