Taj Mahal Let’s put aside the tried clichés that dictate steel drums, congas, and clanky Caribbean rhythms for this one. Oh yeah, let’s get down and dirty. Let’s run amok on a cruise with all the inflection and goodness only a rhythm and blues revue can bring. And don’t get…
I have to admit, a few times while sort of fuzzy-headed, possibly with a pounding headache, I’ve driven down Biscayne a few times on a Saturday afternoon and groggily wondered, “Hmmm, what’s all the fuss in front of the Carnival Center?” Well, my dumb ass completely forgot that, hello, the…
The West Virginia-born saxophonist Marion Meadows first appeared locally at Arturo Sandoval’s Jazz Club last fall. For this time around, he plans to stick with what worked last time. “It will be the same formula, the same kind of thing that worked last time,” he says by phone. “Not many…
With In Rainbows the talk of the music industry, and the album’s official debut Tuesday at #1 on the charts, Thom Yorke and co. are ridin’ high. So, it’s time for another tour. And, lucky Miami, they’re gracing us with their presence. Of course, leave it to Radiohead to keep…
I know, a couple of weeks ago I talked smack about year-end lists while dispensing a roundup of my favorite local albums of 2007. But I couldn’t resist one more, especially with the previous issue’s national roundup of the year in music. For some local flavor I racked my brain…
Editors Louis XIV, Hot Hot Heat, and Editors Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Tuesday, January 8, 2008 Better Than: Seeing all three bands together at an even smaller venue The Review: Last night’s show at the Culture Room marked the first stop of a tour by rising indie-ish stars Louis XIV,…
I guess I’m in the mood for feathered hair and strange accents from the United Kingdom, so I will move from Birmingham, England’s E.L.O. on to Swansea, Wales’ Badfinger. Truly one of the great power pop acts of the Seventies, stateside they’ve been somewhat forgotten. Or, when they are remembered,…
Taking it back to the Seventies for this one, to the inimitable Electric Light Orchestra. Let’s try to ignore their bloated Eighties stuff like the Oliva Newton-John collabo “Xanadu” — does Seventies pop goodness get much better than, say, “Livin’ Thing?” I’m a particular fan of this strand of their…
Various Artists Well Deep: 10 Years of Big Dada (Big Dada) Longevity in hip-hop is increasingly rare, so milestones should be memorialized. Enter Well Deep, two CDs (31 tracks total) marking the first decade of U.K.-based indie label Big Dada. An offshoot of the quick-cut quarry known as Ninja Tune…
The King is Dead, Long Live the King Louis XIV, no longer royally blue BY JONATHAN GARRETT Jason Hill, frontman for the San Diego-based band Louis XIV, knows what it’s like to be hated. On March 30, 2005, a none-too-complimentary review of his band’s major label debut appeared on Pitchforkmedia.com…
Via Miami Nights… Here’s the first part of the lineup for this year’s Ultra Music Festival, which is celebrating its tenth birthday, and is repeating this year as a two-day event. No surprises on the names here, except acts like Justice get moved to headlining slots. Part of me, however,…
Goldie at Laundry Bar If there’s a face – okay, a set of grills – most closely associated with drum ‘n’ bass, it’s Goldie’s. The founder of Metalheadz, a label at the forefront of the genre’s development, Goldie — a.k.a. Clifford Joseph Price — stands as a monument to the…
Go ahead, say awww: Audiocrash got together thanks to a couple of preschoolers — well, not exactly. See, the wives of band cofounders Craig Schembri and Guy Strempack attended preschool together. Explains Schembri: “They said, ‘Hey, we should go to dinner or to a concert.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, yeah,…
Okay, I admit to reading this on Perez Hilton first, but the Miami Herald’s also got the whole scoop. In a nutshell, Mr. 305 got caught driving drunk early this morning. The story kinda deserves LOLz, though, for how ultimately Miami it is. First, he didn’t get busted on South…
I often forget to check up on Vice’s online TV venture, VBS.TV, and that’s just as well, because then I would really never get anything done at the computer. Why? Original mini shows that are informative and entertaining, but without relying on a bunch of slick professional “hip” gimmickry. Actually,…
I’m sure I’m late in the game on discovering this one, but Trent Reznor has proved once again that, love him or hate him, he’s always been a forward thinker. Newly freed from the shackles of his contact with Interscope, he’s launched a new site at remix.nin.com. It’s a platform…
The Worst Things In Music This Year, according to Ben Westhoff! 1. Worst Album: the Arcade Fire, Neon Bible This cerebral garbage entertained about 100 people, none of whom didn’t either live in Canada or work as a music critic. Speaking of critics, it’s hard to agree with Sasha Frere-Jones…
It’s that time of year again — the end, that is, when High Fidelity-style geeks compile High Fidelity-style best-of-the-year lists. There are slobbering dissections of Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga, blathering babble about Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, and a crock of criticism of M.I.A.’s Kala. If that’s what you want,…
The books published by Vice, the infamous free monthly magazine that has been a weathervane of trashy cool, are always smirkingly entertaining, and at the very least practical. My best friend keeps a copy of Vice Do’s and Don’ts on top of her toilet tank. Not because it’s shitty, but…
I can’t remember what set it off now, but I’ve been on a massive shoegaze-revisiting kick lately, diggin’ up the lovely space-rock extravaganzas I first zoned out to as a teenager. True fans of this stuff in Miami can probably be counted on my and maybe a friend’s fingers and…
Café Tacuba Sunday, December 16 the Gusman Theater, Miami There are very few bands around that can continue to garner new, younger fans almost two decades into their careers. Mexico’s Café Tacuba, however, stands as one of those select few. Downtown’s Miami old and marvelous Gusman Theater was brimming with…
What do the band and the burger have in common? This hungry scene kid loves them both, and he’s pissed off when one goes missing! KEEPIN WHOPPERS BR00TAL D00D! (Okay, I feel silly passing on an ad, but this is kinda ridic.) — Arielle Castillo…
