True to its title, Distortion — the latest album from Stephen Merritt’s long-running prickly pop project The Magnetic Fields — is full of feedback and reverb. Though one might fear that such sonic intrusion would disrupt these carefully crafted tunes, it’s not the case. In fact Distortion is as pretty,…
Get off the Stage marks Too $hort’s 17th album — not counting compilations and reissues — but it’s also the end of an era. It’s his last for Jive, the label he’s been associated with since 1988. “I’m a legend in the game,” he says on “Shittin’ on ‘Em,” adding,…
There’s something deeply compelling about the voice and spiritual lilt of Brazilian samba singer Maria Rita. Upon first listening to her newest album, Samba Meu, you’re instantly transported beyond your speakers to the nightclubs of São Paulo, where samba reigns supreme. Unlike Rita’s (pronounced hee-tah) first two albums, which worked…
Better to burn out or fade away? The current musical tendency to fetishize the past, creating new markets through nostalgia, has come up with a fresh answer to this timeless rock and roll question: the reissue. For the second year in a row, David Byrne has chosen this route, and…
Cuban troubadour and musicologist Gema Corredera, of the melodic duo Gema y Pavel, looks at home while sipping her espresso at El Pub on Calle Ocho. It’s been eight months since she relocated from Madrid to Miami, and she feels increasingly hopeful about her future as a solo artist. But…
King Britt is, above all, a shape-shifter. The Philadelphia DJ, musician, and label impresario is no stranger to Miami, but each time he pays a visit, it’s in a different guise. Last time was during Winter Music Conference, most notably for his annual Art of Seduction party, a soulful gathering…
A band has some kind of amazing longevity if you can still be “the new guy” after 30 years in the lineup. But that’s exactly the case with Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood, whose life story is recounted in his new book, Ronnie: The Autobiography. Unfortunately Wood’s recollections consist of…
Bristol, England, has been bestowed with nicknames like “Slackersville, UK.” It’s a graveyard for ambition, we’re told, a place where residents take awhile to climb out of bed in the morning. Some say the locals operate on “spliff time.” This provincial torpor was often cited as an indirect inspiration for…
Check subtlety, pretense, and the past decade at the door: 3 Inches of Blood wants nothing to do with them. Eschewing fads and hipster cred in favor of staying true to their message of metal for its own ridiculous, epic sake, these bandmates go straight for the kill. Their weapons…
When last we left Johnny SexFuk, a pumpkin was about to get its brains — or seeds, whatever — fucked out. That was back around Halloween, when the Hialeah-based punk troupe lowered its standards all the way down to the magma level by playing back-up band during a MoneyTalks.com porn…
Who says big-name, multi-band music festivals have to be filthy, debauched affairs whose main hallmarks are exorbitantly priced bottled water and a dearth of toilets? Who says they can’t be fun and uplifting events suitable for the whole family? Who says music with a positive message can’t be entertaining? Certainly…
Juliett Simms wants you to know she’s damaged. Her band, Automatic Loveletter, just released a five-song EP full of loss, regret, pain, and feelings of inadequacy, and now stands poised to capture the imaginations of sensitive, misunderstood 15-year-olds the world over. Automatic Loveletter seems almost purpose-built for this demographic, tapping…
Long Island emo-prog-rockers Envy On the Coast are trying hard to stand out in a world of Saves the Day and Brand New wannabes. It’s no easy task, and on the band’s 2007 debut full-length Lucy Gray, this quintet reminds us just how hard it can be. With melodic choruses,…
Not just a cover band, the Machine is the Pink Floyd experience. Not content to adequately recreate a thin smattering of greatest hits, like a live classic rock station, this New York-based sonic Ouija board delves deep into the history and legacy of one of rock and roll’s greatest bands,…
I don’t know why I’m a sucker for love lost and found but I’m pulling for Edgewater producer Diplo and London via Sri Lanka MC M.I.A. to get back together. Despite the fact that they make great music, after watching this video below, it’s hard to argue that they aren’t…
So, in just a few hours I’m off to an opening party for Dr. Feelgood’s, a new bar in West Palm Beach co-owned by Vince Neil… Of course, of Motley Crue fame. I’m a big fan of debauchery on nights it shouldn’t technically happen — like Tuesday — so I’m…
That’s gonna be hard for me to pass innit? It’s sounds like bullshit if this is true…but check out this article over on SOHH on why Amy Winehouse may not get a chance to attend the Grammy’s this year. She’s nominated for six Grammy’s for her latest album, Back to…
Just so you all know, RZA is not touring with Wu-Tang. I just got off the phone with Raekwon. Their tour-bus had just pulled up to a hotel in Virginia. They are playing shows every night, without RZA, The Abbott. When I asked Chef Rae about the current Wu situation,…
Killswitch Engage are pretty high on my list of bands I’d like to party with. The Massachusetts-based quintet are infamous for drinking lots of cheep bear, causing fun trouble, and reveling in the sort of sarcastic humor that earns their home state’s natives the label of “Masshole.” At the initial…
By Andy Vihstadt Separated at Birth Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan premiered the first material from their Gutter Twins project on MySpace last week. The duo, dubbed as the “Satanic Everly Brothers,” will be releasing Saturnalia on Sub Pop on March 4. Get on their space to stream a couple…
Andy Williams, guitarist for the Buffalo, New York-based quartet Every Time I Die, is an imposing physical presence for sure. With a close-cropped head, arms covered with a patchwork of tattoos, and a bushy beard, he’s described by tourmate Greg Puciato of Dillinger Escape Plan as “a beast” “When you…
Dillinger Escape Plan are sort of like a band of vikings, blazing through a town in a maelstrom of chaos that leave the feeble shivering in a puddle of their own secretions. Think noise, destruction, flames — literally, frontman Greg Puciato has been known to shoot fireballs from the stage…
