Luz Marina Coincidencias (Cacao Música) www.cacaomusica.com Venezuelan singer/songwriter Luz Marina makes her debut for Cacao Música with 14 tracks of heavy-breathing soft numbers full of sexy insinuations and personal moments. It works. “Noche a Noche” (“Night to Night”) and “Cómo Dueles” (“How You Hurt”) were a little more my cup…
Coffee House Gypsies The Artist (Tenement Hall Productions/Damian’s Dream) www.myspace.com/coffeehousegypsies Coffee House Gypsies are a pop-rock-tinged acoustic folksy coffeehouse band. Boasting a live set with covers to cover the ages, they also craft original compositions that fall into that Joan Baez/Jewel kind of feel. I like bookstores for books, and…
Alfredo Naranjo Alfredo Naranjo y el Guajeo (Cacao Música) www.cacaomusica.com Venezuelan-born virtuoso vibraphonist Alfredo Naranjo explodes on this disc, backed by the band El Guajeo and a who’s-who of contemporary Venezuelan musicians: Pablo Gil, Luz Medina, Luis Toro, David Peña, et al. Here, he explores the Latin jazz arena, peppering…
Tim Charron Tim Charron (self-released) www.timcharron.com Tim Charron is a singing and songwriting and guitar-slinging kind of guy. The work on this album is country-fried rock and roll for fans of modern country, Kid Rock, and American Idol. Actually, Mr. Charron has toured, recorded, and performed live with Idols Bo…
Boz Karma Knows … (Island Estuary Music) www.bozmusic.com This is most certainly “inspirational” music. And if you know me, which by now ya’ll kinda should, this is not my cup of Irish whiskey. However, because I’m nice enough to see past my personal record collection, this 14-tracker does have its…
Chance Gardner and the Blues Daddies Easy Come and Easy Go (Manawa Records) www.chancegardner.com Born in Cuba and fried from birth on Southern blues, good old rock and roll, and Latin rhythms, Chance Gardner is a bizarrely twisted cowboy-boots-clad bald man. This effort yields 15 tracks for almost an hour’s…
Baby Calendar Gingerbread Dog (Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records) www.myspace.com/babycalendar Here’s another sunshine gem that slipped through the fried-chicken-greasy fingers of your local hipster sheriffs. The band has, of course, broken up since this 11-track CD came out, with Tom Gorrio (guitar, keys, vox) marrying bandmate Jackie Biver (bass,…
Pool Party 25 Pool Party Sensational Hits (self-released) www.myspace.com/poolparty The best way to describe the legendary Pool Party is by stealing the description from the band’s MySpace page: “Slade giving the Ramones head inside of Kraftwerks’ robot factory, while watching themselves in the mirror!” This is some creepy disco-influenced power…
Call It Radar The Longevity of Flight (self-released) www.myspace.com/callitradar I was a big fan of the summertime bubblegum diabetic shocks that came through the speakers courtesy of the now-deceased local outfit Baby Calendar. So when former band member Tom Gorrio put another outfit together, I fucking listened. Taking the proven…
It’s nearly impossible to try to explain José El Rey to anybody who did not live in South Florida in the late Eighties or early Nineties — you either get it or you don’t. Those who get it, however, are in for a delicious treat. Writing about the King and…
Harmonix Instrumentals, Volume 1 (Self-released) www.myspace.com/harmonixanalogue This EP by reclusive musician/producer Harmonix could be a little dicey for the uninitiated. Crafted in his home studio, it’s an ambient-oriented, hip-hop-flavored 26-minute platter of jangly New Wave synths, space jazz, and Southern low-end beats. The opening trio of “New Wheels,” “Electrocrunk,” and…
We have come a long way since July 4, 1776. A real long way. But pseudo-commentary on the Bush administration aside, one thing a bunch of dead, crusty white dudes will not deny is that at least nowadays we have a whole bunch of options at our disposal! This coming…
The Electric Bunnies’ music makes me feel like I’m beating off to pornography while my wife sleeps in the same room. Good thing I ain’t married and can enjoy the Electric Bunnies in public. Wow! It’s a solid followup to the Eskimo seven-inch. This four-track, vinyl-only EP is an excellent…
The Tim Version, hailing from Tampa, comes with a pretty good punk rock pedigree. These ne’er-do-wells have taken their wares across most of the States, parts of Europe, and even Japan using that old trick: hard work. Collectively they boast a nothing-fancy, no-frills, no-pretty-faces kind of attitude that, on this…
This weekend, Down Home Southernaires hit NE 14th Street two nights in a row, to play two neighboring venues. The Vagabond and PS14 are nice venues for dancing and drinking. And though the stage areas at both clubs are small, it’s this kind of intimate setting where amazing local shows…
Apakalypse Walking Coma (Rhyme Network) www.myspace.com/apacalypse Hey! Not bad. This is some kind of paranoid hip-hop that has brewed in some thick blunt smoke, videogames, welfare checks, UFO abductions, Eighties cartoons, and Asian punany. The beats are good and at times distorted, and the hooks are where they should be,…
Vic Kingsley These Frequencies (self-released) www.myspace.com/kingsleyofmiami This “Vic Kingsley” seems to be a Mr. Vic Garcia, backed by Messrs. Luke Moellman, Jon Draper, and Ethan Carlson on various capacities, organic and otherwise. This 11-tracker is another solid calling card for the boys over at Dungeon Studios, and is, for all…
Fiyawater Covert Propaganda (self-released) www.myspace.com/fiyawater Hailing from the culturally diverse hub of South Miami-Dade’s Perrine (P-rrine!) comes the hip-hop duo Fiyawater, comprising rhymers Ne’Pom and Spit, with production work by Investigative Reports. Here you have 14 tracks serious on the minimalism flanked by a throwaway intro and outro. The stripped-down…
Down Home Southernaires were at one point known as Pygmy, and as Pygmy, they were great. As DHS, they are even better. Imagine some country-fried soul R&B in the vein of Hialeah’s pride Coke (the band!) mixed with Clarence Reid’s “Blowfly” high jinks. Add Elastic Bond’s eclectic Dashiki express and…
Anyone who says South Florida lacks homegrown live artists would be surprised by the growing pile of CDs at New Times. A pile of releases by our city’s hopefuls that is, well, hard to keep up with. In “Local Motion,” a new ongoing series in Burner, we’ll try to play…
The Waterford Landing’s 2004 self-titled full-length debut was refreshing, in what was then a local sweltering sea of shit populated with bad bass, half-ass hip-hop, uninspired rock and roll, and Atari-produced reggaeton. Scene veterans Richard Rippe (vocals, synths, bass), Ed Matus (guitars, synths, vox), and Alex Caso (synths, keys, vox,…
Miami’s Junc Ops combines some of the better elements of South Florida music into a savvy and futuristic amalgamation that whets the appetite and satisfies the hunger. The work of PG-13 (Paul Gaeta) and Kentsoundz (Kent Hernandez) gels well with the assistance of Matt CNTRL on the cuts, and musically…
