Various Artists Well Deep: 10 Years of Big Dada (Big Dada) Longevity in hip-hop is increasingly rare, so milestones should be memorialized. Enter Well Deep, two CDs (31 tracks total) marking the first decade of U.K.-based indie label Big Dada. An offshoot of the quick-cut quarry known as Ninja Tune…
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings January 3rd, 2008 Culture Room Better than: Watching the Dap-Kings back up Amy Winehouse. Last Thursday night, a soul music extravaganza took place inside of the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings played to a sold out crowd and let music…
The King is Dead, Long Live the King Louis XIV, no longer royally blue BY JONATHAN GARRETT Jason Hill, frontman for the San Diego-based band Louis XIV, knows what it’s like to be hated. On March 30, 2005, a none-too-complimentary review of his band’s major label debut appeared on Pitchforkmedia.com…
Rihanna’s new boss? Now that Jay-Z has stepped down from the Def Jam presidency, the label might need a new president, but could that position end up going to Chuck D? It’s hard to say. If the label ends up hiring a new figurehead, it’ll probably be Jermaine Dupri or…
Via Miami Nights… Here’s the first part of the lineup for this year’s Ultra Music Festival, which is celebrating its tenth birthday, and is repeating this year as a two-day event. No surprises on the names here, except acts like Justice get moved to headlining slots. Part of me, however,…
Four years ago today RJ Lockwood, a Miami DJ, was found dead in his Overtown apartment at the age of 27. The Miami DJ was described as not “malicious enough to have enemies” by one of his old friends. Police initially dismissed the case as just another drug overdose by…
Better Than: Medieval heat torture. The Review: Candyland, the hyped-up party of the year, was NOT what I expected. In previewing the party, the New Times was told that the party was to be, “the best of the best.” Therefore, I was anticipating Disneyland fireworks. I have seen Culture Productions…
Over the past few years, year-end critics’ lists have multiplied faster than the worry lines on Ben Bernanke’s brow. Mark our words, the Internet and your local Barnes & Noble’s magazine rack will be brimming with head-spinning, eye-glazing permutations of praise for the following albums: Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, the…
Goldie at Laundry Bar If there’s a face – okay, a set of grills – most closely associated with drum ‘n’ bass, it’s Goldie’s. The founder of Metalheadz, a label at the forefront of the genre’s development, Goldie — a.k.a. Clifford Joseph Price — stands as a monument to the…
Well 2007 is over, done and almost forgotten. So stop looking back on the year that’s past and take a look at what you have to look forward to from the music world in just the first couple months of 2008. Here’s a look at some of the first albums…
ZZ Top December 28, 2007 Hard Rock Live Better Than: Not having dared at all. The Review: “ZZ Top at the Hard Rock?!?!” “That’s what I said.” “Wow! You know that’s one of the few bands I’ve never seen?” “Really? So you’ll go, then?” “No, sorry. I’ve got other plans.”…
Ah, the New Year. Time of transformation, time of bubbly-spawned magic, time of awkward passes and resolutions you mean at the time. While you’re preparing for the long sled ride down Hangover Hill, here’s some topical listening material. — Jeff Shaw 5. Death Cab for Cutie, “The New Year” “So…
Go figure. But you gotta give credit where its due and as of today, Miami’s own Flo Rida has bumped Alicia Keys out of the number one spot on the Billboard charts and his song, “Low” has ascended in its place. It’s a proud day for South Florida music fans…
Dave Navarro & DJ Skribble December 22, 2007 Pawn Shop Lounge Better Than: A fistfight in front of a mirror. Contrary to unpopular opinion, kids still get riled about rock; when the rock comes dosed with bottom heavy rap, they get really riled. Make that: really, really riled. Witness Dave…
Rick James had it wrong. That girl he sang about in “Super Freak”? She doesn’t even come close to the world’s freakiest superfreak: R. Kelly. The R&B chart-topper, alleged pedophile, and consummate booty lover can’t even tour without causing tons of controversy. A few years ago, Kelly abruptly left his…
A pair of aged hippies sit on a couch. One says, “If you could be any Bob Dylan you wanted to, which Bob Dylan would you be?” Our answer: Dewey Cox. The New Yorker cartoon was probably meant to conjure Todd Haynes’s kaleidoscopic, sort-of biopic I’m Not There, but intriguing…
This has been a sad year for some of our favorite musical artists. Many of them self-destructed to a degree we never thought possible, even as we rooted for their career salvation, while others inexplicably ruined events to which we were greatly looking forward. Instead of analyzing just what went…
Something jazzy this way comes Friday night at Tobacco Road. Fort Lauderdale’s Lights Down Low offers a breezy vibe, a stylistic combination of Spiro Gyra and Pat Metheny. The band has hit The Road before, playing upstairs, and keyboardist Chip Gardner had a great time. “The sound guy, Cosmo, is…
Few star DJs are genetically equipped to keep the marathon after-hours, 4 a.m.-start-time sets at Space interesting. Ever a work in progress, the British producer/DJ/label-owner was once considered the pioneer of twisted house. That was just one stop on his steady rise from the infamous “motorway raves” of the early…
This Saturday at Jazid, Miami rock quartet Article 66 becomes the newest pack of lucky dogs to score the opening slot for Suénalo Sound System. “We’ve never played there before, and we’re very excited and grateful for the opportunity,” says vocalist/guitarist Tony “T-Bone” Tomas. “It’s a great place in a…
Go ahead, say awww: Audiocrash got together thanks to a couple of preschoolers — well, not exactly. See, the wives of band cofounders Craig Schembri and Guy Strempack attended preschool together. Explains Schembri: “They said, ‘Hey, we should go to dinner or to a concert.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, yeah,…
For every grand gesture, every history-changing moment, and every genre-defining band in the annals of music, there is a bandwagon. Mudhoney, Nirvana, the Melvins, and the rest of the Pacific Northwest grunge originators might have launched the most pervasive and profitable bandwagon of them all, laying the groundwork for the…
