Very, Very Cool Blog/Florida Music Archive: Cosmic Hearse

A while ago, I posted about a very cool blog called the South Florida Music Scene Past and Present, which is devoted to hosting downloadable versions of all kinds of yesteryear goodness. Luckily, the blog’s creator, Chip (formerly of the Miami hardcore band Destro) continues to update it, still focusing…

Also Not Basel-Related: Jason Mraz, Dec. 5

To haters, this Mechanicsville, Virginia native is a purveyor of Top-40 shlock, yet another pretty boy with a sincere face and a soul as deep as a wading pool. Well, that set wouldn’t get within 100 yards of a Jazon Mraz concert, so it’s better to take a look at…

Completely NOT Basel-Related: Nic Fanciulli at Mansion Dec. 6

Yes, while everyone else is running around in a pseudo-art-related frenzy, there are a few big events this week that are absolutely NOT related to Art Basel. It seems almost anticlimactic to talk about them, though, with all the big-deal one-off events going on. Still, here’s something for the frequent…

Art Basel Week: Prefuse 73 and Eliot Lipp, Dec. 7

Shoring up Heathrow’s more dancefloor-friendly offerings is tonight’s party, which tends more towards the experimental and heavy. Prefuse 73 was born Guillermo Scott Herren in Miami but grew up in Atlanta; still, he remains popular locally thanks to his releases on labels like Schematic and Warp. With a dizzying discography…

Wednesday Night: Q-Tip at Revolution

Photo by Eddie RosenstockQ-Tip with The Cool KidsWednesday, November 26, 2008Revolution, Fort LauderdaleBetter Than: Watching Q-Tip live on Letterman.The Review: Rap shows normally feature an MC accompanied by a tour DJ and a laptop, but when an artist such as Q-Tip brings a tight band with him onstage alongside the…

Art Basel Week: Pink Reason and Times New Viking, Dec. 7

The last of the Art Basel week shows at the Kill Your Idols space kicks off with a set from Brooklyn-based Pink Reason, currently a trio but really the brainchild of Kevin Failure, the band’s frontman. It sounds a little like Joy Division or another post-punk act put through a…

Danny Daze Mixes Things Up For Scion Radio

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, ya’ll! Well, in case you are in need of a rump-shakin’ soundtrack for Black Friday, Danny Daze is here to provide the goods. In his newest mix, created specifically for Scion Radio’s Turntable Lab channel, Daze drops electro beats over thumpin’ Miami bass grooves…

Last Night: Madonna at Dolphin Stadium

MadonnaWednesday, November 26, 2008Dolphin Stadium, Miami GardensI am writing this to you at 2 a.m. exactly, which is the time you get home if you live in Wilton Manors and go to Madonna concerts in Miami. Madonna does awful things to the Golden Glades Exchange. Madonna makes “lanes” meaningless and…

Art Basel Week: Sex Vid, Caustic Christ, and Annihilation Time, Dec. 6

The elusive Seattle/Olympia hardcore-ish band is cult-famous for its refusal to make a web site or even properly record and distribute its music. The Pittsburgh foursome Caustic Christ has toured with similarly deliciously named bands like Municipal Waste — ’nuff said. Meanwhile, the songs on Annihilation Time III: Tales of…

Turkey Tunes

In honor of Thanksgiving, the most gastronomically satisfying of our holidays, some of our favorite musical artists reflect on the songs from the past year that they’re most grateful for. Cary Brothers: “Comes and Goes (In Waves),” Greg Laswell “Laswell’s a good buddy, and damn if he’s not a ridiculously…

Shai Hulud

Few bands better embody metalcore than Broward County expat Shai Hulud. Though now based in Poughkeepsie, New York, the group was originally founded in the mid-Nineties by guitarists/Uncle Sam’s Records employees Matt Fox and Oliver Chapoy. Their initial sound was further propelled by the youthful exuberance of then-14-year-old future New…

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

When a friend asked Owen Ashworth for a collection of gloomy original tunes, the fledgling composer responded with a mixtape he christened Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. The name stuck when he began playing solo gigs, accompanied by gently pulsing electronic beats and tinny melodies from chintzy synthesizers. Ashworth’s vocals…

The Postmarks Leave Their Stamp with a New Album

A covers album from a South Florida combo is hardly breaking news, considering this a locale where well-crafted original music is a rare commodity. But when you’re talking about the sophomore set from the Postmarks, a group widely hailed for purveying a distinctive style, it should bring you up short…

Head Spins: DJ Ed Whitty

Carlow, Ireland, is about as far away from South Beach, Florida, as one can get and still be in the same hemisphere. (Actually, since the dominion lies along the prime meridian, it is common to both the Western and Eastern hemispheres, but you knew that already.) Throughout nearly the entire…

The Kinks’ Ray Davies Plays Solo at The Fillmore

The prospect of a Kinks reunion seems unlikely, despite persistent rumors in the music press. Still, Ray Davies, the legendary band’s frontman and main songwriter, continues to soldier on, four years after being shot during a mugging in New Orleans’ French Quarter. At age 63, Davies has lost none of…

Quintron and Miss Pussycat

New Orleans has its own force of gravity — it’s stronger and more targeted than the scientific law governing the rest of nature. Call it voodoo if you like, or an imposing piece of dark matter disguised as real estate — but Quintron and Miss Pussycat might correct you, referring…

I Set My Friends on Fire

The seemingly out-of-nowhere appearance of the young Kendall duo I Set My Friends on Fire has been recounted in these pages several times in recent months. But just to recap: Teenagers Matt Mihana and Nabil Moo, formerly of a more by-the-numbers post-hardcore band, wanted to form a new project. They…

Homegrown, featuring ArtOfficial and the Spam Allstars

While seemingly the whole highbrow world descends on Miami Beach for the official opening of Art Basel, across the causeway The Vagabond kicks off the artsy extravaganza with a locals-centric fiesta. Okay, so Miami New Times is an official sponsor of the event, but it’s never a bad time to…

Cuban Drama Queen Lives Again at Viernes Culturales

La Lupe, the patron saint of Cuba’s Latin soul movement is being immortalized in film.La Mala is a Spanish drama based on the life of Guadalupe Yoli Raymond and named after one of La Lupe’s most famous songs. In it, Miami’s own Lena Burke puts on a hell of a…

Art Basel Week: Modernage and Tommie Sunshine, Dec. 5

Tommie SunshineThe Vagabond continues its Friday party tradition of live music on the patio, with scorching elecro on the inside. This edition, in a big ASICS-sponsored fiesta of free giveaways and a giant Lite Brite-style installation, features locals Modernage onstage. The quartet recently released its latest EP, Sirhan Sirhan, featuring…