On his debut solo album, Raised by the People, Notch is a sonero. A songsmith. He’s confident, even boisterous. But the person sitting across from me during a recent lunch interview is humble. He might attribute his humility to his nomadic journey in music; from his days in the reggae…
Somewhere Hector Lavoe and Celia Celia – to name a few – are smiling and probably jamming as well. And Oscar Hernandez should no doubt feel a sense of accomplishment. Hernandez, the founder and pianist for salsa ensemble Spanish Harlem Orchestra, set out to maintain the charged fusions of Afro-Caribbean…
Tony Orlando June 27, 2007 Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Better Than: An Elvis impersonator When you’re a singer whose career is based on hit songs you can count on one hand and your 15 minutes of fame lasted five years, it’s probably best…
“You need input to get output,” Jesse Malin insists during a scarce private moment on the pool deck of a Salt Lake City hotel. Over a cracking cell phone connection, he holds forth on his main songwriting influences. “I’m always reading novels, reading plays, going to see movies, listening to…
When Argentine artist Marcelo Lupis says his music is experimental, he means that in all senses of the term. Pop his first solo CD, Shhhh, into the player and out sprays a hyperactive but skillfully concocted array of jazz, classic, rock, and blues, all overlaid with Lupis’s operatic scatting. Even…
If not for the apathy and mishandling from his former major record label, Atlanta’s Pastor Troy (n’ Micah Levar Troy) might have emerged five years ago as one of crunk’s major mainstream stars. At the time, he had all the elements that seem to work today: guest spots on Lil…
KRS-One likes to pick fights. Anyone who remembers anything about the Bridge Wars — the feud between KRS-One’s Boogie Down Productions and DJ Marley Marl’s Juice Crew featuring MC Shan that spawned a number of classic hip-hop songs in the early Eighties — knows KRS started it. The Juice Crew’s…
If you’ve dipped your toes in the waters of the Florida rave scene during the past, oh, fifteen years, you’ve probably collected some warm, fuzzy half-memories of Rabbit in the Moon. Remember the time at Ultra when that space man landed onstage and showered the crowd with sparks from his…
Calle 13 crashed its way into the reggaeton party in 2005, coming seemingly out of nowhere with its hard-hitting eponymous debut. Booty-shaking though it was, the Puerto Rico-based duo’s album offered a much-needed respite from reggaeton’s seemingly nonstop party antics. So it really wasn’t a great shock when Calle 13…
Miami and Los Angeles, they’re not so different. On the obvious tip, there’s all the bling and the pneumatic bodies on balmy beaches. On the not-so-obvious tip, there are the chin-scratching musical movements bubbling under those shiny surfaces. Still, there’s no question that we party harder, later, and dirtier than…
It’s a straight-up L.A. invasion of Miami this weekend. The attack on Friday’s edition of the weekly Revolver party comes from the the tag team duo with the gentle moniker Guns ‘n’ Bombs. While New York and Paris get all the techno/electro revival attention, Flip Turbotito and Johnny Love come…
Eldar performs Friday and Saturday, June 29 and 30, at
the Arturo Sandoval Jazz Club, 6701 Collins Ave, Miami
Beach. Set times both days are 9:00 and 11:00 p.m.
Tickets cost $35. Call 305-403-7565, or visit
www.arturosandovaljazzclub.com.
New York’s Roger Sanchez has been an insanely popular house DJ since releasing records on the classic dance record label Strictly Rhythm in the early Nineties. Apparently he’s a big draw on at least a few continents. To wit: Last month some dodgy club promoters in South Africa falsely advertised…
Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Pitchfork. Sasquatch, Coachella, Summerfest. Aside from the hundreds of rocking performances and the crowds of thousands, the one thing all of these festivals have in common is that they won’t be in your back yard this summer. Sucks. Miami is a hot spot, sure, but not for massive…
Sitting inside a mostly empty Churchill’s Pub before he is set to perform, Kent Hernandez considers a dilemma facing most artists in the capricious local music scene. How do you get fair-weather Miamians to show more support for our homebrewed acts? “I think that we have just as much, if…
Coming off his highly acclaimed 40 Acres and a Moog, local producer Supersoul offers this cleverly titled opus about the commercialization of today’s hip-hop. There are no preset drum machines or played-out 808 rhythms here; instead there are the purest, high-grade beats that would make any current button-pusher turn away…
Back in 2002, Ike Reilly released what should have been regarded as a rock and roll masterpiece. Salesman and Racists wed the punky passion of mid-Seventies Clash to the restless lyrical brilliance of pre-Christ Dylan. Reilly has released three albums since, all packed with catchy songs you wouldn’t want to…
It’s good to see a local MC on the come up and we at Crossfade are going to support him any way we can. Well respected lyricist Garcia has a new album coming out this summer, and Miami music editor, Arielle Castillo, has a killer article coming out on him…
It’s easy to understand why fans might be cynical about the fact that the original lineup of the Bad Brains, one of the most storied acts in the history of hardcore, is back together yet again. If you haven’t already heard, they’ve got a brand new album, Build a Nation,…
MC Sharpness Better than:Seeing pretty colors after smashing your head on a rock. The review: The drum and bass party on Saturday, wasn’t one of Studio A’s better nights. After stumbling in to use some drink tickets that I was oh so generously given, it took me about ten minutes…
Jacob Miller and Longwave June 23, 2007 Studio A Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Better Than: Waiting around for prime Saturday going-out time; the show got going around 10:00 and was over by about midnight. The club doors opened at 8:00, and opener Jacob Miller took the stage at nearly 10:00…
Black Light Burns & Horse the Band May 23, 2007 Culture Room Better Than: Nintendo music You should always be wary of any band that promotes one member with the tagline “…formerly of the band…” as some type of attraction. It’s a bit like advertising a party with “a celebrity…
