Maroon 5

Though he seems annoyingly aware of this fact, Maroon 5’s lithe frontman, Adam Levine, is one of the prettiest pop-rockers to come along in eons. (Oh, how Jared Leto must covet Levine’s milky complexion.) But with his brassy sass and brave forays into the upper registers of his voice on…

Fergie does Boca

Cotton candy? Check. Tiaras? Check. Oversexed pop music? Check. With all of this involved, last night’s Fergie show in Boca Raton was a 10-year-old girl’s wet dream. The Dutchess sauntered in dripping with glitz, in a tiara and a sparkle-lined, bubblegum pink robe. In between belting lines of “Here I…

Dirty Gruv Presents Submerge 101

With summer coming and tourist dollars drying up, Igor Bogatov is on the offense, looking for fresh local faces on the dance floor. (Well, fresh local feet, actually; if you find your face is often on the floor, maybe you need to skip it this week.) In this spirit, Bogatov,…

Tool

To borrow from Chuck Klosterman: Metal bands come in two forms — those that model Led Zeppelin, and those that model Black Sabbath. (He recently proposed this thesis in the exhaustive, four-hour VH1 documentary Heavy: A History of Metal.) Tool, who plays Friday at the BankAtlantic Center, falls into the…

David Koller and Band

Let’s face it: The two countries that formerly composed Czechoslovakia barely register a blip on the South Florida radar. Asked to name a modern cultural export of the Czech Republic or Slovakia, the average educated adult might come up with author Milan Kundera and … exactly. No matter. Though their…

The Leftovers

A new album and a tenuous connection to the Queers bring the Leftovers to Churchill’s on Friday. Nowadays Portland, Maine, is the U.S. capital of DIY when you’re talking north of Boston. Somewhere hidden among the city’s too-fucking-quaint tourist traps and laughably expensive lobster joints dwell the Leftovers, now pushing…

MySpace Secret Show: Marley Bros.

All thanks and praises to MySpace Photo by Tovin Lapan Last night, MySpace threw a “secret show” at Studio A, which was PACKED by 9:30 pm (what kind of secret is that?), featuring Stephen “Raggamuffin” Marley and his brother Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley as performers. The show opened with Mr…

Bloc Party Returns to South Florida, This Time as Headliners

After a major American tour backing Panic! At the Disco in 2006, Bloc Party has returned to our shores. This time, they’re headlining large venues in support of their sophomore album, A Weekend in the City, released this past February. Sunday night was the band’s South Florida stop, at the…

Back in Black

Barington Levy Miami’s Best of the Best concert, which took place over Memorial Weekend, was a star-studded reggae extravaganza that exceeded the six months of hype that was attached to it. Consider that Barrington Levy, who was on stage belting out hits like “Under mi Sensi, and “Too Experienced” was…

Seal at Jackie Gleason

Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Seal Since Seal had his couple of big stateside hits in the Nineties (the seemingly immortal “Kissed By a Rose” being the most recognizeable), lately he seems to have been relegated to the role of Mr. Heidi Klum. So who goes to a Seal concert in…

Nelly Furtado

Let’s face it, none but the hottest Canadian/Portugese MILF could get away with lyrics like “It’s okay, we could do it in the dark/If you got a candle let’s light a spark.” Despite Nelly Furtado’s inherent MILFness, it was a stretch for diehard fans to embrace her latest LP, Loose,…

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band

The members of the successful, tour-happy New Orleans group the Dirty Dozen Brass Band could have long ago acknowledged the sousaphone’s presence in the band’s three-decade history, and, with a solemn nod, replaced the fifty-pound mega-tuba with the more practical electric bass guitar. They could have still called themselves a…

Seal

Seal visits Miami during the last leg of a U.S. tour on Thursday, and he arrives in the Magic City at a critical point in his career. He hasn’t released any new studio material since 2003, and since then his sum output has been — shudder — a best-of album…

Blowfly

He’s Dolemite writ large and in cartoon, a big mean black guy dressed like a pro wrestler from the Sixties; the self-professed inventor of the Miami sound, writer of tracks for Betty Wright and KC and the Sunshine Band, and he’s in my face. And yours. Ladies and gentlemen, I…

Bebel Gilberto

Bebel Gilberto fans know better than to expect the sort of bossa nova plied by her father, Brazilian guitarist and singer João Gilberto. Although there is a clear bossa influence in her style, the younger Gilberto has gone beyond it, pushing the boundaries of Brazilian music to suit her own…

The Independents

The Eighties were like a virgin, touched for the very first time (Madonna was everywhere). While some of us were sporting feathered hair, sleeveless zebra-print T-shirts, and tight leather pants, others were listening to Suicidal Tendencies and skateboarding through the mall. Whether your fancy was for cock rock, punk rock,…

The Spam Allstars

The New York Times may have raved about the Spam Allstars to no end. S.O.B.’s (also in New York) may have become the band members’ second home. MTV might feature them with a page of their own, and the festival circuit might have latched on to their patented brand of…

Creedence Clearwater Revisited

Okay, so John Fogerty won’t be there, but CCR’s original rhythm section will be. So will John Tristao, a Sixties one-hit wonderboy who actually opened for the original Revival way back when. And if you don’t know that Tristao once fronted the band People and had a hit with a…

Dulce Pontes

Dulce Pontes An oral tradition that is passed on in the taverns and streets of Lisbon, Portugal, fado is the urban, bluesy musical form that gained international renown through the voice of the late Amália Rodrigues. The lyrics speak of love, longing, and the gritty life led on the streets…

Raphael

Raphael, a.k.a. Don Rafael Martos Sánchez, a.k.a. Spain’s answer to Tom Jones, visits Miami this Friday for the first time in more than four years. A child prodigy from Linares, Spain, Raphael burst onto the scene in 1954 when, at nine years of age, he won the “Best Child Singer”…

Natural Causes

First it was the Beatles, until the best musicians in that band died. Then it was the Ramones, until the Reaper wiped them out, too. Now the biggest musical reunion imaginable (at least here in Miami) has arrived. Thirteen years after its demise, Natural Causes — the beloved roots rock…