Music

The “World” section at your local music retailer is just a way to pile together all the stuff that isn’t from America or the UK. It really isn’t fair that Bossanova joints can be found right next to some Riverdance jams, but English-born Sri Lankan M.I.A.’s latest, Kala, truly deserves…

The Legendary Max Roach At work In sad news, great jazz percussionist Max Roach passed away yesterday at the age of 83. He’d been sick for some time according to reports and died on Wednesday in a Manhattan hospital. Roach was one of the well noted innovators of bebop jazz…

Marisela Verena Marisela Verena has never sat down to compose a song – or sing one for that matter – with the idea it’s going to climb the charts or end up getting regular airplay. It’s the message she’s trying to convey to the masses that concerns her most. “I…

It was pitch-black. It was long and slick. It was hard and secure. It bounced in every direction yet never appeared out of place. It kindled enough swagger and confidence to ignite a copycat trend throughout the world’s salsa hubs, which is still evident to this day, among a horde…

First off, this isn’t exactly a new project by the fresh-out-of-prison Jamaican singer Jah Cure. The recently released True Reflections is more of a greatest-hits compilation of tunes that Cure has cranked out over the past eight years — most of which he recorded while behind bars. True Jah Cure…

As world events keep taking dark turns, Junior Senior continues to get happier. On its second long-player, humorously titled Hey Hey My My Yo Yo, the Danish duo is practically giddy in its effervescent good mood. Hey Hey fizzles and pops with all the ingredients necessary for a good time…

Melissa Young promises she doesn’t usually yawn this much. “I have a serious case of insomnia,” Young, more commonly known as hip-hop artist Kid Sister, says over the phone. The Chicago native has been up all night, working on outtakes for albums by hip artists like Chromeo and the Cool…

Thursday marks 30 years since the King of Rock and Roll — Elvis Aron Presley to his mama and daddy — keeled over on his Graceland throne, dead at the love-me-tender age of 42. But he’s still with us in myriad, mysterious ways. The billion-plus albums sold worldwide, for starters…

If you are a Miami native and you love hip-hop from the 305, then you know Slip-N-Slide Records. Named Best Independent Record Label by Miami New Times earlier this year, the company has sold more than 15 million records since its inception in 1993. That number should grow exponentially: In…

Adopting the guise of roots revisionist, musical journeyman, and trad troubadour, John Doe has taken an unexpected tangent since parting ways with X, the apocalyptic punk group he helmed in the Eighties. And with every twist of his trajectory and each succeeding album, Doe’s reputation has ratcheted up accordingly. So…

For some, vinyl is like a daily Cuban coffee addiction or FIFA 2007 on PlayStation 3. For others, it’s a leftover relic from an older generation, like comic books and Cracker Jack. Luckily in South Florida, there are still a few shops that stock it, like the storied Blue Note…

Membership has its privileges. How else do we explain the cameos that stud Minnie Driver’s sophomore effort? Would Ryan Adams really chip in a guitar part if Driver weren’t a movie star? Would Liz Phair lend backing vocals? Sure they would. Right. In fairness, though, Driver isn’t pulling a Hasselhoff…

Against Me! New Wave Gainesville’s Against Me! shares a hometown with Lynyrd Skynyrd and, discounting the redneck caricature Skynyrd became after frontman/spiritual leader Ronnie Van Zant’s 1977 death, a lot more: a keen eye for the flaws of leaders and those being led alike, and songs with sentiments as potent…