“We’re going to nowhere, Tie my arm off tight Crack open a tall boy, Pass me your pipe” “We’re Going to Nowhere,” F.M. Cornog, East River Pipe Like an indie-rock incarnation of Raymond Carver, F.M. Cornog is a man who, using few words, has set sail a cast of desolate…

Misunderstood satirist or homophobic, sexist, insensitive asshole? Such has been the question dogging Joe King, who with his long-time New Hampshire punk band the Queers has never failed to crawl under the skin of PC standard-bearers with such charmingly titled songs as “She’s a Cretin,” “Gay Boy,” “Boobarella,” “Fagtown,” and…

The twin forces behind Miami’s two annual rap blowouts have decided to stop the bickering and just get along. Hoodstock, a music festival-and-seminar event sponsored by the hip-hop collective centered around DJ Raw Records, and the Peter Thomas Entertainment Group’s How Can I Be Down? summit will be held concurrently…

Sublime Sublime (Gasoline Alley/MCA) No fan of the hyperactive, macho ska-punk slop that’s seemingly everywhere these days, I avoided Sublime’s MCA debut in spite of the glowing reviews and despite my empathy for the group, on whom tragedy fell before the damn album was even released. (Surely you know by…

White Zombie Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds (Geffen) Rob Zombie had this great idea for a party: Invite a bunch of dance-music and hip-hop hotshots to remix some tracks from White Zombie’s best-selling Astro-Creep: 2000. And, surprise, Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds throws down in mighty style. No Trent Reznor circle-jerk, this thing not…

I’ve seen some amazing shows since I moved to this tropical tip of the U.S. last November. Not many, mind you, this being Miami, an easy place to miss when you’re mapping out a national tour, but enough to keep me relatively happy and mildly sane. And not to sound…

Various Artists Sweet Relief II — Gravity of the Situation: Songs of Vic Chesnutt (Columbia) The second of what is sure to be a series, this star-studded, politically correct benefit/tribute album showcases the music of Athens-based songwriter Vic Chesnutt. Using a wheelchair as a result of a car accident, Chesnutt…

Say goodbye to the Danny Jessup Show — for now at least. The music-oriented cable-access talk show — which has been airing every Saturday night on Miami Springs TV for more than two years now — has been dropped following sweeping cable-access programming changes at WLRN, which carried MSTV. Jessup,…

In recent interviews plugging his band’s new album, Social Distortion frontman Mike Ness has been talking a lot about punk rock. It’s a subject in which he is well versed: His group debuted back in the very early Eighties with a snot-slinging sound that stood in stark contrast to the…

Scenic Acquatica (Independent Project/World Domination) Like Ennio Morricone on peyote, or Dick Dale after a couple of bong loads, Scenic makes dreamy, hypnotic instrumental music of operatic scope but minimal construction. The quartet — fronted by ex-Savage Republic mastermind Bruce Licher — build their evocative soundscapes around slinky twang-guitars and…

It’s no small coincidence that bandleader Lino de la Guardia chose New Orleans rather than his hometown of Miami as the place to premiere his new band Khadir. The former, he exclaims, is a thriving live-music mecca jam-packed with dives, clubs, and concert halls. The latter? “Miami is all about…

When he first heard about it, Jorge Moreno thought the Premios Rock Latino festival would be “a great opportunity” for Latin rockers from Miami and beyond to gain some always-needed exposure. Days before the August 18 festival was to be held at the Bayfront Park Amphitheatre, Moreno began wondering if…

A few years back, a pair of brothers, both in their late teens, lit out from Miami to attend art school. One brother, Alfredo Galvez, wound up at the San Francisco Art Institute; the other, Raphael, enrolled at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Both pursued various visual-arts…

Richard Thompson You? Me? Us? (Capitol) Linda Thompson Dreams Fly Away (Hannibal) This is certainly the first Richard Thompson album to carry a title that might fit a Meg Ryan movie, but don’t expect You? Me? Us? to do anywhere near the business that a celluloid puffball by America’s Sweetheart…

The Yips Bonfire in a Dixie Cup (Siltbreeze) On the Yips’ 1995 single “1000% Fox,” pinched-voice vocalist/bulldozer guitarist Gilmore Tamny kept her anger in check, and throughout the assaulting gem she made a point of bragging about it: “The rage in my cage stays mainly on the page.” On the…

The road has assumed an almost mythological role in the work of many of America’s greatest songwriters who have found emotional solace and metaphorical significance in the highways and back roads that cut through cities, towns, and map-dot whistle stops. In 1929 Mississippi bluesman Charley Patton wandered to worlds unknown…