A stylish and elegant pianist in any setting, Danilo Pérez possesses a musical ear that’s pure gold. As such, he tops the list when the finest players in Latin jazz need someone to tickle the ivories. This includes the host for his Miami dates, Arturo Sandoval. Along with the celebrated…
You know, Radiohead, I was just about to go to sleep when I checked my email one last time. And lo and behold, the download code for your new CD, In Rainbows, popped up in my inbox. *sigh* I didn’t need sleep anyway. Since the rest of the blogosphere is…
I love love love Little Steven, of his eponymous weekly syndicated Underground Garage radio show (and 24-hour station on Sirius!). (Locally, listen in on Sunday night/Monday morning from midnight to 2:00 a.m. on BIG 105.9 FM, the only time you will hear something beyond the station’s seeming 20-song “classic rock”…
Everyone was atwitter about this year’s edition of the Bang! Music festival, which started in 2005. On one hand, people were amped to see blabbermouth Kanye West and the recently reunited (sans James Iha) Smashing Pumpkins on the lineup. On the other hand, there was the strange mix of the…
Ministry The Last Sucker (13th Planet/Megaforce) If The Last Sucker is, as leader Al Jourgensen says, Ministry’s swan song, fans are not left wanting. From the assault of opener “Let’s Go,” the album recalls the thick groove and overall intensity of The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, churning…
Few people in rock need less of an introduction than Slash, the legendary former ax man for Guns N Roses who built that band’s epic sound with his deft, but economical and sexy, riffage. Since 2002 he’s been one-fifth of what is now Velvet Revolver, along with former GNR bandmates…
Jenny Lewis Photo by Jamie Puntumkhul Rilo Kiley Revolution, Ft. Lauderdale October 1, 2007 Better than: A three-way between a man, me, and Jim. The Review: The last time Rilo Kiley ventured down to South Florida it was roughly two years ago at the I/O Lounge. They performed for about…
Fight Klub Buck 15 October 2, 2007 Better Than: Getting lost in Liberty City on your way to the beach. The Review: The first time I went to South Beach, I got attacked by a beautifull cross-dresser. So, I never know what to expect when I’m in the area. On…
In the South we’re all about Soulja Boy, but up in New York City, a girl named Tokyo Diva and her crew are showing us how the ’80s babies do it on her block — in neon leggings, big-print t-shirts and thick, gold dookie rope chains. In part, the style…
Miami’s favorite youth football coach, Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell is back in the news again, but for a good cause. He’s reaching out to folks in the hip-hop industry and gathering support for the Third Annual Battle of the Stars Celebrity Football Tournament to be held in Miami next year…
When did mainstream rap become more relevant than its underground counterpart? Talib Kweli and El-P released self-congratulatory pap this year while Kanye West’s sincere, introspective effort sold a million copies in its first week. Now we’ve got Chamillionaire, whose Ultimate Victory is perhaps the most topical album ever. Though what…
Cuban-born hip-hop trio Orishas are known for rhyming about the daily struggles faced by those living in their homeland, often dealing head-on with touchy themes such as racial discrimination, poverty, and immigration. Even so, there’s one area where Orishas’ MC Ruzzo (a.k.a. Hiram Riverí) refuses to tread. “We are not…
Thankfully I was nowhere near 50 Cent when he learned Kanye West’s new CD was going to beat his. 50 famously vowed to stop making solo albums if he lost their first-week sales battle, and he did lose — by the score of 957,000 to 691,000 — although he had…
In January 2005 the masterminds behind Beatport.com launched Version 2.0 of their online music store. At the time, Beatport was a fairly modest operation, with roughly 14,000 users. But the niche concept had epic potential, even if only a small number of people outside the dance-music community recognized the brand…
Matt White’s story is truly a grassroots one, in both the prehistoric analog and 21st-century digital senses. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin a couple of years ago, the Englewood, New Jersey native headed back to his teenage stomping grounds: New York City. But rather than immediately duke it…
The stars are aligning over Little Havana for a late entry in the running for best local live jazz show of the year. The stars, in this case, are the gifted violinist and composer Federico Britos, the young jazz-singing and double-bass-playing phenom Esperanza Spalding, and white-hot tenor saxophonist David Sánchez…
There’s a number in Fred Cole’s live set in which he addresses head-on the fact that he is Nat “King” Cole’s “baby” brother. It’s a midtempo blues song that encapsulates the challenges of such a distinction, and his performances of it practically overflow with dry wit and self-deprecating humor. Most…
The legendary Vibrators may be getting long in the tooth, but they’re hardly short on energy and O.G. punk spirit. The quartet could school any spikey-haired-come-lately in true road warrior style and longevity: They got together in London in 1976, broke up for a minute around 1980, and reformed in…
“We enjoy each other as people; we get along and play music we love,” Yellowjackets bassist and cofounder Jimmy Haslip says about the band’s famous longevity. “We seem to have a common goal, and that makes it easy to travel and perform together.” Existing for more than 25 years since…
House DJ Pablo Ceballos is another wunderkind story: Kid falls in love with techno, meets mentor, explodes worldwide. During the early Nineties, bands like Depeche Mode and Massive Attack were among those that attracted the then-teenage Ceballos to synth-based music. Soon he began to gravitate more toward house sounds and…
With signature dreads, gold chains around his neck, and a tattoo of his father on his right arm, Ky-mani Marley strikes a presence that is unmistakably, well, Marley. Despite a definite Miami swagger, he speaks softly and with a Jamaican accent. The resemblance to his dad is remarkable. Ky-mani, age…
As Jacob Miller tickled the ivories in the NBC studio, he couldn’t help but look at the screen hanging above him. There was a fair-size crowd gathered to watch him. One audience member, he noted, was a giant anthropomorphic moth. Another was an exuberant woman in a pink boa, who…
