Bluesman/roots-rocker Jon Paris laughs aloud when asked about the Senate decision to declare 2003 as “The Year of Blues.” Facing the possibility of war, he finds the honor ironic, even though he believes that “it’s always going to be great [to have] a general audience recognizing the music, and the…
Freddie McGregor wears a big smile as he strolls through the double doors of the Dania Beach hotel lobby. Staff members at the registration desk light up with smiles of recognition when they notice the reggae great come in from the rain. The next several minutes are giddy with handshakes…
The premise for Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz latest video, “Play No Games,” is a straight-up contradiction. On the followup single to “I Don’t Give a,” the reigning Kings of Crunk (from their album by the same name) smooth out their usual rowdy club chants and croon all sentimental-like…
It’s been a long love story, but Martirio keeps romancing misty souls. The torch singer of the new Spain sets feet tapping and heads bobbing through a cigarette haze. Wearing dark glasses and peineta, the popular icon of Madrid’s Eighties movida scene longs, laments, and laughs darkly. This postmodern Andalusian…
Unlike the vast hordes of snowbirds, retirees, immigrants, exiles, and carpetbaggers who make up the bulk of the South Florida population, those born and raised here might actually feel some kinship with their fellow Floridians in towns north of Orlando. If you’re already acquainted with Central Florida’s politely combed orange…
You want to know how to play the game out there in the mean streets of clubland? You want to know how to get with the in crowd instead of having to call it an early evening and retiring to some nameless hole-in-the-wall bar mourning the notion that you don’t…
The benefits of medicinal marijuana have long been noted as helping those with illnesses such as HIV or glaucoma better cope with the symptoms. Proponents argue for legalization so cataracted grandmothers no longer have to suffer through a day without a fat spliff between their lips. On four stages, Ploppy…
Once an electronica act has established an international career, things can get a bit dull if one doesn’t take some chances every now and again. Groove Armada, for one, has achieved such a strong reputation for lush Xanax-padded space ballads (“At the River”) and uptempo house numbers (“I See You…
James Taylor’s stab at “Everyday” was just underwhelmingly twee; Andy Bell makes the Buddy Holly tune full-blown gay, which is precisely the point, since few singers are so loud or proud about their sexuality as the Erasure singer (emoter, really). Erasure’s “Everyday” plays even sweeter than the original, but not…
You get one disc “for those of us who prefer singles to albums.” (Titled, naturally, Pop, and selected by journalist Miranda Sawyer.) Another put together by a man who believes the group to be “touched by the hand of God — not once but twice.” (Fan, assembled by journalist John…
In the Seventies, funk took soul and disco and fucked ’em up, twisted ’em around, and tripped ’em out. It got people to strut around like a chicken, telling them it was okay to get busy on the shag carpet. Funk took people to another place. Strangely, the genre doesn’t…
If there’s one thing Miami is full of, it’s sleeping giants. After suffering through three years of rock deprivation, University of Miami Ph.D. candidate in English lit and former Alternative Press editor in chief David Earle could no longer stand idly by and listen to jokers claim that the Strokes…
The claptastic Diwali riddim transcended fashion last year to become one for the ages. But before you wear out your Greensleeves Diwali compilation (number 27), why not accessorize it with a pair of frivolous twelve inches? If you can find it, begin with a black-label mash-up featuring Missy Elliott’s “Work…
La reina de la noche, the queen of nightlife, is out there somewhere. In the shadows just around the corner from the long lines, noisy clubs, and pompous velvet ropes, she blossoms like an unexpected rose in the barren desert in the hours between 12:00 and 5:00 a.m. Just as…
When you think of Pink Floyd, if you think of it at all, overblown stage shows and progressive rock clichés undoubtedly come to mind. And so does Dark Side of the Moon, the album that spent an astonishing 724 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart of top-selling albums. But when…
Coldplay is a band you carry like an umbrella through the inclement weather of the soul, which may be why lead singer Chris Martin spent Coldplay’s first video (for a song called “Yellow”) on a gray beach in a rain jacket, singing high and low of the stars that shine…
What does Jon Secada’s latest album have to do with the types of cuisine in China? When the vocal powerhouse traveled to the People’s Republic last year as co-writer of a song for the Beijing Olympics, he ate everything in sight — unlike his traveling companions and fellow songwriters. “Emilio…
Have you ever looked at a photo of Everything But the Girl and assumed that the band’s name has everything to do with the way singer Tracey Thorn looks? Well, truth is the sophisticated pop-dance British duo didn’t adopt that name after listening to repeated rejections from record labels. Actually,…
It’s been a great year for reissues. The resurgence of interest in overlooked post-punk classics has led to the re-release of Cabaret Voltaire’s entire back catalog, as well as Soul Jazz’s In the Beginning There Was Rhythm, a collection of seminal recordings from such early Eighties artists as the Slits,…
Once upon a time way back in the early Nineties, a clan called Wu-Tang formed, with GZA “at the head.” Two years after its seminal 1993 debut, Enter the Wu-Tang, the Clan issued its twin classics: Method Man’s Tical and GZA’s Liquid Swords. Each album placed urban and kung-fu mythology…
I’m into poetry. I wrote a few lines. Don’t worry; I offer just a few. This one details the passing of time: “The past is thirsty and the present is an athlete with no feet.” Do you like it? How about this one? “In the branch of hell there are…
Something about visitors makes the whole sleazy ordeal of dime-store thrill-seeking oh so wonderful. Witnessing the maddening circus of low-rent nightlifing through the eyes of out-of-towners can make it seem fresh and novel. There is always a new something opening and way too many upstart promoters to keep up with…
