Feast Your Ears

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…

Little Steven’s coolest songs, vol. 3

I love love love Little Steven, of his eponymous weekly syndicated Underground Garage radio show (and 24-hour station on Sirius!). (Locally, listen in on Sunday night/Monday morning from midnight to 2:00 a.m. on BIG 105.9 FM, the only time you will hear something beyond the station’s seeming 20-song “classic rock”…

Bang! Music Festival “Postponed”

Everyone was atwitter about this year’s edition of the Bang! Music festival, which started in 2005. On one hand, people were amped to see blabbermouth Kanye West and the recently reunited (sans James Iha) Smashing Pumpkins on the lineup. On the other hand, there was the strange mix of the…

CD Review: Ministry – ‘The Last Sucker’

Ministry The Last Sucker (13th Planet/Megaforce) If The Last Sucker is, as leader Al Jourgensen says, Ministry’s swan song, fans are not left wanting. From the assault of opener “Let’s Go,” the album recalls the thick groove and overall intensity of The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, churning…

Interview: Slash! of Velvet Revolver

Few people in rock need less of an introduction than Slash, the legendary former ax man for Guns N Roses who built that band’s epic sound with his deft, but economical and sexy, riffage. Since 2002 he’s been one-fifth of what is now Velvet Revolver, along with former GNR bandmates…

Plastiscines

Much is made of Plastiscines’ national origin, looks, and gender. Yes, zey are French, which gives them a sort of exotic cultural cachet that would be surpassed only if they were Swedish. And oui, they are très belles, with blunt haircuts and blunter cheekbones that have translated well to the…

Bringing It All Back Home

As Jacob Miller tickled the ivories in the NBC studio, he couldn’t help but look at the screen hanging above him. There was a fair-size crowd gathered to watch him. One audience member, he noted, was a giant anthropomorphic moth. Another was an exuberant woman in a pink boa, who…

The Vibrators

The legendary Vibrators may be getting long in the tooth, but they’re hardly short on energy and O.G. punk spirit. The quartet could school any spikey-haired-come-lately in true road warrior style and longevity: They got together in London in 1976, broke up for a minute around 1980, and reformed in…

Matt White

Matt White’s story is truly a grassroots one, in both the prehistoric analog and 21st-century digital senses. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin a couple of years ago, the Englewood, New Jersey native headed back to his teenage stomping grounds: New York City. But rather than immediately duke it…

The Missing Piece

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…

Last Night: The Slackers at Studio A

The Slackers September 28, 2007 Studio A, Miami Better Than: That place with the good fried chicken with biscuits and gravy and all the fixin’s The Slackers are all about democracy. After a few wise cracks about President Bush and the state of the war, the band was feeling awfully…

Stomp beats the crap out of Mansion

The cast of Stomp, that international theater hit starring a motley gang of percussive dancers, performed at Mansion this past Friday as a special addition to the show’s week-long stint at the Carnival Center. The event, billed as “Stomp vs. DJ Ideal,” wasn’t so much a rivalry between a wax…

Rilo Kiley Gets Deep… Sorta

I like Rilo Kiley. I can’t help but groove to their country-inspired brand of indie rock loosely influenced by Straight Outta Compton, De La Soul, and The Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique. I find vocalist Jenny Lewis’s quirky, choppy, and occasionally incomprehensible lyrics and pleasantly girlish voice refreshing. I like when…

Samuel L. Session Brings Dance Music Back to the Beach

On the nightlife scene in Gothenburg, Sweden, you either go hard or go home. Over the summer, at least, this city of 900,000 could give Miami a run for its money. Last year I hopped over from London, planning a weekend around the Midsommar holiday. I wound up staying 10…

How Jason Got His Groove Back

About two years ago Jason Tyler lost everything in a Chicago house fire, which was accidentally started by a superstar DJ and good friend. Then he spent a couple of semihomeless weeks in New York writing and recording an entire album with nothing more than a laptop he carried in…

Cleaveland Jones

Cleaveland Jones is a band of mystery, insists its frontman and songwriter, named, also, Cleaveland Jones. “I don’t mind it being a bit confusing or ambiguous,” insists the Ohio transplant, who has been in Miami for 10 years and playing music locally for three. Try to get more details about…

Lust for House

On a recent Tuesday night, house producer/DJ Ryan Raddon, a.k.a. Kaskade, is holed up in a Salt Lake City studio, ensconced in his latest high-profile project. But when he opens his mouth to describe it, his own muffled laughter cuts him off. “Oh, it’s new material, this and that.” He…

Last Night: Dropkick Murphys at Revolution

Dropkick Murphys w/ HorrorPops September 25, 2007 Revolution, Ft. Lauderdale Dropkick MurphysPhotos by Jamie Puntumkhul Better than: Three accidental fists to the face due to an ardently chanted Oi! trinity. The Review: I have somewhat of an obsession with that span of time between an opening band’s wasted plea to…

4 White Dudes in Tighty Whities = Suspension!

Hey, sometimes there’s no underestimating high school principals. Who knew a publicity snap of four skinny rockers could amount, in the eyes of one, to porn? The band in question: All Time Low, a poppy, punky, quartet from the suburbs of Baltimore, who just released their debut full-length, So Wrong,…

Dylan is a Big Girl Now

Bob Dylan is the kind of iconic musician than breeds obsessive – and discerning – fans. It’s natural, then, that Dylan devotees would be split over I’m Not There, an experimental biographical movie directed by Todd Haynes. Here, Dylan is portrayed by six different actors (Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard…

Hidden Musicians

Got this letter in our e-mail today. “Today I stopped by a health food store (Wild Oats) on S. Dixie Highway for my weekly shopping, and was met by the most astounding music from local musician, Peter Betan, playing pieces from his CD, PassionFix (which I bought). Now, I’m not…