Recording the song “Highs and Lows” at Scott Storch’s lavish Palm Island waterfront mansion was a dream come true for the young members of Miami quartet Bottom of da Map. After all, the renowned Storch is one of the top producers in the business, having sired major hits for megastars…
“Brimstone127 is like the Biscayne Boulevard of Miami hip-hop,” quips local musician Buffalo Brown. “The man is a staple down here. You cannot talk about Miami hip-hop without mentioning Brimstone.” Bold statements indeed. But while the usual local suspects may have gotten more mainstream shine, Brim, as he’s known for…
In ice-cool genre-mashup circles, Brazil is the de rigueur frontier for new hard-hitting, urban-sexy dance beats. Bonde do Rolê, hailing from Curitiba, is the first group from the baile funk scene to make international inroads, thanks to a chance discovery by American DJ/producer Diplo, of Hollertronix. On its first full-length,…
Last year’s Seeger Sessions saw the Boss unexpectedly twist toward traditional Americana. This Live in Dublin double disc and companion DVD finds him employing his seventeen-piece Sessions Band to expand that musical palette with exhilarating results. Where Springsteen’s earlier folk forays — the bare-bones Nebraska and more recent Devil &…
Ah, Finland. Frozen tundra of absolute mystery. The country that even the rest of Scandinavia makes fun of. The place whose most recent major international musical offering is Lordi, winner of the 2006 Eurovision song contest. (In case you missed that competition, Lordi is a metal band whose members dress…
His thirties might be a threat that’s still five years off, but Marc Broussard’s voice sounds twice its age when in blue-eyed-soul character. Broussard’s third LP, S.O.S.: Save Our Soul, hit stores last month. It’s a leap of faith in image (goodbye, peach fuzz; hello, Brokeback Mountain) and in sound…
By 1952 Louis Armstrong’s international ubiquity was so established that even a six-year-old Rio de Janeiro boy taking trumpet lessons could develop an obsession with him. Claudio Roditi would, a few years later, expand his jazz fantasies to include Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. In 1970 he began studying the…
The Police reunion has been hailed as the musical event of the millennium. But an online missive from drummer Stewart Copeland, following the opening date of the band’s North American tour, in Vancouver, warned all was not well. Mentions of miscues and onstage fumbles suggested that after an absence of…
Coming to international fame in the Nineties via his double-entendre-titled Bang the Box mix series, Chicago’s Bad Boy Bill (William Renkosik) has never been known for subtlety. And that’s okay, because sometimes there’s the plain and simple need to be whooped on the head with a huge groove and a…
Though South Florida guitarist/singer/songwriter Diego Jinkus’s debut full-length is self-released, it sounds professional, capturing a jam-heavy but song-oriented slice of the local world beat scene. The ten tunes rest on a laid-back pop-rock vibe spiced up with Latin percussion and a heavy dose of contemporary jazz. The driving force is…
Today’s hip-hop royalty knows Chuck Brown quite well, even if the fans don’t. Nelly, for instance, sampled Brown’s 1978 smash “Bustin’ Loose” in his own number one, “Hot in Herre.” Brown is the founder and undisputed champion of go-go, an exuberant blend of funk and soul that hails from his…
Joan Jett 6/30/07 When we got to Dolphin Stadium and realized it was silly foam hat day; I knew it would take an awful lot of domestic, stadium-sized beers to survive until Joan Jett played. Turns out, I was right. So we roamed through the mini-mall labyrinth in search of…
Tonight’s stop of Jesse Malin’s “Death and Taxes” tour, at Studio A, promises a bonus: openers Acute are hometown boys. Well, at least singer Isaac Lekach, 26, is. (Remember the basically one-man act, Poulain? That was him). Lekach went on a sort of vacation to Los Angeles a few years…
René ”Residente” Pérez Better than: Trading in your new Daddy Yankee CD for a slightly used paddleball. Calle 13 is from Puerto Rico, but on Friday, Residente and Visitante were running on Cuban time. La Covacha’s patio/concert area was bloated with eager audience members by 1 a.m., which also happened…
DJ Goodroid Better Than: Listening to Y100’s techno hour and calling it a party. The Review: Drumwerks is back at Soho Lounge every Thursday night, only this time they’ve included a new resident DJ, Goodroid, who claims to have the only dubstep set in Miami. Either way, it’s always fun…
On his debut solo album, Raised by the People, Notch is a sonero. A songsmith. He’s confident, even boisterous. But the person sitting across from me during a recent lunch interview is humble. He might attribute his humility to his nomadic journey in music; from his days in the reggae…
Somewhere Hector Lavoe and Celia Celia – to name a few – are smiling and probably jamming as well. And Oscar Hernandez should no doubt feel a sense of accomplishment. Hernandez, the founder and pianist for salsa ensemble Spanish Harlem Orchestra, set out to maintain the charged fusions of Afro-Caribbean…
Tony Orlando June 27, 2007 Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Better Than: An Elvis impersonator When you’re a singer whose career is based on hit songs you can count on one hand and your 15 minutes of fame lasted five years, it’s probably best…
“You need input to get output,” Jesse Malin insists during a scarce private moment on the pool deck of a Salt Lake City hotel. Over a cracking cell phone connection, he holds forth on his main songwriting influences. “I’m always reading novels, reading plays, going to see movies, listening to…
When Argentine artist Marcelo Lupis says his music is experimental, he means that in all senses of the term. Pop his first solo CD, Shhhh, into the player and out sprays a hyperactive but skillfully concocted array of jazz, classic, rock, and blues, all overlaid with Lupis’s operatic scatting. Even…
If not for the apathy and mishandling from his former major record label, Atlanta’s Pastor Troy (n’ Micah Levar Troy) might have emerged five years ago as one of crunk’s major mainstream stars. At the time, he had all the elements that seem to work today: guest spots on Lil…
KRS-One likes to pick fights. Anyone who remembers anything about the Bridge Wars — the feud between KRS-One’s Boogie Down Productions and DJ Marley Marl’s Juice Crew featuring MC Shan that spawned a number of classic hip-hop songs in the early Eighties — knows KRS started it. The Juice Crew’s…
