Bedouin Soundclash at the Culture Room Tonight!!

So if you’ve ever visited the ice-cold city of Toronto, you’ll know that when it comes to music and culture, it’s one of the biggest melting pots North America has to offer. With relaxed immigration and a stronger currency than the U.S. (ahem), Toronto isn’t a bad city in which…

Arsis, live at the Culture Room on Wednesday

Arsis, in classical music parlance, most commonly refers to the up-beat, or unstressed parts of a measure. The term seems an odd choice of name for a technical death metal outfit whose lyrics focus on death, defilement, and the destruction of the sacred, and whose pummeling assault leaves no room…

First Phase of Marley Fest Announced…

Well, technically it’s now the “15th Annual Caribbean Fest,” but everybody knows it’s all about the Marleys. And this year, it looks like they’re getting it together musically. While the first few years were mostly reggae, and mostly Marley, things got a little scattered in the meantime. This led to…

Concert Review: 3 Inches of Blood and the Black Dahlia Murder

Hate Eternal, 3 Inches of Blood, and the Black Dahlia Murder Wednesday, January 23, 2008 The Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Better Than:Oh, making offerings to false metal gods? The Review:It’s always a reassuring sign when, after driving almost an hour in torrential rain, one is greeted at a venue’s entrance…

Spyro Gyra

It’s not really album sales that propel a band into the annals of jazz history. No, it’s usually a steady fan base, good recordings, and a solid live show. It doesn’t really matter what kind of jazz is played, as long as it is honest and on the money. Spyro…

Map of the Universe

Ladies and gentlemen, this local trio is floating in space. Its tripped-out sound is a rare, galactic union of Pavement-style power-chord grit, hooky postpunk, and cerebral, swirly shoegaze. Although the band formed in 2005, the members each boast a Miami rock pedigree. Vocalist/guitarist Ivan Marchena and drummer Ed Artigas previously…

Bobby “Blue” Bland

Bobby “Blue” Bland is anything but. He doesn’t play soul-rending slide guitar; he doesn’t wail away on the blues harp; he doesn’t even play an instrument. All he has is his voice, but that voice is one to make the ladies swoon and the men falter. The excitement offered up…

Sick of It All

The frenetic pace of hardcore, the combination of outrage and adrenaline, isn’t conducive to longevity. Fact is, most punkers mellow as they age. They take “real” jobs, get married, have kids — in other words, they become the people they hated when they were young and raging. This didn’t happen…

Joe Nice

Joe Nice’s, well, niceness has helped put him and the dubstep genre he loves on the American electronic dance music map. It’s a bass-driven, dub-reggae-influenced mutation of the mostly London-outskirts-produced style of dance music known as garage (rhymes with carriage). The prototypical herky-jerky dubstep beat sounds like an early hip-hop…

Concert Review: Sofia at Harold Golen Gallery

Sofia January 19, 2008 Harold Golen Gallery Better Than:Tiesto’s faux “progressive” electronic beats Nowadays a lot of electronic music has very little to do with the genre’s original theories of sound experimentation. During its initial stages, weird, non-melodic tonalities ruled the day. For instance, Fifties artists such as Louis and…

Concert Review: Marilyn Manson at the Fillmore Miami Beach

Marilyn Manson January 20, 2008 The Fillmore Miami Beach Better Than: You can imagine. Only a dingbat or a dolt doesn’t dig Marilyn Manson. Really. I mean, unless you’ve absolutely no sense of humor, let alone sense of the absurd, or you believe rock shouldn’t come from a loud place,…

Concert Review: Envy on the Coast at Culture Room

The Audition PacTour: The Audition, Envy On the Coast, Danger Radio, Another Day Late Saturday, January 19, 2008 Culture Room Better Than: Dealing with the sweat and rain of an outdoor summer punk festival. I’m pretty certain that anybody who’s anybody at a South Florida high school was at the…

Concert Review: Artopia at Parkwest Night Club

The Spam Allstars helped the New Times celebrate its 20th Anniversary Spam Allstars, Awesome New Republic, and Raffa & Rainer January 19, 2008 Parkwest Nightclub Better Than: Any 20th birthday party I’ve ever been to! Hundreds of people piled into Parkwest on Saturday. Of course they did, it’s not everyday…

Junior Reid and Casely at Sobe Live Tonight

It should be a good time as local singer, Casely, will be singing his new hit “Emotional” and Junior “One Blood” Reid has a huge catalog of songs to choose from. All the info you need to know is on the flyer above. -Jonathan Cunningham…

Marijah and the Reggae Allstars Live Tonight

If you’re looking for some reggae this weekend, here’s a show to check out. Marijah & the Reggae All-Stars, voted New Times’ Best Live Band 2007 perform on the main stage at Evening on The Avenue in the Cultural Plaza between Lake and Lucerne avenues and M Street. Jan 18,…

Last Night: Foo Fighters at BankAtlantic Center

Photo by Ivon David Rojas The Foo Fighters were joined by Against Me! and Jimmy Eat World. Foo Fighters January 16, 2008 BankAtlantic Center Better Than: The ‘70s all over again. Media: Click here to see a slidehow from the concert. Timing. It really is all about timing. Oh, not…

King Britt: Full Q&A

In this week’s edition of the print version of Miami New Times, I wrote about legendary DJ/musician/label impresario King Britt’s gig this weekend at Shine. Because of pesky space limitations, I only got to use a few sentences from our near-half-hour conversation. So, for fans, I’m printing the whole transcript…

3 Inches of Blood and the Black Dahlia Murder

Check subtlety, pretense, and the past decade at the door: 3 Inches of Blood wants nothing to do with them. Eschewing fads and hipster cred in favor of staying true to their message of metal for its own ridiculous, epic sake, these bandmates go straight for the kill. Their weapons…

Johnny SexFuk and the Fleshrockets

When last we left Johnny SexFuk, a pumpkin was about to get its brains — or seeds, whatever — fucked out. That was back around Halloween, when the Hialeah-based punk troupe lowered its standards all the way down to the magma level by playing back-up band during a MoneyTalks.com porn…

Winter Jam Tour

Who says big-name, multi-band music festivals have to be filthy, debauched affairs whose main hallmarks are exorbitantly priced bottled water and a dearth of toilets? Who says they can’t be fun and uplifting events suitable for the whole family? Who says music with a positive message can’t be entertaining? Certainly…

Automatic Loveletter

Juliett Simms wants you to know she’s damaged. Her band, Automatic Loveletter, just released a five-song EP full of loss, regret, pain, and feelings of inadequacy, and now stands poised to capture the imaginations of sensitive, misunderstood 15-year-olds the world over. Automatic Loveletter seems almost purpose-built for this demographic, tapping…