For a leading indie-rock miserablist, Jamie Stewart possesses one of the heartiest, most boisterous laughs you’re ever likely to hear. The 33-year-old Xiu Xiu (pronounced shoe-shoe) frontman typically converses quietly, in a polite, thoughtful, self-effacing, and a bit pensive manner, and then — when you least expect it — his…
Bi-continental septet Nous Non Plus scares up sumptuous, blasé cool on its self-titled debut, whipping elements borrowed from the Strokes, Stereolab, and the B-52s into delectable French pastries. And so we get delights like “Lawnmower Boy,” where the band makes like Guitar Wolf on a New Wave kick; the disco…
The glossy booklet of stills from countless bizarre Italian films that accompany this two-disc retrospective of Italian soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone only hint at the kaleidoscopic weirdness squirming beneath. With contributions to everything from Fistful of Dollars to Kill Bill (not to mention the 500 Italian titles in between), Morricone…
Perhaps you have been under a self-imposed no-fun curfew the past eighteen months, or maybe you simply hate anything that isn’t denser than a solid block of frozen steel, but otherwise you probably know and perhaps guiltily love some of the tracks on the new Fabric Live 24 featuring Diplo…
Whether he’s repping the Taliban, dubbing himself “human crack in the flesh,” or prefacing one of his many latently homosexual slipups with the transparently insecure caveat “no homo,” Juelz Santana is brilliantly bad. During his second verse from “Mic Check,” Santana sneezes, pauses, and declares, “God blessed me, yes that’s…
Today’s Cinderellas scrub the floors to the tropical beat of Latin Grammy nominee Bachá, whose duets inspire dreams of princes and brighter futures. Creators of the theme song for Telemundo’s Anita No Te Rajes — a popular soap opera about a poor Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles — Bachá’s…
Just when it looked like crunk held no more surprises, D4L shows up to yell and grunt over MIDI tracks even more twerpy and minimal than early Depeche Mode. The contradiction is equal parts baffling and intriguing; here’s hoping more interesting rappers try it sometime…
The reason why the Darkness’s cock-rockin’ shtick still sounds great is that the members are truly talented musicians, as evidenced on the new album One Way Ticket to Hell … and Back. Mere amateurs will not be able to match the title track’s delicious falsetto notes, though millions will try…
What’s sadder: the fact that the living two-thirds of TLC sound sass-free on their career’s predeath wheeze “I Bet,” or that they’ve fashioned a song out of the incidental music from their UPN reality miss, R U the Girl? All that can be said about the series “winner,” O’so Krispie,…
Ask around about who is the next Miami MC to transition from a local talent to a national force, and chances are you’ll hear the name Garcia pop up more often than not. With a battering-ram flow as terse as it is rhythmic, and a sense of street bravado that…
Sick of new-school rockers whose grasp of music history begins with the 1977 release of the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks and ends with Gang of Four’s 1981 album Solid Gold? If so, we suggest you check out pop blues group Spiritmachine. There’s a hint of Keith Richards’s bluesy…
It’s only fitting that Miami, the Jamaican music mecca of the U.S., would host a reggae festival that transcends the typical concert parameters. The South Florida Family Reggae Festival will feature your usual procession of stalwart supergroups such as Third World, Marcia Griffiths, Chrisinti, and the Fourth Dimension Band. But…
We just want you to know how much we love you,” VHS or Beta frontman Craig Pfunder mumbles. He cups his hand over his eyes to block the glaring spotlight and slowly scans the paltry crowd at Atlanta venue Vinyl. “We bought up all the tickets for tonight’s show and…
Holly Robb slinks past the large graffiti mural on the corner of Fourteenth Court and Fourteenth Street in Miami’s Overtown district. The tall, curly-haired supermodel is immaculately primped, wearing a translucent orange top with a visible black bra and a short denim skirt that shows off her oiled-up and impossibly…
Springtime and desert glare aren’t the ideal conditions for resurrecting the undead. Yet it was in April of this year, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, that the original four members of Bauhaus found themselves back in black for the first time since 1998. Eldritch…
With more than 60 bands and DJs spread over thirteen hours and six stages on Bicentennial Park’s waterfront site, Bang! is the largest show to hit South Florida in some time. Taking a cue from recent festivals such as Coachella and Los Angeles’s Nocturnal Wonderland, the Bang! lineup includes a…
In recent years fans of hardcore have suffered from too many frilly pseudo acts lauding their supposed “skills and technique.” But don’t despair, young thrashers, help is on the way. With a lineup of artists that stretches from coast to coast, and with each act supporting recent recordings, Street Brutality…
Although The Experience might be Jimi Hendrix’s more famous backing crew, few would disagree that Band of Gypsies was better. Hendrix provided the Gypsies’ six-string pyrotechnics, but the heart of the group was Buddy Miles and his supremely in-the-cut drums. Miles wrote and sang the classic “Them Changes” with Hendrix…
Erick Morillo has achieved a level of success usually associated with big-time rock stars and 50 Cent-like rappers. He is one of few DJs who can go from spinning the soulful and sexy house music of Miguel Migs to the deep and funky house music of Armand Van Helden. He…
Neil Young is quite possibly the world’s most manic rock star. One day he’s the patchwork-and-patchouli sage dispensing altruistic truisms over back-porch jam sessions, and the next he’s the flannel-shirted godfather of punk who wails against whatever is in sight over roiling feedback and reverb. Prairie Wind, the last installment…
Hip-Hop Gold Dust calls to mind chemical supplements less powdered than blazed in a hazy 3:00 a.m. fashion. Prince Paul has always been a producer’s producer, but rather than try to mine his De La Soul era hits, this eclectic collection trawls through the back alleys of his career and…
Though the coarse, forceful techno on Metalism is mostly for the dance floor, DJs Chris Liebing and Jochem Paap also generate a sense of brutal, urbanlike decay that would send most Spectral junkies back to the comfort of their muscle relaxers and Geoff White twelve-inches. Collabs 3000: Metalism pairs up…
