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…
George Van Orsdel has taken his penchant for rockabilly, punk, and horror to a whole other level. The ubiquitous hometown favorites the Van Orsdels have begun their own monthly party, dubbed Psychobilly Spookshow Saturdays, at the spookiest venue in Miami, Churchill’s Pub. Van Orsdel made his name in Miami as…
The youthful and intrepid Soweto Gospel Choir, a South African-based troupe that includes some 30 members, is one of the most inspiring musical performances you’ll see this year, regardless of which altar you pray at. Under the direction of choir leaders David Mulovhedzi and Beverly Bryer, the Soweto Gospel Choir…
A few verses and explosive horn riffs from his accompanying band prove Elain Morales packed every ounce of his swing when he made his way to the States from Cuba more than five years ago. Despite his lack of mainstream recognition and exposure, the Cuban singer is one of the…
Usually once a South Florida band has achieved a modicum of success and national exposure, it leaves our little corner of the world and sets off for greener pastures. Bucking this trend, the genre-scaling gymnasts in the Linx are returning to the South Florida live music scene after a two-year…
Back in Cuba during the Forties and Fifties, when conversations turned to sonero Beny More, the most common refrain was “Todo podrán imitar lo, pero nadie va igualar lo” (“Everybody can try imitating him, but nobody will ever equal him”). There have been a slew of tribute albums by lesser…
Though DJ Colette is unmistakably beautiful, it is her talent on the turntables that attracts hordes of clubbers who flock to her concerts. The Chicago native was weaned on the sounds of house music legends such as Frankie Knuckles and Juan Atkins. While still in her teens, she began to…
Garage rock aesthetics meld with punk rock snarl in Atlanta’s own rock and roll misfits the Black Lips. Fast, soulful, raging rock and roll devoid of corporate bullshit, the Lips’ bare-bones garage rock harks back to the time before their Caucasian granddaddies stole the strut from African-Americans. Fans of Pussy…
Make no mistake — Paris Is Burning has nothing to do with 2005’s widespread turbulence in France, the 1966 film about the last days of German occupation in the capital, or the 1990 documentary of New York’s finest drag queens. This Paris burns in South Florida, and it’s of the…
When dance music first took off in the Seventies and Eighties, club DJs ignored genre boundaries and played whatever they wanted. The results were unpredictable and exciting blends that left ecstatic clubbers guessing what the DJ had in store next. Chicago’s Derrick Carter was influenced by this movement and played…
Among the most pervasive and enduring dichotomies in music criticism is the one separating the romantic sentimentalist from the dogmatic politician. Although the line generally holds true — imagine cuddling up next to Chuck D or discussing politics with Mariah Carey — there are exceptions. Nina Simone, more so than…
What do you give the world’s most famous DJ for his latest globetrotting tour? How about a traveling half-million-dollar stage show complete with buto dancers, taiko drummers, trapeze acrobats, carnival showgirls, a chorus of singers, 100 lasers, and some hair-singeing pyrotechnics? It’s a worthy start, at least, to compliment Tiësto,…
With heavy hearts, we report that indie fixture The Brand is departing South Florida for the gray skies of London. Over the past three years, few bands have been as instrumental in helping to foster Miami’s fledgling local indie rock scene. Musically the band made an instant impact after its…
Underdog New York hardcore got a little out of hand in the Seventies, when its practitioners began hitting the gym after band practice. Soon hundreds, if not thousands, of semi-metal acts began bombarding us with “chugga-chugga” breakdowns and deep, guttural screams. NY’s Underdog can claim being there when it all…
The dance music festival season has traditionally begun in Candyland. Held at Nocturnal this year, the Candyland event has been around even longer than Winter Music Conference and holds the title of Florida’s longest-running dance music festival. In the past ten years, it has played host to everyone from Josh…
Although he first landed on the scene in 1989 with his classic Frankie Knuckles collaboration “Tears,” another decade would pass before Satoshi Tomiie implanted himself in the national dance-floor consciousness. His critically acclaimed 2000 debut, Full Lick, featured the hits “Love in Traffic” and “Up in Flames” and established Tomiie…
DJ Tom Laroc has thousands of records, and every Thursday he brings more than 2000 of them to the Pawn Shop to spin a seven-hour mix that encompasses everything from hip-hop and R&B to reggae and freestyle. His sets have become increasingly popular with the bobbing masses of SoBe exiles…
With the exception of a handful of songs — most notably 1999’s “Yo Se Que Es Mentira” (“I Know It’s a Lie”) and 2001’s “Dime Corazón” (“Tell Me, My Love”) — Cuban pop balladeer Amaury Gutierrez has enjoyed little commercial success since leaving the communist island more than a decade…
Although he took his musical apprenticeship with the legendary Junior Wells, an evening with Albert Castiglia isn’t just another cruise through the blues. A consummate showman, Castiglia peppers his performances with witty repartee, offbeat and impromptu asides, original songs, and material mined from a diverse classic rock repertoire. The Coral…
George Clinton’s musical career began almost 40 years ago when he literally stepped out of the barbershop with his doo-wop outfit, The Parliaments, and scored big with the 1967 hit “I Wanna Testify.” Not bad for a teen from Jersey. However, not until the P-Funk mothership rocketed from his brain…
Felix da Housecat (a.k.a. Felix Stallings, Jr.) is one of dance music’s most artistically respected and commercially successful figures. His eclectic DJ sets — composed of equal parts house, funk, and New Wave — are immediately accessible and completely unpredictable, appealing to both the hardcore club crowd and the rock…
