I’ve never been an especially ardent fan of rock festivals. They strike me as a prolonged pretext for public vomiting, what with all the suds and the sun and the jostling. This, dear reader, is a subject about which I know a fair good bit, having spent the lion’s share…
When the Cuban dance band Los Van Van played the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in June, festival president Dick Rosenzweig told the Los Angeles Times that the audience reaction was unlike anything he had seen in the event’s nineteen-year history. A Times critic described the fervor at…
Never Bet the Devil Your Head Subrosa (Sony/550) Never Bet the Devil Your Head is a debut album that will likely be seen as a sophomore effort. The record bears the indelible stamp of the band Subrosa used to be, For Squirrels. As local fans will surely remember, For Squirrels…
Are you in the mood for live music? If so, Churchill’s Hideaway (5501 NE 2nd Ave., 757-1807) has the perfect mood enhancer: the Miami Rocks Festival, all month long. They’re already halfway through the musical marathon; about 50 bands have played, but there’s no sign the rock is starting to…
In writing about the Who, it’s tempting to open with a description of the band’s legendary prowess, both on record and on-stage, and then make a series of snide comments about the profound irony of witnessing the very public dotage of the band that once roared “Hope I die before…
Finger paintings, glitter gowns, hula girls, and yellow-haired angels. Handmade rugs and electric-tape frames. Colorized photographs, round-eyed saints, oils, crayons, and mud-based paints. It’s all folk art and it’s in abundance at the Hollywood apartment known as the Entertainment Complex. The walls offer a kaleidoscope of artistic endeavors by such…
The Courier Cinnamon (Island/Soap) The Cardigans are the obvious frame of reference for this Swedish outfit’s blend of indie and lounge pop. The guitar-driven Courier also has some of the charm of the Sundays and Altered Images, though without the former’s amused resignation or the latter’s occasional sense of utter…
Straight Outta Boone County Various Artists (Bloodshot Records) Straight Outta Boone County is Bloodshot Records’ fourth anthology of artists playing insurgent country (the label’s own name for a subgenre elsewhere hailed as no depression or alternative country), and it is hands down the label’s best collection yet. The premise this…
Elio Reve was an obstinate man who refused to miss a beat. In more than 40 years as bandleader of Orquesta Reve, his celebrated troupe, Reve remained as consistent a presence on Cuban stages as the inevitable pair of timbales he banged on-stage. And he had no intention of abdicating…
South Beach is well-known for its cultural diversity. and fortunately this is reflected in the local music scene. Sometimes that diversity is displayed better than others, and this weekend is one of those times. Friday night the Van Dyke Cafe (846 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach, 534-3600) hosts the Nicole Yarling…
“When punk started in the Seventies, it was like a runaway train — nobody knew where it was going to end up,” Social Distortion guitarist Dennis Danell says. “Punk was more dangerous and threatening back then than it is now. I think rap and the whole street-gang thing busting out…
“I was absolutely ahead of everything everybody did,” Steve Alaimo says matter-of-factly. It’s not uncommon to hear such boasts from a music industry bigwig. It’s rather characteristic, actually. But in Alaimo’s case it’s hard to argue: As a recording artist in the early Sixties, he was among the unsung pioneers…
Tired of the summer music festival frenzy? Even though it goes to the soul of rock and roll (and money), it can be a bit much. A nice change is a down-to-earth homegrown summer music event that has taken hold on a farm in the middle of nowhere. On Saturday…
Mirabal Robert Mirabal (Warner Western) Robert Mirabal has two main cultural threads in the cloth of his being. One is a traditional Native American flute maker and player. His flutes are on display at the Smithsonian, he’s recorded and toured in a new-age context, and he was heralded for his…
As it turns out, the nuts were right. Paul is dead. Creatively, at least, the Cute Beatle met his maker in about, oh, December of 1970. And, despite all the corporate pandering and hollow hoopla, Paul’s latest effort, Flaming Pie, is just about what you’d expect from a rock star…
Bass player Eddie “Gua Gua” Rivera recorded a couple of tunes with his quintet, the Latin Jazz Crew, in a Kendall studio on a recent afternoon. For the first time in three decades, the tips of his long, elegant fingers blistered. Rivera has hardly touched an instrument since May, and…
Genius + Soul = Jazz/My Kind of Jazz Ray Charles (Rhino) Long before Quincy Jones was a magazine owner (Vibe, the Source) or the producer of Michael Jackson’s multiplatinum efforts, and even long before he produced Lesley Gore’s proto-feminist anthems in the early Sixties, Q was a fifteen-year-old trumpet player…
Party culture in South Florida spreads in many directions. One more outpost for nightlife begins tonight in an area that most do not consider an evening fun zone. Just west of downtown you’ll find Malaga (740 SW Eighth St., 858-4224), a restaurant and cocktail complex that has been remodeled, is…
Standing in My Shoes Leo Kottke (Private Music) In the wake of Beck, even old-schoolers like Leo Kottke are getting hip-hop hip. On his umpteenth album, Kottke teams with producer and former Prince cohort David Z for an intriguing, occasionally convincing synthesis of the guitarist’s left-field visions and drum loops…
First, get into the pop-music time machine. Sure, it looks like a big cardboard box, maybe a refrigerator box, with crude crayoned dials drawn on its sides. Okay, it is a refrigerator box. But use your imagination, dammit! Set course for 1983. And then go back. Back before Bush. Back…
Carey Peak wants to start a revolution. A rock and roll radio revolution, that is. Sitting in a tiny Fort Lauderdale rehearsal space dominated by a set of drums, Peak explains that he and his band the C60’s are striving to deviate from the cliched sounds of the third-generation grunge…
With his stinging guitar lines, booming chord sustains, and passionate vocals, Johnny “Clyde” Copeland has spent the past four decades cutting to the heart of the blues. Recently, though, doctors have been cutting to the heart of Copeland. Since a near-fatal series of heart problems in early 1995, Copeland has…
