To the sheltered gringo, daydreams of Colombia conjure up images of picturesque beaches, tan women, and topnotch nose candy. The fantasy intensifies with smoked-filled illusions of the ever-mesmerizing Shakira, yet another of the country’s hedonistic pleasures. Known worldwide for her signature quaver and gyrating hips, the Latin pop artist has…
On the heels of his new release, Who Let the Cats Out? (Heads Up), the three-time Grammy nominee weaves various musical influences into his guitar-playing. “I am a jazz player,” he says, “but you have to follow your musical heart.” He must have learned this lesson while performing with Miles…
“Live instrumentation is really the essence of Latin musical cultural roots. The intention of this festival is to shake things up a little bit and define our own sound,” notes Yerba Buena vocalist Andres Levin. “This festival” is a four-act bill with a kitchen-sink approach to the fusion formula: Yerba…
At sixteen years old, Miami native DJ Ralph Falcon had already identified himself as an emerging house artist, quickly earning a record deal with Atlantic in the mid-Nineties. Influences such as New York DJs Timmy Regisford, Merlin Bobb, and Bobby Konders led to Falcon’s dance-pop style, which grew increasingly popular…
When Money Malc was still swaddled in diapers, his mom kept him quiet by placing the radio in the crib. Now he’s grown up, a big man who sports even bigger T-shirts, and after a lifetime of displaying an uncanny ability to memorize lyrics, he decided it was time to…
“I’m so sick of love songs/So tired of tears/So done with wishing that you’re still here,” sings Ne-Yo on “So Sick,” his voice limp from pain. The music beneath him is simply a light piano and a drum machine, a minimalist canvas for his tears. “Yeah, I’m so sick of…
Over the past fifteen years, pianist and composer Ethan Iverson has played in a tango band, directed a prestigious New York dance group, and released critically acclaimed jazz albums. But perhaps the most unique aspect of Iverson’s lengthy musical career is his part in the Bad Plus, a jazz trio…
Mara Lee Miller, a.k.a. Bosque Brown, felt the cataclysmic effect of Hurricane Katrina. Her grandparents, who lived near Biloxi, Mississippi, were forced to flee their home of more than 50 years, an episode that scarred both their surroundings and their psyches. Miller documents their experience with the four-song Cerro Verde…
Every song on the forthcoming Fang Bang album has to adhere to this horror-glam naming scheme, see, almost as though there were a strictness to some hypothetical Alice CooperfrontsPennywise formula, not that you’d ever derive that from Wednesday’s daring daylight robbery of Taylor Rain’s — er, Marilyn Manson’s, look…
Farofa Carioca transformed Brazil in the Nineties with the hit “Moro No Brasil,” an anthem about the suffering and exploitation of the lower class and its fight for survival. The group honed the musical talents of Seu Jorge before he exploded as a solo artist and actor…
Hail the Sails, Great Britain’s latest buzz band. Essentially a guise for a one-man musical operation — multi-instrumentalist and overachiever Michael Gagliano — the self-titled debut runs rampant with psychedelic sensibilities and flower-power precepts. Though accessible and engaging, the material maintains an integrity and intelligence that elevates it far beyond…
On the cover of this month’s DJ magazine, the influential British dance publication, Christophe Le Friant’s pure white visage stares out against a bright red and blue backdrop. And it’s not the Stars and Stripes. The headline blares, “The French Revolution,” while the name Bob Sinclar, a pseudonym for Le…
One of last year’s biggest hip-hop beefs occurred between celebrity mogul Diddy and reggaeton’s leading man, Tego Calderón. It all began gently enough when Diddy offered Tego the opportunity to be the official fashion model for his new fall line of clothing. The catch was that Puffy was willing to…
With Usher languishing in the Broadway production of Chicago, and Michael Jackson kickin’ it in the Middle East behind a burqa or two, the tap shoes must fall to seventeen-year-old R&B ingénue Chris Brown to dance the ladies right out of their hot pants via his puppy-dog-sweet tunes and gravity-defying…
With its always-free admission, Laundry Bar might just be the best musical bargain to be had in pricey South Beach — well, maybe ever. This is especially true when a world-renowned jock such as DJ Sneak takes to the turntables to unleash his brand of blunted house and funk groovage…
There’s a long list of big names percussionist Sammy Figueroa has played with, including Miles Davis, David Bowie, and Mariah Carey. Born in Brooklyn, Figueroa began his musical career performing in Bobby Valentin’s band when he was eighteen, shortly before founding the Brazilian/Latin-fused band Raices, which brought Figueroa his first…
The world has become obsessed with Brazilian culture. Whether referring to svelte bodies on soccer fields, award-winning films, or amazingly complex and powerful music, we love it all. Celebrate your fetish for this sexy nation at Gil Santos’s Brazilian Independence Day Celebration at the Deauville Beach Resort. Santos is the…
Key words: liver spots, life insurance, Emma Bo-Bemma, Dick Royale, skeeze, beer, loitering. If Bob White were still around, he could tell ya that the preceding can refer to only one band, a band that is back with a new CD and a series of live concerts serving up across-the-board…
Combine the grandeur and rockabilly twang of Texas with the attitude and speed of punk, and the result is a bastard child known as psychobilly. Perhaps now the Quakes have come across a new hybrid of “-billy,” mixing Eighties and rockabilly. Retrobilly? Okay, not really, but the group has done…
What do U2, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Ella Fitzgerald, and Michael Jackson have in common? Aside from being music legends, these artists (and many more) are named on Peruvian percussionist Alex Acuña’s resumé. Further bullets on Acuña’s impressive list of accomplishments include his being recruited for Pérez Prado’s big band…
Val Wisecracker knows plenty about tunecraft, and she’ll share it at the songwriters’ showcase series at the Wallflower Gallery (a three-time New Times “Best of Miami” winner). Val, whose real last name is Caracappa, uses the pseudonym because Caracappa is difficult for journalists and radio announcers to spell and pronounce…
Eight years ago, pop-punk rockers the Smoking Popes found themselves signed to Capitol Records, opening for diverse acts such as the Goo Goo Dolls, Jawbreaker, Green Day, and Morrissey. The band had sold out countless venues and garnered a glowing reputation for its fusion of punk and big-band sounds. Then…
