If the quantity of photos available online depicting a young violinist next to smiling, modestly dressed girls is any indication of classical music stardom, then Joshua Bell is off the charts. One could argue, too, that the admiration from students of an art that requires hours of practice a day…
It’s puzzling why people who are hell-bent on blowing the minds of other people via so-called “noise music” so often also seem hell-bent on blowing their sonic victims’ olfactory senses. So weird smells aside, the International Noise Conference is the place to see and hear shit that you will not…
Animal CollectiveMerriweather Post Pavilion(Domino)On Strawberry Jam in 2007, experimental noise-making weirdos Animal Collective glided on the outskirts of dreamy indie-pop. Fan fave “Peacebone” even flirted with a sunny melody that exposed a heart beneath all the usual digital flotsam. The band’s ninth album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, is still frolicking in…
If, thanks to a debacle over RSVPs, you missed the Panda Bear solo show during this past Art Basel Miami Beach, cheer up. The entire Animal Collective trifecta has just announced a large-scale national tour in support of the group’s latest album, Merriweather Post Pavilion. Despite the band’s large-scale popularity…
Yo! Majesty was schedule to perform at White Room around 10:30 p.m. but didn’t show up until midnight. The promoters weren’t too happy and told Yo! Majesty that the gig was off. Needless to say, Yo! Majesty wasn’t happy either. Not sure if they eventually did go on since I…
On the current southern tour of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the 16-piece band is focusing on the 70th anniversary of the original Blue Note records. The New York-based label founded by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis in 1939 that became seminal for musicians like Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane,…
Last week, I wrote a little preview on the Yo Majesty show set for next Tuesday at White Room, summarizing the duo’s on-and-off internal turmoil. MCs Shunda K and Jewel B sometimes refuse to pose for photo shoots together and do interviews separately, and then just as quickly seem to…
Nobody in Miami has been a bigger booster of the local quartet the Jean Marie than Lolo Reskin of Sweat Records. So where else would the band celebrate its latest album release than at the Vagabond’s Friday party, which Lolo helps throw? So this edition celebrates Annie Jump Cannon, the…
Little, it seems, can stop the improbable Tampa-based female party-rap juggernaut Yo Majesty — not even the occasional near-implosion of the group itself. Early last summer, some undefined internal meltdown sent home half of the duo, the gospel-trained vocalist-turned-rapper Jewel B. The group’s backbone, the verbose and sheerly ass-kicking Shunda…
Like a pissed-off, mistreated dog, Travis Reilly yelps, “This is how downward spirals start!” Then he growls, “This is a convoluted attempt to find some source of hope.” Later he barks, “This is the best and worst things will ever get.” Reilly’s Long Island-based hardcore outfit, This Is Hell, seems…
Scottish indie rock act Bis’s 1997 single “Tell It to the Kids” rather neatly expressed the band’s overtures: “And now, coming through the airwaves into your home/Introducing the new transistor heroes.” San Francisco’s hey willpower lacks a similar expressive salutation, but it shares Bis’s affinity for trash culture, “kandy pop,”…
Journeyman singer/songwriter Alejandro Escovedo has performed solo for a number of years, but he sure has played in a lot of bands too. It’s a theme that recurs throughout his latest album, Real Animal. A loose memoir of sorts, the disc spans Escovedo’s 30-year musical career, touching on key locations,…
Even in the flannel-flapping grunge era, The Juan Maclean pretended he was I, Cyborg in his old band, Six Finger Satellite. A decade on, post-rock-band breakup and crack-rock breakdown, he again dons the chrome pate, made fashionable anew in a century populated by Daft Punk and the return of Battlestar…
A family-led operation, the Machito Orchestra was established in 1939 and continues to attract some of the best-known musicians in Latin jazz. The New York-based group comes to town this week in a celebratory mood. The show pays homage to three departed legends of the genre: the Machito Orchestra’s founder…
From driving a biodiesel-powered bus to hangin’ with the likes of Snoop Dogg and Ryan Adams, pretty much everything Country Music Hall of Famer Willie Nelson does is pure, inarguable badass. The OG of the outlaw country movement in the 1970s also continues to add to his considerable songbook, releasing…
Journeyman singer/songwriter Alejandro Escovedo has performed solo for a number of years now, but he sure has played in a lot of bands, too. It’s a theme that recurs throughout his latest album, Real Animal. A loose memoir of sorts, the album’s subject matter and styles span Escovedo’s 30-year musical…
People are ready for a fresh-faced heir apparent to Paul Simon, and from the looks of things, Brett Dennen is the guy. His warm, socially conscious folk continues to grow in appeal. Maybe it’s the fact that he has more to say about the world than Jack Johnson, and that…
Last month, Crossfade reported on mixed signals regarding a Morrissey tour kickoff ostensibly set for Feb. 28 at Mizner Park Amphitheatre in Boca. Well, we’re happy to report the show has been finally, officially announced! Tickets go on sale Friday, January 16 at 10 a.m. They cost $35, $45, $55,…
Canadian electro duo AutoErotique have remained somewhat under theradar since first appearing in the scene in 2007, when they were known as VNDLSM. Stylistic consonant-welding doppelgangers of fellow Canucks MSTRKRFT, they boast a similar punk rock attitude, abrasive electro sound, and a penchant for giving cheesy pop vocalists a hardcore…
Sébastien Léger Saturday, January 10, 2009Mansion, Miami BeachBetter than: Anything else going on in the MIA electronic music scene that night.Club Mansion was considerably empty for what was probably the most stellar international DJ set they’ve hosted in recent times. While he has yet to attain the ubiquitous presence and…
The Holy TerrorsSaturday, January 10, 2009 Churchill’s Pub, MiamiBetter Than: Any other band playing last night in South Florida Sometime back in the early 90’s the Holy Terrors were playing at CBGB’s when an earnestly keyed-up Dee Dee Ramone stuck around and told the guys he loved their music. Dee…
DWNTWN Concert Series with Rachel Goodrich and Jacob Jeffries BandFriday, January 9, 2008Tina Hills Pavilion at Bayfront Park, MiamiBetter Than: Before.The Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA), in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and produced by the Rhythm Foundation, kicked off its 2009 concert series at…
