Linkin Park and Evanescence achieved massive success in the earlier half of this decade for two reasons: inflated, therapy-session-worthy you’ve-got-your-stadium-rock-in-my-techno hooks and angst-ridden, anthemic sentiments universalized to the point where listeners could locate themselves and their own unique problems therein. Young Love, an NYC band fronted by singer/songwriter Dan Keyes,…
Born in the 1970s in southwest Detroit, Rolando grew up heavily influenced by his Latin rhythms and percussion. When he heard DJ Jeff Mills mix as “The Wizard,” he discovered the sounds of techno. Through a mutual friend, he was introduced to “Mad” Mike Banks and promptly became a member…
Emerging from the post-Sublime era, these two bands have been rocking it nonstop since the mid-Nineties. Pepper, the Volcom band from Hawaii, is receiving much-deserved acknowledgment through additional sponsorships from major corporations such as T-Mobile. Pepper’s vibe makes you want to dance your ass off, while heartbreaking lyrics remind you…
In their live sets, the Coffin Caddies incorporate the technical underpinnings of punk and innovative twists. Singer/songwriter Rei Horror believes that real life is too difficult to write about and that fictional subjects are more entertaining. As a result, the band’s lyrics are based on videogames, comic books, and movies…
If Tobacco Road were a person, it would be pinching the nurses at Shady Pines and talking smack about Eliot Ness while it cackled its dentures off. The city’s oldest bar/restaurant/café turns 94 on November 17, an occasion that will be marked by an eight-band Miamipalooza on three stages. “The…
Variations on jazz come particularly from the Caribbean and most notably Cuba. Miami-based duo Pan con Bistec melds Latin jazz with original arrangements influenced by the rhythms and musical stylings from North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean, including Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, candombe, swing, bebop, R&B, and funk. Comprising Uruguayan…
Though few luminaries from jazz’s golden era are still alive, and though performances from that small group become increasingly rare, the question remains: Why should you see one of them today? Well you could reason that you probably won’t get another chance because they’re getting old. But you have to…
Like the Teddybears, Whitey carries a beer-bar-danceable message from Europe, but where Teddybears want (and do, in fact, own) the TV-commercial airwaves, these guys have scummier things up their collective raincoat sleeve, namely alt-disco sleaze tricked out with Euro-dance beats, an odd way of reinterpreting Donovan Leitch’s deal and a…
Don’t think there is a power failure when you suddenly find yourself sitting in pitch darkness inside the theater. This just happens to be the beginning of Universo Particular, the heavily produced show that Brazilian-born Marisa Monte — in her first U.S. tour in five years — organized to promote…
As autumn has slowly descended on Greater Miami, so have a number of world-renowned senior musicians. The season has already brought piano maestro Bebo Valdés, master percussionist Candido Camero, and Candido’s Conga Kings cohort Carlos “Patato” Valdés — all of them in their eighties. Now Lou Donaldson, the great alto…
There’s something to be said for straight-ahead, unpretentious, wholly exhilarating rock and roll without the woes or hand-wringing that seems to underscore the petulance afflicting so much of today’s music. The Format provides the antithesis to that approach, as evidenced by its latest outing, the ironically dubbed Dog Problems. An…
Although most saxophonists could be called one-dimensional — their playing being that single dimension — saxophonist Ed Calle is a polyphonic layer of talent. Not only does Calle have masterful control over the saxophone, but also he’s an accomplished composer, arranger, flutist, clarinetist, and MIDI wind player. Over the past…
“It looks on the first face of it that maybe this isn’t so hip,” admits Andrea Marcovicci, referring to her cabaret show titled Andrea Sings Astaire. “But what’s been happening is that young people come to a performance and then go out and rent every Fred Astaire movie.” Netflix, take…
It’s official: Laundry Bar is single-handedly fomenting a local drum ‘n’ bass revival. Recent weeks have seen DJ sets by kings of the genre like Florida’s own AK1200, jazz-borrowing Londoners Aquasky, and one of the cofounders of the legendary Metalheadz imprint, Doc Scott. This Friday another Brit brings the choons:…
In late August, the New York Times identified a South Korean man as the star of a YouTube.com video. In it Lim Jeong-hyun (calling himself “Funtwo”) played Pachelbel’s Canon on his electric guitar. The axe wizard has mad skills, but what really sparked the media investigation is that the video…
The laws of music journalism state that when a precociously good new band comes along, one must harp on the members’ ages. So, okay, blah blah blah, the four members of be your own PET, from Nashville, are all teenagers, the oldest just barely legal. Great — now that’s out…
Three master congueros, each with a distinctive style, lend the Conga Kings’ accelerated pulse, but the name is meant to highlight the heart of the group, not describe the entire body. As do all the top percussionists in Latin jazz, this conga drum triumvirate displays a deep sense of context…
Detroit is known for producing its share of renowned musicians. Rock-star bad-asses Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop and Motown legends the Temptations and Diana Ross all paved the way for what would become known as “good music” today. It’s no wonder that the Detroit Cobras — hailing from such fertile…
Way back before the King Khan and BBQ Show ever began, Mark Sultan (a.k.a. BBQ) and King Khan (then referred to as the Blacksnake) were in a Canadian garage band known simply as the Spaceshits. Ten years and several continents later — after Khan had fostered a faux-celebrity explosion in…
Like some unseen beast that emerges only in shadows to claim its prey, indie rock stalks Miami with as much Omaha, Nebraska soil between its toes as sand. Four-piece Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs and their compatriots in Blue Moon, both from Miami, do their absolute best to channel Bright…
Awe-inspiring traditional African beats fuse with contemporary reggae-rock sounds when Ba Cissoko and his group decide to jam. Born into a musical family in West Africa’s Guinea-Bissau, Ba Cissoko is a master of the regional 21-string harp-lute called the kora. Kourou Kouyaté, Sékou Kouyaté, and Ibrahim Bah round out the…
In an era when political correctness is pursued to unyielding extremes, singer-songwriter Randy Newman is an astute observer, immune to any notion that social commentary should refrain from satire and stereotypes. Eight years after Three Dog Night earned him his first chart success by covering his song “Mama Told Me…
