The Square Egg is taking urban music from Cristal-sipping, club-banging hits that make you grind, to smooth, soulful poems that make you think. The antithesis of mass-produced pop ditties, the ten-piece band’s socially aware lyrics and musical inclination are a far cry from the crass lyrics and machine-produced beats ubiquitous…
When Brazilian Girls singer Sabina Sciubba took the stage at Studio A this past March for one of the club’s inaugural shows, she strutted and preened while burbling her signature five-language lyrics in an Avengers-era white mack. The sound system and the enthusiastic crowd offered support, and Sciubba — along…
Since a change of ownership late last year, South Beach stalwart Laundry Bar has retooled itself as a tucked-away last bastion of underground electronic music. Its Friday-night party, Basshead, has especially attracted a number of notable out-of-town acts. Adding to the so-far sterling roster tonight is One Self, making the…
A Colombian folk version of Norah Jones — boasting stunning looks that make her an almost identical twin to Nelly Furtado — Marta Gomez infuses traditional roots with a modern femininity. She is a master of the complexity of Latin music, and her second and latest album, Entre Cada Palabra,…
Yet another band of floppy-haired, earnest-looking Brooklyn boys, We Are Scientists truly broke out of the Williamsburg scene ghetto this year with their major-label debut, With Love and Squalor. Their sound is far more melodic than most of their native borough’s dark or noisy counterparts, owing to the influence of…
The mass popularity of Continental-cocktail versions of postpunk classics is more cinch than mystery — think about it: smart, sexy, resonant, and familiar. Do potions come any stronger than that? With Bande a Part, the fine-blended followup to the band’s eponymous debut, Nouvelle Vague has concocted a long, tall drink…
“Everybody knows your baby done left you,” says Eric Garcia, lead singer and harp player for Juke, “but we want to do something more.” And thus is Juke. The local group feels the heart of the blues but adds a raw, groove-oriented, swampy indie style. The bandmates feed off one…
Belgium produces some of the most energetic, fun, crazy “world” music (in the sense of traveling the world, not tie-dying it) in the, well, world. But for every day Roger 23 from Front 242 spends dressed in a giant eggshell at the Atomium in Brussels, for every hour the Lords…
The Aquabooty crew rolls out the red carpet this weekend for producer/DJ extraordinaire DJ Spinna, straight from Crooklyn. One of the frontrunners of the late-Nineties indie hip-hop scene, producing tracks for many underground mainstays and as part of crews the Jigmastas and Polyrhythm Addicts, Spinna has grown into a respected…
The last time discerning ears turned toward Australia for the Next Big Hip Thing was for the gonzo garage-rock of the now-disbanded Vines. The Presets are the latest hot import from Down Under, but have almost nothing sonically in common with their shambling, spastic predecessors. They may have brought guitars,…
There’s a time to every purpose under Heaven, and 7:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on September 16 is the moment for Miamians to take part in a simultaneous prayer for peace with earthlings in 250 communities throughout 50 countries. Earthdance’s mission is to make music and dance the channel through…
From the halcyon days of Florida’s fin-de-siècle rave scene to the menthol-slathered, glitter-trailing set, AK1200 was the king of drum ‘n’ bass. A decade earlier, the Orlando native had earned his chops in tiny clubs in that city, his techno sets often greeted with confusion or indifference. But as the…
It might well be the apocalypse if Ladytron is finally coming to Miami, and for the band’s first appearance in Florida, no less. The members of Ladytron are spread across Europe, variously calling Liverpool, Glasgow, and Sofia, Bulgaria, home. But in the years since founders Reuben Wu and Daniel Hunt…
Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Gervasio Goris, a.k.a. Herbieman, writes on his MySpace page of how he came to Miami in 2005 on a 42-foot sailboat full of his musical instruments and an eagerness to sing in his bilingual English/Spanish. An adventuresome artist, Goris began pursuing music in 2003, when…
Sattayah-Omari Chang, Lidj Yassu, and Kwame Taijan created the promotions company Sankofa Sound to keep an old-school reggae vibe alive in Miami Beach. “It blossomed in five months,” Chang says. “It really tells me about what people want to hear and what was missing.” Sankofa sticks with roots and conscious…
To the sheltered gringo, daydreams of Colombia conjure up images of picturesque beaches, tan women, and topnotch nose candy. The fantasy intensifies with smoked-filled illusions of the ever-mesmerizing Shakira, yet another of the country’s hedonistic pleasures. Known worldwide for her signature quaver and gyrating hips, the Latin pop artist has…
On the heels of his new release, Who Let the Cats Out? (Heads Up), the three-time Grammy nominee weaves various musical influences into his guitar-playing. “I am a jazz player,” he says, “but you have to follow your musical heart.” He must have learned this lesson while performing with Miles…
“Live instrumentation is really the essence of Latin musical cultural roots. The intention of this festival is to shake things up a little bit and define our own sound,” notes Yerba Buena vocalist Andres Levin. “This festival” is a four-act bill with a kitchen-sink approach to the fusion formula: Yerba…
At sixteen years old, Miami native DJ Ralph Falcon had already identified himself as an emerging house artist, quickly earning a record deal with Atlantic in the mid-Nineties. Influences such as New York DJs Timmy Regisford, Merlin Bobb, and Bobby Konders led to Falcon’s dance-pop style, which grew increasingly popular…
On the cover of this month’s DJ magazine, the influential British dance publication, Christophe Le Friant’s pure white visage stares out against a bright red and blue backdrop. And it’s not the Stars and Stripes. The headline blares, “The French Revolution,” while the name Bob Sinclar, a pseudonym for Le…
One of last year’s biggest hip-hop beefs occurred between celebrity mogul Diddy and reggaeton’s leading man, Tego Calderón. It all began gently enough when Diddy offered Tego the opportunity to be the official fashion model for his new fall line of clothing. The catch was that Puffy was willing to…
With Usher languishing in the Broadway production of Chicago, and Michael Jackson kickin’ it in the Middle East behind a burqa or two, the tap shoes must fall to seventeen-year-old R&B ingénue Chris Brown to dance the ladies right out of their hot pants via his puppy-dog-sweet tunes and gravity-defying…
