On November 13, 2004, a jolt of anguish ran through the hip-hop nation: Russell Jones was dead. The rapper known as Ol’ Dirty Bastard (also Ason Unique, Dirt McGirt, Big Baby Jesus, etc.), one of the most beloved members of Wu-Tang Clan, was found lifeless in the group’s Manhattan recording…
It’s not really album sales that propel a band into the annals of jazz history. No, it’s usually a steady fan base, good recordings, and a solid live show. It doesn’t really matter what kind of jazz is played, as long as it is honest and on the money. Spyro…
Ladies and gentlemen, this local trio is floating in space. Its tripped-out sound is a rare, galactic union of Pavement-style power-chord grit, hooky postpunk, and cerebral, swirly shoegaze. Although the band formed in 2005, the members each boast a Miami rock pedigree. Vocalist/guitarist Ivan Marchena and drummer Ed Artigas previously…
Bobby “Blue” Bland is anything but. He doesn’t play soul-rending slide guitar; he doesn’t wail away on the blues harp; he doesn’t even play an instrument. All he has is his voice, but that voice is one to make the ladies swoon and the men falter. The excitement offered up…
With a head of dreads neatly pinned back and a golden brown complexion, local MC Ephniko has heard all kinds of guesses about his origins. “It’s like folks can say ‘I’m white’ or ‘I’m Asian’ or whatever, but me, I’m just ethnic,” the 28-year-old explains over an ice-cold Corona. His…
In a recent interview, Wyclef Jean summed up, in just a few words, the very thing fans both admire and abhor about the former Fugee. Bubbling over with understandable enthusiasm for Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant, the star-studded sequel (of sorts) to his 1997 solo debut, Clef couldn’t…
Hear the one about those Time-Life commercials coming to life? Well, here it is: Vince Neil’s Motley Cruise, as disgusting, wrinkled, and leather-pants-clad as they come. If you’re not getting a case of the heebie-jeebies just yet, you will. Or hell, maybe you’re into this — I’m not one to…
Irrational exuberance is so widespread in hip-hop right now that Alan Greenspan might freak out — if he understood rap lyrics. There are no two ways about it: Hip-hop sales stink. Album sales dropped 30 percent in 2007, a figure that includes digital downloads. And ringtones, which have given folks…
Alanis, this is your time to shine. That whole Jagged Little Pill thing was just a fluke, even if it did give us the greatest moment of meta-irony — your song “Ironic” — ever to be recorded. Despite the nearly boundless sarcastic joy that little ditty brought to music critics…
I’m married. Is it cheating if I get a lap dance?” asks Mary, a plain 34-year-old with tight curly hair slicked back into a short ponytail. “I don’t know,” I reply. “How would you feel about your husband getting a lap dance? “If my man wasn’t touching anything while he…
The frenetic pace of hardcore, the combination of outrage and adrenaline, isn’t conducive to longevity. Fact is, most punkers mellow as they age. They take “real” jobs, get married, have kids — in other words, they become the people they hated when they were young and raging. This didn’t happen…
Joe Nice’s, well, niceness has helped put him and the dubstep genre he loves on the American electronic dance music map. It’s a bass-driven, dub-reggae-influenced mutation of the mostly London-outskirts-produced style of dance music known as garage (rhymes with carriage). The prototypical herky-jerky dubstep beat sounds like an early hip-hop…
Well, we’re at a point now where indie rock comes in many guises and with a lot of unexpected musical influences. Nothing wrong with a little diversity, right? Miami group Social Klash throws every sonic inspiration imaginable into the music blender on its debut album, Plastic Love, and frappés it…
I can’t believe I haven’t written about these kiddies before, but I’ll fix that soon. Black Tide are four guys from Miami who are garnering major buzz for their crunching, amped-up, old-school kinda thrashy metal sound. They’ve already got a deal with Interscope, and they’re currently touring Europe with Avenged…
In case you missed it, this year’s edition of the Village Voice’s “Pazz and Jop” poll is online. It’s an annual roundup of a bunch of music critic’s top-ten lists for the preceding year. For this big-deal anniversary edition, 577 critics responded. Jonathan Cunningham (music editor of the Broward-Palm Beach…
Sofia January 19, 2008 Harold Golen Gallery Better Than:Tiesto’s faux “progressive” electronic beats Nowadays a lot of electronic music has very little to do with the genre’s original theories of sound experimentation. During its initial stages, weird, non-melodic tonalities ruled the day. For instance, Fifties artists such as Louis and…
Marilyn Manson January 20, 2008 The Fillmore Miami Beach Better Than: You can imagine. Only a dingbat or a dolt doesn’t dig Marilyn Manson. Really. I mean, unless you’ve absolutely no sense of humor, let alone sense of the absurd, or you believe rock shouldn’t come from a loud place,…
By ANDY VIHSTADT Animal Rights Toonces the Driving Cat won’t go down in history as SNL’s crowning achievement, and my guess is the problem was casting. See what could have been with the Rosebuds’ video cover of Salt-N-Pepa’s ahh, “Push It,” or just grab the MP3 below. The Rosebuds: “Push…
The Audition PacTour: The Audition, Envy On the Coast, Danger Radio, Another Day Late Saturday, January 19, 2008 Culture Room Better Than: Dealing with the sweat and rain of an outdoor summer punk festival. I’m pretty certain that anybody who’s anybody at a South Florida high school was at the…
The Spam Allstars helped the New Times celebrate its 20th Anniversary Spam Allstars, Awesome New Republic, and Raffa & Rainer January 19, 2008 Parkwest Nightclub Better Than: Any 20th birthday party I’ve ever been to! Hundreds of people piled into Parkwest on Saturday. Of course they did, it’s not everyday…
It should be a good time as local singer, Casely, will be singing his new hit “Emotional” and Junior “One Blood” Reid has a huge catalog of songs to choose from. All the info you need to know is on the flyer above. -Jonathan Cunningham…
If you’re looking for some reggae this weekend, here’s a show to check out. Marijah & the Reggae All-Stars, voted New Times’ Best Live Band 2007 perform on the main stage at Evening on The Avenue in the Cultural Plaza between Lake and Lucerne avenues and M Street. Jan 18,…
