For nearly two decades, the Mexican alt-rock stars of Café Tacuba have systematically dissolved the language barrier. Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the most important bands in the hemisphere,” the quartet (flanked live by Alejandro Flores on violin) has a distinctly arty sound. The band’s most…
You shoulda been with me last Saturday. I was at Diddy’s house for his birthday out on Star Island,” says local music impresario Bigg D. He leans back in the leather seat of his new Bentley as he drives south on I-95. “You ever eat lunch at Tootsies?” he asks…
Forget boy bands and Barry Manilow; Christmas music might be the ultimate guilty pleasure. It’s inherently corny, unrepentantly joyful, and the tiniest bit reverent — which are all qualities largely reviled by rock and roll purists. And although you would be forgiven for never wanting to hear “Jingle Bells” ever…
The production work of Scott Herren began as a study in diametric personalities. The Brooklyn- and Atlanta-based producer emerged full force in 2000 under the aliases Delarosa & Asora, Savath & Savalas, and Prefuse 73. With each compounding persona, he further established the contrast between crate-digging and digital-signal-processing, between pastoral…
Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan may have embraced new-agey spirituality and wine-collecting in his middle age, but one thing’s for damn certain: The guy’s still got a warped sense of humor. And he’s bound to hit Tool fans where it hurts on this, his first solo release. Keenan has been…
If you’re a local musician, or even just a dedicated showgoer, chances are that you are familiar with the man known as Notorious Nastie (www.myspace.com/notoriousnastiemusic). With his hoarse, Wolfman Jack-style voice, the infamous music promoter is taking over the airwaves with a weekly gig on the University of Miami’s radio…
That’s what I said? But last night around 6 p.m., my phone was ringing off the hook from a publicist trying to get me to do a sit-down interview with P who’ll be here today talking about his upcoming album, HNIC2. If you don’t already know, Prodigy was recently sentenced…
So Rick Ross’ upcoming album, Trilla, has been pushed back to February 08. That’s probably a good thing considering everything Def Jam has put out in the fourth quarter this year has felt like a tax write-off without any real push. Ghostface and Beanie Sigal immediately come to mind. Since…
By ANDY VIHSTADT Stephen Malkmus, at left Gold Soundz Along with the deluxe version of Pavement’s Brighten the Corners, Stephen Malkmus will be issuing solo LP4 in 2008. You Ain’t No Picasso’s has more info and a live version of the title-track from the forthcoming Real Emotional Trash, due March…
South Florida’s mixtape king, DJ GQ, is having an album release party this Saturday, at Art Bar in downtown Fort Lauderdale. He’s dropping the Let Em Know Vol. 20 mixtape with guest appearances from DMX, Junior Reid, Pitbull, Trina, Kevin Lyttle, Mr. Vegas, and N.O.R.E., all of which are not…
Let me preface this by clarifying something: I’ve got great gams. It’s true. Everyone has something: hair that doesn’t go flat, perfectly long lashes, soulful eyes, curvy hips. But me, I’m a legs girl, so it’s strange that I don’t think about them all that often. In fact, until last…
Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Iggy Pop and the Stooges performed as part of the Art Basel kick-off. See a slideshow from the concert. “I AM YOU!!!” Stooges frontman Iggy Pop bellowed, extending a bony finger at the swirling mass of flesh bouncing up and down on the sand in Collins…
If you have breasts and attended a Mötley Crüe concert in the Eighties, odds are you had sex with one of, some of, or all of the band members. But, ahh, wasn’t that the raison d’être for being a rock star during the greatest decade of rock decadence mankind will…
Whether they know it or not, most radio-listening gringos have heard Alejandro Sanz. In 2005 the Madrid native recorded a little duet with Shakira called “La Tortura” (“The Torture”) for her sixth studio album, Fijación Oral Vol. 1. When the dust had settled from this reggaeton nuke, it had become…
When Ida No was deciding what to call her glam-inflected, no-wave-channeling, minimalist-disco, shrapnel-shrieking dance-floor mindfuck of a band, she must have had an Archimedean moment of epiphany. No and friends took the elements of Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie, the anti-everything cacophony of James Chance and Lydia Lunch, and Siouxsie Sioux’s scary/sexy,…
The Italian-born Alex Gaudino had already enjoyed more than a decade and a half as a successful DJ, remixer, and A&R guy when, earlier this year, he concocted a little musical alchemy and struck real international gold. Deciding to revisit a 2003 track he wrote with Maurizio Nari, “Destination Unknown,”…
Don’t let the glossy veneer and marketing budgets befitting a multinational conglomerate fool you. Tuscany’s towering tenor is a rare, satisfying talent. That is, when smarmy producers stay out of his way. Andrea Bocelli launched his career into the stratosphere with 1997’s international multiplatinum crossover album Romanza. Painstakingly packaged for…
If the name Casely sounds familiar, congratulations! You don’t live under a rock. His single “Emotional,” a delicious slice of R&B pop, has been racing up the local radio playlists since its official release a month ago. Produced by legendary Miami duo the Diaz Brothers, “Emotional” is so smooth that…
Dance music’s squabbling factions should all join hands and sing “Kumbaya” this Saturday, when Layo and Bushwacka! storm the decks at Shine. Refreshingly the veteran English DJ duo brings it back to a time when genres didn’t matter. They revive what did matter — the imperative of a beat that…
Wu-Tang Clan’s fifth album, 8 Diagrams, comes at a time of strife for the group. Ghostface Killah and Raekwon have publicly laid into Wu ringleader and beatmaker RZA for the album’s creative direction. Calling Wu a sinking ship and RZA a “hip-hop hippie,” Raekwon says the beats on 8 Diagrams…
This latest effort by Mexico’s supreme rock en español group will grow on you, but that’s not necessarily a ringing endorsement. Café Tacuba made its name by fusing Latin American rhythms with American pop-punk sensibilities, but los tacubos have ditched their Mexican heritage in favor of shiny, shimmering music. Although…
Being the girlfriend of Tender Forever’s Melanie Vera has to be as much of a curse as it is a blessing. On the plus side, your French expat squeeze writes nose-wrinklingly cute, keyboard-driven pop songs that thoroughly convey the depths and assorted complexities of her feelings for you. On the…
