Various Artists Ultra-Lounge: On the Rocks, Parts One and Two (Capitol) I’ve marveled at the sonic gimmickry and the compositional and arranging genius of Juan Esquivel, I’ve basked in the cheesy tropical splendor of Martin Denny, and I’ve been obsessively passionate about Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra since my mid-teens…
Join owner Digby Leibovitz in saying goodbye to Swirl Shop this Saturday, June 14 (1049 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 534-2060). Leibovitz muses darkly about Swirl’s demise: “People aren’t supporting the small local places. And if they don’t, everything is going to turn corporate.” The blowout begins at 11:00 p.m. with…
The attack is a bit “sweeter” this time around for Matthew Sweet. Instead of the usual jabbing guitars flexing up the straight-forward pop, the singer-songwriter has decided to tone things down. “Up until recently Matthew gave guitar players all the room in the world,” says guitarist Ivan Julian, who has…
Despite all the recent press talk about the demise of rock and roll and the glorious advent of electronica, I’ve neither subscribed to the former nor believed for a minute that insipid doodlers like DJ Spooky will become anything close to the Next Big Thing. But then I started thinking:…
Despite her success, Tina Turner has done her best to obscure the fact that she’s a great singer. It doesn’t help that she just launched her latest solo album, Wildest Dreams, and her first U.S. tour in six years at the same time one of her most incendiary early-Seventies performances…
The musical dynamic of Ed Matus’ Struggle was once described by a fan as “a train coming, then all of a sudden someone pours fudge on top of it.” The Miami quartet — comprising lead guitarist/songwriter Juan Montoya, singer/guitarist Scott Nixon, drummer Robert Lecusay, and recently acquired bassist LeRoy Talcott…
Unfolding under this Thursday evening’s new moon (and every Thursday to follow) is an event that sounds so much like Miami it’s almost cruelly coincidental that it was transplanted from New York: Cafe con Leche at KGB (637 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 534-5420). For years Cafe con Leche was a…
The Monks Black Monk Time (Infinite Zero/American) Everything that’s great about the Monks is right there on “Monk Chant,” the lead cut from the group’s 1966 underground classic Black Monk Time, reissued on American’s Infinite Zero imprint after 30 years of obscurity. Over galloping drums, fuzzed-out bass, horror-show organ, trebly…
A few words on Pete Moss from some people who knew him. Moss, a fixture on the local music scene for more than ten years, died early last week. No cause of death has been announced. Hal “Boise Bob” Spector, musician: “We met while he was playing in Gay Cowboys…
After seven years at this wonderful newspaper, I’m jumping out of the club parade and into a seminormal job. Unfortunately for me, now I’ll actually have to be up in the morning. This fine piece of work is my last column. My stint as nightlife guru has ended. My replacement,…
In the inaugural issue of No Depression — a fanzine out of Seattle that has somehow grown to embody the genre of “insurgent country” — the editors wrote: “We claim Gram Parsons as our unholy ghost, minister of the shotgun wedding of country and rock ‘n’ roll long before the…
Take four people from widely varying ethnic and personal backgrounds, put them in a potentially intense situation, then wait for the sparks to fly. It may sound like the formula for some “real life” MTV show or the premise of the next “Must-See TV” program, but it’s actually the secret…
Pete Ham 7 Park Avenue (Rykodisc) The mere fact that Badfinger was originally signed to the Beatles’ Apple label unfairly stigmatized the British popsters as a surrogate Fab Four. But unlike their labelmates, Badfinger’s story did not include highlights like soldout shows at Shea Stadium. That story, chronicled in Dan…
Oh, sure, nowadays everyone likes Black Sabbath. You know, there used to be rules for this sort of thing. Black Sabbath at one time was viewed as a joke by most folks. The only people who liked them were kids so completely stoned all the time they were mesmerized for…
For someone who considers himself an expressionist, Khadir frontman Lino de la Guardia has had a hard time expressing himself — or rather, he’s found it difficult to get the sounds in his head captured on tape. His frustration is evident when the 32-year-old Miami native talks about all the…
Guy Clark Keepers: A Live Recording (Sugar Hill) Keepers is exactly right. The title of Guy Clark’s latest disc suggests that what we have is a collection of a legendary songwriter’s best songs, recorded live. And we do. But what makes this one of the year’s best albums is that…
The party brigade takes charge with yet another benefit as The Undercover Ball rolls into Salvation (1771 West Ave., Miami Beach, 538-4137) tonight (Thursday) for some serious dancing and drinking. It’s all for a good cause, though, as the proceeds go to help the Health Crisis Network. A champagne reception…
Jay Farrar writes songs from the tangled backwoods of the soul, in a dimly lit recess where what little light shines only illuminates the despair that dogs him. In the seven years since he introduced the first of those songs as one-third of the seminal neo-country band Uncle Tupelo, Farrar,…
It’s good to be known as the queen of something — especially something widely and wildly influential — even if that something is long gone. Donna Summer doesn’t mind being called the Queen of Disco, but she wants to be known for more than her classic dance-floor anthems of the…
It’s not easy selling Miami on avant-garde music. Sometimes you even have to give the stuff away. Gustavo Matamoros knows this. The artistic director of the South Florida Composers Alliance’s annual Subtropics 9 New Music Festival — and a respected avant-garde composer in his own right — has over the…
Buick MacKane The Pawn Shop Years (Rykodisc) The best way to distinguish the solo work of Austin singer/songwriter Alejandro Escovedo from his side-band excursions with Buick MacKane is to cue up the first cut on The Pawn Shop Years, the MacKane unit’s debut album. Anyone who’s been swimming through Escovedo’s…
Beginning Sunday, May 18, South Beach music venue Stella Blue (1661 Meridian Ave., Miami Beach, 532-4788) adds a Latin rock night to its already varied agenda. The cozy club gets down and dirty as party bands Khadir and El Duende bring on the rhythm. Next Sunday (May 25) Peruvian rock…
