Rene Alvarez is having fun. Honest. Granted, it might not be obvious when you see the brooding songwriter playing at local clubs, banging out songs of intense frustration and instability with his group Sixo, creating a ragged kind of rock and roll noise that squalls and hollers in the middle…
The collaborations between trumpeter Miles Davis — one of the most restless (and brilliant) figures in the history of jazz — and Gil Evans, a composer/arranger/pianist who was attracted equally to innovation and traditionalism, have spawned plenty of arguments among critics over the years. There’s no question that the three…
Halloween weekend, a time for twisted pleasures and deviant diversions with even more ghouls and goblins out on the street than usual. There will be tricks and treats of every variety in clubland. Tonight (Thursday) is fright night, and Bermuda Bar (3509 NE 163rd St., North Miami Beach, 945-0196) is…
Two benefits of note, both being held tonight, All Hallow’s Eve. Screamfest ’96, hosted by Bitter Crop Productions at Rose’s Bar & Music Lounge, features a three-act bill including local funk whiz Raw B Jae (in his last Rose’s gig before he takes off for possibly greener pastures in New…
John Mellencamp Mr. Happy Go Lucky (Mercury) When I first met John Mellencamp nearly fifteen years ago, he was a young buck awash in the success of Uh-Huh and its “Pink Houses” anthem, and on the verge of critical and commercial success with Scarecrow. But Mellencamp was already worrying about…
This week, grand openings abound in clubland with two particular parties standing out. For hearty fun from a bygone era, dust off those platform shoes and disco down to South Beach for the dazzling debut of Polly Esther’s (841 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 535-5633) in a new SoBe location. If…
Lots of well-produced, spiffily packaged CDs make up the bulk of this month’s belated local-music roundup. Still, my favorite thing this time out is a low-fi, low-budget tape with a handmade cover. What does that mean? I don’t know, but it sure makes me happy. If you want to send…
Nirvana From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (DGC) I’d finally reached a point where I could listen to Nirvana and think only “This is a cool song,” rather than “This guy is dead.” And now, along comes more new “product” — an industry term that Kurt Cobain despised –…
On his first album in more than 30 years, pianist Bebo Valdes pays musical tribute to two of his lost colleagues: one American, the other Cuban; both, like Valdes, were pioneers in merging Latin music with American jazz. The first track on Bebo Rides Again, “To the Dizzy Gillespie,” is…
Every great holiday has a great anthem, and for better or worse Halloween has “Monster Mash,” a catchy little novelty item that made Bobby “Boris” Pickett a one-hit wonder when it reached No. 1 in 1962. As novelties go, Pickett’s hit ain’t bad: In a plot borrowed from countless Halloween…
How many Grammys do you need to win to hold on to a record contract? If you’re Israel “Cachao” Lopez, the answer is apparently more than one, for that’s how many the mambo innovator and bass-playing genius won for Emilio Estefan’s Sony imprint Crescent Moon since he signed to the…
There’s a telling photograph tucked inside the lyric booklet of Brian Franklin’s new CD Stir Fried World. Granted, the thumb-size picture, taken by his father when Franklin was seven years old and his family lived in New York, doesn’t show much, just Franklin’s shoulders and the back of his head…
Let me make a confession: I am a cryer. I hate to admit it, since I’d much rather come off as a stoic. Not one to shed many tears over my own small misfortunes, I’m an enthusiastic, empathetic cryer. Emotional reunions grab me by the tear ducts, as does heart-rending…
Cheers (2490 SW Seventeenth Ave., 857-0041), the lesbian club turned punk emporium and more, turns two this weekend with enough anniversary events to choke a pig. Tonight (Thursday) Cheers does what it does best — put on a punk show. Beginning at 8:00 homegrown talents Level 9, Against All Authority,…
They’re baaaack! That bastion of big hair, Button South (100 Ansin Blvd., Hallandale, 954-454-3301), returns this and every Friday night, with all the music and mayhem that made it famous. Back are the bands, with Shad, Beggar’s Opera, and Motor scheduled to take the stage this Friday. Back also are…
Sublime Sublime (Gasoline Alley/MCA) No fan of the hyperactive, macho ska-punk slop that’s seemingly everywhere these days, I avoided Sublime’s MCA debut in spite of the glowing reviews and despite my empathy for the group, on whom tragedy fell before the damn album was even released. (Surely you know by…
The twin forces behind Miami’s two annual rap blowouts have decided to stop the bickering and just get along. Hoodstock, a music festival-and-seminar event sponsored by the hip-hop collective centered around DJ Raw Records, and the Peter Thomas Entertainment Group’s How Can I Be Down? summit will be held concurrently…
Misunderstood satirist or homophobic, sexist, insensitive asshole? Such has been the question dogging Joe King, who with his long-time New Hampshire punk band the Queers has never failed to crawl under the skin of PC standard-bearers with such charmingly titled songs as “She’s a Cretin,” “Gay Boy,” “Boobarella,” “Fagtown,” and…
“We’re going to nowhere, Tie my arm off tight Crack open a tall boy, Pass me your pipe” “We’re Going to Nowhere,” F.M. Cornog, East River Pipe Like an indie-rock incarnation of Raymond Carver, F.M. Cornog is a man who, using few words, has set sail a cast of desolate…
I’ve seen some amazing shows since I moved to this tropical tip of the U.S. last November. Not many, mind you, this being Miami, an easy place to miss when you’re mapping out a national tour, but enough to keep me relatively happy and mildly sane. And not to sound…
White Zombie Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds (Geffen) Rob Zombie had this great idea for a party: Invite a bunch of dance-music and hip-hop hotshots to remix some tracks from White Zombie’s best-selling Astro-Creep: 2000. And, surprise, Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds throws down in mighty style. No Trent Reznor circle-jerk, this thing not…
Four friends form a band, play consistently in their own back yard, record a disc independently, and sell several hundred copies, all the while building a strong following. Then they take the next step toward the big time and play the big city. Despite their ultra-tight, energetic performances, the dancing…
