The fresh-faced quartet Down to Earth Approach might look barely old enough to legally enter Studio A, where the band plays Thursday. But really, the guys have been at it now for the better part of a decade. Forming first in their native New York state, they decamped to California…
Argentine-born artist Diego Jinkus knows his way around his axe. Seriously — even when he’s rocking out, his fingers are fluttering up and down his guitar’s neck with hummingbird speed. His chops have even garnered him coveted sponsorships from both Godin and ESP guitars. But Jinkus is no long-haired metal…
The Projekt Revolution Tour, featuring Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Placebo, H.I.M., and others Sound Advice Ampitheatre August 10, 2007 View a slideshow of photos from the concert here. Gerard Way of My Chemical RomancePhoto by Jeffrey Delannoy Better Than: If you like rock and don’t mind…
Second Annual Ozone Awards James L. Knight Center, Downtown Miami August 13, 2007 Better Than: The over-hyped, over-rehearsed and just plain ol’ boring MTV Music Video Awards. OK, the Second Annual Ozone Awards are meant to honor the very best that Southern hip-hop has to offer, but judging by Monday’s…
Against Me! New Wave Gainesville’s Against Me! shares a hometown with Lynyrd Skynyrd and, discounting the redneck caricature Skynyrd became after frontman/spiritual leader Ronnie Van Zant’s 1977 death, a lot more: a keen eye for the flaws of leaders and those being led alike, and songs with sentiments as potent…
Taking Back Sunday’s slow-but-steady rise to stardom is one of the most genuine post-hardcore success stories. Forming eight years ago in Long Island – historically a hardcore hotbed – the quintet got their start the true d.i.y. way, grinding away on the all-ages circuit and self-releasing their music. And that…
The Bang Gang has attracted international attention as one of Sydney, Australia’s sweatiest, most forward-thinking club nights, where techno trash and indie slop coexist happily. This double-disc mix set, a group effort by the night’s masterminds, is a hypercaffeinated mishmash, a snapshot of what would be one of the most…
Local group Aboriginal holds the distinction of being one of the very few bands — if not the only one — that can boast of having opened for both Black Sheep and L.A. Guns. Few acts could, but true to its name, the quintet’s sound is raw and fresh. The…
We’ve got the winners for our Projekt Revolution ticket contest. The trivia question was: What number appears in some form on the cover of every Taking Back Sunday album, and what does it refer to? The answer: 152. It’s explained here, in a a VH1.com interview with frontman Adam Lazzara:…
Erykah Badu & Common August 4, 2007 Chakra The Review: This past Saturday, a dose of real Hip Hop and R&B drowned out the typical South Beach sounds of music. Hours after the curtain closed on the uber-hype Rock the Bells festival, Gorillas Lifestyle Marketing ( www.gorillasrevolution.com) brought conscious rap…
Hippiefest The Turtles featuring Flo and Eddi, Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals, Mitch Ryder, The Zombies featuring Colin Blunstone & Rod Argent (Time of the Season), Country Joe McDonald, Mountain featuring Leslie West & Corky Laing, and Badfinger featuring Joey Molland Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino August 2, 2007 Better Than::…
Matthew Dear Asa Breed (Ghostly International) Matthew Dear has breathed new life into Detroit techno. “Hands Up For Detroit,” his debut single from 1999, became an anthem for the city, invoking the spirit of the mid-’80s, when the “Belleville three” ruled the clubs while inventing techno. After eight years of…
Young Buck Buck the World (G-Unit/Interscope) The autumn release of 50 Cent’s Curtis surely has Interscope execs sweating like pigs praying not to be butchered. Will Curtis save the G-Unit empire or hasten its demise? While they’re waiting, the suits should parse related releases for hints. The formulaic Rotten Apple,…
Miami hip-hop heads, you’ve been waitin’ and debatin’ for oh so long. Saturday it’s finally here — the local stop of the Rock the Bells tour, a day-long festival of so much non-bling-blingin’, non-booty-bass hip-hop, it hardly seems real. Okay, so the New York and California shows get the elusive,…
In true space-age, dance music-weirdness style, Green Velvet was birthed as the alter ego of an alter ego: that of Cajmere, a.k.a. Curtis Alan Jones, a reigning house music artist of the late Eighties/early Nineties. Cajmere was always a little more out there than the other disco dons of his…
Coming this Thursday, check out both the Broward-Palm Beach and Miami New Times papers for coverage of the Projekt Revolution tour! The tour takes place Friday, August 10 at the Sound Advice Ampitheatre in West Palm Beach. Headlining are tour founders Linkin Park; accompanying them across two stages are My…
Life Unscripted, the second full-length from Miami hip-hop stalwart Garcia, is technically a solo album. But speak to the man for a just a few minutes, and it becomes abundantly clear the disc was a family effort. He almost never uses a singular pronoun when discussing his music, instead preferring…
New York City’s Josh Houtkin and Dave Pianka, a.k.a. JDH and Dave P, have been making the smarter cool kids dance for a few years now at their futuristic Fixed party. The sound heavily skews toward electro-house, but the two come from a punk rock background, so their musical policy…
The Tu Madre party, Thursdays at Cameo, holds the rare distinction of being one of the most unique club nights in Miami. Seriously. It’s Latin-oriented, but don’t think for a minute it’s a night of ho-hum salsa and reggaeton. First the crowd: a few Charo look-alikes, sure, but a lot…
Raging Geisha’s frontwoman, Erica Sommer, is all about manipulating contrasts. There’s the inherent contradiction of her band’s name. There’s the music, which incorporates equal parts crunching guitar rock and Timbaland-style beats and samples. Then there’s her persona: sweet but fiery, sometimes rightfully PO’ed. See, Sommer is a black woman in…
Somewhere in Nowheresville, possibly California, a sleek black sportscar hurtles along a desolate highway flanked by sand, tumbleweeds, and dusty mountains. The silver-helmeted, black-leather-clad drivers say nothing. They’re on their way to find more of their kind, somewhere out there. But when they change — maybe evolve — their populace…
Photo by Santiago Felipe Beyonce July 22, 2007 BankAtlantic Center Better Than: Hating. You gotta love it. The Review: Blue-eyed soulster Robin Thicke was just finishing up his set when I walked into the BankAtlantic Center. So like any good girl on a Sunday night, I head straight to the…
