Think you’re down with Afrobeat? Well, if you’re not familiar with Antibalas, then you haven’t sampled the real deal. But the Heineken TransAtlantic Festival is going to change all that next weekend. Based out of Brooklyn, the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra has straight-up hijacked the boogie from the Bronx. And while…
Amaury Gutiérrez, like so many of Miami’s own citizens, is a Cuban immigrant, an exile who was forced to choose between his homeland and his dream, between the life he knew and the life he sought, between his roots and his freedom. The singer-songwriter from Santa Clara studied music in…
It’s not very often that you hear about Denmark’s contributions to world music, let alone EDM. There was the sickly sweet ’90s bubblegum Eurodance of Aqua, an act that eluded even our guiltiest pleasure. And more recently, the dark electronica forays of Trentemøller. Then there’s Danish DJ-producer Kasper Bjørke, who…
It doesn’t take a connoisseur to know that Brazilian music offers some of the most soothing and sensual sounds you’re ever likely to find. And we’re not just talking “The Girl from Ipanema” here. From rhythmic samba to bossa nova, which has influenced some of our own jazz greats, to…
Mary Anne Hobbs’ Road Warrior Tour With Mary Anne Hobbs, Dr. Strangeloop, Gonjasufi, Lorn, and Take Friday, April 22, 2011 The Vagabond, Miami Better Than: Any of the usual stale club music fare going on wherever else! OK, we’ll just admit that Mary Anne Hobbs is our number-one female DJ…
Last night’s Borscht Film Festival edition of Cinema Sounds #8 at O Cinema deviated slightly from the usual format. Amid movie clips scored by bands, there was a poetry reading by Abel Folgar as part of O, Miami, followed by a screening of “Roosters,” a video depicting a graphic cockfight…
Out in the sloping, snaking streets of Coconut Grove, there are 10,000 Jah-blessed soldiers gathering for a peaceful revolution and they’re chanting the opening lines of the Rockaz MVMT mantra: “We are universal people/Young, strong, focused/Modern sages/Armed with sounds and phrases/Using music as our shield/Embracing this battlefield/Called life/Spreading love and…
The reputation of UK DJ Lee Burridge spans the entire globe, from Hong Kong and Thailand’s local EDM scenes, which he helped foster throughout the ’90s, to the Burning Man Festival in Nevada, which inspired his free-spirited Get Weird parties. Boasting a genre-bending amalgamation of styles, from progressive house and…
Assholeparade at Churchill’s Pub April 22
Ramadanman and Zed Bias at Eve April 23
Rise Against and Bad Religion at Sunset Cove Amphitheater April 23
Tango Conspiracy at Bardot April 27 for Heineken TransAtlantic Festival
Usher with Akon at BankAtlantic Center April 27
London DJ-producer and Hessle Audio label chief Ramadanman (AKA David Kennedy) was schooled during dubstep’s first wave and he has since become one of the most recognized names on the international scene.Last year’s invitation to spearhead a new installment of Fabric’s prestigious compilation series with FabricLive56 is testament to both…
Sweatstock 2011 With Panic Bomber, Beings, Lil Daggers, Little Beard, Furious Dudes, and Others Sweat Records and Churchill’s Pub, Miami Saturday, April 16, 2011 Better Than: Loitering in a Walmart parking lot for 19 hours. Now despite the fact that the vast majority of America’s music consumers prefer to procure…
Who would win a bare-knuckle cage fight between Ringo Starr and Keith Richards? We’re not sure. Richards has survived every narcotic known to man, and Ringo is the greatest pop music drummer ever. We’re pretty sure they’d just punch each other in the face till they ran out of breath,…
To some, laser light shows are like watching a Windows 95 screensaver on repeat for an hour. Those people are, clearly, not high. The tokers and tab-droppers of the world, meanwhile, know that laser shows are awesome and come second only to peanut butter-marshmallow-banana sandwiches. But at garage-y local band…
Even though they’re separated by a couple of musical generations, Rise Against and Bad Religion have had similar careers. Specifically, they’ve both enjoyed as much mainstream success as true punk bands could ever hope to score while still keeping it real. Here’s a locally relevant case in point: Rise Against…
Travis Stewart, the man professionally known as Machinedrum, is a rarity in the world of electronic music. Nevermind the fact that he produces crazy tracks full of wild sound manipulations and noisy samples. Forget the fact that while he’s mercurial behind his laptop, he still knows how to get a…
Bomba Estereo With Spam Allstars, Los Rumberos de la 8, and Mr. Pauer Presented by Rhythm Foundation Grand Central Miami Thursday, April 14, 2011 Better Than: Letting Los Perros or any other late-night South Beach hot dog joint be your only taste of Colombia. At Grand Central, a pretty varied…
Miami’s the Rockadictos don’t play Latin rock. It’s pure rock ‘n’ roll that happens to be in Spanish. Too bad about the name, though, because they’re a much better band than their dumb little moniker might make you think. It’s a cartoony one that conjures up the image of four…
The tango has a gloriously twisted history. And Tango Conspiracy, led by Buenos Aires-bred, Miami-based singer, songwriter, and taskmaster Jimena Fama, is only the latest chapter. Invented by ex-slaves and peasants, the tango was born on the banks of the Río de la Plata, a large, triangular body of water…
