Music

“They say he went to Europe and when he got there — incredible disillusion,” begins the title track of Orishas’ Emigrante, an intense mix of fierce grooves, melodic breaks, and highly expressive lyrics born of both rap’s urban political consciousness and the running social commentary characteristic of Cuban son. On…

It seems appropriate that the first single from Luis Fonsi’s English-language debut should be called “Secret.” Although the video suggests the song is about a beautiful model/singer/movie star who must hide her love for our little hottie — tucking him away in a warehouse where he must execute stylized hip-hop…

Things are getting rowdy around the sound board at the old ICAIC (Cuban Film Institute) recording studio in Havana. While the percussionist listens to instruction from the engineer, five or six other musicians, singers, dancers, and friends crowd onto the worn couches in the control room, passing around a soda…

Laura Quinlan will not stray from her mission. “I am trying to get Miami more on the music scene of the touring summer concert series,” she proclaims as she opens another series of performances under the stars at the 73rd Street Bandshell. “The Bandshell series is our version of Central…

Issac Delgado’s Miami concert at Rancho Gaspar last month was advertised only through radio bemba, the Cuban grapevine, and by a vague sign at the entrance to the nightclub-cum-ranch that read “Live Music Today” in Spanish. But by dusk on a hot Sunday afternoon, more than 3000 people had come…

Hip-hop has always had a soft spot for outlandish, over-the-top antics. With that in mind, you kinda wonder why more artists don’t take aim at this big fat target. Atlanta’s Ying Yang Twins, on the other hand, have this part of the hip-hop universe in their laser sights, driving that…

Don’t be surprised if Peace Division’s latest mix compilation becomes the beginner’s manual for DJs looking to save a night gone wrong. DJ/producers Clive Henry and Justin Drake have been at the decks since the late Eighties and their skills have been lent to such acclaimed electronic artists as Moby,…

At 50, Argentine rock legend Charly Garcia is back with Influencia, his best work in a decade. The album is based on the song “Influenza,” originally included in Todd Rundgren’s The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect. As odd as it may sound, the title of that album released in 1983…

Driving away from the scene of an accident, windows glittered in rain, David J contemplates the power and celebrity causing the pileup. The Guitar Man is this conceptual narrative in hardback, an EP of beautifully orchestrated eyeliner folk that should satisfy the Love and Rockets faithful. The curtain opens with…

Orlando “Maraca” Valle segued easily from his years as a prodigious flute player with Cuban jazz heavyweights Bobby Carcasses, Emiliano Salvador, and Irakere to leading his own band, Otra Vision, purveyors of well-crafted good-time music. Performing a brand of popular Cuban music with wide appeal, Maraca and Otra Vision have,…

In 1998 Mr. Vegas busted upon the dancehall community in a huge way with his unstoppable hit “Heads High” and his new sing-jay style. Creativity and unique delivery almost always ensure success — provided the outcome is good. However, oftentimes these occurrences result from a fluke. Vegas (Clifford Smith) had…

A soul as sensitive as Dan Gellar’s would be expected to shy away from controversy and cave in when the PC brigade comes rallying round. After all, the twee music that Gellar champions — both as co-founder of the influential indie label Kindercore and leader of the electro-pop duo I…

Unless you’re friends with puppets or you know the ice cream man, you won’t find a more enjoyably inconsequential way to spend your Friday night this week than with Louisville, Kentucky’s VHS or Beta, a quartet of disco survivalists determined to fill a darkening world with the brightest, most day-glo…

Few folks are liable to turn handsprings at the thought of a double-CD of traditional music from East and Central Asia. It suggests a listening experience loaded with nutritional value but perilously low on the enjoyment scale. But The Silk Road (Smithsonian/Folkways) plows new ground by opening disc one with…

Blues Night: For more than six months that’s been the official tag on Thursday evenings in the Veranda Bar at Miami Beach’s Palms Hotel. But as those who frequent the place know well, there is little to be sad about. Even after dark, the room seems sunny. A lengthy bar…

Since the early Eighties, more than twenty musicians have been Guided By Voices. The brainchild of Robert Pollard, GBV has still managed to pull off a cohesive string of records, consistently forcing a Siddhartha six-handed bitchslap of sound to fit into a fistful of recording space. With Universal Truths &…

There’s a lull in the schedule, and Paulina Rubio doesn’t like it. “Open the curtains,” she says across the back of the couch to anyone who will listen. “Let’s do something. Let’s practice yoga. Turn on the television. Anything.” This should have been a good day; the first interview wasn’t…

Ah, to be young and over it already. It’s an old story: Talented local musician makes a serious stab at success in the biz, only to play his heart out in a mostly indifferent South Florida music scene. He records, he tours, he practices his balls off. He does all…

Multiple-choice time. Recently the following words were uttered: “Ain’t no way that SPM can be a human being.” Who said them? a. the prosecutor during SPM’s molestation case b. a disgusted juror on that same case c. a pissed-off grandmother after hearing about the case on the news d. none…

Think of it this way, and perhaps Marshall Mathers’s (or Eminem’s, or Slim Shady’s) 25-mil-plus-sold popularity makes more sense to the old farts who stoop to find him repellent. He’s the bleached-blond Holden Caulfield, a catcher-in-the-dye job loaded down by “all that David Copperfield kind of crap” who spends his…