Click here to see a slide show of the Jose El Rey’s performance. Jose El Rey at Poplife February 24, 2008 White Room Better Than: Shopping at Flamingo Plaza Local musician Jose El Rey is the embodiment of the Cuban stereotype. He is flirtatiously misogynistic, unbelievably crass and sports a…
Since this festival is only two weeks away, you might as well start mapping out your plans for Langerado weekend now. It’s March 6-9, which is right around the corner. Here’s the official line-up with set times for all the bands that you want to see. Friday and Saturday are…
One of Central Florida’s most popular jam bands, Shak Nasti, is in town and playing a couple of shows–one in Fort Lauderdale, the other in Coral Gables. Langerado is just around the corner and if you want to get in an early jam fix, go check these guys out tonight…
A.B. Quintanilla being interview by a reporter at his Listening Party. A.B. Quintanilla & The Kumbia All Starz Listening Party February 20th, 2008 The Raleigh Hotel Better Than: Staying at home and listening to a 20-second song snippet from Amazon Oeuvres, Champagne, and Cumbias? Last night’s listening party sponsored by…
Bleubird is a rapper who has taken an unusual path to success. His style is a combination of the heady white-boy rhymes of Aesop Rock and the rapid-fire spoken-word style of Saul Williams. Hell, call him Allen Ginsberg with shelltoes on if you want to, because he can fit that…
Will the world end by the year 2013? According to local left-field hip-hop duo Junc Ops, the answer is a resounding yes. Conceived by producers PG-13 (a.k.a. Paul Gaeta) and Kentsoundz (Kent Hernandez), Junc Ops’ debut album, 2013, is striving to put the weird back into the Magic City’s hip-hop…
Not unlike many musicians in Cuba or Brazil, the members of Peru Negro demonstrate strong African influences in their sound. Of course, it’s mostly thanks to the Africans who were tragically taken from their continent to be enslaved in the Latin American country during the 16th and 17th centuries. Forbidden…
“Come all ye rolling minstrels,” invited Sandy Denny in the 1969 Fairport Convention ditty “Come All Ye.” “And together we will try/To rouse the spirit of the earth/And move the rolling sky.” Opening what many consider the quintessential folk-rock album, Liege & Lief, “Come All Ye” was a clarion call…
Johnny Cash once said, “When people ask me who my favorite country singer is, I say, ‘You mean, besides George Jones?'” Nicknamed “No-Show Jones” in honor of all the gigs he missed as a result of his drinking/drugging/God-only-knows, the now-76-year-old Jones still ranks second to Eddy Arnold for the most…
Truth be told, Q-Burn’s message is no more abstract than “get thee under the mirror-ball and shake yo’ ass.” The former Rollins College (Orlando) DJ is a master at blending software and electronics with live instruments to create bump-and-groove house tunes, weaving his own guitar riffs and drum breaks into…
Like Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow knows the value of old songs. But unlike Stewart (who caught his third career wind by recording 76 albums’ worth of tunes your grandma got busy to back in the day), Manilow has slowly been working his way through the 20th Century, beginning with the…
This emo supergroup began as a lark in 2006, when the blogosphere had Snakes on a Plane fever. Gabe Saporta, frontman for New Jersey rockers Midtown, was recruited to pen a song for the movie. But the flick turned out to be an overhyped washout that couldn’t even muster enough…
What do PerezHilton.com, El Cerro Market No. 7, Máxim en Español, botánicas, Mary’s Coin Laundry, and your heart have in common? Those are places where José El Rey resides. Let’s face it: The kingdom of Hialeah was up for grabs, and this man rose to the challenge. Living in the…
As a member of legendary Minneapolis underground band Hüsker Dü and leader of the wildly acclaimed Nineties outfit Sugar, Bob Mould was known for blanketing bleak tales of relationship woe with layers of electric guitar and driving choruses. Having settled comfortably in Washington, D.C., he turned his attention to electronic…
“I can’t tell if we’re running from or coming to,” singer/guitarist Jason Simon muses on the folky, eulogic “Ain’t Got Nothing (To Go Wrong),” his voice dripping with idiosyncratic weariness. He could easily be opening up to a lover, making a statement about the accelerating decline of Western civilization, or…
Why does everything have to be Forbes magazine?” scoffs Aaron Funk, the electronic music madman who performs as Venetian Snares. Speaking with New Times by phone from his native Winnipeg, Canada, he’s 30 minutes into his first U.S. interview in two years, and on a rant of sorts. “I see…
For the first six albums, a dozen years into their collective career, the North Mississippi Allstars took a more traditional approach to their rural, rootsy designs, resulting in a sound that paid homage to blues by the book. Then again, that’s not surprising considering their family pedigree — two members…
The versatile multilingual vocalist Elin was born in Sweden, but you would never know it by listening to her. Her style has a strong Brazilian influence even when she is belting out standards like Gershwin’s “Fascinating Rhythm” or her own compositions, as heard on her début CD, Lazy Afternoon (Blue…
It seems crazy to say this, but it’s been 21 years since No Use For a Name debuted as a band. In other words, the band as an entity can legally drink; a substantial number of its fans cannot. Pop-punk intrinsically seems like a genre made both for and by…
Never mind the misleading band name: Average White Band were racially mixed, but still hailed from very unfunky Scotland. Amazingly, the [usually] sextet created a brand of Seventies R&B with a serious swing that sounded really American, and really soulful. Their songs were rife with juicy breakbeats, and as such…
It looks like McDonald’s is going after the urban crowd with this one. “Cha cha now y’all.” — Jonathan Cunningham…
By ANDY VIHSTADT Sex & Violence For your viewing pleasure: the new Kanye West video, directed by Spike Jonze. Much like his 1995 vid for Wax’s “Southern California” (reminisce here), Jonze shows his penchant for slow motion and fire. Add a shovel-wielding lingerie model to the equation and you’ve got…
