WMC 2009: The Ting Tings and Santigold at Ultra Music Festival

Ultra Music Festival: Santigold, The Ting TingsFriday, March 27, 2009Bicentennial Park, MiamiBetter Than: The best pop you’ve never heard.Hard to say the best way to tell when I’m most thrilled by a band. Is it when I’m so giddy with excitement that can’t stop shooting the show? Or is it…

Q&A With Amanda Palmer, Performing at Culture Room

You know her as lead singer and all-around knockout for “Brechtian punk cabaret act” The Dresden Dolls. But now you’re gonna to get to know her even better. See, she’s got a new record out, her own, a new producer twiddling the nobs, and a nifty tie-in with one of…

Marc Anthony LOVES South Florida!

So yesterday I headed to the beach to bop up and down Collins, checking out some of the hotel parties for WMC.  I hit the Raleigh for a penthouse party given by AX, where the Belvy was flowing like sweat on the pool deck at the Shelborne, which is where…

Smokey Robinson bringing Motown to Hard Rock Live on April 23

The “Legend” label tends to get thrown around, but in this case, there’s just no label that fits better. Smokey Robinson is one of, if not THE greatest Motown singer/songwriter in history.  His career with The Miracles produced tons of hit songs like “Shop Around”, “Who’s Loving You”, and “The…

Timbaland Added to Ultra Bill on Saturday

Apparently Timbaland felt like driving over from Pinecrest for some fun on Saturday. He’s been added to the bill for Ultra that day, where he’ll be performing a live set after the Prodigy and before Paul Van Dyk. If you somehow need more information about Ultra, visit ultramusicfestival.com…

Doormouse Set at PS14 Tonight

Well it’s Winter Music, and this writer has gone to exactly no events.  Today is the Sasha and Digweed booze cruise, errr yacht excursion (invite only so forget about it) and tonight is Tony Touch at the Vagabond, but…. also next door slyly opening for Frankie Bones is Miami’s own…

Matt and Kim

Sung to the tune of “Jack and Diane”: A little ditty about Matt and Kim/Two American kids making music in Brooklyn/Matt plays keys, sings snotty and cute/Kim bashes out drumbeats and sings a bit too/Oh yeah, life goes on/Long after the hype of their debut is gone/Oh, yeah, life goes…

A-Trak

Though he is perhaps best known as Kanye West’s wheels-of-steel man, Montreal-based A-Trak has been releasing his own good-times mix albums for a few years. His many, many appearances around WMC come in support of his new CD, Infinity +1, on which he chops up tunes from all of your…

Kruder and Dorfmeister

Vienna. Always culturally and politically modern, yet pleasingly anachronistic in many ways, Austria’s low-slung capital is an amber cast of the 19th Century. But a little more than 200 years after the death of Wolfgang Amadeus, in that very city, along came DJs/producers Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister — two…

Xiomara Laugart

You might not have heard the name Xiomara Laugart, but you probably should have. And when you do, you’re in for a hell of a treat. Xiomara Laugart, colloquially known as “La Negra,” boasts one powerful voice. All at once, it bears the singular qualities of the old troubadours singing…

Mariza

The quintessential folk music of Portugal, fado typically features dark tones and lyrics that pine over loss, depict loneliness, and mourn the difficult experiences of the poor. It was historically adopted on the streets of Lisbon, though whether from the sailors or Africa, its true origins remain contested. Still, it…

WMC Preview: Stimming

Hamburg-based producer Stimming has been making waves in the elite minimal community with a series of highly distinctive and phenomenally funky releases on his hometown’s Diynamic label. Both a trained classical musician and certified audio engineer, his mind-boggling productions defy the stereotypes of techno and the very parameters of dance…

WMC Preview: Q&A With Joris Voorn

Dutch DJ Joris Voorn has gotta be one of the headiest head-spinners working the decks these days. In fact, his double-disc Balance 014 mix CD seems to spring straight from an ether all its own. So New Times decided to give the celebrated dance man a chance to bring it…

Metallica Announce October 1st Date at BankAtlantic Center

The band which for some reason still calls itself Metallica has just announced a stop at the BankAtlantic Center on October 1st.  They’ll be on their “World Magnetic” tour, playing both their songs and the songs from the band they replaced after the Black Album. Clearly, the current incarnation of…

WMC Preview: The Ting Tings

Since their inception two years ago, the Ting Tings have enjoyed unbridled success, laying siege to charts and hearts in both the UK and the United States. So much so, that even a reporter could become nervous when speaking for the first time to one half of the British outfit,…

WMC Preview: Santigold

Santigold isn’t pop. She isn’t electro. And she sure as hell isn’t hip-hop or R&B, despite what some narrow-minded critics have implied. It’s a position she continues to defend, though just listening to her music should allow her to rest her case. Rather her music is a blend of underground…

WMC Preview: The Presets

The Sydney, Australia-based duo the Presets has been dubbed, variously, industrial, psychedelic, techno, and dance-punk, among various other genres. There’s some truth to all of those, though none is 100 percent accurate. Imagine if Trent Reznor produced New Order’s latest album, and you’ve got the first inklings of it, but…