Thirty-eight-year-old Jersey City, New Jersey native George Van Orsdel likes to think that he has learned a thing or two. At first glance George seems like a dip-chewing, cantankerous drunk. Appearances, of course, can be deceiving. He smiles at jokes that he could be twenty-year-old guitarist Todd Van Orsdel’s dad…
The Kendall-area home of Harry Varela is framed by the backdrop of the balcony’s sliding glass door as he points at a cramped corner of the dining room. Attired in a thuggish-looking wife beater and jeans, he chuckles when he calls it “Chocolate Thunder Studios.” The name seems like the…
Singer-guitarist Raf Classic of the Crumbs, South Florida’s most fiercely followed three-chord, four-member punk band, shrugs while slugging down an ice-cold beverage. Along with other members of the well-traveled group, he reflects on the indignities of having a popular and well-respected but terminally poor and unlucky gig. “Well, with Low…
The Holy Terrors’ This Is What It Sounds Like When You’re Dead is equal parts retrospective and new album. All of the tracks from their 1992 Live Six cassette, which were originally taken from the May 18, 1992 broadcast of Bob Slade’s Off the Beaten Path show on WLRN-FM (93.1),…
Gil’s Café is a quaint Miami Beach locale with sidewalk seating, a bar area, and a small dining room that caters to any form of diner. It serves an eclectic treatment of Brazilian favorites like rodizio and picanha steak. Add a carafe of caipirinhas to the dimmed lights and the…
The Brand’s members know they are hot shit. They want you to know that. They want you to know that just like you know how to breathe. Brash, unabashed, and in your face, the Hialeah power-pop trio are not ashamed to tout themselves as the new messiahs of rock and…
With the school year in full swing and the recent newsworthy personal advancements of some old schoolmates, I can’t help but recall some past relations. Time has obviously tempered my views, but with someone like Noelle Bush, who was recently and successfully discharged from a court-appointed drug-rehab program, I (like…
Jaco Pastorius’s contributions to the world of jazz and the fretless electric bass will resonate for years to come. It is undeniable that he was the last great innovator of his instrument. He was the first player to elevate the bass into the spotlight, and he managed to play it…
So … the question lurks: Where has South Florida jazz gone? The memories of lounge evenings are faint at best; the glory of onstage improvisation and legend-shaping has fizzled into the pages of history under the category of “How days once were.” For those who think that jazz was a…
