SWO sings La Laine Des Mouton, at the final concert of Chants de Vielles in Calixa-Lavalllée, Québec

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The Swamp Ward Orchestra at the Sleepless Goat. Video by Lenny Epstein.

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The Swamp Ward Orchestra, Laura Murray, cello, Jan LeClair, accordion and Alison Gowan hurdy-gurdy play French dance tunes Le Crocodile and La Coccinelle. Video by Lenny Epstein.

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PLASTIC SURGERY MEETS FISHER PRICE!

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No rap group (save, perhaps, N.W.A) has stirred more controversy or provoked more heated debate than the 2 Live Crew. The furor over the graphic sexual content of their X-rated party rhymes -- specifically their 1989 album As Nasty as They Wanna Be -- was a major catalyst in making rap music a flash point for controversy and an easily visible target for self-appointed moral guardians. The fierce attacks on the group's First Amendment rights put many of their defenders in an awkward position -- passionately supporting their freedom of speech on the one hand, but often finding little artistic merit in their music. And they were indeed crude and coarse, and frequently misogynistic by most standards; even if they fit squarely into a tradition of raunchy, sexually explicit black comedy (Redd Foxx, Rudy Ray Moore, Blowfly, etc.), many critics and intellectuals found their view of sex repellently juvenile, even ugly (and if they found it funny, it was hard to say so publicly).

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David Zasloff plays the Japanese Shakuhachi Flute. For more information: www.DavidZasloff.com

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