Forget for a moment the obligatory roll call of hits — we’ll get to that in due time. Focus instead on the fact that few artists have established an image as durable as Stevie Nicks has. True, she can come off as a bit precious — spinning like a dervish,…
Owing to the particular ambiance of his chilled-down sound, one pictures Miguel Migs doing most of his studio prep work poolside, surrounded by friends. The San Francisco DJ makes midtempo house music that glides and slithers. Nothing too bassy, nothing too chirpy. “Personally I’d rather hear great music all night…
A few short years ago, Jamie Foxx was the opposite of an award magnet — but that was before he won a Best Actor Oscar for the 2004 Ray Charles biopic, Ray. Since then, he’s been nominated for five Grammys, including three this year: one for his contributions to “Georgia,”…
The bookies in Vegas have made the Indianapolis Colts favorites by a touchdown in Super Bowl XLI, which, as we all know, will be played at our very own Dolphin Stadium. This betting line is of considerable interest to most Americans, because most Americans are degenerate gamblers and the Super…
For almost sixteen years now, James McNew has been commuting from Brooklyn to Hoboken, New Jersey, to spend hours on end, at least four or five times a week, with the same two people. And he’s pretty damn happy about it. Then again, his gig is pretty sweet: He’s the…
Although he never achieved the same fame as his peers — a group that includes Augustus Pablo and Tommy McCook — the late Jackie Mittoo (1948-1990) was a major player in the history of reggae, rock steady, and ska. Mittoo was an ace on the keyboards, a charter member of…
It’s visualization time, folks. So go ahead, close your eyes, and imagine an endless stretch of cliffs overlooking a slate-gray ocean, with cold waves crashing like reverberating feedback. A thick, moist fog clings to everything save a constellation of volcanoes dotting the landscape; each one sporadically shoots clouds of television…
Like Public Enemy and the Wu-Tang Clan, the five pioneering group members in N.W.A. were a revolutionary bunch that changed music with unabated street rhymes composed within the framework of gangster rap. However, no rappers were oppressed like Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, Yella, and the late Eazy-E —…
Black Milk is becoming the hip-hop junkie’s newest fix. Born Curtis Cross, he has been creeping toward brand-name status since his 2005 debut album, Sound of the City. Until then, Black Milk was known strictly as a producer, so his pinpoint lyricism caught critics by surprise. His ability as an…
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been bragging about their wild-style freakitude for decades, but little speaks to the Peppers’ belief in their own out-thereness like their current choice in opener: Gnarls Barkley, the eccentric electro-soul duo featuring DJ/producer Danger Mouse and former Goodie Mob frontman Cee-Lo. No record in…
Critics have taken to calling the music of New York MC Cage “horrorcore.” And the guy does kinda have a thing about death. His recent breakout album, Hell’s Winter, features the following upbeat ditties: “Teen Age Death,” “Gimme Some Death,” and “The Death of Chris Palko.” (Hint: Chris Palko is…
So now we find out just how cool Johnny Depp really is. Way back, young girls would pack local clubs to see a band called the Kids, fronted by a scraggly young man named Johnny. Now the Kids, along with other bands upon whose shoulders South Florida’s original rock scene…
Veteran Boston-area punk rockers the Queers aren’t just another melodic, Ramones-like speed-punk band looking to scrape up a few new fans; they’ve been a punk institution since the early Eighties. Frontman Joe King has been the sole constant of the group since its inception, and, moshers, beware: He’s never been…
The model of a patient player, Bill Frisell has for decades kept his jazz, country, and fusion guitar work to a minimum. You’ll hear plenty of riffs, swirls, swells, and slides, but nary a moment of noodling. In 1989, Frisell teamed with fellow guitarist Arto Lindsay, drummer Joey Baron, saxophonist…
This Denver quartet performs straight-ahead pop, heavy on the sing-alongs, with plenty of sweeping guitar riffs and intense piano ballads. Its debut, How to Save a Life, went platinum and led to opening gigs for big names like Ben Folds and the Rolling Stones. The Fray has since graduated to…
In 1987 the folk-rock Indigo Girls released their first full-length album, Strange Fire, without major-label assistance. It was a work of stripped-down melodies and raw emotions. The duo’s signature sound was the melding of Emily Saliers’s lullaby voice with Amy Ray’s harder edge; together they composed a honeycomb of sweet…
After a lengthy holiday hiatus, live music has returned to South Florida with a vengeance that can be described only as deeply disorienting. So disorienting that we’ve temporarily shelved our plan to firebomb Ticketmaster and instead would like someone to prepare us warm milk with brandy. Lots of brandy. This…
We all know by now that when it comes to Miami, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo doesn’t mince words. During a recent trip to South Florida, the Republican House member made national news — and inflamed locals — by portraying the Magic City as “a Third-World country.” Florida’s public officials reacted…
Every year a wide swath of the nation’s rock critics singles out one up-and-coming band as the greatest thing since reverb. Last year that distinction fell to a Montreal troupe coyly named the Dears. As the new year dawns, the superlatives have yet to subside. Fortunately the Dears’ ironically titled…
A year ago Paul McCartney opened the vaults to the Freelance Hellraiser, who smashed the back catalogue all to, well, hell by mashing up mediocre Macca till it sounded brighter than the solo Beatle ever did all by his lonesome. Now comes the old pro himself, Sir George Martin, attempting…
Jazz and hip-hop once constituted a popular combination thanks to the likes of Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest. And though the mainstream has seemingly lost its taste for the blend, there’s plenty of flavor left in it — at least when Future Jazz Project is plugged in. The…
Filled with invigorating takes on classic rock warhorses, 2002’s Sucking the 70’s just might be the best tribute compilation ever produced. And although its sequel, Sucking the 70’s, Back in the Saddle Again, returns many of the same stoner-rock all-stars, Empire Strikes Back it ain’t. Like the first Sucking, the…
