JJ Grey & Mofro, GalacticRevolution, Fort LauderdaleSaturday, January 9, 2010Better Than: Being stuck on a boat with “suspicious liquids.”The Review:This past weekend marked an annual ritual: the end of the Jam Cruise, which always floods South Florida with musical talent. Though sometimes this place feels like a musical black hole,…
First off let me start off by saying that last year sucked really bad, and I am definitely not sad to see it go. We gained some friends, but lost a few too. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. But that’s the beauty of the beginning of the…
Favoring a pounding prog-house sound as shiny and at times as sleazy as the city he now calls home, Paris-to-Miami transplant Cedric Gervais has a reputation as a DJ who plays it both uplifting and up-thrusting. Building up his following since 2003, this big room fixture favors blissfully breezy Ibiza-style…
Click to read parts one, two, and three of this list.Jacuzzi BoysNo Seasons (Florida’s Dying)myspace.com/jacuzziboysMiami’s best garage rock threesome seems to succeed in spite of itself. Where a lot of local bands spend all their time on self-promotion through social media abuse, the Jacuzzi Boys really couldn’t care less. Instead,…
Click to read parts one and two of this list.Jacobs Ladder Ours For The Taking (JMB Records)myspace.com/jacobsladderLook past the complicated MySpace presence, deliberately goofy promo photos, hell, even the hair of this Miami threesome. Jacobs Ladder is not yet another color-by-numbers pop-punk band. Sure, in some of the tunes there are…
Blowfly With Jacuzzi Boys and Mr. Entertainment and the PookiesmackersSaturday, January 2, 2010The Monterey Club, Fort LauderdaleBetter Than: Rotten fish cunnilingus.The Review:Happy New Year! Out with the old, in with the new. Right? Not at the Monterey Club Saturday night. The new was in, no doubt about it, but the…
French producer/DJ Bob Sinclar (neé Christophe “The French Kiss” le Friant) was Born in 69, as it says literally in the title of his most recent full-length. And you need to sample only a small cross-section from his decade-plus of throbbing tracks to understand his promotion of this double entendre-imbued…
To read part one of the list, click here. Awesome New RepublicRational Geographic Vol. I, Rational Geographic Vol. II, Hearts (Honor Roll Music)anrmiami.comA year’s round-up of the best local albums, without an entry from Awesome New Republic, would be like a South Florida summer that is actually mild and pleasant. Unthinkable,…
Over the next two days, we’ll post Crossfade contributors’ favorite local albums of 2009. They’re listed in completely random order, so stay tuned as the full list rolls out. Raffa and RainerNo Mercy (self-released)myspace.com/raffaandrainerMiami folkies Raffa Jo Harris and Rainer Davies play the sort of wistful melodies that make your heart…
Click here to view a slideshow from Phish’s New Year’s Eve show. PhishAmerican Airlines Arena, Miami December 28 through 31, 2009Better Than: Langerado? Not so sure, but Phish’s comeback in March may or may not have contributed to the demise of South Florida’s beloved festival.The Review:Phish’s triumphant return after a five-year hiatus…
Sweet Bronco with The Pretty Faces, A Hunters Pace, and Retrocities Saturday, December 26, 2009 Propaganda, Lake Worth Better Than: John Elway and John Wayne dodging ponies as rodeo clowns. As Sweet Bronco rocked the stage at Propaganda Saturday night, people were moved in various ways: Some shouted “Yeehaw!”, most…
“I’m a Facebook prophet/ I told all the girls that I’d be the hot shit.” Thus sings Kid Cudi on “Soundtrack To My Life,” the uninflected voice of a generation that grew up staring at monitors for hours and spends nights cycling through social networking websites. Embodying the hipster-hop aesthetic,…
The Jacuzzi Boys With Boise Bob and His Backyard Band Radio-Active Records, Fort Lauderdale Friday, December 18, 2009Better Than: Being waist-deep in one of them hot tubs with water jets.The Review:The crowd came to Radio-Active Records this past Friday for the Jacuzzi Boys. But for those, like me, who showed…
It’s been almost two years since jam juggernaut String Cheese Incident called it quits in 2007. Since then, things have slowed for some of the former members, while others have picked up the pace with new projects. The latter holds true for the String Cheese rhythm section of Jason Hann…
Who hasn’t been to a post-1998 wedding in which the couple danced to Edwin McCain? The saxophone-drenched ballad “I’ll Be,” in which McCain promises, in essence, never to be a douchebag, granted him the one commercial success he needed to live easy. He’s since dropped off the mainstream music radar,…
No women no cry might have been Bob Marley’s anthem but come February 28, 2010 “No Bougie’s, I’ll cry” is what regulars in the South Miami bar scene will be sniffling. That’s right, folks, South Miami’s chillest dive, Bougainvillea’s, will be shutting its doors for good leaving locals, UM students,…
To read past installments of South Florida According to Brooklyn, click here.This week I would like to talk about the bleak future of music. The state of things is pretty shitty, and every band gets ripped off by the common man. As the old cliche goes, trends and styles go…
More often than not, Apple catches lightning in a bottle with the songs and they become fantastic vehicles for Apple’s newest technology. Brooklyn-by-way-of-Boulder electronic pop trio Chairlift is the outright epitome of iPod fame. The band’s song “Bruises” landed in the aforementioned commercials, and the rest was history. Tonight, they…
In the beginning, Philadelphia native Garrett “G. Love” Dutton — hitting the national music scene like a fourth Beastie Boy crossed with splashes of Beck and Bob Dylan — created the song “Cold Beverage” with his two-man backing band, Special Sauce. The year was 1994, the shambling song came from…
This past Sunday I put together a show at the Poorhouse with two of the best rock and roll bands in South Florida, the Furious Dudes and Mad Martigan, both from Miami. They are both underrated but awesome, and needless to say the show was amazing, just a good time…
Night Watch is a regularly-occurring feature by nightlife columnist Tara Nieuwesteeg.The Lion & Eagle English Pub (2401 N Federal Hwy, Boca Raton; 561-447-7707) was a dignified, stately establishment replete with a rich wooden bar, regally upholstered booths, paintings (of soaring eagles, mostly), decorative kettles, lanterns, and model ships. It was…
Night Watch is a regularly-occurring feature by nightlife columnist Tara Nieuwesteeg.Last weekend, it took a minute for me to muster up the courage to enter The Warehouse Pub (1599 NW 1st Court, Boca Raton; 561-392-3798). Sure, this was Boca, but still — the pub was located in a dark part…
