British indie-rock quartet Editors is constantly compared to Joy Division and Interpol, and justifiably so. But what the group lacks in innovation it makes up for in absorbing anthems that remind us why the New Wave revival happened in the first place. Editors’ debut album, The Back Room, blasts vigorous…
The geeky Motion City Soundtrack is often called punk because of its label Epitaph’s punk-heavy roster. Truth be told, the band is just about as punk as similar-sounding Jimmy Eats World, and, well, that’s just not very punk at all. The Mark Hoppus-produced Commit This to Memory followed up the…
Why see a tribute band when you can see the real thing? Well, when the real thing is U2, and nosebleed tickets go for about $85 each, a good tribute band goes a long way, which might explain the growing popularity of acts such as UV. An obsessive fan’s dream…
Calla’s 2001 album Scavengers was rife with highly atmospheric music and speculative lyrics. The band itself and guitarist Aurelio Valle’s songwriting were clearly maturing: After a few years of delivering obscure tracks, Calla had compiled some crafty and intelligent pop tunes for that disc. The band formed in Texas in…
Electroclash was simply too retro for its own good. Why listen to Fischerspooner’s carbon copy of “Blue Monday” when the original was still around? Then Princess Superstar along with DJ Alex Technique formed the DJs Are Not Rock Stars collective. The duo learned the elusive art of beatmatching and quickly…
Part beatnik, part Ben Folds, Brendan O’Hara is quickly becoming one of South Florida’s most interesting musical commodities. Backed by the Humble Ones trio — drummer, bassist, and keyboardist — O’Hara fuses hip-hop, jazz, folk, and saloon-style swing into something soothingly familiar and cleverly offbeat. A self-described “good ole Irish…
The flak that religiously oriented music gets from secular camps generally lies within the parameters of acceptance and “mass appeal.” So it is strikingly refreshing when a rambunctious teenager discovers the meaning of his parents’ G-d in the wilderness and sets out to mix that with his past rebellions. Matisyahu’s…
Since striking its own multithread trajectory off of the early Nineties breakbeat hardcore sound, drum ‘n’ bass has swung back and forth in popular opinion. There have been times when its hyperkinetic breakbeats and penchant for speaker- and tweaker-punishing malevolence have been labeled too insular, and other times when its…
Though it’s true that jazz thrives on forward-looking innovation, the best progress comes from artists who are as aware of their predecessors as their peers. In the eleven years since its inception, the Berlin-based collective Jazzanova has pushed the envelope as often as it has licked it and sent love…
Something like an Amazonian leprechaun, Curumin is a mythical jungle troublemaker in the guise of a feral child. His favorite tactic is misdirection; with his feet facing backward, poachers never know exactly which way he is heading. The same can be said for Luciano Nakata Albuquerque, the multitalented Brazilian wunderkind…
When the Rub — a Brooklyn DJ crew comprising DJ Eleven, DJ Cosmo Baker, and DJ Ayres — performs at the new Wynwood venue Bullfrog Eatz on Friday, the dance-ready patron in attendance can expect a few of the usual suspects (Miami bass, Baltimore club, rock, rip-hop, New Wave, electro,…
Juan Luis Guerra’s band, 4.40, takes its name from the universal tuning pattern of the A note, 4.40 hertz. The name was chosen, by Guerra’s brother José Gilberto, as a reference to their obsession with staying in perfect tune. This musical fixation led Guerra and 4.40’s bandmates, all natives of…
Dan Martin wears many hats: beach bum, topless gazer, gabber, musician, performance artist, provocateur, et cetera, but since relocating to our sunny shores from Milwaukee in 2002, he certainly hasn’t dilly-dallied in pushing the boundaries of his Doormouse persona. Not to be confused with his more serene cousin, the church…
Horror music buffs know their Cramps, their Misfits, their eerie Jack Starr homemade tapes of the early Sixties, and basically every twang set to B-grade celluloid. But one of the truest horrors beset upon mankind was the recharged wave of ska-related bands of the early Nineties. Either on purpose or…
“Iko-Iko” is the name of a Fifties pop song written by James Crawford in New Orleans that quickly became a folk/blues standard and has been covered by countless legends. It is also the fitting name of the renowned Miami-based blues quartet founded by the mythical Graham Wood Drout, a vocalist/guitarist/percussionist…
Sweet New Jersey has had a bad rap for so long now it’s beginning to tarnish great summertime vacation memories of visiting my relatives in Newark. Quick facts about the Garden State: Pre-psychic friends Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, and Connie Francis hail from there; the first solid-body guitar (Les Paul,…
Michelle Riu isn’t exactly what one might expect of a local singer/songwriter. There are no syncopated salsa rhythms or thumping reggaeton bass lines here. Instead her Cuban ancestry fuses with Southern sensibilities, making her songs a welcome addition to the often-nebulous pop-country genre. Her thick, smoky warble is evocative of…
Juan Gabriel is arguably among the more important figures in modern Mexican music, having written some of its most famous songs, including “Querida,” “Hasta Que Te Conocí,” and “Amor Eterno.” Gabriel has also worked extensively as a producer (for Rocio Dúrcal, Lucha Villa, Lola Beltrán, and even Paul Anka) and…
Kirk Franklin was abandoned as an infant by his biological mother and, never knowing his father, was raised by his Aunt Gertrude, a deeply religious woman who paid for his piano lessons by collecting aluminum cans. He became fascinated with gospel music and by age eleven was directing adult choirs…
Brazilian Girls make rhythmic, danceable melodies infused with creative, truthful, and sometimes very personal lyrics, but more important, the trio knows how to put on a beautiful, almost hypnotic live performance. Sabina Sciubba boasts the vocal mastery and stage presence of songstress legends like Debbie Harry and the cool calm…
Are they goth? Are they rock? Does it matter? The Sisters of Mercy have put together more than two decades of smash hits, public roustabouts, great lines, and other oddities. Okay, so they don’t have any smash hits, but try telling that to the rabid fan base the Sisters have…
Styles come and fads go, yet thankfully the funk always lurks, its spirit manifest in different forms and from unlikely tributaries. Believe it or not, New Orleans’ Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes hail from classical-music backgrounds. At Loyola U., goateed bandleader Johnny Sketch (a.k.a. Marc Paradis) majored in cello…
