For the first six albums, a dozen years into their collective career, the North Mississippi Allstars took a more traditional approach to their rural, rootsy designs, resulting in a sound that paid homage to blues by the book. Then again, that’s not surprising considering their family pedigree — two members…
The versatile multilingual vocalist Elin was born in Sweden, but you would never know it by listening to her. Her style has a strong Brazilian influence even when she is belting out standards like Gershwin’s “Fascinating Rhythm” or her own compositions, as heard on her début CD, Lazy Afternoon (Blue…
It seems crazy to say this, but it’s been 21 years since No Use For a Name debuted as a band. In other words, the band as an entity can legally drink; a substantial number of its fans cannot. Pop-punk intrinsically seems like a genre made both for and by…
Never mind the misleading band name: Average White Band were racially mixed, but still hailed from very unfunky Scotland. Amazingly, the [usually] sextet created a brand of Seventies R&B with a serious swing that sounded really American, and really soulful. Their songs were rife with juicy breakbeats, and as such…
It looks like McDonald’s is going after the urban crowd with this one. “Cha cha now y’all.” — Jonathan Cunningham…
By ANDY VIHSTADT Sex & Violence For your viewing pleasure: the new Kanye West video, directed by Spike Jonze. Much like his 1995 vid for Wax’s “Southern California” (reminisce here), Jonze shows his penchant for slow motion and fire. Add a shovel-wielding lingerie model to the equation and you’ve got…
Its’ silly that folks still resort to treating entertainers like this but some idiot at a recent Pitbull show got in a real cheap shot by launching a bottle at the Miami rapper’s head. The video below shows it in slow-mo afterward so don’t worry if you miss it the…
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone February 16, 2007 The White Room Better Than: Having Dostoevsky read to you by an ex-lover. Hard to believe anyone would put their faith in heartbreak, let alone turn out en masse to listen to it. But that’s Miami – ever ready to flip the…
Everybody’s favorite local 305 hip-hop curator, DJ Khaled, is movin’ on up yet again. Yesterday, he announced the launch of his new record label, We the Best Music (named after his 2007 album, of course, We the Best). It’ll be ecxlusively partnered up with and distributed by Def Jam Entertainment,…
One of our sister papers in Texas, the Houston Press, has this great list today of 10 hip-hop break-up songs, “because Valentine’s Day is for suckas.” Among the selections from the list of mostly dirty south jams: “Crampin’ My Style” by UGK, “Dirty Bitch” by Geto Boys, and reppin’ the…
There is a part in Nick Hornby’s novel About a Boy where Kurt Cobain’s image on a T-shirt is described as Jesus. For many, that idea is not far from the truth. Is there anything more iconic than a dead rock star? Anything more romantic, even, than one who has…
No Use for a Name has been around for 20 years, which is staggering when you consider that just about as many people know the punk band’s name today as in 1987, though that might have something to do with the fact that it has no use for one. Then…
Robert Plant once ad-libbed, “Does anybody remember laughter?” during a live go-’round of Led Zeppelin’s radio-worn, double-headed guitar epic “Stairway to Heaven.” The quip laid into general rock-deity ennui: Plant in painted-on denim atop his own Mount Doom, surveying what’s been conquered and then vocalizing his surprise at finding it…
You don’t need to know the music of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone to know that somehow, somewhere, sometime, you too have trod down that same long, dark road. But it helps, if only for the fact that you can commiserate. You might even get a bit gleeful hearing how…
Better hook up the Red Bull I.V. — DJ Boris is on his way to Space. The Russian-born 35-year-old is known as much for his marathon club sets (15 hours at Crobar in 2006, 22 hours at Nocturnal during the 2007 Winter Music Conference) as for his ever-growing list of…
It ain’t no disco when Second Sun blows up a room, or at least that’s not how the Miami DJ duo looks at it. Sure, a lot of knob-twiddling is going on when the pair makes its hypnotizing house and trance sounds. But Antoine Toupin and Adam Cavaluzi, who met…
Known primarily for his role as bassist in Bla Fleck’s Grammy-winning New Grass Revival band the Flecktones, Victor Wooten is a phenomenal composer and bandleader in his own right. Widely respected by fellow musicians and acclaimed by the bass cognoscenti (he’s the only three-time winner of Bass Player magazine’s Bass…
A group of Central American and Mexican men waits eagerly outside the Medrano Express courier offices in Homestead for a five-dollar snapshot. They’re posing next to local talent Lily Alvarez, a sweet, voluptuous Guatemalan gal in a silver sequined top who could pass for Selena. Most of these migrants left…
South Florida isn’t exactly a hub for jazz. Despite the fact that a few solid jazz musicians have retired here and that some damn fine players were raised here, the culture of jazz itself doesn’t seem to stick. So it’s a pleasant shock when an international jazz musician moves from…
Lenny Kravitz hates it when critics call him retro, contending that, like Mark McGwire, he’s not here to talk about the past. Further, he goes on, love, revolution, and smooching should belong to every generation. But the problem with Kravitz’s new album, It Is Time for a Love Revolution, is…
The music of Brazil is constantly being revitalized. The latest hotspot, the state of Pernambuco, doesn’t boast the flavorful vibe of Rio or the hefty smack of São Paulo. In fact Pernambuco’s capital city, Recife, was once named the fourth-worst city in the world to live in. But now, on…
The release in 1987 of Pato Banton’s Never Give In was, in retrospect, something of a watershed moment. Though it may not have been immediately recognized as such, the album marked the beginning of the contemporary era of reggae. After the 1981 death of Bob Marley, reggae had been in…
