All right, all right, so this is billed, officially, as a celebration of local music culture of all genres and scenes. But it takes place at famously freewheeling Churchill’s and is curated by the infamous Notorious Nastie. And it goes down, um, April 20. That’s 4/20, and past experience shows…
The Bamboozle Roadshow 2008 Saves the Day, Armor for Sleep, Set Your Goals, Metro Station, Lydia Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Revolution Live Better Than: Trading a flash of boobs and a blow job for concert tickets on Craigslist. If partially-bleached bangs cover half your face, chances are, you were at…
Iron and Wine April 12, 2008 Revolution, Ft. Lauderdale Better Than: A cellarful of John Henry. Saturday night at Revolution, the 999 other keen-eared indie music types in attendance formed, perhaps, the best-behaved bunch of rock club attendees I’ve ever encountered. The object of their focus: Sam Beam, the man…
Tego Calderon MySpace Latino’s “Show Secreto” with Tego Calderón with Locos Por Juana, Circo, and Beto Cuevas Friday, April 11 Studio A, Miami Better Than: Putting your iPod on shuffle You can’t manufacture cool — it has to happen naturally. Case in point: Last Friday evening, Myspace Latino’s Miami launch…
Ivon David Rojas Click here to see a slide show of the concert. A vociferous crowd nearly blew the roof off the building Saturday night with an impromtu, pre-concert rendition of Juanes’ Me Enamora that shook American Airlines Arena. Over 20,000 voices sang along to a skit on dual video…
Tego Calderón with Locos por Juana, Circo, and Beto Cuevas Friday, April 11 Studio A, 60 NE 11th St., Miami. Show starts at 8 p.m.; free with registration on MySpace Ages 18+ with ID 305-358-7625, www.studioamiami.com The folks at Myspace are releasing a full bilingual version of their social networking…
Mix America’s largest social networking website with its fastest-growing part of the population and what do you get? MySpace Latino, a recently official bilingual subsite of the juggernaut. And just like the original MySpace, it boasts star-studded “secret shows,” to which admission can be gained only by friending the Secret…
There’s a metaphor somewhere in Sam Beam’s hair. Something that equates his newly expansive locks with the richer, full-bodied sound he now peddles as Iron and Wine. Something that correlates the furtive minimalism of his early recordings (done while he was teaching film at the University of Miami and Miami…
Alhough this 30-year-old flamenco singer had been performing in Europe for more than a decade, it was only after his debut solo recording, Amar Duele (Love Hurts), was released when he became a star in his own right. Born Rafael Ojeda in Seville, Spain, Falete boasts a larger-than-life stage presence,…
The Morning Of is a sextet of fresh-faced indie youngsters from upstate New York who have suddenly found themselves waking up on the sunny national stage. Boasting major distribution via their label, Tragic Hero Records (which was recently absorbed by Warner Music Group), these kids are riding a wave of…
Last Night: Caribou at the Culture Room Saturday, April 5th, Better Than: Making your own Tie-Dye Shirt. The Review: Pulling into the parking lot of the Culture Room, I felt a little bittersweet seeing all the available spaces. It’s rare when an indie band like Caribou decides to grace S.Florida…
Say Anything, Manchester Orchestra, Biffy Clyro, Weatherbox Friday, April 4, 2008 Revolution Live Better Than: Being spoon-fed dinner in a straight jacket Say Anything lead singer Max Bemis has got enough issues—enough to, well, write a 27-song double disc detailing those issues, which he did in the band’s 2007 sophomore…
Caribou Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale April 5, 2008 Better Than: Having The Amboy Dukes drop by to help you with your homework. First things first. I (and you, if you were lucky enough to be there) have gotta thank Ahmed Gallab of Sinkane, who took over the traps for Caribou’s…
Bret Michaels The Florida Marlins’ Super Saturdays series at Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens April 5, 2008 Better Than: Watching Rock of Love’s Daisy mangle the national anthem Saturday night, sometime during the seventh inning of the Florida Marlins — Pittsburgh Pirates game, the Fish were up 7-3, and the small…
Lucy Orozco Better Than: Being home alone drunk on a Saturday night, listening to Wu-Tang on your iPod. Cappadonna, a lesser known part of the Wu Tang Clan family, was supposed to perform Saturday at Studio A. Instead, club personnel posted a sign at the entrance asking anyone to call…
The Mars Volta April 2, 2008 The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theatre Better Than: Being cooked in a cauldron of chaos. If it is true, as some rabid fan boys might believe, that you haven’t lived till you’ve been nearly kicked in the kisser by Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s…
Brazil is known for many things — its cosmopolitan ambiance, a wealth of spectacular beaches, the wildest Carnival celebration in the civilized world, and hordes of beautiful babes decked out in skimpy bikinis. Those assets aside (did we mention the babes in bikinis?), it’s also worth noting the vibrant musical…
Not long into our conversation, Poppa E settles into his preferred intimacy zone by dubbing me “Brother Eric. ” So take it from a brother: The 60-year-old blues guitarist — and pretty much permanent Tobacco Road fixture — is on a roll these days. A tune of his, “Terraplane,” was…
As the irresistibly luminescent new CD Andorra demonstrates, Caribou’s Dan Snaith has come a long, long way since being legally stripped of his old Manitoba moniker. These days the same guy who once playfully goofed on post-rock’s fetid corpse (on albums such as Up in Flames and Start Breaking My…
A word of warning: Punk Bunny shows aren’t for the prude. In fact don’t even bother heading to this concert unless you’re superhorny and/or strong-stomached. The only thing you know for sure when you watch Punk Bunny perform is that you’re going to get figuratively — and maybe literally —…
Handsome Furs, Violens Thursday, March 27, 2008 PS14 Better Than: Fighting the WMC crowds for a taste of something electronic. While the majority of Miami pulsed to the sounds of big name DJs at Winter Music Conference, a select group of indie-minded hipsters enjoyed the electronic-infused rock show by Montreal…
Though an official label for only three years, dirtybird records and its quad crew of freq-y producer/DJs are no fledglings. San Francisco-based Claude VonStroke, Justin Martin, Christian Martin, and Worthy have been flapping their wings since around 2000. They first built a Yay Area reputation pushing air as support DJs…
