The Firesign Theatre Boom Dot Bust (Rhino) Like radio terrorists simultaneously infatuated with Dada, the Marx Brothers, science fiction, and Surrealist wordplay, the Firesign Theatre spent the better part of the Sixties and Seventies skewering pop culture and redefining the concept of the comedy album. At its creative zenith, the…
The pied pipers of Ecstasy culture, England’s John Digweed and Sasha, are spinning at Groove Jet (323 23rd St., Miami Beach) on Saturday. With house and trance dominating South Beach’s club scene (especially on the weekend), why settle for less? Bring in the big guns and let ’em run all…
The crowd wants a superstar, now. A parade of wannabe microphone masters tries the patience of the first fans to arrive at last month’s Reggae Shock Festival. Later in the night, this annual event will feature some of the biggest names in Jamaican reggae and dancehall music. At the moment,…
“File under: jazz.” Those three telling words sit in tiny print above the UPC bar code on the back of violinist Regina Carter’s third and latest album, Rhythms of the Heart. Understandably record store drones need to be instructed about the contents of this compact disc, lest it land in…
Ani DiFranco To the Teeth (Righteous Babe Records) In her rise to independently wrought stardom, Ani DiFranco created a sound and a persona designed for maximum impact. She may have gently dubbed herself “the little folksinger,” but to everyone else, she became that punked-out bisexual with the hard-strummed acoustic guitar…
Music of Indonesia 18 Sulawesi: Festivals, Funerals, and Work (Smithsonian Folkways) Music of Indonesia 19 Music of Maluku: Halmahera, Buru, Kei (Smithsonian Folkways) Music of Indonesia 20 Indonesian Guitars (Smithsonian Folkways) The final three volumes of Smithsonian Folkways’ vast Music of Indonesia project mark the end of a decadelong odyssey…
Pot, sex, and rock music. Some consider these vital to any nightlife experience, and this week several shameless bashes celebrate all three. Always start with pot: It makes the sex and the music better. This weekend at Tobacco Road (626 S. Miami Ave.; 305-374-1198) the legions of stoners will be…
Few groups have taken more critical abuse in recent years than Phish, if not in the form of outright animosity from hipsterdom-at-large, than in the guise of backhanded bemusement on the part of the mainstream media, ready to dismiss the band as nothing more than a curious replay of Sixties…
There is a ruckus at the back gate of the Six Pack Shack on Prison Lane. In a few hours, a record crowd of 60,000 people will assemble in downtown Nassau to see who will win top prize in a competition the Bahamian Minister of Youth, Sports, & Culture calls…
From Miami Beach to Sunrise, there is no shortage of opportunities to boogie this week. Oye! If you feel like movin’ your booty to some Latin rhythms, then head to Starfish (1427 West Ave., Miami Beach) on Friday or Saturday to hear Bamboleo, one of the more dynamic bands to…
A strange truth emerged as New Times polled both its own writers and prominent music figures across Miami’s aural spectrum, seeking their personal Top 10s from the past year and asking them to distill twelve months of pop culture into a clinical black-and-white list. What could it mean that the…
In South Florida, where dance music and salsa rhythms rule, a good, honest-to-god rock band is hard to come by. Saturday at Tobacco Road (626 S. Miami Ave.) is the last chance, for who knows how long, to check out the best power-rock trio to ever call this part of…
Don’t call Joe Claussell a DJ. “That’s not who I am, I just like to play music,” explains the New York City-based producer and, ah, player of music. Don’t call his spell behind the turntables a set, either. “I don’t put together sets,” Claussell adds, a note of frustration creeping…
Electronic-music titan Moby really doesn’t think it’s so odd that, after creating one of the milestones of the genre, 1995’s Everything Is Wrong, he made Animal Rights, a disappointing excursion into punk rock. It was, he says, just a natural exploration and exhibition of his interests. “I’ve been playing music…
While the linguistic and cultural legacies left by Spain in Cuba may be fairly obvious, the musical one is perhaps less so. Many of the complex polyrhythms that make Cuban music so beloved by the rest of the world stem from elements imported by the Yoruba of West Africa, who…
Rarely has an individual shot to the top of the underground as quickly as Loren MazzaCane Connors. Although he toiled in obscurity in New Haven, Connecticut, for nearly two decades, after moving to New York City in 1990 he became a darling of the avant-rock scene within a few years…
So you’ve made plans for New Year’s Eve. Now what’s on your agenda for the other six days of the week? Here are a few choices: Tobacco Road (626 S. Miami Ave.) begins “The Last Damn Parade” on Thursday. In case December 31 really is the end of the world,…
“Oh, he’s joking!” laughs Barbarita Hernan, on-air personality at oldies radio station Clasica 92 (WCMQ-FM 92.3). Barbarita squeals as programming director German Estrada introduces the voluptuous bottled-honey-blonde as “Marilyn Monroe.” Consulting a log prepared for her by Estrada, Barbarita punches buttons on the control panel and pops numbered compact discs…
Quick, name five Japanese bands. Chances are some of the more intense music nuts out there might name-check the Boredoms, Pizzicato Five, and Shonen Knife, and some might even recognize Melt-Banana or Guitar Wolf. But the reality of Japanese pop music (or J-pop, as it is referred to by its…
When the Wu-Tang Clan released its first single, 1993’s “Protect Ya Neck,” hardcore rap was associated almost exclusively with the West Coast. Dre, Snoop, and Cube were hip-hop’s most notorious rappers, and Death Row Records head honcho Suge Knight (currently serving time) was still at large, overseeing the whole g-funk…
Tommy McCook Tribute to Tommy (Heartbeat) When Tommy McCook passed away in early 1998, so did the heart and soul of his seminal Jamaican ska band, the Skatalites. McCook was one of the premier jazz musicians in Jamaica during the Fifties, and in the early Sixties his tenor sax helped…
