If albums, unlike books, could be judged by their covers, then Conqueror, the newest release from The Gates of Slumber, should rank as one of the greatest metal albums in the history of man. A barbarian warrior, his loincloth fashioned from a bronze skull, stands victoriously. In one outstretched hand…
Machinery will go head-to-head in a battle for blood at Churchill’s Saturday night. Okay, so probably blood won’t factor into the battle, and the most we could hope for is that someone throws their MacBook across the room. Nope, this is just a simple battle for laptop musicianship supremacy. The…
So there’s already way too much blog fodder out there on Lil Wayne so I’ll keep this one short. A couple of days ago I was watching Wayne’s new video for “A Milli,” which was literally shot on the way to another video shoot and I admired the balls that…
Hey vinyl lovers and electronic fans, the highly under publicized Karma Records in Fort Lauderdale just announced that they’re having a huge sale for the rest of the summer. I normally wouldn’t advertise a business specifically on the blog, but supporting independent record stores is a different animal all together…
Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis Two Men with the Blues (Blue Note) Did music really use to be less complicated, or does it just seem that way? Maybe it’s just that life used to be less complicated, and music is simply a mirror of its times. Or something like that…
Based on looks, I think they failed. Cute Is What We Aim For is likely the perfect 21st-century pop band. Almost purpose built for short-attention-span marketing campaigns, the four gents in CIWWAF focus so heavily on pop sheen, hooks, and scenester touchstones that it’s often difficult to figure out just…
Gravy Train!!!! I was debating whether to start this post with “All aboard the Gravy Train!!!!” But, er, I resisted the temptation. But don’t resist on checking out the California quartet Gravy Train!!!! (yes, the exclamation points are part of the name, I suppose to express utter joy) at White…
I’ll post a full review later on, but I wanted to get the set list up for the very excellent Peter Murphy gig last Saturday at Revolution. Because his current tour is billed as a “retrospective,” I know I’m not alone in obsessively Googling his set lists (hey, I was…
Ernest Barteldes Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil performs at the Fillmore Miami Beach Saturday night. Gilberto Gil Saturday, July 5, 2008 The Fillmore Jackie Gleason Theatre, Miami Beach Playing to an audience mostly formed by his many Brazilian fans, Gilberto Gil closed his six-city U.S. tour with a two-hour set designed…
Lee Zimmerman Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band July 3, 2008 Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood By now, the traveling nostalgia show that tours annually under the banner of Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band has been honed to a tee. Ringo offers up his best-known Beatles songs and…
John Hood Tom Waits performs before a sold-out crowd at the Times-Union Center in Jacksonville, Fla. Tom Waits July 1, 2008 The Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, Jacksonville Better than: Having a hobo in your home for supper – and having him sing murder songs for it. (Dateline: Jacksonville)…
Jamie Lidell Genre-bending musician Jamie Lidell will be stopping by Heathrow Lounge, a new UK-inspired club on South Beach, July 18. Who else could be behind this booking except the people from Poplife, which will be celebrating 9 years of bringing indie music to the masses that very weekend. The…
Gameboy/Gamegirl sans fourth member and beat producer Miami Horror. Here was what I can’t figure out about Australian quartet Gameboy/Gamegirl, are they embracing hipster culture or are they making an absolute mockery of it? With lyrics like “Vodka and cranberry/Shake it like it’s February/Gin and tonic/The shit is ironic,” it…
As much as some of us might fantasize about it, becoming a household name obviously has cruel consequences. This is particularly true for artists who are remembered for a single work while the rest of their oeuvre gets completely overlooked. Case in point: that group of charmingly longhaired British boogie…
With Independence Day around the corner, we’ve been debating what songs qualify as the most patriotic ever recorded in these here United States. Or at least songs that wanted to be on such a list. Here’s a short version of what we came up with. “America” — Neil Diamond: Diamond…
Joan Jett never seemed overly concerned with glass ceilings. A very tough girl in a very male-centric industry, Jett simply showed up, rocked her ass off, and returned the next night to do it again, never referencing her gender to benefit her career. She was not a girl who played…
“I have a hard time with modern technology,” Brazilian icon Gilberto Gil says, describing the theme of his latest CD, Banda Larga Cordel. “I admit that I use it with moderation, but I am nevertheless fascinated by it.” This awe was the inspiration for his first disc of original material…
The pale, delicately boned wraith known as Peter Murphy gained his seat as an anointed dark king in the Seventies and Eighties as frontman of the legendary Bauhaus. Channeling the glam theatrics of David Bowie by way of the morgue, he was drama incarnate, a Count Vlad look-alike who sometimes…
Ewun, hailing from Rochester, New York, has made a lot of drum ‘n’ bass hay out of his love for hip-hop, distortion, and glitchy breakbeats. Unbeknownst to d’n’b scenesters, though, a set of Justice-like electro grooves has been lurking in his hard drive, waiting for the right time to make…
The Electric Bunnies’ music makes me feel like I’m beating off to pornography while my wife sleeps in the same room. Good thing I ain’t married and can enjoy the Electric Bunnies in public. Wow! It’s a solid followup to the Eskimo seven-inch. This four-track, vinyl-only EP is an excellent…
Singer-songwriter David Berman is as much of an ironist in life as he is in art. After landing in rehab following a Xanax overdose (an act with sardonic aspects of its own), he belatedly embraced Judaism — a belief system he’d never taken seriously despite his band’s name. Even after…
“Life is life. There’s only X amount of time to shine,” says Chris Wongwon, a.k.a. Fresh Kid Ice, a.k.a. Chinaman, on a recent Wednesday afternoon. The cofounder of notorious Miami bass group 2 Live Crew is wearing a black hat emblazoned with “305,” a black Levi’s T-shirt, black denim shorts,…
