South Florida punk forefather George Van Orsdel has been in a million bands — Cell 63, Fay Wray, and Not Dead Yet, to leave 999,997 unmentioned. In recent years, though, he’s mostly been the namesake and backbone of the Van Orsdels. And the question that always comes up once a…
One’s interpretation of Clutch, the mostly metal and sometimes funk-soaked ensemble, depends on where in the game a listener was made hip to the band’s interpretation of Led Zeppelin doing the nasty with Black Sabbath. Fans of the band’s 1993 debut, Transnational Speedway League: Anthems, Anecdotes and Undeniable Truths, still…
Dr. Manhattan is full of youthful bluster, promising musical revolution even while the band reminds you it doesn’t really give a shit. It’s a common rock trope, sure, and usually an unfortunate indicator of pending disappointment. Far better, as put so eloquently by Teddy Roosevelt, to “speak softly and carry…
Both Pelican and Thrice are stretching the boundaries of their sounds and others’ expectations. Pelican’s City of Echoes soft-pedals the band’s usual throb, taking its complex art-metal instrumentals in a melodic direction. The tracks are still dense but don’t unwind as far, getting through each thematic movement with heretofore unseen…
Carlos Santana has a lot on his plate these days: He’s launching a chain of Mexican restaurants, appearing in Macy’s commercials to hype the line of women’s shoes he has designed, and advocating a national holiday to honor labor leader César Chávez. But he still finds time now and then…
Concert Review: B-Live at The Bayfront Park Amphitheatre B-Live April 19, 2008 The Bayfront Park Amphitheatre Better Than: The biggest block party you ever attended. See the slide show here Miami is mad about its music, not to mention its mojitos, so when the good folk at Bacardi took over…
Eisley Thursday, April 17, 2008 Culture Room Better than: Taking three xanax and drinking a handle of Jack. If you’re anywhere near exhausted, don’t even think about going to an Eisley show. This all-in-the-family Texas-born quintet (four sisters and their cousin, all with the last name DuPree) may produce some…
“Warning: trying to follow Meshuggah’s music can make your eyes cross.” Apparently, the appeal of Swedish death metal band Meshuggah extends beyond your typical metal fan base. So much so that awareness of the band has even reached classical conservatory culture. In Volume 29, Issue 2 of Music Theory Spectrum,…
Tomorrow night marks the three-year anniversary party forThe Rock, the weekly locals-only showcase at Tobacco Road run by the loveable Oski Gonzalez, guy about town and frontman of his own band, the Oski Foundation. Yes, The Rock usually happens on Thursdays, but it’s been bumped forwards this week to Friday…
Carmen Lundy Quartet Unlike most vocalists in the jazz realm, this Miami-born diva doesn’t always rely on material from The Great American Songbook during her sets. Instead, Carmen Lundy always includes as many of her own compositions as she can both when recording and playing live – something she has…
From the tight-songwriting-and-flashy-pants black hole of old Seventies space-junk, Earth, Wind & Fire rises, touring every year with such predictability you could set your calendar by it. Last famously recognized during the apex of a medley in the kid-flick Happy Feet (“Boogie Wonderland”), EWF has bestowed upon the planet classics…
In recent years, conceptual electronic music has come a long way, with young artists using their tweaked computers to rearrange traditional sounds. But it’s often a lonely business, with laptop jocks building this nascent genre mostly alone, in home studios. But the FIU Laptop Ensemble reveals the music to be…
Michael Dixon and his crew don’t get off “the rock” — that’s Key West — very often. “This is our first trip to play Miami,” says Robin Menard, the band’s sax player and resident hot chick (a SPILF, beg your pardon). “We had a gig in Fort Lauderdale last month…
All right, all right, so this is billed, officially, as a celebration of local music culture of all genres and scenes. But it takes place at famously freewheeling Churchill’s and is curated by the infamous Notorious Nastie. And it goes down, um, April 20. That’s 4/20, and past experience shows…
The Bamboozle Roadshow 2008 Saves the Day, Armor for Sleep, Set Your Goals, Metro Station, Lydia Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Revolution Live Better Than: Trading a flash of boobs and a blow job for concert tickets on Craigslist. If partially-bleached bangs cover half your face, chances are, you were at…
Iron and Wine April 12, 2008 Revolution, Ft. Lauderdale Better Than: A cellarful of John Henry. Saturday night at Revolution, the 999 other keen-eared indie music types in attendance formed, perhaps, the best-behaved bunch of rock club attendees I’ve ever encountered. The object of their focus: Sam Beam, the man…
Tego Calderon MySpace Latino’s “Show Secreto” with Tego Calderón with Locos Por Juana, Circo, and Beto Cuevas Friday, April 11 Studio A, Miami Better Than: Putting your iPod on shuffle You can’t manufacture cool — it has to happen naturally. Case in point: Last Friday evening, Myspace Latino’s Miami launch…
Ivon David Rojas Click here to see a slide show of the concert. A vociferous crowd nearly blew the roof off the building Saturday night with an impromtu, pre-concert rendition of Juanes’ Me Enamora that shook American Airlines Arena. Over 20,000 voices sang along to a skit on dual video…
Tego Calderón with Locos por Juana, Circo, and Beto Cuevas Friday, April 11 Studio A, 60 NE 11th St., Miami. Show starts at 8 p.m.; free with registration on MySpace Ages 18+ with ID 305-358-7625, www.studioamiami.com The folks at Myspace are releasing a full bilingual version of their social networking…
Mix America’s largest social networking website with its fastest-growing part of the population and what do you get? MySpace Latino, a recently official bilingual subsite of the juggernaut. And just like the original MySpace, it boasts star-studded “secret shows,” to which admission can be gained only by friending the Secret…
There’s a metaphor somewhere in Sam Beam’s hair. Something that equates his newly expansive locks with the richer, full-bodied sound he now peddles as Iron and Wine. Something that correlates the furtive minimalism of his early recordings (done while he was teaching film at the University of Miami and Miami…
Alhough this 30-year-old flamenco singer had been performing in Europe for more than a decade, it was only after his debut solo recording, Amar Duele (Love Hurts), was released when he became a star in his own right. Born Rafael Ojeda in Seville, Spain, Falete boasts a larger-than-life stage presence,…
