Sweet New Jersey has had a bad rap for so long now it’s beginning to tarnish great summertime vacation memories of visiting my relatives in Newark. Quick facts about the Garden State: Pre-psychic friends Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, and Connie Francis hail from there; the first solid-body guitar (Les Paul,…
Michelle Riu isn’t exactly what one might expect of a local singer/songwriter. There are no syncopated salsa rhythms or thumping reggaeton bass lines here. Instead her Cuban ancestry fuses with Southern sensibilities, making her songs a welcome addition to the often-nebulous pop-country genre. Her thick, smoky warble is evocative of…
Juan Gabriel is arguably among the more important figures in modern Mexican music, having written some of its most famous songs, including “Querida,” “Hasta Que Te Conocí,” and “Amor Eterno.” Gabriel has also worked extensively as a producer (for Rocio Dúrcal, Lucha Villa, Lola Beltrán, and even Paul Anka) and…
Kirk Franklin was abandoned as an infant by his biological mother and, never knowing his father, was raised by his Aunt Gertrude, a deeply religious woman who paid for his piano lessons by collecting aluminum cans. He became fascinated with gospel music and by age eleven was directing adult choirs…
Brazilian Girls make rhythmic, danceable melodies infused with creative, truthful, and sometimes very personal lyrics, but more important, the trio knows how to put on a beautiful, almost hypnotic live performance. Sabina Sciubba boasts the vocal mastery and stage presence of songstress legends like Debbie Harry and the cool calm…
Are they goth? Are they rock? Does it matter? The Sisters of Mercy have put together more than two decades of smash hits, public roustabouts, great lines, and other oddities. Okay, so they don’t have any smash hits, but try telling that to the rabid fan base the Sisters have…
Styles come and fads go, yet thankfully the funk always lurks, its spirit manifest in different forms and from unlikely tributaries. Believe it or not, New Orleans’ Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes hail from classical-music backgrounds. At Loyola U., goateed bandleader Johnny Sketch (a.k.a. Marc Paradis) majored in cello…
What began as a shits-‘n’-giggles-in-the-basement kind of band has grown into an unstoppable street punk/Oi! force to be reckoned with. The Dropkick Murphys even have a competitive hockey squad in the Boston area. So ten years, five full-lengths, and a bucketful of singles later, these Irish-American rovers stand atop the…
Not unlike Richard Jordan’s Sandman character in Logan’s Run, there is something sexy about Miami’s long-running New Wave/postpunk luminaries that creeps out from around the corners of well-crafted songs. Multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer Omar Cuellar has been around for God knows how long with the on-again, off-again Francis 7 project…
Queen without Freddie Mercury? Isn’t that like the Doors without Jim Morrison (the laughable Doors of the 21st Century notwithstanding)? Or INXS without Michael Hutchence, especially after the band anointed his would-be successor on a TV talent show? After all, when Paul McCartney recycles the Beatles catalogue in concert, he…
Remember back in 2002, around the time Rolling Stone magazine famously and lamely declared that rock was finally back, we were hit by an avalanche of bands trying to sound like the White Stripes or look exactly like the Strokes? Now we can all safely say that the Hives are…
What is it about California that causes its young to thrash out on Les Pauls and Fender Strats in such large (and high-quality) numbers? From Agent Orange to Rancid, each new generation of Golden Staters seems to take up the punk rock cause, with Bay Area band No Use for…
When Bob Marley died in 1981, a seismic shift in reggae was set into motion. Island New Wave shook Kingston clubs in the form of dancehall. The man credited as the pioneer called himself Yellowman. His beats attracted legions — at one point he had 40 singles charting the island…
Talented singer-songwriter Aimee Mann first appeared on the scene back in the mid-Eighties with post-New Wave group ‘Til Tuesday and its one-hit catapult and corresponding video “Voices Carry.” Who knew the statuesque lead singer would craft such biting yet tender and slyly humorous songs, dripping with juicy pop hooks, on…
Indie rock works in discordance to popular music, that much we know. But let’s be honest; without pop there is no indie, and without indie there is no reason to shred the whole thing in a blender. The albums released by Elephant 6 Collective offshoot Of Montreal sound like a…
If this blurb about the much-anticipated Wu-Tang reunion show were written in Wu-Song Format, it’d go something like this: First a clip from Scarface would play. Next we would hear some people get into an argument about how someone is trying to “rob their gate.” Then there’d be gunshots for…
Torche has been cutting mighty swaths with its down-tuned scythe for some time now; its full-length debut on Robotic Empire Records last year has garnered praise from both indie and major press camps. These veterans of the local scene are rumored to have most of a second album completed, and…
Miami will remain on the cutting edge of music for at least another year after it kicks off the fourth annual Heineken TransAtlantic Festival with Bajofondo Remixed. Over eighteen long seasons, the Rhythm Foundation has presented acts that blend traditional indigenous music with the latest electro flavors. Call it techno…
Ed Artigas is restless and relentless. When the Miami musician isn’t hunting down beautiful women to rep power-pop bands, he’s working on his record label, Spy-Fi Records. And after beloved indie rockers Bling-Bling split up last year, Artigas wasted no time in moving on to the next project, the shoegazing…
Planeside has been slowly picking up momentum and accolades from peers and fans, and it’s easy to see why. The rhythm section of Craig Sala (drums) and Ken Hirasaki (bass) has been at it since the boys’ teenage years with Joni’s Butterfly, a New England band whose name was borrowed…
If you’re anything like me, you spent much of your childhood wondering just what was up with those perennially sad and generally bothersome parents. With 1988’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince articulated those feelings of generational separation and existential detachment. The Fresh Prince was…
George Van Orsdel has taken his penchant for rockabilly, punk, and horror to a whole other level. The ubiquitous hometown favorites the Van Orsdels have begun their own monthly party, dubbed Psychobilly Spookshow Saturdays, at the spookiest venue in Miami, Churchill’s Pub. Van Orsdel made his name in Miami as…
