So, my money says that the whole Fiascogate won’t help Lupe Fiasco sell records when his new album, The Cool, drops later this year. The MC was never really relevant to hip-hop’s thug elite, and he’s pretty much pissed off the backpacker crowd by dissing A Tribe Called Quest last…
Speaking of Jay-Z, some of us who are fans would probably rather remember him from his Reasonable Doubt days rather than the sub-par material he’s putting out currently. I’m not even trying to dis Hov, just calling it how it is. But there was definitely a time when he wore…
Like grains of sand in an hourglass, they squeezed from one side to the other. People — lots of hungry, slightly drunk ones — bottlenecked into the narrow entrance of Books & Books (265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 305-442-4408). What pulled them was not gravity, but a force equally strong:…
For a second, there’s a relative quiet at the Gramercy Theatre. Onstage at this swanky rock theater on Manhattan’s East Side are the South Florida hometown heroes of Torche, and they’ve just finished ripping through one of their trademark smart, heavy jams. They’ve made it onto a killer bill as…
The Anti-Immigrant Song We need more like her: “Joyce Kaufman Hates Immigrants!” (by Amy Guthrie, October 25) is a great story! In a market where local radio content is almost unheard-of, Joyce Kaufman is a breath of fresh air, and her show is the only worthwhile one on WFTL-AM. Get…
Pooka is 23 years old. She’s a petite girl with strawberry blond (emphasis on the strawberry) hair and bangs pulled back and pumped up into a Gwen Stefani pompadour. She looks at a piece of paper on which someone has drawn a crude picture of a giraffe, complete with a…
Thanks to the gentrification of central Miami and the wacky ingenuity of local artists, the monthly Wynwood Gallery Walk has become a colorful addition to the otherwise formulaic local party scene. On the second Saturday of every month, those looking for stimulation in a place other than their pants can…
A Sugar Babe Babbles … viciously: I am a vivacious, slender, curvy, big-breasted beauty of 25 years, who always has older men panting after me, drooling like Great Danes with a Milk-Bone, and slobbering all over themselves like English bulldogs (less the manners) at the mere thought of getting into…
When infamous Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee rolls into town Saturday night, he won’t be here to check on Rok Bar, the currently under-renovation high-glam-trash-rock spot in which he’s partner. Nor will he rehash the past like former Crüe bandmate Vince Neil, who recently played a gig at Dolphin Stadium…
I came across this video a few weeks ago while surfing on YouTube and fell in love with John Lee Hooker’s eerie songwriting ability all over again. I’m not sure what this clip is from; presumably it’s one of Hooker’s early television appearances, but exactly what show it’s from is…
Gonzalo Guillén is on the lam. His wife and son are in hiding. Colombian President Álvaro Uribe publicly belittled the reporter. Strangers repeatedly threatened to murder him. His bodyguard disappeared. “I got a call at my home … a guy said, ‘We can kill you,'” Guillén recalls from Lima, Peru,…
I didn’t know what to expect when I got there, but I had my suspicions. The waddling Muscovy ducks in the parking lot, the black-tinted storefront windows, a misspelled sign that reads Caribian Sport Bar (10805 Sunset Dr., Kendall; 305-559-5229) — they all contributed to my conjecture. But when I…
Viva la Familia Alonso Showing the human side: Janine Zeitlin, I love you! You made me cry in your article “Guarimba!” (October 11). You have the ability to exactly portray my feelings and allow people to grab the emotions and sorrow, as well as the love and commitment, involved. Thank…
Member papers of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) this week are providing links on their websites that direct their readers to the many places on the Internet where the home address of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is listed. AAN papers are doing so to show solidarity with the…
Walking into the shoebox-size Abbey Brewing Co. (1115 16th St., Miami Beach) for an Oktoberfest bash, I found it difficult not to notice the burly man-mass. The stained-T-shirt-clad brotherhood was comfortably crammed into the bar’s limited wooden booths. Fifty or so dudes pounded foamy beers while peering at various muted…
This is one of the strangest animations I’ve seen in awhile but it goes well with a great song. It’s for the posthumous release of “Nothing Like This” from the late great Detroit producer, J Dilla, and is basically a really cute underwater love story. Go figure? But Dilla and…
I’m not sure how Lupe Fiasco could claim he’s never listened to A Tribe Called Quest before, but the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it sounds. That’s like Norah Jones saying she’s never listened to Billie Holiday. Or Interpol claiming they were never interested in Joy Division…
It was about 9:00 on a Saturday night, and partygoers had yet to emerge from their caves. The shindig at the Upper Eastside Garden (7244 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-984-3231) was sparsely populated, but because the event was scheduled from 8:00 to midnight, I arrived early to take full advantage of…
In a city with no memory, few local bands are remembered by anyone except members and their friends. Even fewer are mourned by out-of-state fans, and virtually none gain admirers posthumously. One exception to all of these rules is the Eat, a Miami punk band that formed in 1978 and…
Beefcake Bingo Aquaman versus Merman: Who knew monofin swimming even existed? “Merman” by Tamara Lush (October 4) is yet another example of a worldwide sports phenomenon to which we Americans are completely oblivious. However, I have to commend you on your cover photo. It’s hot! I’m more than happy to…
Feeling a bit nostalgic and blue today. Can’t explain why, but this old Mazzy Star video from 1993 seems to fit the mood perfectly. It was off their stellar, So Tonight That I Might See album which is worth revisiting if you haven’t listened to it in awhile and is…
The history of the sludgy, heavy rockers of Alice in Chains has been as misery-riddled as much of the band’s music. Its sound owed less to punk than it did to, say, metal, but its Seattle origin and late-Eighties birth date meant it was swiftly pigeonholed as grunge. It was…
