The last time the Miami rockers of Shufly got some extended New Times love was in 2001, when it was duly noted that a bunch of teenage girls found them hot. That’s not a hard thing to believe when you’ve got singer Scott Smith’s soap opera waif-stud looks. Then there’s…
Looks like everyone’s favorite Hassidic reggae singer/rapper might just outlast his novelty status after all. But that doesn’t necessarily make it safe to go back in the reggae waters for anyone aspiring to stand out based on his, uh … demographic makeup alone. On one hand, it’s unfortunate that Matisyahu’s…
I’d be willing to wager that, in 1995, more Americans knew all the words to The Nanny theme song than to Coolio’s chart-topping rap single “Gangsta’s Paradise.” Both were cultural phenomena in the mid-Nineties, but no pop single has the broad-spectrum appeal and mass distribution of a major TV sitcom…
Sigur Rós’s latest is positively festooned with danger signs: the first album to be mainly recorded outside the band’s home base of Iceland, the first to feature a track sung in English, and the first coproduced by a big-shot dial-twister (Flood, of Depeche Mode fame). Somehow, though, this series of…
The hip-hop disorder that sampling producer/arranger duo The Herbaliser (Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba) loaded onto the FabricLive 26 compilation two years ago stands in sharp contrast to the pair’s previous LP’s spy-film grooves. It was a clear sign the British twosome was exploring new sounds, and real fans have…
If albums, unlike books, could be judged by their covers, then Conqueror, the newest release from The Gates of Slumber, should rank as one of the greatest metal albums in the history of man. A barbarian warrior, his loincloth fashioned from a bronze skull, stands victoriously. In one outstretched hand…
Machinery will go head-to-head in a battle for blood at Churchill’s Saturday night. Okay, so probably blood won’t factor into the battle, and the most we could hope for is that someone throws their MacBook across the room. Nope, this is just a simple battle for laptop musicianship supremacy. The…
So there’s already way too much blog fodder out there on Lil Wayne so I’ll keep this one short. A couple of days ago I was watching Wayne’s new video for “A Milli,” which was literally shot on the way to another video shoot and I admired the balls that…
Hey vinyl lovers and electronic fans, the highly under publicized Karma Records in Fort Lauderdale just announced that they’re having a huge sale for the rest of the summer. I normally wouldn’t advertise a business specifically on the blog, but supporting independent record stores is a different animal all together…
Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis Two Men with the Blues (Blue Note) Did music really use to be less complicated, or does it just seem that way? Maybe it’s just that life used to be less complicated, and music is simply a mirror of its times. Or something like that…
Based on looks, I think they failed. Cute Is What We Aim For is likely the perfect 21st-century pop band. Almost purpose built for short-attention-span marketing campaigns, the four gents in CIWWAF focus so heavily on pop sheen, hooks, and scenester touchstones that it’s often difficult to figure out just…
Gravy Train!!!! I was debating whether to start this post with “All aboard the Gravy Train!!!!” But, er, I resisted the temptation. But don’t resist on checking out the California quartet Gravy Train!!!! (yes, the exclamation points are part of the name, I suppose to express utter joy) at White…
I’ll post a full review later on, but I wanted to get the set list up for the very excellent Peter Murphy gig last Saturday at Revolution. Because his current tour is billed as a “retrospective,” I know I’m not alone in obsessively Googling his set lists (hey, I was…
Ernest Barteldes Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil performs at the Fillmore Miami Beach Saturday night. Gilberto Gil Saturday, July 5, 2008 The Fillmore Jackie Gleason Theatre, Miami Beach Playing to an audience mostly formed by his many Brazilian fans, Gilberto Gil closed his six-city U.S. tour with a two-hour set designed…
Lee Zimmerman Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band July 3, 2008 Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood By now, the traveling nostalgia show that tours annually under the banner of Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band has been honed to a tee. Ringo offers up his best-known Beatles songs and…
John Hood Tom Waits performs before a sold-out crowd at the Times-Union Center in Jacksonville, Fla. Tom Waits July 1, 2008 The Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, Jacksonville Better than: Having a hobo in your home for supper – and having him sing murder songs for it. (Dateline: Jacksonville)…
Jamie Lidell Genre-bending musician Jamie Lidell will be stopping by Heathrow Lounge, a new UK-inspired club on South Beach, July 18. Who else could be behind this booking except the people from Poplife, which will be celebrating 9 years of bringing indie music to the masses that very weekend. The…
Gameboy/Gamegirl sans fourth member and beat producer Miami Horror. Here was what I can’t figure out about Australian quartet Gameboy/Gamegirl, are they embracing hipster culture or are they making an absolute mockery of it? With lyrics like “Vodka and cranberry/Shake it like it’s February/Gin and tonic/The shit is ironic,” it…
As much as some of us might fantasize about it, becoming a household name obviously has cruel consequences. This is particularly true for artists who are remembered for a single work while the rest of their oeuvre gets completely overlooked. Case in point: that group of charmingly longhaired British boogie…
With Independence Day around the corner, we’ve been debating what songs qualify as the most patriotic ever recorded in these here United States. Or at least songs that wanted to be on such a list. Here’s a short version of what we came up with. “America” — Neil Diamond: Diamond…
Joan Jett never seemed overly concerned with glass ceilings. A very tough girl in a very male-centric industry, Jett simply showed up, rocked her ass off, and returned the next night to do it again, never referencing her gender to benefit her career. She was not a girl who played…
“I have a hard time with modern technology,” Brazilian icon Gilberto Gil says, describing the theme of his latest CD, Banda Larga Cordel. “I admit that I use it with moderation, but I am nevertheless fascinated by it.” This awe was the inspiration for his first disc of original material…
