After nine studio albums, the Anglo-French unit Stereolab has become very comfortable in its sound, sinking into a beanbag chair of Laetitia Sadier’s “ba-da-ba’s,” Farfisa organ drones, wonderfully serpentine bass lines, and krautrock/bossa nova/waltz rhythms. One would think that Margerine Eclipse, the first album released since singer/keyboardist Mary Hansen’s death…
Colette Marino emerged from Chicago in the late Nineties as one-fourth of the house collective Superjane. What distinguished her from partners Lady D, DJ Heather, and Dayhota wasn’t her strong DJ skills, but her penchant for spinning records and singing at the same time. This is far from a gimmick;…
The electro-bass underground scene continues to tease with periodic parties that blow up like waifers. You know, first you’re peaking balls, then the feeling dies down only to hurl another wave through your insides. Not that many people are rolling at these parties anymore, though; in fact it’s cool to…
It’s a Saturday night in Homestead and most of the action in town is centered at the Main Street Cafe. The sounds of Bob Dylan capture the attention of a rapt audience here, similar to the way all-star tributes to folksingers like Carole King and the late Phil Ochs used…
One day very soon, our radio hits will sound like outsider music wunderkinds Girls With Attitude. Not familiar with the term outsider music? Well, it’s an acquired taste and an oddball genre made up of unlikely performers that include singing psychics, autistic children, certifiable karaoke maniacs, and fervent do-gooders with…
Pot, grass, weed, ganja, reefer, doobie, herb, sensi. Whatever you call it, the little spiky-leafed cannabis plant most commonly known as marijuana inflames passions on both sides of the pro/con fence, from those who use it as a sacrament in religious ceremonies held everywhere from India to Jamaica, to our…
The sheer strangeness of Manding “swing” music can be daunting. Sure, there are enough familiar elements, from amplified instrumentation to radio-friendly lengths that tell you in an instant that you’re listening to pop. But the heightened sense of drama feels foreign, from the operatic intensity that courses through the vocals…
Last November Pop Up Records issued its first release, an album by Summer Blanket titled Charm Wrestling. The album has a rare, fragile quality emphasized by its downbeat melodies and confessional verse, the work of Keith Michaud, who plays bass and guitar while singing on its nine tracks, and a…
From the Latin jazz imprint of San Francisco-based groove merchant Ubiquity Records comes the latest in a reputable catalog of CDs guaranteed to satisfy. Ochimini is Latin percussion legend Francisco Aguabella’s fifth release on the label. Despite decades of professional performances and a rangy discography that includes dates and recordings…
Relying on a cheap pun isn’t the best way to start a review. But given Sigmatropic’s origins, as well as its strange mix of sounds, the oft-quoted expression “it’s all Greek to me” somehow seems appropriate. Taken literally, Sigmatropic refers to Greek producer/multi-instrumentalist Akis Boyatzis, who recruited several musicians to…
The title of Firewater’s fifth album, Songs We Should Have Written, would suggest that this New York-based bunch is falling back on a pop music primer. In fact it’s more an affirmation of their own musical stance, a heady art-punk mix that blends such disparate elements as klezmer, Indian wedding…
Was it so long ago that hip music prognosticators proclaimed electronica as the new musical form that was going to render rock and roll, jazz, etc. irrelevant? Still, although it never caught on in America like it did in England, the genre has refused to crumple in the trend-end of…
While most South Bitch DJs are resolutely earthbound in their advocacy of the good thug life, Richard “Q-Bert” Quitevis is from planet Mars, a UFO with lightning-quick hands. Since emerging from the Bay Area’s potent hip-hop scene in the early Nineties, Q-Bert has evolved from a dominant hip-hop DJ with…
Most revelers at an Art Miami Wreck 2 party in the now-infamous Rectangle ArtSpace on January 10 were completely unaware that a grisly scene was found there the week before. The decomposing body of an artist was discovered in a loft on the same floor that now housed 70 or…
On this breezy January afternoon, the Doubletree Surfcomber Hotel hardly looks like the future home of the inaugural Miami Music Multimedia Summit. The hotel entrance leads to a long outside corridor that is infamous around South Beach for being confusing and difficult to navigate; it leads to a pool area…
An anonymous e-mail that was sent out to dozens of clubs and publications last week is causing quite a stir. Apparently somebody has it in for high-profile celebrity photographer Seth Browarnik and the way he treats his picture-taking peers. Whoever is behind the campaign prefers to “remain anonymous,” hiding under…
“We are proud to be a Miami band,” says drummer Toto González after taking part in a round of spoken dreams, wishes, and resolutions for the new season with his band, Sóniko. The Latin altrock quartet is about to celebrate its third anniversary in February; as a graduation party of…
In the photo gallery on the Mosquitos Website, www.mosquitosnycom a single picture footnotes the raison d’être for the group’s self-titled debut, a bossa nova/indie-pop love child that’s earning praise from imbibers of cool drinks and stirring hipsters’ hips. From above, we see singer Juju Stulbach, a slight young woman in…
With his supersized Afro, just-woke-up-after-a-late-night voice, and I-can’t-believe-I’m-a-star humility, Tego Calderón might be the most lovable thug of all time. Certainly he’s the most loved rapper in reggaetón. His 2002 debut album El Abayarde finally dragged the genre out of the underground, where young Boricuas had been toasting in Spanish…
Self-contained female performers have always been a rarity in R&B, so when one comes along, overreaction is perhaps inevitable. In 2001 plenty of those who heard Alicia Keys were so knocked out by the preternaturally poised nineteen-year-old pianist that they failed to notice that much of the music from her…
Like their punk-rock brethren, “conscious” rappers are fond of making flat-earth statements about overthrowing the government and obtaining some form of abstract justice for the people. But it’s not Harlem rapper Immortal Technique’s ability to spew well-written calls to kill the pigs that makes him so deadly; instead it’s allegations…
Quite possibly the weirdest album yet from nomadic house music hero Maurice Fulton, Afro Finger and Gel was born out of his relationship with Japanese frontwoman Mutsumi Kanamori. The two met at the infamous Electric Chair party in Sheffield, England, and apparently it was love at first sight. He had…
