Truth be told, Q-Burn’s message is no more abstract than “get thee under the mirror-ball and shake yo’ ass.” The former Rollins College (Orlando) DJ is a master at blending software and electronics with live instruments to create bump-and-groove house tunes, weaving his own guitar riffs and drum breaks into…
Like Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow knows the value of old songs. But unlike Stewart (who caught his third career wind by recording 76 albums’ worth of tunes your grandma got busy to back in the day), Manilow has slowly been working his way through the 20th Century, beginning with the…
This emo supergroup began as a lark in 2006, when the blogosphere had Snakes on a Plane fever. Gabe Saporta, frontman for New Jersey rockers Midtown, was recruited to pen a song for the movie. But the flick turned out to be an overhyped washout that couldn’t even muster enough…
What do PerezHilton.com, El Cerro Market No. 7, Máxim en Español, botánicas, Mary’s Coin Laundry, and your heart have in common? Those are places where José El Rey resides. Let’s face it: The kingdom of Hialeah was up for grabs, and this man rose to the challenge. Living in the…
As a member of legendary Minneapolis underground band Hüsker Dü and leader of the wildly acclaimed Nineties outfit Sugar, Bob Mould was known for blanketing bleak tales of relationship woe with layers of electric guitar and driving choruses. Having settled comfortably in Washington, D.C., he turned his attention to electronic…
“I can’t tell if we’re running from or coming to,” singer/guitarist Jason Simon muses on the folky, eulogic “Ain’t Got Nothing (To Go Wrong),” his voice dripping with idiosyncratic weariness. He could easily be opening up to a lover, making a statement about the accelerating decline of Western civilization, or…
Why does everything have to be Forbes magazine?” scoffs Aaron Funk, the electronic music madman who performs as Venetian Snares. Speaking with New Times by phone from his native Winnipeg, Canada, he’s 30 minutes into his first U.S. interview in two years, and on a rant of sorts. “I see…
For the first six albums, a dozen years into their collective career, the North Mississippi Allstars took a more traditional approach to their rural, rootsy designs, resulting in a sound that paid homage to blues by the book. Then again, that’s not surprising considering their family pedigree — two members…
The versatile multilingual vocalist Elin was born in Sweden, but you would never know it by listening to her. Her style has a strong Brazilian influence even when she is belting out standards like Gershwin’s “Fascinating Rhythm” or her own compositions, as heard on her début CD, Lazy Afternoon (Blue…
It seems crazy to say this, but it’s been 21 years since No Use For a Name debuted as a band. In other words, the band as an entity can legally drink; a substantial number of its fans cannot. Pop-punk intrinsically seems like a genre made both for and by…
Never mind the misleading band name: Average White Band were racially mixed, but still hailed from very unfunky Scotland. Amazingly, the [usually] sextet created a brand of Seventies R&B with a serious swing that sounded really American, and really soulful. Their songs were rife with juicy breakbeats, and as such…
It looks like McDonald’s is going after the urban crowd with this one. “Cha cha now y’all.” — Jonathan Cunningham…
By ANDY VIHSTADT Sex & Violence For your viewing pleasure: the new Kanye West video, directed by Spike Jonze. Much like his 1995 vid for Wax’s “Southern California” (reminisce here), Jonze shows his penchant for slow motion and fire. Add a shovel-wielding lingerie model to the equation and you’ve got…
Its’ silly that folks still resort to treating entertainers like this but some idiot at a recent Pitbull show got in a real cheap shot by launching a bottle at the Miami rapper’s head. The video below shows it in slow-mo afterward so don’t worry if you miss it the…
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone February 16, 2007 The White Room Better Than: Having Dostoevsky read to you by an ex-lover. Hard to believe anyone would put their faith in heartbreak, let alone turn out en masse to listen to it. But that’s Miami – ever ready to flip the…
Everybody’s favorite local 305 hip-hop curator, DJ Khaled, is movin’ on up yet again. Yesterday, he announced the launch of his new record label, We the Best Music (named after his 2007 album, of course, We the Best). It’ll be ecxlusively partnered up with and distributed by Def Jam Entertainment,…
One of our sister papers in Texas, the Houston Press, has this great list today of 10 hip-hop break-up songs, “because Valentine’s Day is for suckas.” Among the selections from the list of mostly dirty south jams: “Crampin’ My Style” by UGK, “Dirty Bitch” by Geto Boys, and reppin’ the…
There is a part in Nick Hornby’s novel About a Boy where Kurt Cobain’s image on a T-shirt is described as Jesus. For many, that idea is not far from the truth. Is there anything more iconic than a dead rock star? Anything more romantic, even, than one who has…
No Use for a Name has been around for 20 years, which is staggering when you consider that just about as many people know the punk band’s name today as in 1987, though that might have something to do with the fact that it has no use for one. Then…
Robert Plant once ad-libbed, “Does anybody remember laughter?” during a live go-’round of Led Zeppelin’s radio-worn, double-headed guitar epic “Stairway to Heaven.” The quip laid into general rock-deity ennui: Plant in painted-on denim atop his own Mount Doom, surveying what’s been conquered and then vocalizing his surprise at finding it…
You don’t need to know the music of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone to know that somehow, somewhere, sometime, you too have trod down that same long, dark road. But it helps, if only for the fact that you can commiserate. You might even get a bit gleeful hearing how…
Better hook up the Red Bull I.V. — DJ Boris is on his way to Space. The Russian-born 35-year-old is known as much for his marathon club sets (15 hours at Crobar in 2006, 22 hours at Nocturnal during the 2007 Winter Music Conference) as for his ever-growing list of…
