A side project of Miami hip-hop group Phoenicia, Soul Oddity fuses Detroit electro with Miami bass funk to create a sound that, if anything, is much more odd than soulful. Founded by producers Romulo Del Castillo and Joshua Kay in 1996 after the two supposedly saw a UFO, the band…
A jazz performance student at the University of Miami, Devin Bing has always been a little bit blue. Growing up in New York, he began playing piano at age six and performing at local blues clubs at age fifteen, and when he was eighteen, he was already headlining his own…
This Miami-based outfit composed of three international talents is a mélange of Spanish rock, pop, and salsa influences. The lyrics have soul; the music has flavor. Erick Bolívar, who began his career as a child singer on Venezuelan television and has written salsa songs for many artists, is the voice…
Classifying themselves as a retro-Latino act, Rhett y Los Borrachos Empeñados have worked hard to perfect the Latin-rock sound they’ve strived for since they began the band two years ago. Their music varies from sensitive soft-rock to faster funk, all the while maintaining the band’s Cuban roots. All four members…
Opening its metaphorical door in 2000, the Green Room is the musical cooperative founded by Colombian-born Jorge Mejia. Though he sports a degree in piano performance from the University of Miami, the 33-year-old Mejia is as adept at New Wave-style rock — something evident with one spin of his first…
If you’re a follower of the local hipster club scene, you’ve probably heard of Marqui Adora. But you’ve probably rarely, if ever, actually seen the group play. Since last year, the moody three-piece has only infrequently emerged from the shadows that inform its dark, postpunk sound. Tonight’s show, though, might…
Of the slew of Big Bad Apple bands to emerge at the beginning of this decade, few have culled the core like the Walkmen. Brash, blasted, and organic, they took what was best about a bar-room brawl and rooted it in the heavens. Best, they did it without the garage-rock…
Above all, Humbert is from Hialeah and proud. A city better known for its equally convoluted politics and street grids than its cultural output, Hialeah’s best-known musical export to date is KC and the Sunshine Band. Still, a tiny subculture of live rock acts has persisted there, and the four-member…
Hailing from the Bronx, the Juggaknots first made waves in the mid-Nineties New York scene with appearances on famed DJ Bobbito Garcia’s radio shows. MCs Buddy Slim and Breeze Brewin spit laid-back rhymes over slightly jazzy beats, perfectly encompassing post-D.A.I.S.Y.-age East Coast hip-hop. Their out-of-print 1996 debut LP resurfaced as…
Whether art, music, or film, Miami festivals are as inescapable as the heat this summer. The seventh installment of the Rock vs. Art series sizzles amid the ranks of fellow fetes with a marriage of underground music and art. The event spans more genres than a worldly DJ’s vinyl collection,…
House, techno, jungle, drum ‘n’ bass, breakbeat. To an outsider, these terms equate to simply “untz, untz, untz.” But for EDM insiders, these subgenres are as distinct as twins are to their parents. Consider T.S. Heritage the ultimate insider. You won’t find him venturing into one of the megaclubs or…
There’s a reason why people brave the lines and the heat and the bums to get into the Pawn Shop Lounge. And though some credit might go to the wonderful bar staff (you go, Joel!), most of it goes to the peeps behind the tables — those rhythmic readers of…
In a world of diminishing returns and softening sensibilities, it’s nice to see five regular dudes find themselves on common ground. They mix it up with enough technical know-how to help them stand out, but not enough to make it boring or godly, though they still retain that endearing rawness…
Ah, just when you thought some guys had vanished, you’re reminded they are still out there, making the rounds, filling arenas and stadiums across the Hispanophone world. A simple singer who has always distinguished himself with bare melodies and the symbiotic relationship between guitar and voice (with the occasional addition…
The three men of Santos formed a quick and immediately productive bond a few years ago. And it is evident that the laid-back environs of Cocoa Beach and the idylls of a lackadaisical Central Florida lifestyle have gelled them a fine acoustic-rock sound with enough tinges of soul and R&B…
Friday evening has another super new party for you to either get your dance on all night or hit during the downtown hop (which always ends at Goldrush for some bizarre reason). The Pawn Shop’s offering for main-room action in celebration of the work-week’s end is Detour Fridays, and your…
Three pimply dudes convince some cute chick to front their after-school ska-pop-punk band. That’s their story. Or at least it’s the one I’m sticking to, ’cause they seem awfully young and no real explanation has been made available. This is for sure: By the time they load their stuff into…
Active for almost ten years, L.A. Symphony comprises a core of five MCs backed by a rotating cast of DJs and producers. Despite the group’s geographical origins, tales of lowriders and pimps are eschewed in favor of a more intellectual approach. Still, Los Angeles’s cultural legacy permeates every song. The…
Born in Trinidad to a violinist father and a mother who worked as a piano teacher, Othello Molineaux was unsurprisingly turned on to music at a very young age. After learning piano as a child, he moved onto the steelpan, a pitched percussion instrument native to Trinidad and Tobago, which…
Performing as Hydroplane since 2003, Renzo Gorrio produces a mix of experimental hip-hop, electronica, and weird shit thrown in with some handclaps and whoop-whoops. This particular musical endeavor (Gorrio is also active in live music, such as the recently sadly-winding-down Objects in Transit and the new project Late Night Curly)…
When Gil Scott-Heron spit “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” in 1970, he was condemning crass commercialization. Fast-forward 36 years and Scott-Heron’s message has been remixed for modern sensibilities. Spoken-word artist/underground promoter Chris Imperial, of the Grassroots Collective, and director Ean Smith are filming an artistic revolution of their own…
The eclectic and eccentric Diplo seems to defy classification with genre-splicing tracks that lace reggae-styled vocals over Eighties hip-hop beats — not to mention his contrasting work spinning party mixes as half of the Hollertronix collective and his production of an instrumental hip-hop record. Much like his prehistoric namesake (taken…
