Sigur Rós With Julianna Barwick Klipsch Amphitheater at Bayfront Park, Miami Wednesday, October 9, 2013 We arrived at around 7:30 p.m. to a barely audible Julianna Barwick crooning to ambient drones and hums provided by a guitarist and her occasional piano strokes. A circular screen above Barwick played images featuring…
Scotland has Belle and Sebastian. Mexico has Julieta Venegas. If ever there were a twee Latin rock artist, Venegas would be its reigning queen. In 15 years of recording, Venegas has evolved, but she has always remained true to a delicate yet strong sensibility rooted in Mexican ranchera music. Her…
It speaks to the primal power of Sigur Rós’ sound that the Icelandic band has never needed to abandon its native Icelandic tongue (except occasionally for the invented gibberish variant, Hopelandic), much less yield to pop song constructs, to find success. For about 15 years now, the group has channeled…
Pet Shop Boys’ Electric Tour With Jacques Lu Cont Fillmore Miami Beach Thursday, September 12, 2013 The Pet Shop Boys kicked off its U.S. tour in Miami last night. And nearly 30 years after the duo’s inception, singer Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe are still trying to keep it…
The Act of Killing is one of the most breathtaking horror films you’ll ever see. The documentary by Danish-American filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer dives into the psyches of several paramilitary men and gangsters who helped massacre over a million so-called “communists” in Indonesia following a military coup in 1965. Melding dramatized…
Miami-Dade County’s book lovers have been up in arms ever since Mayor Gimenez proposed the closure of 22 libraries in order to save taxpayer money during a budget meeting back in July. Today, the number of libraries marked for closure has been reduced to 13, according to the Save the…
The Metric concert last night had to be the most punctual rock show to ever take place at the Fillmore Miami Beach. Maybe it was the five cameras preparing to stream the show live on Myspace; it was the Florida entry for Bud Light’s 50/50/1 music festival — 50 bands,…
Even though she is currently in Spain on vacation, Metric’s Emily Haines can hardly hide her exuberance about visiting Miami again. Talking over the phone, Haines notes a couple of rather unforgettable connections between her and the Magic City. One revolves around a past Metric performance, and the other is…
One of the standout tracks on Metric’s latest entry into their 15-year oeuvre, Synthetica, features vocals by a figure who helped lay the foundation of modern alternative rock, Lou Reed. On “The Wanderlust,” a song that arrives close to album’s end, the breathy alto of vocalist Emily Haines gives way…
Even though she is currently in Spain, enjoying vacation time, Metric’s Emily Haines can hardly hide her exuberance about visiting Miami again. Talking over the phone, Haines notes a couple of rather unforgettable connections between her and the Magic City. One revolves around a past Metric performance and the other…
During a meeting at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Miami, a chatty Javier Cámara cannot resist an opportunity to channel his plane steward character Joserra. “You need water,” he tells the trio of journalists gathered for the interview. “Let me serve you water. I play a stewardess in the film, after…
It’s fitting that it should take a while to get the two brothers behind the hushed, soulful music of Los Angeles’ Inc. out of their shells. They spoke in soft, halting voices over the phone during a conference call last week. It’s a big contrast to the smooth, sophisti-pop neo-soul…
The brothers behind the hushed, soulful music of Los Angeles’ Inc., singer/guitarist Andrew Aged and bassist/vocalist Daniel Aged, took up their respective instruments in the late ’90s. At the time, Andrew was 12 and Daniel 11. Playing music together, they say, actually helped them open up to each other as…
Beyond the bookshelves of the Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Main Library (101 W. Flagler St., Miami), a peculiar scent will strike you. It’s bitter to the nostrils and smells like vinegar. It’s the smell of film decaying. Don Chauncey, a longtime film archivist, explains that for 16mm film to remain…
When you walk into the Miami-Dade Public Library’s film archive in downtown Miami, you encounter a unique scent. It’s bitter to the nostrils and smells somewhat like vinegar. Turns out that’s the odor of decay particular to film. Donald Chauncey, a longtime film archivist working for the library as a…
If you grew up in Miami, you know it can get kind of tiresome to listen to El Exilio bitch and moan about Fidel Castro. However, the experience only serves to make Cubamerican, José Enrique Pardo’s documentary about the first generation of post-Castro Cuban-Americans, all the more refreshing. As a…
Terence Nance isn’t exactly a household name. But Miami film buffs should recognize his voice from the Miami movie of the year. No, not Pain & Gain — Borscht Film Festival’s Adventures of Christopher Bosh in the Multiverse. Nance voiced Bosh, AKA Star Prince Akilobataar, in the short. And soon,…
What’s David Lynch’s next project? According to screenwriter/filmmaker Alan Greenberg, it’s his very own, long-in-limbo script, Love In Vain, inspired by/about blues legend Robert Johnson. Speaking from his home in Portland, Oregon, in advance of his appearance at Art Center/South Florida in Miami Beach this weekend, the 62-year-old Greenberg broke…
It’s guaranteed to top many critics’ lists and deserves an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. Frances Ha is the darling breakout indie film of 2013 that only the bitterest critic could loathe. Friday night, at the Coral Gables Art Cinema, the face and soul of that film, Greta Gerwig, will…
Before this week, the films of New York writer/director Noah Baumbach threatened to pigeonhole him as a grim observer of embittered human behavior. Then the 43-year-old invited 29-year-old actress Greta Gerwig to co-write a script with him. Frances Ha, the result that opens in Miami today, pitches a shimmering curveball…
If the founders of O Cinema can have their dreams fulfilled, the small art house in Wynwood will be able to show three different screenings in three different parts of its building at once. Monday, the theater announced new funding that will get them halfway to that vision, a grant…
With the help of the Knight Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami hopes to elevate Nigerian film into the larger consciousness of the art world. You can count the long-standing museum as one of the 66 finalists vying for a Knight Arts Challenge grant. Executive Director and Chief…
