William S. Burroughs, the godfather of slack, said that Truth lies in the number and the number is 23. He was referring, of course, to a system involving the magic of Chaos (five, or two plus three) and the arcana of ace conspiracy theorist Robert Anton Wilson. But he left…
Hee, hee! Greetings, my fine fettered friends, and welcome to another foul feast in the Haunt of Fear. This is your shriekchef, your delirium dietician, ready with my bubbling cauldron, filled with my latest reeking recipe. So relax on that marble settee there and I’ll begin by feeding you the…
Like Athens (Georgia, that is) in the Eighties, Seattle in the Nineties has been scooped and hyped ad nauseum as the Scene of the Minute. The airways are rife with some thing called “the Seattle Sound,” and the runways are featuring the bold, new look of “grunge” (as if Seattle…
Come all ye faithful, be ye friend or be ye foe, and throw down your weapons, toss out your prejudices, shred your inhibitions, lift up your arms and rejoice. For there’s a new and pure and mighty sound on the horizon, and it knows no color other than kaleidoscopic, and…
Want a surefire way to silence a South Beach conversation? Mention that your next assignment is none other than Neil Diamond. And watch as a rash of too-cool profiles creep into question marks. But the faces won’t be asking who. They’ll be asking why. Why Neil? Why now? And then…
Ask any rock operative, be they critic, barfly, informed groupie, or guitarslinger, from the birth of Aerosmith to the rise of Sonic Youth, to name two of the most influential rock bands of all time, and chances are they’ll answer not with the expected Beatles and Stones, but, if they’re…
Death Metal. Crucifixes, sacrificial altars, stained and shattered glass. Calls for murder, massacre, all-around mayhem, and, in shallower interpretations, suicide, either alone or with your friends. Blood (always blood), sex (ritual evildoings), and fears (of nothing and everything). Oh, and let’s not forget the Devil, ol’ Beelzebub himself, basking in…
What’s so beastly about the Beastie Boys? Flavor. F-L-A-V-O-R. That is, full-fledged, long-lasting, ass-kicking, veracity-dropping oomph and rev. Or something like that. In other words, the Beastie Boys possess the secrets of street science, the poetics of po-mo pop irreverence, the craftiness of a caravan of seasoned carnies, and the…
What becomes a legend most? Folk rock. Aaargh! An overloaded term that would make any self-respecting, post-Boom techno kid reach for his or her remote. Zap — outta here. And flower power? Come on, you simply must be kidding. Was there ever really such a thing? I mean, the media,…
How does an inspired and original Miami act land a record deal with one of the N.Y./L.A. power axis companies without either going to New York or Los Angeles? They don’t. Well, that’s not entirely true. Should they hook up with some well-connected hot-shot management team that will go in…
Like any self-important, one-assignment-away-from-the-poorhouse hack, I get a lot of mail — books, tapes, CDs, and a never-ending paper trail of paid-for plugs — all mercilessly encouraging me to heed the coming of the next Next Big Thing. Over the years I’ve become so immune to the barrage of products…
Like any self-important, one-assignment-away-from-the-poorhouse hack, I get a lot of mail — books, tapes, CDs, and a never-ending paper trail of paid-for plugs — all mercilessly encouraging me to heed the coming of the next Next Big Thing. Over the years I’ve become so immune to the barrage of products…
There’s a marketing strategy currently faddish among manufacturers of pop detritus that advocates slipping to an unsuspecting public something new, odd, or unexpected during the slow, sweat-drenched summer months, when the brain cells are less alert but more susceptible to manipulation. And while this tactic is usually reserved for debut…
Who’s the hippest DJ in South Beach? Hard to say. What is certain is that whatever your tastes, there is but a handful. A distinct breed apart among record breakers who balance instinct and acumen to make a good night great. A select group who spin at all the right…
Due to the ugly business of politics, that is the politics of clubdom, where competition — and its inherent strains of dish, dis, and deceive — is the order of the night, this item almost didn’t see print. No one’s to blame; everyone’s guilty. That’s just the way it is…
If the nightcrawlers of South Beach were to appoint a DJ King, they would most likely crown David Padilla. Sure, some spinners may be better off the cuff, in other modes, and others may be more famous, by virtue of seniority and hustle. But it’s Padilla who’s got just the…
A girl’s voice, tentative, uncertain, not too sure of her place in the thick of things. She knows where she wants to be, she’s just unaware how best to get there. Something’s off. The scene: a nightclub door in Everycity, U.S.A. Madness and confusion, the hip and the clueless come…
It’s 3:00 a.m., one of those all-too-infamous Saturday nights at the late Boomerang, and the dance floor is jammed with sweaty, jostling, grinning, working bodies. The pitch: fever. Not a soul in the house is standing still. And then at once, just like that, the music stops. A collective gasp,…
The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means. — Tom Stoppard It was one of those tragic cliches you’d hope would never come true, the stuff of which movies are made. And were it to come true, you’d never imagine it happening so close to home,…
It’s a long, long way from East Orange, New Jersey, to Ocean Drive, and Jacquim, “The Wicked Buddha,” never lets the illusion faze him. Sure there’s the standard parade of girls (“lust college – twelve o’clock”), and the sun has a tendency to make everything glimmer, but the mood and…
If mild-mannered Clark Kent had a hip, record-spinning counterpart, it would be Carlos Menendez. But while Kent played the fool in order to keep secret his other-worldly powers, Menendez plays it cool – ultra-cool – and utterly collected. But both, when they are called, perform miracles of a sort. One…
