The last year has been pretty goddamn huge for Ricky Martin. He released his autobiography in both English and Spanish (titled Me and Yo, respectively) in November of 2010, giving the world a very candid look at the notoriously private superstar’s life for the first time. Then, just a few…
After kicking ass on the Israeli rock scene for years, lawfully wedded rock star duo Hank & Cupcakes decided it was time for a trip to the Americas. So they hung out in Cuba for six months before trekking up to NYC where they joined the hipsteriffic population of Williamsburg,…
Straight from scoring a gold-plated gramophone statuette for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at last Sunday’s 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, Hawaiian pop crooner Bruno Mars and his bouffant hairdo were pleading guilty to cocaine possession in a Las Vegas courtroom. Back in September, the Mars man got busted in a…
The King, the King of Pop, and half of the Fab Four are spinning in their graves. Somehow, in these terribly confused times, the Glee singers managed to place on the Billboard Hot 100 with the more songs than… You’re sitting down? Good, ’cause this sucks: anyone ever. The only possible explanation…
Like some kind of benevolent pied piper of international partydom, French electro-pop producer Martin Solveig (né Martin Picandet) bestowed last year’s Dragonette collab “Hello” upon the world, luring everyone from disco refugees, degenerate club kids, and dirty hipsters to the dance floor like hypnotized rats. And now Solveig wants to…
Unlike most bands named after seaside apparel and/or accessories (i.e. Swimshorts, Sunglasses, Sandals), bicoastal digi-pop duo Bikini doesn’t spin hazy, wavy sounds designed specifically for sunny, sandy days at the beach. Dark, distorted, and dance-y, this stuff is more like the soundtrack for a drugged-out midnight trip into deep waters…
Julieta Venegas is a shapeshifter. Hers is a constant evolution, a never-ending series of experiments wherein she tests her own boundaries. She’s not quite reinventing herself — her sound is a signature, featuring quirky upbeat vibes and a soothing, sweet vocal style. But she’s not standing still, either. Nearly a…
Richard Walbert, better known as Chip (or xCHIPxSem) has been a member of the South Florida hardcore community for many years and he has performed with some classic bands like Destro and All Hell Breaks Loose. He’s also one of the nicest people around and an impulsive cataloguer of South…
If you’re among the fortunate few whose acid-soaked inner child hasn’t been snuffed by a billion boring days at the office, then Rachel Goodrich’s twisted, jaunty tune “Light Bulb” should still fill your skull with all kinds of weird and wacky hallucinations. “You know, I like to take a dark…
Premio Lo Nuestro is here again. Now, it’s not exactly the Latin Grammys. But PLN is Univision’s next biggest night in music. And there will be beef between reggaetoneros, more fake boobs than can be found in all of Colombia, and a few celebs who will need to be carried…
“This is not bar-band music,” Fernando Perdomo says emphatically of Dreaming in Stereo 2, the followup to the band’s remarkable 2009 self-titled debut. Like its predecessor, the new album takes its cue from a distinctly ’70s sound, one that melds the orchestral style of the Moody Blues with the drama…
Despite its girly name, The Pinker Tones is a 100 percent male band formed in 2001 by two dapper dudes from Barcelona, Salvador “Mister Furia” Rey and Alex “Professor Manso” Llovet. And if you’re expecting some kind of sonic cutesiness befitting pink, you’re off the mark again. There’s nothing especially…
For those street-heads whose chronic-sucking, crip-walking heyday is 15 years behind them, Queens-born Puerto Rican rapper Victor Santiago Jr. will forever be known as Noreaga. Partnered up with fellow New York City product Kiam Akasi Halley (AKA Capone), Santiago co-owned the East Coast rap game for a solid minute in…
If folk wisdom is to be believed, a Latin person’s blood runs two or three degrees hotter than the normal core temperature of 98.6 Fahrenheit. This condition is called la pasión, and it explains why American Airlines Arena becomes a 19,000-person sweat lodge every time someone like Marco Antonio Solis…
Long before Ozzy Osbourne became reality TV’s foulmouthed Prince of Bleeping Darkness, he was the godfather of heavy metal. He earned that title fronting Black Sabbath in 1970, with the hits “Iron Man” and “Paranoid,” and by later reinventing himself as a solo artist supported by full-throttle guitarists such as…
Have you seen the very meta, ’80s-referencing music video for Dragonette and Martin Solveig’s hyperactive retro-house collabo track “Hello”? If not, dial up the YouTube immediately. All the dudes look like Björn Borg and all the ladies look like Christie Brinkley. The premise: Solveig (DJ Mag-ranked number 47) and fellow…
At 45 years old, UK drum ‘n’ bass pioneer Goldie (real name Clifford Joseph Price) has done more living and working than most men will do in a lifetime. He’s graffiti-ed the Midlands. He’s dated supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Stella Tennant. And in addition to his massive musical…
The key to making a sexy album about sex? Stop doing it. Celibacy was Jimmy Edgar’s formula for success when creating XXX, his latest full-length release on !K7. It includes raunchy tracks such as “Hot Raw Sex” and “Vibration.” Edgar’s formative years in Detroit, the electronic heart of America, gave…
Hamburg, Germany has become a serious hotbed for electronic dance music in recent years. It’s home to house and techno luminaries such as Tensake, Stimming, and Lovebirds, as well as esteemed labels like Diynamic and Liebe*Detail. Another pair of Hamburg residents, Florian Kruse and Nils Nürnberg, have been making major…
The dude’s been dead for two decades. But even so, jazz demigod, congenital rebel, and cocaine enthusiast Miles Davis looks like he’s gonna have an incredibly packed 2011. Earlier this month, the trumpet-wielding master reissued the expanded Bitches Brew Live, a soul-scorching set of electrified jazz-rock pulled from his infamously…
An unfortunate side effect of experimental music in the 21st century is the inflated discography. In this age of instant access and oversharing, demos are pressed on vinyl and every piss, moan, and fart ends up streaming on the internet. Across genres — from nü-Fonz garag to table noise, and…
The blending of genres and melding of styles is becoming as commonplace in popular modern music as cocaine lines next to grapefruit juice at Lindsey Lohan’s breakfast table. The whole world, including the biggest stars in any genre you can name, has been dabbling with mezcla of late. But just…
