Taj Mahal Let’s put aside the tried clichés that dictate steel drums, congas, and clanky Caribbean rhythms for this one. Oh yeah, let’s get down and dirty. Let’s run amok on a cruise with all the inflection and goodness only a rhythm and blues revue can bring. And don’t get…
I have to admit, a few times while sort of fuzzy-headed, possibly with a pounding headache, I’ve driven down Biscayne a few times on a Saturday afternoon and groggily wondered, “Hmmm, what’s all the fuss in front of the Carnival Center?” Well, my dumb ass completely forgot that, hello, the…
Hoodstock 2008 Saturday, January 3, 2008 James L. Knight Center Better Than: Watching Senator Clinton trying desperately to be funny during ABC’s Democratic Debate. While the Nation transfixed their eyes on their television screens, enraptured by both the Republican and Democrat Debates in New Hampshire over the weekend, it was…
The West Virginia-born saxophonist Marion Meadows first appeared locally at Arturo Sandoval’s Jazz Club last fall. For this time around, he plans to stick with what worked last time. “It will be the same formula, the same kind of thing that worked last time,” he says by phone. “Not many…
With In Rainbows the talk of the music industry, and the album’s official debut Tuesday at #1 on the charts, Thom Yorke and co. are ridin’ high. So, it’s time for another tour. And, lucky Miami, they’re gracing us with their presence. Of course, leave it to Radiohead to keep…
“I wrote that song [‘Hustlin”] in about an hour on some good kush,” says Miami-born hip-hop superstar Rick Ross as we sit in the entertainment room of his new Davie mansion on a recent Saturday night. “My definition of hustlin’ is: Handle your business, I’m gonna handle mine. Believe that…
When you’re in a world-famous rock band, having your frontman meet an unexpected demise can really be a major annoyance. At the very least, it makes you rethink your future. Take what happened when Jim Morrison OD’ed in that Paris bathtub — the remaining Doors gamely put out two albums…
A Cuban music festival in Miami — now that’s original, eh? But really, anyone who has spent an extended period of time around Cubans (and that would be just about all of us here in South Florida) knows there’s no limit to their musical innovation. This month local nonprofits FUNDarte…
It’s a hard time to be an Avril apologist, especially if you’re a heterosexual male music critic. Her 2007 effort, The Best Damn Thing, isn’t destined for any critical top 10 lists. Truth be told, it won’t be on mine, either, but I gave it serious consideration. The CD is…
Detroit DJ legend Kevin Saunderson knows how to keep a dance floor packed from late night till early morning. He’s been DJing all over the globe and pioneering various styles of techno for the past 25 years. He specializes in producing a hard-edged form of blacktronica. It’s rooted in soul…
Prior to assuming the frayed-ponytail persona, and long before the superstardom he snared in the Seventies, Willie Nelson was just another strait-laced, short-haired Nashville tunesmith cranking out hits for others. His songs — “Crazy,” “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “Hello Walls,” and “Night Life” among them — went on to…
Metalcore representative Killswitch Engage combines a blitzkrieg bottom end that hunts with the springing fury of Pantera, labyrinthine Scandinavian metal melodicism, and agile yet sophisticated structures that showcase the band’s hooks with more enthusiasm than a high school trophy case. The band’s sound is anchored by Berklee College of Music…
“Bossa nova is the language of my life,” Brazilian bossa nova singer Luciana Souza says by phone from her home in Los Angeles. Her latest project, The New Bossa Nova (Verve), sees the 41-year-old reinterpreting contemporary songs by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Sting, and James Taylor in the genre…
In the dozen or so years since the breakup of his band Black Janet, Jim Wurster has produced a steady stream of exemplary albums, both solo and at the helm of his Americana outfit, the Atomic Cowboys. In the process he has established himself as one of South Florida’s most…
Kate Nash’s debut LP, Made of Bricks, was released last summer in the UK, where she became an overnight sensation; both the CD and single “Foundations” charted at number one. The 20-year-old from a London suburb pals around with Lily Allen, to whom she’s frequently compared. Yet unlike Alright, Still…
Call it an amendment to Godwin’s Law: As online reviews of Vampire Weekend accumulate, the probability of a comparison involving Paul Simon’s Graceland approaches one. It’s a lazy game of connect the dots, really. Graceland traces a MOR-shattering pilgrimage, in which Simon spent 17 days recording in South Africa, cheesing…
Mahjongg’s webspace prose reads like passages from a rave manifesto (“make love energy,” “spawn a soundtrack for a new community,” etc.). But Kontpab’s multilayer tapestries of detuned synthesizers, piercing drum ripostes, and abrasive, effects-laden vocals are hardly elevating or unifying. Label it rave music for the wretched. The opening to…
Like his reportedly shady past, Los Angeles glam-rap sensation Mickey Avalon’s live shows are fast becoming legendary among jaded clubgoers. Live, he has smashed a bottle over his head and engaged in not-so-simulated sex with a sultry back-up dancer. At gigs on his home turf, there have been fights, a…
JJ Grey & MOFRO Saturday, January 4th 2008 Bamboo Room, Lake Worth Better Than: Tearing up a hot bowl of grits on a cool winter morning in Florida. The Review: After just a few notes, anyone witnessing JJ Grey in action can’t help but notice how strong his stage presence…
Editors Louis XIV, Hot Hot Heat, and Editors Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Tuesday, January 8, 2008 Better Than: Seeing all three bands together at an even smaller venue The Review: Last night’s show at the Culture Room marked the first stop of a tour by rising indie-ish stars Louis XIV,…
I guess I’m in the mood for feathered hair and strange accents from the United Kingdom, so I will move from Birmingham, England’s E.L.O. on to Swansea, Wales’ Badfinger. Truly one of the great power pop acts of the Seventies, stateside they’ve been somewhat forgotten. Or, when they are remembered,…
Taking it back to the Seventies for this one, to the inimitable Electric Light Orchestra. Let’s try to ignore their bloated Eighties stuff like the Oliva Newton-John collabo “Xanadu” — does Seventies pop goodness get much better than, say, “Livin’ Thing?” I’m a particular fan of this strand of their…
