It’s totally normal to envy up-and-coming Latin alternative pop diva Sacha Nairobi. Her vibrant voice explodes melodically from her chest when she sings her catchy, ironic lyrics to the song “Princesa,” which recently appeared nationally on Putumayo’s Radio Latino compilation. She comes from a family of well-known Venezuelan musicians and…
Around 2 p.m. on a recent Sunday afternoon, the South Florida sky beating down on Lincoln Road has not yet taken up its mean-spirited game of scorch-drench-scorch-drench-scorch. And the pleasant weather has put the pedestrian mall’s self-proclaimed “wordologist” and MC, Dr. Geek, in a good mood. Setting up an aluminum…
Mokai, on any given Tuesday: Models and bottles. Kingpins and princesses. The odd cougar and her cub. Money. Power. Sex. And every player worth his game. Everybody’s in, everybody’s on, and everybody’s moving and shaking, swooning and swaying, to the wow now sound of DJ Ross One. See, this is…
Matthew Dear is one of the electronic music scene’s most chameleonic, now-you-see-him-now-you-don’t figures. Much like the namesake phantoms of the labels on which he releases most of his music (Ghostly International and Spectral Sound), he materializes often, but unexpectedly, shapeshifting as his mood suits him. It’s no surprise, then, that…
Money $hot, the neon-and-shades-heavy Thursday-night throwdown at The Vagabond, continues its romance with all things Baltimore this week by bringing down that town’s latest rising DJ star, Dave Nada. A favorite on blogs such as Discobelle, Nada has a style that’s a rapid-fire cut-and-paste, moving from bass bump to electro…
Jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis is more than an iconic performer and critically lauded composer; he’s a New Orleans jazz father figure. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the shape of contemporary jazz should immediately recognize his as the surname common to trumpeter Wynton, saxophonist Branford, drummer Jason, and trombonist Delfeayo. Still,…
Popularized by Lionel Hampton, the vibraphone is from the same family as the marimba and xylophone. Over the past couple of decades, the instrument has found its place among both the Latin and jazz music scenes thanks to the likes of Tito Puente, Gary Burton (who introduced the four-mallet technique),…
Times are tough in Detroit. The auto industry is a popcorn-movie train wreck again, thus the city’s legs are wobblier than Lindsay Lohan’s after an all-nighter. But the Motor City music scene is something that simply can’t be squashed, what with its rich history as a — perhaps the —…
Let’s be frank: During Candlebox’s original run in the Nineties, the Seattle quartet was absolutely hammered by critics and some music fans for being grunge lite. The main accusation: The group had co-opted the riffs, moods, and flannel — yet excised most of the nihilism and self-hatred — of that…
Hey, Scott Weiland: Look, I’m gonna be honest with you — I really don’t care whether Slash took his stinky leather boot, planted it on your scrawny behind, and gave you the heave-ho from Velvet Revolver, or you went all “You can’t fire me cuz I quit!” on ’em. You…
When Lady Tigra was 18 years old, she and best friend Bunny D formed the charismatic Miami Bass duo L’Trimm. Their spunky energy and a Top 40 hit “Cars That Go Boom” forever endeared them to fans of fun club music and vibrating subwoofers. Now, 20 years later, Tigra sounds…
Usually Conor Oberst’s lyrics elicit something of a collective groan from the apparently small but steadfast contingent of music listeners who just can’t swallow the Bob Dylan comparisons. Oberst certainly has the tendency to be heavy-handed with metaphor, and with language in general, often reading like a hipper, more literate…
It’s unlikely any band has as thoroughly modern and convoluted a resurgence story as these AOR mainstays pulled back into public consciousness by HBO and YouTube. Since former lead singer Steve Perry’s 1996 departure, Journey has gone through two frontmen, plucking current vocalist Arnel Pineda off the Internet via the…
It’s fitting that the classic Jamaican powerhouse of Sly & Robbie provides the backing for “El Aire,” the first track on Eljuri’s solid American debut album. The song shows that this Guayaquil, Ecuador-born multi-instrumentalist is comfortable playing different styles, going from reggae to Brazilian-inflected ballads to rock and Latin pop…
On a recent evening on the deck of The Standard Hotel, singer-songwriter Sol Ruiz wears a sophisticated black-and-white polka-dot dress and slowly nurses a vodka and cranberry. Her conversation is laced with self-reflective commentary. It’s a big change in aesthetics and attitude from two summers ago, when New Times last…
Rodrigo y Gabriela’s video for “Diablo Rojo” Can acoustic guitars sound heavy? Five minutes of the Mexican duo Rodrigo y Gabriela will prove that the answer is, definitely. Ex-thrash-metallers turned Dublin street buskers turned global critical darlings, on their breakout 2006 self-titled album they pulled off an astounding feat: They…
When Baltimore DJ Dave Nada stops by The Vagabond’s Money Shot party tomorrow along with DJ Craze, expect to give your ass a thorough workout. The grooves will be plenty heavy, but that’s to be expected since Baltimore has emerged as one of the more promising DJ scenes in United…
So here’s a new erotic banger from Ft. Lauderdale’s genre-defying songwriter Timb and his electro partner, Danny Ae called “Starchild Lover.” Both of those artists make music individually, but when they combine as the Craven, they sound even better. I’m not sure how old the song is but the video…
Oh wow. It looks like hip-hop fans are going to be broke after the first ten days of October. Common and N.E.R.D. are already scheduled to perform at the Fillmore Miami Beach on October 10th which definitely sounds like a show that shouldn’t be missed. And as of yesterday, it…
Justin Namon Gutter sounds invade White Room’s Monday night party Exposure when Baltimore DJ Scottie B. The downtown Miami party has been going against the Monday-night-parties-don’t-work odds by booking solid national DJs, giving us a great excuse to go hungover to work on Tuesdays. Click here to enjoy last night’s…
3 One G Friday, August 8, 2008 The Vagabond, Miami Last Friday’s performance at the Vagabond by 3 One G, the Winter Haven-based Joy Division tribute band, was jammed to the rafters. Surprisingly high-energy and weirdly thrilling, it also raised a number of philosophical questions, among them: 1) If someone…
Bad Company Friday, August 8, 2008 Seminole Hard Rock Live, Hollywood Unless you’re a devoted fan – or you listened to a lot of radio during the ‘70s and early ‘80s — the prospect of a Bad Company reunion wouldn’t necessarily inspire the same kind of crazed anticipation that accompanied,…
