Maybe it’s the long nights with nothing to do but take drugs and play music, or maybe it’s the band’s position outside of America’s mainstream, but whatever the case, Norway’s 120 Days has managed to create a murky, driving album that puts the relentless pulse of synthetic percussion and old,…
Dulce Pontes An oral tradition that is passed on in the taverns and streets of Lisbon, Portugal, fado is the urban, bluesy musical form that gained international renown through the voice of the late Amália Rodrigues. The lyrics speak of love, longing, and the gritty life led on the streets…
Raphael, a.k.a. Don Rafael Martos Sánchez, a.k.a. Spain’s answer to Tom Jones, visits Miami this Friday for the first time in more than four years. A child prodigy from Linares, Spain, Raphael burst onto the scene in 1954 when, at nine years of age, he won the “Best Child Singer”…
First it was the Beatles, until the best musicians in that band died. Then it was the Ramones, until the Reaper wiped them out, too. Now the biggest musical reunion imaginable (at least here in Miami) has arrived. Thirteen years after its demise, Natural Causes — the beloved roots rock…
Ours, the quintet lead by New Jersey’s Jimmy Gnecco, plays Studio A on Tuesday as a prelude to the release of the band’s third album, Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy. A perfectionist known for taking his time on his albums, Gnecco spent the past three years honing…
The funny thing about snobbery is how it’s often in the eye of the beholder. Giselle Brodsky ain’t no snob, despite bearing the title of artistic director for the Miami International Piano Festival. The goal of the festival, she informs me in her rich Bolivian accent, is to lure new…
Back in 2004, the four teenage members of DMG spent every waking moment writing and recording songs. The plan was simple: to come up with a mainstream hit in the same vein as Top 40 acts such as Jay-Z and Outkast. But there was a rather obvious problem: copying a…
New Yorkers love to talk about today’s popular male vocalists, and how they stack up (or not) against the blessed Sinatra. This no-win comparison is especially common when it comes to the young pianist and singer Tony DeSare, who arrived in New York City at the ripe old age of…
Among the international DJ set, the chance to release a collection on the revered Yoshitoshi label is a rare and coveted honor, the kind of thing that nudges an artist one step closer to superstar status. Which is why regular Club Space spinner Cedric Gervais is feeling so good these…
Lady Saw claimed she’s “too nice fi inna cock fight” and “too rich to argue with bitch” in 2004 on “Man Is the Least,” but that was all chat compared to her eighth LP, Walk Out. “Make me introduce you to mi cutlass,” she threatens one heifer on “Chat to…
Boston-based music group Willard Grant Conspiracy sure knows how to make a music critic’s job tough. Whereas most bands can be blithely described with a few words, WGC practically requires a new genre tag. Stylistically it’s got strong folk-rock and rootsy overtones but isn’t exactly Americana. Instead WGC couches the…
Leave it to Trent Reznor — one of the few musicians who doesn’t need to hype his art by this point — to trump every other viral marketer with the promotional campaign for the new Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero. Besides leaking MP3s via USB drives left on bathroom…
Viki has always been a true Detroit eccentric, operating well beyond genre — a point this fifteen-track collection of rarities and outtakes drives home. Viki’s gargantuan beats, bee-buzzing distortion, cheap sci-fi sound effects, and reverb-soaked sauciness should be the toast of underground dance music; in fact, the electro-freaks in Adult,…
Spanish-born Maria Quiñones created the persona of Martirio (which translates as “martyr”) as an onstage alter ego, one who wears dark glasses and large, decorative combs known as peinetas. She performed with numerous groups before joining the group Veneno (Poison), which helped vault her to prominence. Throughout her career, the…
Studio A becomes hip-hop central on Thursday with the appearance of Duck Down Records artist Sean Price. Price is the artist formerly known as Ruck, half of the rap group Heltah Skeltah, and one of the lead MCs from the mighty Boot Camp Clik. In his sophomore solo effort, Jesus…
Superstar lyric soprano Renée Fleming’s tour itinerary says a lot about how far Miami has come as a cultural destination. Listed are three dates in Paris, two in Vienna, a stop in New York to sing with the brilliant L.A. Philharmonic featuring conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, then it’s off to yes,…
No, it’s not just an extended version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” The Baseball Music Project, founded in 2004, brings together the work of talented historians, writers, composers, arrangers, and performers to present a unique look at the sport. It uses an orchestra, 73 musicians strong, for propulsion…
When you first lay eyes on Jediah, you can’t help but notice the teardrop-shape tattoo on his upper left cheek, not to mention the barrels of two smoking shotguns inked on either side of his neck. “I got a lot of tattoos,” Jediah says, lifting his pant leg to display…
Directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez know a thing or two about music and the movies. Tarantino’s soundtracks have become pop culture staples, while Rodriguez scores his own movies. We sat down with them recently to discuss their new double feature, Grindhouse, and how music affects their creative process. New…
Dear Gods of Rock: Subject(s): Mullets Rock! Too! It’s me, the Mullet. Please kill me. My time on this Earth — hanging off Richard Marx’s head as it sang “Don’t Mean Nothin’,” going to Indigo Girls shows, and bathing in NASCAR exhaust fumes — has been fun, but I just…
Those who think that pop music junkies represent music fandom’s lowest common denominator should read the comments left on iTunes about Avril Lavigne’s cheerleader-chant-from-hell single “Girlfriend.” Namely, this astute one: “The Avril I looked up to was her own person, and proud of it. She wasn’t afraid to act like…
It’s not strange that Prodigy’s second solo release, Return of the Mac, is a gritty, New York-centric quest to maintain order in an increasingly hip-pop driven world. What is surprising is that, after his group, Mobb Deep, signed on with 50 Cent’s crumbling G-Unit empire and dropped the watered-down 2006…
