Kryptonite Metal Fest

An anti-harmonic convergence takes place at Tobacco Road on Friday when the 30-band Kryptonite Metal Fest touches down. DJ Oski and QueenOfTheScene.com are handling the event, which will spotlight bands from all over the state playing 30-minute sets. For this minipalooza, The Road will have stages set up in the…

Mannheim Steamroller

Mannheim Steamroller is comin’ to town, which doesn’t automatically mean Santa Claus is along for the ride. Like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Steamroller is best known for concert spectacles in which classical music and standards are rockified for the holiday season. Originally concocted as an alias for record producer/composer Chip Davis…

Q-Burn’s Abstract Message

Truth be told, Q-Burn’s message is no more abstract than “get thee under the mirror-ball and shake yo’ ass.” The former Rollins College (Orlando) DJ is a master at blending software and electronics with live instruments to create bump-and-groove house tunes, weaving his own guitar riffs and drum breaks into…

George Jones

Johnny Cash once said, “When people ask me who my favorite country singer is, I say, ‘You mean, besides George Jones?'” Nicknamed “No-Show Jones” in honor of all the gigs he missed as a result of his drinking/drugging/God-only-knows, the now-76-year-old Jones still ranks second to Eddy Arnold for the most…

Second Sun

It ain’t no disco when Second Sun blows up a room, or at least that’s not how the Miami DJ duo looks at it. Sure, a lot of knob-twiddling is going on when the pair makes its hypnotizing house and trance sounds. But Antoine Toupin and Adam Cavaluzi, who met…

DJ Boris

Better hook up the Red Bull I.V. — DJ Boris is on his way to Space. The Russian-born 35-year-old is known as much for his marathon club sets (15 hours at Crobar in 2006, 22 hours at Nocturnal during the 2007 Winter Music Conference) as for his ever-growing list of…

Black Sun Empire

Operating out of Utrecht, the Netherlands, the three-piece collaborative known as Black Sun Empire is now in its 10th year of tearing up dance floors and producing tunes both technically proficient and powerful. Comprising darkstep/neurofunk producer Rene Verdult and the DJing brothers Milan and Micha Heyboer, the band offers a…

Markus Schulz

Not just a local hero anymore, Markus Schulz rides a wave of adulation for his second artist album, Progression, into Mansion on Saturday. These days the German-born DJ and producer lives in and operates out of Miami as well as Berlin. And from wherever he calls home at the moment,…

Hector Romero and Lexicon Avenue

On tap at Shine this Saturday is a friendly reminder that Winter Music Conference is on its way. A bit early, yes, since WMC doesn’t officially kick off until March 24, but any excuse to get two of Saw Recordings’ standout acts to South Beach will work. First and foremost,…

OSO and In Droves

Led by singer/guitarist Mike Montero, OSO exhibits a great knack for spacey, jammy prog-rock reminiscent of Particle. The band’s full-length LP, You Know, was released independently on its own Polyphonic Studio label last July. Like many local musicians, Montero finds the Miami rock scene a challenge, but he does detect…

Joe Nice

Joe Nice’s, well, niceness has helped put him and the dubstep genre he loves on the American electronic dance music map. It’s a bass-driven, dub-reggae-influenced mutation of the mostly London-outskirts-produced style of dance music known as garage (rhymes with carriage). The prototypical herky-jerky dubstep beat sounds like an early hip-hop…

Johnny SexFuk and the Fleshrockets

When last we left Johnny SexFuk, a pumpkin was about to get its brains — or seeds, whatever — fucked out. That was back around Halloween, when the Hialeah-based punk troupe lowered its standards all the way down to the magma level by playing back-up band during a MoneyTalks.com porn…

Article 66

This Saturday at Jazid, Miami rock quartet Article 66 becomes the newest pack of lucky dogs to score the opening slot for Suénalo Sound System. “We’ve never played there before, and we’re very excited and grateful for the opportunity,” says vocalist/guitarist Tony “T-Bone” Tomas. “It’s a great place in a…

Steve Lawler

Few star DJs are genetically equipped to keep the marathon after-hours, 4 a.m.-start-time sets at Space interesting. Ever a work in progress, the British producer/DJ/label-owner was once considered the pioneer of twisted house. That was just one stop on his steady rise from the infamous “motorway raves” of the early…

Lights Down Low

Something jazzy this way comes Friday night at Tobacco Road. Fort Lauderdale’s Lights Down Low offers a breezy vibe, a stylistic combination of Spiro Gyra and Pat Metheny. The band has hit The Road before, playing upstairs, and keyboardist Chip Gardner had a great time. “The sound guy, Cosmo, is…

A-Sides and Ewun

They’ll be rinsin’ the night away once again at Laundry Bar this Friday. Romford, England-based A-Sides — a.k.a. Jason Cambridge — headlines this drum ‘n’ bass night. One of the most prolific artists of the genre, he’s been producing music since 1990 and has released over 500 tracks to date,…

Manhattan Transfer

Unclassifiable when they began making records, Manhattan Transfer were the Dresden Dolls of their day, sort of. The band was formed through a series of happy accidents — group founder Tim Hauser meeting the outfit’s first soprano, Laurel Masse, as a fare in the cab he was driving. The swing/a…

Café Tacuba

For nearly two decades, the Mexican alt-rock stars of Café Tacuba have systematically dissolved the language barrier. Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the most important bands in the hemisphere,” the quartet (flanked live by Alejandro Flores on violin) has a distinctly arty sound. The band’s most…

Alejandro Sanz

Whether they know it or not, most radio-listening gringos have heard Alejandro Sanz. In 2005 the Madrid native recorded a little duet with Shakira called “La Tortura” (“The Torture”) for her sixth studio album, Fijación Oral Vol. 1. When the dust had settled from this reggaeton nuke, it had become…

Plastic Parachute

Kicking off Friday’s Suenalo Sound System show at Jazid are Deb Hooks’s do-me pumps. Um, I mean Plastic Parachute. The alt-pop quartet is a road-dog-and-a-half, doing about 250 shows per year. As time has gone on, the band has padded its resumé with opening slots for heavies such as The…

Bill Patrick and Dennis Rodgers

Two-thirds of New York’s Robots collaborative — Bill Patrick and Dennis Rodgers — invade Laundry Bar this Friday. The trio formed in New York in 2003, the members’ common denominator an obsessive interest in twisted, mind-bending techno and house. Patrick was a resident DJ at Arc, mainly performing warm-up duties,…

Bachaco

Together for less than a year, the world experimentalists of Bachaco prefer their career trajectory like their tequila: straight up. Already armed with enough original material to fill a couple of albums, the Miami band is at work on its first, as-yet-untitled full-length for Onesound Records, due out before the…