What happens when Santa Claus lands his sleigh in North Miami? A whole lotta elves ditching the North Pole for the Dirty South. Either that or it’s time for Quick Hit Records’ annual hip-hop holiday. Although the Quick Hitters might be better known for rattling windshields with the thug threat…
If we’ve told you once, we’ve told you a thousand times: Go see Juanes! And if you haven’t been paying attention, then know that Juan Esteban Aristizabal is the earnest kid who came out of nowhere (okay, out of Los Angeles) to sweep the second Latin Grammys with his 2000…
Go electro till you puke at the Revolver party when Miami’s favorite digital sound lab, the Schematic Music Company, invites you to Gorge! Binge! Purge! And if you don’t know about the duo behind Schematic, take note: Romulo Del Castillo and Joshua Kay have been flicking off the music industry…
Uber remixologist Judge Jules mixes hard — house, dance, trance — putting his own spin on tunes from Paul Oakenfold to Beat Pusher in his latest triad release, Tried and Tested. Known as the People’s DJ, Judge is a host on BBC’s high-profile Radio One show, where he was responsible…
Who needs birthday candles when you’ve got an RSVP from the Radiators and Chubby “Who Stole the Hot Sauce?” Carrier? For almost a century now (okay, so we’re a decade shy), Tobacco Road has sparked up the wildest live shows in town. Not even Miami is hot enough to celebrate…
If you don’t know Teddy Pendergrass by now, you will never, never, never know soul at its most sensual. After all, it was Pendergrass — a Philadelphia native who grew up singing the Lord’s praises and was an ordained minister by the age of ten — who as much as…
Not so long ago, the fate of Cuban salsa superstar Manolín depended on the whims of a dictator and the policies of the INS. Would he stay? Would he go? Now, permanently settled in Miami, the only question that matters is, will he sell? Certainly if anyone has the cure…
What’s a rock band to do? While the White Stripes-Hives-Strokes-copycat-set suck the Sixties and Seventies dry, other rockers come on like ever-weaker aftershocks from the Nineties’ “alternative music” explosion (Pearl Jam-lite swaggerers Creed; MTV darlings du jour the Vines). Although decidedly of the latter camp, the Miami-based Stop Motion manages…
Given the current craze for anything in a mop-top and skinny tie, it will be no surprise if Kindercore Records’ the Agenda becomes the next MTV mod-revival darling. The music industry is gaga for garage rock, and the Agenda fits the bill (dollar signs were visible between the lines of…
Whatever you call the Damn Personals, please, please don’t refer to them as the saviors of rock and roll, even if their retro indie rock is the stuff that makes lazy music critics sling the clichéd term at bands like the Strokes, White Stripes, and the Hives. Working their way…
Is there something in your eye? Oh, it’s just Carlos Vives, singing “Let me in through your gaze” — you know, the windows to your soul and all that — a lyric from the song and album Déjame Entrar (Let Me In) that earned the Colombian soap-star-turned-vallenato-singer two Latin Grammys…
An emerging guitarist from Texas, Hadden Sayers bares his knuckles and jabs with powerful blues hooks on his latest Ultrasonic release, unveiling licks that aren’t so much fast as they are tasty and rich, and a voice that beams a maturity extending beyond his years, both lyrically and sonically. Formed…
Back in 1978, long-time U.K. Subs guitarist Nicky Garratt remarked to a writer that frontman Charlie Harper was old enough to be part of Beethoven’s backing band. Fast-forward almost 25 years, and at 58, Harper could easily be the cool grandpa who’s still more punk than his children’s children –…
Eight Hialeah bands kicked off the Eighth Annual Miami Rock Festival at Churchill’s Friday, a celebration wherein the pub known mainly for live rock music hosts a month of, you guessed it, live rock music. “Rock” means just about anything here. From blues rocker Jon Paris (September 21) to Miami…
In this town it seems like every time two Latin musicians get together in the same room someone calls it a descarga. For the dizzying thrill of the real thing, head to Café Nostalgia this Friday night, when a group of powerful multigenerational instrumentalists will scare up the very soul…
bird gets the smile seems to be the kind of band Miami needs. Stocked with a couple of veterans from the local scene, BGTS makes sounds of the sort commonly defined in Webzines by a morass of hyphenated music-geek terms. A quick review of online descriptions suggests that BGTS is…
Bondage — to a beat — is back. This time in Miami Beach. After nearly a six-month hiatus, the London Ballroom unleashes its fetish club night once again, promising nothing short of pure debauchery. David Cordoves inaugurated the club theme night in Miami Beach three years ago. He moved it…
Barry White. Englebert Humperdink. Jose Luis Rodriguez. When you’re ready to slip into something a little more comfortable, there’s really nowhere else to turn. Venezuelan loverman Rodriguez, better known by the name El Puma for his penetrating stare and jungle-cat appeal, has been setting the right mood for more than…
This business carbonation/Less pop — more fizz/Coming over the radio station/It’s killing us kids. Enon frontman John Schmersal knows of what he speaks. While the rest of the music world desperately tries to cram into pigeonholes for mass consumption, Enon’s goal is to spray fire over every genre possible. Postpunk,…
There is a never-ending debate over who’s the best rapper of all time. The arguments always change, but the names somehow remain constant. Rakim, ‘Pac, Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nasir Jones — a.k.a. Nas — are consistently considered rap’s lyrical upper class. Of these five emcees, though, Nas is probably your…
For LL Cool J, or Ladies Love Cool James, the man who made the terry cloth fishing hat into de rigueur streetwear, the hits just kept a-coming. From his breakout single “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” in 1985, the first for Def Jam Records, to the double-platinum Mr. Smith…
Since creating Electric Frankenstein in 1991, bassist/mad scientist Sal Canzonieri has taught his rock and roll monster well. Balls-out, AC/DC-influenced punk rock: good. Wimpy alternative rock: bad. After 11 years, 10 LPs, 10 EPs, and countless singles, Electric Frankenstein has perfected its Misfits-meets-Kiss-meets-Jerry Lee Lewis “New Rock” just in time…
