The Dutch aren’t known for much besides cheese, but Tiësto and his fellow countrymen Armin Van Buuren and Ferry Corsten are making a case for Holland as the home of the DJ as rock god. Tiësto’s latest release, Just Be, is an ambitious ten-track exploration of trance mixed with traditional…
As if Timbaland hasn’t accomplished enough, Junior Boys’ debut signals another achievement for contemporary pop’s MVP: influencing (and therefore elevating) blue-eyed soul. Affected as he is, lead singer Jeremy Greenspan doesn’t need melisma or homeboy posturing when he has herky-jer-er-er-ky beats to mimic Tim’s stutter’n’B. But Exit isn’t just about…
You’re walking alone down an alien cityscape surrounded by familiar, yet vaguely threatening sounds — the far-off wail of an ambulance siren, the hollow echo of a passing subway train rising up from an iron grate, the hiss of dirty steam coming from a rusted pipe, and the sudden tap-tap-tap…
Detroit musician Amp Fiddler’s Waltz of a Ghetto Fly sounds like a homage to Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On without the drowsy cocaine-induced lows, or D’Angelo’s Voodoo without the love affair as blood-soaked ritual motif. In other words, it’s all about impassioned extemporizing, R&B as…
In 1993 Jamel Arief, better known as Masta Killa (né Noodles), was chosen as the ninth core member of the then-formidable Wu-Tang Clan. It took the professional rookie the next decade, dog years in the rap game, to ready his solo debut. No Said Date arrives as the rap cognoscenti…
Dirty Dozen Brass Band In New Orleans, people hire brass bands for all occasions, including weddings, parties, and funerals. We’re talking the rat-a-tat drum, slurping trombone, rollicking trumpet, huffing tuba, march-down-the-street combination that’s long been a unique staple of the city. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band took that formula and…
Look out, because Tommy Lee is now part of the South Beach partyscape. He has officially kicked off his new club ROK Bar after months of waiting for construction to wrap up, and a previous unofficial opening that the rock star skipped out on because he supposedly couldn’t find a…
Evolution can’t happen without the past and house music can’t move forward without its history intact. This is the philosophy Grammy-winning DJ/producer Peter Rauhofer subscribes to, and it deserves the attention of every newcomer looking to ride the wave paved by pioneers like him. On a muggy evening in New…
It’s not easy keeping up with Lil’ Jon. On a warm spring evening inside Jonathan Smith’s mansion on the exclusive South Beach community Sunset Island Number One, a temporary residence his label TVT Records has rented for him while he cranks out a new album and sundry remixes for everyone…
Against All Authority Against All Authority has just returned from a two-month tour across the States on which it shared the bill with the Code and the Suicide Machines. On Friday the decade-old, ska-tinged sociopolitical activists will take to the stage in Kendall, in order to bring the road’s energy…
Several years ago, U2 singer Bono told Rolling Stone magazine about a visit he and bassist Adam Clayton once made to the home of fellow devout Christians Johnny and June Carter Cash. As they sat down to eat dinner, Bono recalled, “John spoke this beautiful, poetic grace, and we were…
The New Year makes the kind of indie-rock that was supposed to go out of style once indietronica and electroclash took over — that is, depressive, ironic, poetic, introverted, and overtly influenced by the Velvet Underground. Clocking in at nine songs and 33 minutes, The End Is Near weaves its…
Sneaking onto the scene with their instruments like the children in The School of Rock with a dreamy mix of class and expansive romance, the French Kicks are not of this cynical rock world. But while their 2002 debut, the gorgeous, semioverlooked One Time Bells, gushed freely with cherished tears…
Roni Size and Goldie may have the celebrity market cornered, but it is Dieselboy who has the hardcore following. On his eighth mixed CD, The Dungeonmaster’s Guide, the jungle master pursues a fantasy theme with an adventure narrated by Peter Cullen, the voice behind Venger from the animated series Dungeons…
Arrive at the party after midnight, and the dancers look dull and bored. Same old music. Slip hostess The Venezuelan Zinga Son, Vol. 1. Suddenly everyone is as beautiful as the girl from Ipanema, as ba-a-ad as Superfly, and as fab as a shirtless boy shimmying at Paradise Garage. Primal…
As many as 200,000 visitors, mostly black hip-hop fans, flock to Miami Beach each year during Memorial Day weekend. And even though the overwhelming majority of them are responsible tourists who inject tens of millions of their hard-earned dollars into South Beach’s economy, they still get a bad rap. That’s…
Urban Beach Week … is the ultimate Beach Party … You arrive on Thursday … You check into your hotel … and you begin to see people already mingling … The road blocks, police, and traffic signs are all over the place letting you know that … this is gonna…
Remember the Eighties? If you lived in South Florida during that magical decade, you swam through a sea of spring breakers in your new Celica. You might have been an extra in Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, you lucky dog. It was filmed in various locations along…
It took only four months for a five-person group led by business owners Gil Terem and Poplife’s Aramis Lorie to transform Piccadilly Garden into the District Restaurant and Lounge. Since Piccadilly Hearth was renamed and reopened by then-new owner Mary Klein in 1994, the restaurant had earned a reputation among…
18 Wheelers If the notion of a revved-up rockabilly band specializing in pure Southern honky-tonk seems somewhat out of sync with South Florida’s tropical leanings, then perhaps we ought to remind you that this isn’t the first country combo molded in Miami. The Mavericks were regulars on the local circuit,…
The early word on RJD2’s Since We Last Spoke is that it’s something of a disappointment, especially coming on the heels of the robust, near-heroic Dead Ringer. True, it is willfully introspective and less frenetic than that auspicious debut; there are no headline-grabbing raps by his old crew, MHz, or…
No British rapper has a bigger hurdle to overcome than the Streets’ Mike Skinner. His second full-length, A Grand Don’t Come for Free, comes two years after the critical and fan favorite Original Pirate Material, an album the “British Eminem” used to turn the world on its collective ear, with…
