When word began bouncing around the New Times compound a few weeks ago that there was a pair of new, internationally flavored additions to Miami’s nightlife scene, my interest was piqued. This city may be a melting pot of all things Latin and Caribbean, and I love it for that,…
Snoop has been one of our most cherished hip-hop icons since his debut solo video, 1993’s anthropomorphic “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” In the first phase of his career, he was Shaggy to Dr. Dre’s Fred — maybe slightly mischievous and dopey but too silly to be taken seriously…
Over the past few years, a new niche market has opened up in the hip-hop world. Instead of catering to teens — hip-hop’s traditional market — this segment of the genre targets those who grew up loving hip-hop in the Eighties or Nineties but have since integrated themselves into the…
In 2004 Sweat Records established itself as ground zero for Miami’s fledgling indie scene. Store owners Sara Yousuf and Lauren “Lolo” Reskin not only offered the most diverse selection of CDs and records in Miami-Dade, but also created a sense of indie community by hosting live shows by local acts…
It is clear from the opening riff of “Nü Rock” that Morningwood is not trying to make a grand statement. The quartet’s self-titled debut album is supposed to be good, trashy fun and nothing more. The music is derivative, with guitarist Richard Steel playing second-hand riffs and aping your favorite…
Whether providing guest spots for UK indie darlings such as Zero 7, Jamiroquai, and Massive Attack, or scoring the denouement for the HBO series Six Feet Under, Sia’s vocals are sad and slinky, as if she has her arms around your neck and is pulling you close to whisper dismal…
It is a gross presumption that all Chileans who are transplanted to Germany become exquisite microhouse producers, but the alternately minimal and multifarious tracks of expats such as Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano, and Dandy Jack only reinforce the stereotype. Under the Dandy Jack moniker, Martin Schopf concerns himself less with the…
Panda Bear frontman Noah Lennox, better known for his role in Animal Collective, jolts the bare-bones astringency of his solo debut, Young Prayer. “I’m Not” is low-watt ambiance: all distant voices, dying-battery beatbox, and dimming nimbus. “Comfy,” meanwhile, crinkles and claps along with a loping “Missa Luba” chant as led…
Elisa Ambrogio, you so crazy! A tribute to gray-haired Californian-turned-New Yorker Joan Didion — an author of considerable deliberation and grace — antithetically rendered as an abrasive, No Wave wig-out? No doubt the subject of this atonal salute would recoil from the tug-of-war feedback drone erupting into a Bunnybrains-style, madly…
Turns out that when coupled with British accents, a bobbing bass line, and pulsing beats, getting the brush-off can actually be a totally sweet experience. New Wave and Brit postpunk intersect neatly in this pointed, nearly taut call for privacy, as singers Ros Allen, Bethan Peters, and Julz Sale sound…
With 50’s opening verse, “G-g-g-G-Unit!” sample, sung chorus, and distractingly addictive backing track, seminal Queens Bridge group Mobb Deep’s presence on its own single is nearly irrelevant. Odds are they don’t really give a shit, and, unless you’re allergic to lightweight party tracks, you don’t need to give it much…
When dance music first took off in the Seventies and Eighties, club DJs ignored genre boundaries and played whatever they wanted. The results were unpredictable and exciting blends that left ecstatic clubbers guessing what the DJ had in store next. Chicago’s Derrick Carter was influenced by this movement and played…
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…
The Strokes First Impressions of Earth (RCA) The Strokes were labeled the saviors of NYC’s rock and roll scene in 2001. But in the ensuing years, all the tricks that made the fab five so exciting — snappy hooks, drunken confessions of love/lust, and off-balance, VU-meets-AOR riffs — began to…
The Strokes were labeled the saviors of NYC’s rock and roll scene in 2001. But in the ensuing years, all the tricks that made the fab five so exciting — snappy hooks, drunken confessions of love/lust, and off-balance, VU-meets-AOR riffs — began to sound just as tired as the endless…
Only a few short years ago, a Wisin y Yandel album would have meant little to international hip-hop playas such as Ja Rule. How quickly things change. With reggaeton now firmly implanted as the musical ambassador of the Latin American world, and Ja’s star fading further amid litigation and mediocrity,…
By employing the chopped and screwed mix method — a style developed by Houston’s own DJ Screw that slows down a song’s tempo for a lurching, dizzying effect akin to a codeine-cough-syrup high — Southern DJs have produced a spate of slurring, visceral remix albums that often sound better than…
Beck’s 2005 full-length Guero revealed the folk-rock-rap-whatever artist’s usual ironic self-awareness. The title, for one, translates to “white boy,” belying a record drizzled with country twang, Mexican slang, grungy hip-hop, orchestral bossa nova, and electronica funk. Out of that mélange comes Guerolito, on which different producers have remixed every Guero…
Troubleman Unlimited Wooden Wand’s track doesn’t chronicle the flood per se as much as it does the messy, boggy aftermath. A moldy, nightmare glut of tuneless gypsy guitar plucks, one-drum pum-pums, and weak, strangulated woodwind wisps accompanies Satya Sai and Rev. Wand as they wade through the monotonous wreckage: “The…
Self-described tramp Ariel “Pink” Rosenberg transforms impounded auto lemons into neutered pop lemonade, sharing a stern, scratchy voicemail from his unwilling-to-cough-up-much-needed-ducats dad before sliding into a rambling, anti-fi netherworld of nut-squeezing, multitrack falsetto pukes and warped, rickety disco axe licks. As usual, the fruit of his labor is a glorious…
