Orishas is a Yoruban word referring to spirits or deities, which are essentially manifestations of the god Orun. It is also the name adopted by what is arguably one of the most significant and original offerings to the Latin genre in the past 10 years. Comprised of Roldan Gonzalez, Hiram…
Concha Buika is not your traditional flamenco singer. Originally born in Equatorial Guinea, she grew up near a gypsy community on the island of Mallorca in Spain –a perfect place for such an artist to lay her foundation. But hers is a non-traditional take on Spain’s most traditional sound. Influences…
Know what I want to do? Coin a phrase. You know, like I’ll use it here and soon people will be employing it elsewhere, like in everyday conversation. What better way to truly indulge, or perhaps abuse, my access to the masses? Ideally, it’d be some nearly nonsensical word that defies…
Have you ever wondered what Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” would sound like with a bossa nova makeover? No? Me neither. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea. And that’s exactly the sort of thing that Liset Alea and the SeXy TRiO plan to do tonight at the Viceroy’s…
Vous etre un chien! That means, “you are a dog” in French. It’s not terribly impressive, but it’s all I managed to retain from a year of introductory French in freshman year of Christopher Columbus High School, before I got kicked out and began my extensive tour of SoFla’s high…
Hippies of South Florida, unite! Grab that favorite tie-dyed T-shirt from the pile of clothes in the corner — you know, the heap of stuff too dirty for the closet but not quite ready for the wash. Slip on your Birkenstocks, break out your hacky sacks, and load up on…
Mishka is not your average reggae singer. For one thing, he was the first artist signed to j.k. livin’, a record label founded by Hollywood’s own Matthew McConaughey. But he is the embodiment of all those quintessential underlying themes that have made the genre what it is–a deep-seeded love for…
It’s not easy to come up with something new to say about Locos Por Juana. Fact is, we’ve lavished them with praise time and again, and deservedly so. But how many times can one write about their stellar blend of cumbia, reggae, hip-hop, rock, and tropical flavors? How many times can…
Ah, to be 13 again! Do you remember what it was like? You’re still mostly innocent, but just corrupted enough by the raging hormones that puberty bring so you’re starting to have fun. If you were a boy, you just started sprouting peach fuzz around your nether regions not long…
What do you get when you cross a bass line that can’t decide between bubblegum bouncy and driving like a Mack truck, guitars that go from subtle to psycho in one second flat, keyboards that quiver like a speedball junkie, drums that alternately whisper and crash in conversation with the…
Let us paint you a picture. It’s a little hazy, but that’s just pot smoke (in the story, we swear). The year is 1969 in L.A., and Frank Zappa has just handed vocalist-guitarist Lowell George his walking papers from the Mothers of Invention. Some legends contend Zappa thought George showed…
You may not be familiar with Little Feat, but you sure as hell should. They’ve been around for 40 years, during which time they’ve worked and shared the stage with some of music’s true legends, artists running the gamut from Jimmy Buffet to Bela Fleck, Dave Matthews to Vince Gill,…
You may not be familiar with Little Feat, but you sure as hell should. They’ve been around for 40 years, during which time they’ve worked and shared the stage with some of music’s true legends, artists running the gamut from Jimmy Buffet to Bela Fleck, Dave Matthews to Vince Gill,…
Geez, I’m really torn here. Part of me wanted to start this post by singing, “Llevaba medias negras / Y me robó el corazón!” But then I’d be leaving out the equally worthy, “Oxigeno! Esa mujer me da oxigeno / Con su sonrisa simpatico / Con su presencia magnifica!” It’s…
Incomparable. Electrifying. Unforgettable. Those are just a few of the words that have typically been used to describe the legendary Celia Cruz throughout her long and illustrious career, and even posthumously since she lost her battle with cancer six years ago. The praise is more than justified, and the title…
Matisyahu has undergone perpetual evolution since he burst out of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he groomed his musical talents and allowed his faith as a Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Jew to grow. Murmurs circulated of the unlikely artist, particularly with the buzz of his Billboard chart-topping sophomore release in 2005, Live At…
Mark your calendars boys and girls, I’ve got your Saturday night plans all lined up for you. Now, I know you don’t normally like to commit to an outing until you’re four to six drinks deep at a Friday afternoon happy hour, and well on your way to the 48-hour…
You may recall reading about a group on these pages called Tiempo Libre. If you’re a Cuban coffee drinker, there’s a chance they may even peek at you from the side of your can of grounds every morning as you curse the five day work week. That’s right, they’re those…
Fans of the 1990s funk-metal band Primus can’t forget that famous live footage from Woodstock ’94. In it the band’s resident bass god, Les Claypool, dexterously covered Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” by playing the guitar part on his signature Carl Thompson bass using the slap technique. To top it off,…
My Spanish language dictionary defines lanzallamas as a mechanism designed to project a stream of fire in a controlled, prolonged stream. In other words, a flamethrower. It’s also a truly kickass local band, who have chosen a rather apt name.Lanzallamas Monofonica wield a powerful weapon of their own, an unending…
After their widely touted debut Kombustion, locally groomed rock group Soniko prepares to capitalize on the buzz they first generated five years ago with their long awaited sophomore release, Antidoto Parcial. On Kombustion the foursome received heavy acclaim for their churning brand of alt-rock. A vamp on 1990s grunge with…
Mexican pop group Reik has come a long way since its inception in 2004. For one thing, two thirds of the trio can legally drink in the venues they frequently pack (in the States…in Mexico they’ve been legal since they were seven). But more importantly, they’ve evolved as artists and…
