The video shoves Tyson Ritter’s earnestness in your face, but on the radio, the catchy, swelling thunder of the band keeps you from having to think too much about what the guy’s actually saying (which seems to be “We will survive”) — one reason these emoids are really crossing over…
If your problem with “My Humps” is the lexicon, you might prefer this ode to bleep, which even features BEP’s will.i.am. It’s not even as musically effervescent as that infamous modern classic — I can’t imagine anybody being inspired to bleep — but bleep if America doesn’t seem to love…
How many amazing soul musicians are stuck performing in wedding bands, answering to the whims of brides and grooms who wouldn’t know Aretha Franklin if she showed up for the gig? A lot. Grieving the lost talent would take time and require that we pass through all the usual phases:…
It wasn’t anywhere I would’ve imagined myself before I moved to this city eight months ago, but around midnight on a recent Saturday I was partying at the former Versace mansion, now dubbed Casa Casuarina, on Ocean Drive. The occasion was the 50th birthday celebration of Boca Raton venture capitalist…
Getback frontman José Flores is an amiable, quick-witted guy. Awaiting the arrival of drummer Juan Rotulo, a freelance writer for a Spanish-language men’s magazine; and bassist Danny Palacios, an accountant getting the jump on tax season, he calmly sips a coffee. As Flores reminisces about his early days in the…
During the past three decades, Cuban exile Willy Chirino has chronicled his former country’s political oppression and deteriorating social conditions. Although his voice is at times wobbly and fragile, Chirino has cemented his reputation as one of Miami’s most popular singers through emotionally charged political anthems such as “Nuestro Dia…
We’ve seen men lose their lives for playing the wrong Styx tune at the wrong time. And frankly they deserved it. When you’re out at a bar, sliding a buck into a jukebox comes with great responsibility. For a few minutes you directly effect the mood of the entire crowd…
Ursula Rucker’s world is rarely an easy place to visit. Her words are fierce, her imagery is overwhelming (wrap your head around the synesthesia of “his voice comes in my hair”), but her third album, Ma’at Mama, is mostly difficult because it’s such a surreal trip. Rucker’s work is precisely…
RJD2’s two-track production cameo on Aceyalone’s 2003 album Love & Hate stood among that disc’s high points. Fans have plenty of reason to be geeked for a full-length collab. But while Magnificent City’s peaks are as good as expected — the Carter-admin gloss-funk of “Fire,” and the gritty Hammond B-3…
F.M. Cornog, a.k.a. East River Pipe, abolishes indie rock clichés by approaching them head-on. He writes coherent lyrics and refuses to make them inaudible; he sings about the downtrodden and depressed without reducing his voice to a gravelly drawl; and his music manages to be introspective without resembling an ugly…
Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power, is indie rock’s homespun gadfly — a mopey bundle of disconsolate lullabies whose uneven live performances threaten to eclipse her quiet genius. Cat Power’s seventh album, The Greatest, offers something beyond the cavernous longing her fans have come to expect. This time Marshall teams up…
T-Pain wants to know what love is, and he wants you to show him, preferably ass first. Mike Jones wants it too, so let’s hope you’re down with a three-way or have an adequately pole-knowledgeable friend. Add a touch of vocoder and this may actually pass for salable sensitivity in…
In countless interviews, Yoni Wolf insists that despite his hip-hop roots, Why? isn’t mired in that tradition. “Dumb Hummer” — its Willy Wonkian, seraphim-heralding layers of ivory, keyboards, guitar jangle, and bicycle bells positively Fiery Furnaces in construction — draws a line in the sand between his band and its…
A prequel to “Slow Motion,” “Rodeo” features winding and grinding on the dance floor rather than in bed. Because it’s not actually being rapped from a midcoital perspective, it’s not quite as memorable, though Juvenile is still “ballerific” enough to get away with coughing in the first verse…
Miami will remain on the cutting edge of music for at least another year after it kicks off the fourth annual Heineken TransAtlantic Festival with Bajofondo Remixed. Over eighteen long seasons, the Rhythm Foundation has presented acts that blend traditional indigenous music with the latest electro flavors. Call it techno…
Ed Artigas is restless and relentless. When the Miami musician isn’t hunting down beautiful women to rep power-pop bands, he’s working on his record label, Spy-Fi Records. And after beloved indie rockers Bling-Bling split up last year, Artigas wasted no time in moving on to the next project, the shoegazing…
Planeside has been slowly picking up momentum and accolades from peers and fans, and it’s easy to see why. The rhythm section of Craig Sala (drums) and Ken Hirasaki (bass) has been at it since the boys’ teenage years with Joni’s Butterfly, a New England band whose name was borrowed…
If you’re anything like me, you spent much of your childhood wondering just what was up with those perennially sad and generally bothersome parents. With 1988’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince articulated those feelings of generational separation and existential detachment. The Fresh Prince was…
With a versatile vocal range, rippling guitar solos, and hints of Colombia’s folkloric music, Juanes combines the shimmering epic underpinnings of U2 and the hard-driving metal of Metallica with more traditional Colombian sounds. It is an approach that not only has made Juanes the biggest star in his native Colombia,…
It just doesn’t seem … possible … that Ministry is nominated for a Grammy (Best Metal Performance on “The Great Satan” from 2005’s compilation disc Rantology). Surely if Alain Jourgensen were already in the grave he has spent so many years spooning the dirt for, he’d be spinning in it,…
Audio Bullys are two British producers who sing and rap over garage house and hip-hop tracks. Sometimes on Generation, the group’s proper album, that description sounds exactly as you’d imagine, with Simon Franks delivering the hook (like in “I Won’t Let You Down”) over a kinetic beat. In contrast, “Shot…
Cover albums are generally the province of self-indulgence and creative ennui, wherein the revisionists attempt to relive a childhood fantasy or merely leech off other people’s ideas because they have nothing of import to say. The Bold and the Brave — the recent collaboration between gloomy alt-rockster Will Oldham (under…
