Deyson Rodriguez, a.k.a hip-hop MC Soarse Spoken, has rocked thousands of fans at music festivals in Barcelona. He and his music have been featured on BBC’s vaunted Radio One. Google his nom de guerre and you’ll find his releases dissected on Websites from Sweden to Japan. But in his hometown…
There must be something in the water of Brazil — the country produces a seemingly endless stream of innovative musicians. Maybe it has more to do with the fact that music is as common as water in Brazil, played everywhere from the streets to the shopping malls to the corporate…
Norah Jones is still searching for her perpetual groove. Since garnering instant acclaim at the top of the jazz and pop charts with her multiplatinum debut album, Come Away With Me, Jones’s forward momentum hasn’t been all that successful. Though undeniably sensual and seductive, her second album, Feels Like Home,…
The Weirdness ain’t punk-classic like Fun House, but let’s be fair — nothing the recently reunited Stooges can do will ever match their early-Seventies peak. This band does rock, however. Ax-man Ron Asheton is not only a funky-ass rhythm freak, but the dude’s piercing feedback screech on “Greedy Awful People”…
The world of indie rock has never really embraced the concept of the instrumental jam band. The few exceptions that (barely) fit into that category — Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, Tortoise — don’t really follow the genre’s rules, instead occupying a space between the Fall’s deconstructed rock and the…
Otep, the L.A.-based metal fusion quartet led by singer/poet/self-described “mental pugilist” Otep Shamaya, released in 2002 one of the densest, most disturbing debut albums in the history of metal with Sevas Tra. It was a fiery confessional wherein Shamaya screamed about being raped by her father against a searing sonic…
In the video for Of Montreal’s latest single, “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse,” frontman Bryan Poole plays the role of an aggressive dancing bear who loves cowboy hats. Unlike previous installments of Of Montreal’s summery and somewhat detached absurdist oeuvre, these latest developments are in large part a product of…
Axe-wielding marauders from the City of Progress take charge of Churchill’s stage on Saturday. With all the punk and metal bands in and around Miami, it’s amazing that Dave Daniels and his Churchill’s crew are still — still — carrying the scene around here almost single-handedly. That fact isn’t lost…
On a recent March evening the members of She Said, a diverse ensemble of Miami’s best female musicians, gathered to rehearse for their first-ever performance at the upcoming Fifth Annual Women and Culture Festival. She Said’s director, Michelle “Quatro” Forman, readied her tape recorder excitedly as the musicians cheered each…
With power and finesse unrivaled by any jazz singer south of Manhattan, Nicole Henry has become Miami’s worst-kept secret. The sophisticated Japanese jazz community, for one, is on her like green on wasabi. They’ve bestowed her honors such as “Best New Jazz Artist” (2004 HMV/Japan Music Awards) and have proclaimed…
Forget the fiery performances that this Brazilian legend has staged in the past, backed by a big band playing reggae and samba. This time around, he follows in the footsteps of João Gilberto. Gil performs solo, revisiting both classic and obscure selections from his personal songbook. Gil was one of…
It’s virtually impossible to figure out how Ted Leo became, you know, Ted Leo. Born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, Leo graduated from Seton Hall Prep and received a degree in English from Notre Dame. He is now a strict vegan and plays socially conscious punk music. (We didn’t think they…
Rebel music is ensconced in the DNA of Malian nomad group Tinariwen. Started in the early Eighties as a band of drifters-turned-guerrilla musicians, this septet of African blues players is essentially a group of political refugees creating its own liberation anthems one note at a time. Alchemizing traditional Tuareg blues…
“I do this for the love of music/Not for the glitter and gold,” sings India.Arie on her Grammy-winning ditty, “Little Things.” The statement itself isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but the emotion in Arie’s voice makes her words resonate. One can’t help but believe that everything the girl from Georgia sings about…
Most local clubgoers are already plenty familiar with Cedric Gervais, the French wunderkind DJ who worked his way up to practically owning the terrace at Space. After racking up a string of remix credits that includes tracks by Lenny Kravitz, Duran Duran, Dirty Vegas, and Chocolate Puma, all that remained…
By Zeus, look at the calendar! This Sunday, the Greeks celebrate the Treaty of Constantinople, which granted them independence from the Ottoman Empire back in 1832. In honor of this long-ago inking, Ink plays host to DJ Theodore, a resident spinner at the superposh Akrotiri night club, which is situated…
In 1998 I traveled to Cuba to study guitar as part of my graduate studies in cultural anthropology. I was hoping to get a better grasp of the socially conscious Nueva Trova folk music movement, but within a few weeks I was itching to discover something more intense than the…
Most artists yearn to be recognized and admired by the public. But in the cutthroat world of Jamaican dancehall, fame can lead to serious trouble, particularly if you happen to be a member of the thriving Miami collective Black Chiney. “Back in 2002 someone sent us an e-mail,” says Supa…
Ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr knows a little something about dealing with strong-willed vocalists (ahem, Morrissey), so it’s no surprise that his contributions to the poppiest Modest Mouse record yet are solid. But it’s still a treat to hear how focused Isaac Brock and Co. are on the lushly arranged Ship,…
Afrobeat is an often imitated musical form, but few bands approach it with the respect and creativity that Brooklyn’s Antibalas has over the years. When the band was created nearly a decade ago, its music picked up where the genre’s architects, Fela Kuti and his son Femi, respectively, left off…
There are certain instruments folks wouldn’t ordinarily associate with jazz music, and the steel pan (used in soca and calypso) is on that list. But on Andy Narell’s latest disc, Tatoom, the pan is taken to a different level, and the jazz tunes that are created here seem abstract at…
We can safely assume that Dionne, living legend that she is, looks forward to returning to Miami under brighter circumstances. Back in 2002, you’ll recall, the singer was busted at the airport for possession of marijauna — specifically eleven joints found inside a lipstick container. (Dionne, upon landing, allegedly asked…
