MoCA Book Club Goes to Venice and Then Dips in the Ganges

OK, I lied. The MoCA Book Club will not actually go to Italy Wednesday night. Nor will it really follow up with a trip to India. But if the reports of Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi (Pantheon, $24) are even half-accurate, the club will immerse in a…

Review: The Harder They Come at the Arsht Center, August 29

The Harder They ComeSaturday, August 29, 2009The Ziff Ballet Opera House at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, MiamiBetter Than: Hanging with the Rude Boys at Vagabond’s Stone Groove. Or just as good anyway.The film will be familiar to just about anyone who’s ever gone to the cinema, especially…

Infected Mushroom

It’s highly unlikely Perry Farrell or Korn’s Jonathan Davis will join the Israeli psytrance superstars of Infected Mushroom when they hit the stage this Saturday at Karu & Y. (Both singers appeared on the group’s latest album, Legend of the Black Shawarma.) But it’s just as unlikely you’ll miss either…

Head Spins: DJ Pauer

It’s late Saturday night. A club is raftered with Colombians, Venezuelans, Argentines, and Bolivians. There are Cubans too, primarily born in Florida. And there’s also a smattering of Italians. Pepper the crowd with a fistful of Yanks and then stir. That’s the stew. It could be La Paz; it could…

Purple Popcorn

Local hard rock-rap band Purple Popcorn does, in fact, rock but has gotten most of its recognition from stomping all over pop hip-hop. In the early days of its formation two years ago, the band pummeled both Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” and Chris Brown’s “Kiss Kiss” and in doing so…

Head Spins: DJ Pauer, Spinning This Thursday at the Gusman Center

Saturday night, 2:00 a.m. A club raftered with Colombians and Venezuelans, Argentines and Bolivians. There are Cubans too, primarily born in Florida. And there’s also a smattering of Italians. Pepper the crowd with a fistful of Yanks and then stir.That’s the stew. It could be La Paz; it could be…

Head Spins: Stefano Ravasini

There might be DJs who spin more often than Stefano Ravasini (a few, anyway). And there might be DJs who are better known (for now). But it’s unlikely you’ll find a DJ who’s more industrious, let alone one who’s as ever-ready to take advantage of every opportunity, even if he…

Concert Review: Counting Crows at Bayfront Park Amphitheater

Counting Crows, Michael Franti, Spearhead and AugustanaAugust 18, 2009Bayfront Park AmphitheaterBetter Than: Having to drive to AtlantaIn case you missed the last few days, the beautifully-set Bayfront Park Amphitheater has reopened its doors and live music has come back to downtown Miami. Yeah, I know, there are other downtown venues…

Head Spins: DJ Elle

A Sunday afternoon barbecue on South Beach is probably not the best place to interview a DJ, especially if the spinner has been knocking back mojitos for a couple of hours before you pose your questions. Then again, this is the Magic City, and a large part of its allure…

Head Spins: DJ Elle (With a Free Mix For Download!)

A Sunday afternoon barbecue on South Beach is probably not the best place to interview a DJ, especially if the spinner’s been knocking back mojitos for a couple hours before you pose your questions. Then again, this is the Magic City, and a large part of its allure comes from…

MP3 of the Day: Adriana Calcanhotto

Last week Head Spins brought you into the studio of WDNA, site of Gene de Souza’s long-running Café Brasil. As we said in the article, any Brazilian worth his or her weight in music pays a visit to the show when they hit town, and that included Adriana Calcanhotto, who…

Head Spins: Gene de Souza

It’s a Sunday evening at the local studios of WDNA, one of the only true indie radio stations in all of America. It’s raining outside, an unholy alliance of torrent and drizzle, but in here there’s nothing but sunshine. Brazilian sunshine, that is. As if one were on the beaches…

Head Spins: Gene De Souza

It’s a Sunday evening at the local studios of WDNA, one of the only true indie radio stations in all of America. It’s raining outside, an unholy alliance of torrent and drizzle, but in here there’s nothing but sunshine. Brazilian sunshine, that is. As if one were on the beaches…

Concert Review: Black Moth Super Rainbow at White Room

Black Moth Super RainbowSaturday, August 1, 2009White Room, MiamiBetter Than: An acid throwback.There was something bittersweet about catching Black Moth Super Rainbow at White Room Saturday night. On the one hand it was among the absolute best nights Poplife has ever put together (and they’ve put together a good many…

Concert Review: Tori Amos at The Fillmore Miami Beach

Tori AmosThursday, July 29, 2009The Fillmore Miami BeachBetter Than: You can imagine — twiceHard to say which was better: sitting in the front row next to a dynamite dame for Tori Amos’s Fillmore Gleason show, or catching her earlier that day, when Tori performed what was basically a private concert…

Black Moth Super Rainbow

Black Moth Super Rainbow’s recently released Eating Us might not lovingly upset as many stomachs as 2007’s eerily chewy Dandelion Gum. But that’s only because people are acquiring a taste for the western Pennsylvania outfit’s trippy brand of vivid wildness. Sure, the kooky quintet’s latest LP seems almost sedate compared…

Head Spins: DJ M.Dot

First things first: M.Dot’s name has nothing to do with either Michigan’s or Maryland’s department of transportation. But it could, especially when you consider this DJ’s moniker does, in fact, have something to do with moving large groups of the public. In fact, it might take the DOT from both…