A TV talk show recently trotted them out like five-legged cows at a county fair: “black” people who dressed, talked, looked like “white” people. Hair straightened, skin lightened, garb purchased from J. Crew or Land’s End. The word “be” conjugated with object when used as a transitive verb. And there…
Just another funky day, as Greg Brown would sing. Dear diary: 8:30 a.m., car starts, gets me home. 9:00 a.m.: car won’t start. 9:00 to 10:30 a.m.: work on car. 10:30 a.m.: car still won’t start, screw it. Left knee stiff, left ear swollen with infection. Stop by McDonald’s for…
ROACH THOMPSON BLUES BAND Roach Thompson Blues Band (Hot Productions) BY GREG BAKER Only four of the eleven tracks are cover versions, a decent percentage for any blues record, a double-dose delight to fans who’ve come to expect a bounty of interpretation from the Roach stompers’ live shows. Thompson’s originals…
So I guess this mean’s WDNA-FM’s now off the air again. Ouch. And you thought it was over. Not yet. The National Association of Chiefs of Police is calling for a boycott of Time Warner’s HBO, requesting “Americans” to cancel the cable station because it has scheduled a series of…
They arrive at the New Times music-department office every day, flocks of them. Not pigeons. Press releases. Band bios, newsletters, cover letters, itineraries, unspoken quotes, anything and everything record company publicists can conceive of to sell their bands to the press, who in turn will sell same to the public…
Sometimes I think the only way out is out. No whining here; think about it: I’ve got a cool job, a beautiful wife, a beautiful house, and I feel sometimes like I’m living in a Talking Heads song. I certainly should be the happiest dog in the pound. And then…
So a little trip to Lollapalooza ’92 is in order, is it? Miami wasn’t blessed with the presence of the first Lolla tour, so we have no idea what to expect. But we do know that when you pack tons of live music, art, food, propaganda, and other diversions into…
Kids, you might not want to let your parents read today’s column. Things could get a little rough, just like real life. Most people who spend their evenings “smokin’ weed and drinkin'” end up fat and lazy, the television cable hooked intravenously to their flabby arms. Others get their eyeball…
The obvious and easy argument raised by those dinosaurs tenaciously and fruitlessly attempting to make it worthwhile to own a turntable in the 1990s is the Hip-Hop Equation. Rap-music makers have continued the practice of releasing their material on vinyl, usually one song remixed several ways on the twelve-inch, album-size…
In 1973 the DEA reclassified methaqualone to Schedule I, pretty much banning it from medical use in the United States. Sold as Quaalude, Sopor, and Mandrax, the sedative-hypnotic at one time had been the sixth-most prescribed drug in the nation. In 1975, 16.9 percent of high school seniors surveyed said…
So I call up the source: Me: “Sir, is it true that you embezzled thousands of dollars from tax coffers?” Him: “I categorically deny those allegations. But listen, while I got ya, do you have any idea how I might be able to get tickets to the Smashing Pumpkins/Chainsaw Kittens…
No theme this week, just lots of pain, most of which will probably be forgotten by the time you read this, just as this is forgotten as soon as you finish reading it. It’s very sad and unfortunate that an innocent woman was killed in an accident involving a jitney,…
I’m tired, real tired. But this theory seems so straight-up simple: If, as the fascist censors insist, listening to the 2 Live Crew will turn you into a rapist and if listening to Body Count’s “Cop Killer” will make you murder an officer of the law, then couldn’t the opposite…
On language: So the other midday I’m sitting at a bus stop in Westchester, waiting. Some middle-age guy, a 38-year Miami resident originally from Albany, New Yawk, strolls up and begins yammering. The main thing we talk about is distinguishing characteristics of Latin, or Hispanic, dialects and accents worldwide. He…
So much confusion, so much hype, so much of it old hat to those of us in this hotbed of censorship called Miami. It’s not something that would normally be addressed in this space, but when Florida’s largest retailer of recorded music bowed to a very small minority and joined…
I remember it, vaguely. Pete Townshend was right, and not just about himself. That old movie Logan’s Run hit the tip, too, with its premise that an unsurpassably happy and pleasure-soaked life ends — must end, literally — at age 30. Heck, mine certainly did. Heck, I even have younger…
As mentioned last week, dead is the word for the Rock Box. A decade ago there were few higher compliments than being called a “punk.” We were white punks on dope, we were punk rockers, we were punked out and proud of it. But kids today, oh yeah, too many…
For the past several weeks radio listeners tuning in to WDNA-FM (88.9) have heard only static where once they could find Miami’s most eclectic music mix: jazz, Latin, blues, folk, rock, and funk. Not to mention Indian, Haitian, Pakistani, and more. Those curious or desperate fans of the community-sponsored, nonprofit…
How does a song like the sweetly languorous “Make U Sweat” end up on the same album as the hip-hoppity, Gary Glitter-ized scratch-and-grab “Bad to the Bone” and an unlikely cover of Neil Young’s “Down by the River”? Yes, skank tops, Inner Circle is back with a new one, Bad…
The two current members of London Exchange have the “western disease” and they’ve got it bad. You can hear symptoms cutting through every dance-tech-pop driven track — this music for the Nineties. “The police came only for a reason,” says Alex Zaitsev, who is Christopher Phipps’s latest partner in the…
If you can’t wait to get your eyes on some newsletters from local bands, try writing to the addresses below. While newsletters are free, remember that struggling bands must come up with the scratch to finance photocopying and postage. A small contribution might not hurt. The Goods Box 64-0209 Miami,…
We’re still up to our sweaty little ears in recorded music from around here, so cut on the a/c and find patience. If you’re waiting for reviews of other area projects, hang in there and stay tuned in. Everyone knows how much more time must be allotted to laundering clothes…
