Born Jasiel Robinson in Atlanta, Georgia, Yung Joc had a childhood nearly as aggressive as his lyrics. He got into fights, kicked out of schools, and arrested, all before he received his high school diploma. Young Joc, whose album New Joc City debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop…
Renowned for the tango hits he made over the course of his roughly twenty-year career, the late Adolfo Tudisco (stage name: Horacio Deval) would appreciate the tango-tinged event being held in his honor. “This is an homage to him, a tribute to who he was as a person and as…
At the age of seven, when you’re supposed to be eating Oreo cookies and watching Batman cartoons, Paquito D’Rivera was already a paid musician with an endorsement deal from Selmer saxophones. Born in Cuba and musically trained at age five by his father, he has performed with the National Theater…
Having made mix albums for parties hosted by P. Diddy, Lenny Kravitz, and Shaquille O’Neal, DJ Tom Laroc has become a popular musical source among those who are incredibly popular. However, it’s not just celebrities who appreciate Laroc’s unique ability to mix R&B, reggae, and hip-hop into energetic, danceable music…
Makeout Party doesn’t possess the hard-hitting lyrics and gangster thump that often whet the palates of hip-hop lovers, but the group’s candy-coated hopscotch beats won’t leave your mouth dry. Those with more of a sweet tooth and an appetite for the lighthearted antics of Peaches and Avenue D will enjoy…
To say Edwin Bonilla is an accomplished musician is an understatement. The Latin percussionist has been involved in more than 1000 recordings over seventeen years and is renowned for his work with Gloria Estefan. Other notches in Bonilla’s belt include Madonna, Shakira, and John Secada. Bonilla skillfully plays the djembe,…
At the age of eighteen, Niña Pastori became one of the youngest rising Spanish stars when she released her flamenco-pop debut album, Entre Dos Puertos, which sold more than 150,000 copies and spawned a hit single, “Tú Me Camelas,” that was played on radio stations and in clubs across Spain…
Jamaican-born Monty Alexander shares more with Bob Marley than a homeland. Though Alexander is a jazz pianist, his penchant for reggae runs deep throughout his music. One of his first albums released was Stir It Up, a Marley tribute, and although Alexander has since experimented with other genres such as…
Usually when you tell someone he hits like a girl, it’s meant as an insult. But the punch the all-girl trio AKA packs is anything but weak. The up-and-coming local group has been making a name for itself since 2004. Now with a different drummer and frequent shows at PS…
Cat Power is a fine example of simplicity at its best. For a decade the artist also known as Chan Marshall has charmed listeners with her ethereal voice and low-key music. Her minimalist sound is stripped to its bare essentials with moving vocals and sweet, sad melodies echoing from the…
You can be thankful that members of Awesome Cool Dudes don’t think their band name is that great, either. “We just got really drunk and tried to pick the worst possible name that we could come up with,” says singer and guitarist Cory Plump. The band kicked off in Indiana…
Although the issue of selling souls tends to come up in church and in movies like O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the act of marrying a soul is difficult to come across, making Jaguar Wright’s latest album, Divorcing Neo to Marry Soul, even more labor-intensive. Compared to Aretha Franklin and…
Naeem Juwan, better known as Spank Rock, has a debut album called YoYoYoYoYo, and his hit single is about an “ass-shaking competition champ.” It’s pretty clear that Spank Rock is absolutely insane. And considering other songs on the album deal with everything from the abilities of his tongue to the…
With an album titled Stars Invited Me to Fly Through Time, it isn’t surprising that Dyslexic Postcards are a tie-dye rock band. “The basis of all of our sound just comes from psychedelic rock,” says singer and guitarist Ely Bacoy. “But there’s also a bit of a punk rock edge…
Few musicians create such universal music as does Kenny Garrett. Throughout a nearly 30-year career, multi-Grammy nominee and alto saxophonist Garrett has performed with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Art Blakey, as well as rockers Sting and Peter Gabriel. Garrett’s spin on jazz has allowed him to work in…
You can imagine how seriously Demonic Domain’s songwriter/guitarist takes his death-metal band when you find out his name is D. Mon. But maybe, as a member of a barely two-year-old group with street teams in most major cities, he has the right to. “We’re kind of amazed at the attention…
Bandleader, singer, composer, trombonist, Grammy winner, political activist, and living legend Willie Colón has done it all. He cut his first album, El Malo, at the age of seventeen with vocalist Hector Lavoe, another man with a now-legendary resumé. El Malo helped define the “New York Sound” — known today…
RBD’s bandmates began as stars on the Mexican teen soap opera Rebelde before releasing their debut of the same title. The album went platinum, with more than 500,000 sales in the country. Nuestro Amor, their second album, sold 127,000 units in seven hours. Suffice it to say, these guys are…
Frontman J.D. Wilkes has always thought of fiery Pentecostal preachers as true Southern punks, what with their charismatic showmanship and fear-for-your-lives ranting. Manifest that philosophy in a rail-thin body weighing in at, oh, about a buck ten, leaping about stage as he baptizes the crowd with his sweat and some…
Few bands bridge the divide between instrumental proficiency and sharply crafted songwriting as deftly as the Samples. Long before the term jam band was coined — way back in the mid-Eighties, in fact — this Colorado combo funneled its freewheeling melodies into odes etched with inspiration — reflective, evocative songs…
On its first major tour, Chicago’s Mirror Mirror will be bringing some mellower metal to Miami. “We call it melodic metal core,” says singer Brandon Butler of his band’s style, which combines moments of slower, softer singing backed by more soothing guitar chords with harder and heavier musical breaks. “We…
When the Berlin Wall came down, Paul Van Dyk wasted no time launching his musical career. Named “America’s Favorite DJ” in 2004 by BPM Magazine, Van Dyk grew up in East Germany listening to the Smiths and New Order on the radio before hearing techno at home after Germany’s reunification…
