There are plenty of local bands and musicians we all agree should be national stars, major-label projects, MTV pinups. If any of them were half as good as Billy Yeager, we might be right. And I have just one request for every artist currently residing in pop music’s Top 40,…
Parental Advisory: The following column contains ideas, notions, and thoughts that every single person might not agree with. Acts of violence will be visually represented. Read it at your own risk of not remaining exactly the same as you’ve always been. Turn on the teevy. Advertisers my ear. Cut their…
NORML is getting back to life in South Florida. Which is good news for anyone in favor of health-care reform, a dramatically improved economy, a cleaner environment, or civil rights. “There hasn’t been a chapter in South Florida this vigorous and active in almost seven years,” says Norm Kent, the…
“Gwen, when you don’t remember something it is very strange. It’s the same as if it never happened….” …The Jesus freaks who talked about the end of the world were looking better every day…. …”There’s only one thing we’d like to know. We’re your friends. We’ve been friends for years…
“‘Are you Greg Baker?’ Geez. What the fuck’s wrong with people?” Finally a bit of vinegar outta Frank Falestra, someone got a reaction, as it were. Sorry somebody mistook you for that butthorn at New Times, Ratman, but you should say what I say when someone asks me that: “No…
Something’s got to give. Marilyn’s last, if she had survived shooting it. I celebrate Norma Jean’s birthday every June 1, usually with a reach for that breach she fell into. So far I’ve survived. I’m glad for moments like June 5 (so I celebrated a few days late, so what)…
I found out he didn’t even have a credit card, so I changed my mind about kicking Dan Murphy’s ass. For so long it’s been itching at me, a desire to jack Soul Asylum’s guitarist, carried over from an encounter five years ago when “the best live band in the…
I went with venom. Came back with a smile. A rock does that for me. The Game is like rock and roll A you have to know it to love it, you have to love it to know it, you have to live it to be it. I once asked…
A while back I had the pleasure of speaking to several hordes of high school students and teachers who gathered at FIU for a seminar with the unwieldy title of the Dade County Public Schools Student Gender Equity Conference. Leonard Pitts, Jr., and I attempted to explain to these bright…
This is a nice place. A workman shines up the oversize glass doors that open into the 27-story Capital Bank Building, located in a sweet pocket of the Brickell business district. Here, the carpet caresses. The elevators speak to you. Fine wood and spotless mirrors, marble and chrome. Shine. The…
It was nearly twenty years ago, and I was just a snivelly little street punk (okay, okay, so I still am). Because of circumstance, I had an especially close relationship with and reliance on radio. I always had – and did right up to the point when the corporates-computers-consults came…
Schascle “Twinkle” Yochim is typical of so many unsigned talents, a tough-voiced belter of bluesy rock with tons of melodic skill. She writes big, memorable songs, captured neatly on a demo, and has been touring the club circuit from her Sarasota base for several years. Your standard dreamer who deserves…
Yo, watch out for flying slogans. Sure, come on over, and bring your bud with you. We’re heading to Al’s Pumphouse, the coolest club in town, located at the north end of Greenville, South Carolina. This place is like Churchill’s but bigger A divided by the bar into a pool-shootin’…
Le Jeune Road near Miami International Airport. A right turn loops around, allowing access to a service road that leads past the Sheraton Hotel and practically right onto the fairways of Melreese Golf Course. A water hazard prevents parking directly in the line of soaring Titleists, but across the canal…
Jimmy Scott Lost and Found (Atlantic/Rhino) They’re a select group, a handful of singers that can pull up emotion and hurt so palpable that it’s almost painful to listen to, but you want to listen anyway: Billie Holiday, Neil Young, Otis Redding, come immediately to mind. Add to their number…
Oh, yeah, they’re out there. Is anybody listening? Oh, yeah! Here we go again. The recording artists calling Miami home are steppin’ to it, and we’re kickin’ what they’re droppin’. Please join us. Mary Karlzen Hide (Y&T Music) “Hey, don’t I know you? You look familiar….” It takes less than…
I plead ignorance. I beg forgiveness. On behalf of the entire music industry. I first saw Mother’s Finest live in early 1980 at the cavernous and generally worthless Hollywood Sportatorium as opening act for Aerosmith. It was weirdness, a racially different (and mixed) gang playing fried, get-it rock as sloppily…
It was Kennedy A and you know I don’t mean John F. A who said it best: some people are powered by greed, some are powered by need. I don’t need much, and I don’t get it, but before I go I would like to thank each and all of…
This is it, folks. I ain’t pretending. Next week’s is definitely the last “Program Notes.” Cleaning out my office, I just came across an old note from band manager Mike Eiseman. “About the new religion based on Rooster Head music,” Eiseman wrote, “I think you need a little vacation, or…
Spring sprung? God, I hope so. My great friend of twenty years, Ben Bank, is in town with his family, and we have plans to watch his alma mater lose the NCAA basketball championship (quick, Chris, call a time-out!) but my car breaks down and this time I can’t rig…
Schizophrenia is a serious illness not to be made fun of, but I can’t think of a better term or a better way of giving in to the impossible (or at least implausible) pushing and pulling of planetary life. Probably most people feel this way. Which means I’m normal. Schizo…
The lessons they are hard. In the March 10 installment of this alleged column, I claimed there is no God, other, perhaps, than Greg Brown. Yeah, I guess you could say I was fairly fired up for Brown’s skedded visit to Stephen Talkhouse that weekend. It was something to live…
