Among the most pervasive and enduring dichotomies in music criticism is the one separating the romantic sentimentalist from the dogmatic politician. Although the line generally holds true — imagine cuddling up next to Chuck D or discussing politics with Mariah Carey — there are exceptions. Nina Simone, more so than…
What do you give the world’s most famous DJ for his latest globetrotting tour? How about a traveling half-million-dollar stage show complete with buto dancers, taiko drummers, trapeze acrobats, carnival showgirls, a chorus of singers, 100 lasers, and some hair-singeing pyrotechnics? It’s a worthy start, at least, to compliment Tiësto,…
With heavy hearts, we report that indie fixture The Brand is departing South Florida for the gray skies of London. Over the past three years, few bands have been as instrumental in helping to foster Miami’s fledgling local indie rock scene. Musically the band made an instant impact after its…
Underdog New York hardcore got a little out of hand in the Seventies, when its practitioners began hitting the gym after band practice. Soon hundreds, if not thousands, of semi-metal acts began bombarding us with “chugga-chugga” breakdowns and deep, guttural screams. NY’s Underdog can claim being there when it all…
The dance music festival season has traditionally begun in Candyland. Held at Nocturnal this year, the Candyland event has been around even longer than Winter Music Conference and holds the title of Florida’s longest-running dance music festival. In the past ten years, it has played host to everyone from Josh…
Although he first landed on the scene in 1989 with his classic Frankie Knuckles collaboration “Tears,” another decade would pass before Satoshi Tomiie implanted himself in the national dance-floor consciousness. His critically acclaimed 2000 debut, Full Lick, featured the hits “Love in Traffic” and “Up in Flames” and established Tomiie…
DJ Tom Laroc has thousands of records, and every Thursday he brings more than 2000 of them to the Pawn Shop to spin a seven-hour mix that encompasses everything from hip-hop and R&B to reggae and freestyle. His sets have become increasingly popular with the bobbing masses of SoBe exiles…
With the exception of a handful of songs — most notably 1999’s “Yo Se Que Es Mentira” (“I Know It’s a Lie”) and 2001’s “Dime Corazón” (“Tell Me, My Love”) — Cuban pop balladeer Amaury Gutierrez has enjoyed little commercial success since leaving the communist island more than a decade…
Although he took his musical apprenticeship with the legendary Junior Wells, an evening with Albert Castiglia isn’t just another cruise through the blues. A consummate showman, Castiglia peppers his performances with witty repartee, offbeat and impromptu asides, original songs, and material mined from a diverse classic rock repertoire. The Coral…
George Clinton’s musical career began almost 40 years ago when he literally stepped out of the barbershop with his doo-wop outfit, The Parliaments, and scored big with the 1967 hit “I Wanna Testify.” Not bad for a teen from Jersey. However, not until the P-Funk mothership rocketed from his brain…
Felix da Housecat (a.k.a. Felix Stallings, Jr.) is one of dance music’s most artistically respected and commercially successful figures. His eclectic DJ sets — composed of equal parts house, funk, and New Wave — are immediately accessible and completely unpredictable, appealing to both the hardcore club crowd and the rock…
Spanish-to-English-Dictionary Tereso: n. (1) Literal: Argentine slang for a piece of shit; (2) Modern: an Argentine rock band created in Miami whose hard-driving, retro-grunge rock causes audiences to bang their heads, shake their butts, and flail like entranced Pentecostals tripping into sideways jumping jacks. After eleven years rocking the local…
It has certainly been a long, strange, but beneficial trip for Perpetual Groove since the group began touring in the fall of 2002. Singer/guitarist Brock Butler and bassist Adam Perry met in 1998 as freshmen at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Once they added a drummer and keyboardist…
Like capitalism with a bass thump, the spectre of Murk looms large over the Miami dance community. Murk members Oscar G and Ralph Falcon have helped define the “Miami sound” with their dark, ominous take on house music. Separately they’ve had residencies at almost every club that matters (currently you…
Modern rap beefs may be played out behind the security of dis tracks and radio interviews, but true-skool enthusiasts know that hip-hop in its rawest and most directly aggressive form can be found only at an MC freestyle battle. If you’ve never seen one in person, they are at turns…
Buju Banton’s evolution as an artist is as evident on his album covers as it is in his music. Mr. Mention features a narrow-eyed gangsta clad in a leopard-print chiffon-sleeved shirt. Til Shiloh shows the first dreadlocks unfurling from his head like a flower’s petals. His most recent album, Friends…
Check this Crescent City six-string slinger’s CV and you’ll find him backing some of the most iconic performers of the past 30 years: the Neville Brothers, Bob Dylan, Dr. John, the Funky Meters, and literally hundreds more. Dylan even gave the man props in his biography: “The other guitar player,…
Ask around about who is the next Miami MC to transition from a local talent to a national force, and chances are you’ll hear the name Garcia pop up more often than not. With a battering-ram flow as terse as it is rhythmic, and a sense of street bravado that…
Sick of new-school rockers whose grasp of music history begins with the 1977 release of the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks and ends with Gang of Four’s 1981 album Solid Gold? If so, we suggest you check out pop blues group Spiritmachine. There’s a hint of Keith Richards’s bluesy…
It’s only fitting that Miami, the Jamaican music mecca of the U.S., would host a reggae festival that transcends the typical concert parameters. The South Florida Family Reggae Festival will feature your usual procession of stalwart supergroups such as Third World, Marcia Griffiths, Chrisinti, and the Fourth Dimension Band. But…
With more than 60 bands and DJs spread over thirteen hours and six stages on Bicentennial Park’s waterfront site, Bang! is the largest show to hit South Florida in some time. Taking a cue from recent festivals such as Coachella and Los Angeles’s Nocturnal Wonderland, the Bang! lineup includes a…
In recent years fans of hardcore have suffered from too many frilly pseudo acts lauding their supposed “skills and technique.” But don’t despair, young thrashers, help is on the way. With a lineup of artists that stretches from coast to coast, and with each act supporting recent recordings, Street Brutality…
