Also this issue: Reverb The inexplicable truth behind Mission of Burma’s belated popularity. -Sam Adams Topical Ointment Eric Schwartz can turn them on and off. -Mary Armstrong Platinum Bond Dieselboy, Sine, J Messinian and co. celebrate five years of starting the weekend early. -Sean O’Neal Full House -Lou Camp Ribbon of Highway/ Endless Skyway Tour -Mary Armstrong The Vexers -Sam Adams Nada Surf -Sam Adams Paul Weller -A.D. Amorosi

February 20-26, 2003

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The Yohimbe Brothers

On Front End Lifter (Ropeadope/Atlantic), DJ Logic (every jazzer’s spinner of choice) gets together with Blood Ulmer-esque guitarist Vernon Reid (six-string hero of Bad Brains rip-off Living Colour). Be honest: LC stunk so bad, The Bus Boys look comparatively great in the annals of black rock. What’s most interesting about Yohimbe — other than bass bombs dropped by Sugar Hill label legend Doug Wimbish and the sensuous vocals of Latasha Diggs (“Psychopathia Mojosexualis”) — is that Reid finally sounds like he’s having fun. With its mutant skronks and squiggles made from the simplest of forms (guitar, turntable), Front End is a merry mishmash of carnival fuzak, electro blues, sampladelic metal and trip/hip/blip-hop. These days, Reid’s crisp attacks and buoyant blend-ins are a means to a Front End rather than the bad, dramatic, soliloquy-like solos that marred Living Colour. Welcome back.

Wed., Feb. 26, 9 p.m., $13, The North Star, 2639 Poplar St., 215-684-0808.

—A.D. Amorosi

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