From this Miami Beach office window, you can almost see the Sony building. For independent dance label SFP (Sounds For the People), this is about as close as it gets to the record-biz big time. In fact the only thing SFP seems to have in common with the music giant…
La Crescenta, California, is hardly known as a hotbed for rock and roll, nor is it the place you’d expect to find the most prominent dance/rock group in the United States. But this far-northern suburb in Crescenta Valley, tucked up against the Verdugo Mountains, is what Ken Jordan and Scott…
Once you get the name, then you’ll understand the method behind the dance-hit factory known as Funky Green Dogs. Producers/DJs Oscar Gaetan and Ralph Falcon are easing into evening at an Ocean Drive coffee shop fresh off the heels of another Winter Music Conference and the news that their latest…
It’s a year of firsts for Headstrong. The former London, Ontario band is still psyched about its first U.S. tour. That follows a newly released major-label debut. Even the band’s name replaces a former moniker. Most important, Headstrong is for the first time a true contender in the realm of…
If there’s been one constant in the long and winding career of Turkish virtuoso Omar Faruk Tekbilek, it’s his music, emphasis on his. From the nightclubs of Adana and Istanbul; to the production line of a Rochester, New York, clothing factory; to a string of albums and recognition as one…
The “Do It Yourself” ethic often espoused by rock-ready kids is too rarely put into practice. When given the choice between putting out their own music or hoping an A&R guy will eventually come around with contracts and cigars, 99 percent choose to wait. After waiting two years to arrive…
Bright as a whistle and smart as a fox, Big Brooklyn Red’s entire demeanor is old school: from the way he combs his long, Michael Bolton-style hair to the hats he wears at a slant. When he sings his voice flows as easy as breathing, but the force of his…
Bright as a whistle and smart as a fox, Big Brooklyn Red’s entire demeanor is old school: from the way he combs his long, Michael Bolton-style hair to the hats he wears at a slant. When he sings his voice flows as easy as breathing, but the force of his…
If hip-hop is indeed “the proverbial sad clown of music,” as New York rapper J-Live proclaimed on 1999’s unreleased and unofficial anthem, “The Best Part,” then J-Live himself is quite possibly the art form’s Emmett Kelly. Despite personal and professional heartache, he’s managed to maintain his optimism and love for…
On paper, it’s an intriguing concept: Two of punk’s best-known bands cover each other’s material, with Rancid injecting street-smart credibility into NOFX’s snarky melodicore tunes and NOFX adding levity to Rancid’s titanic Clash-inspired sound. While reworking NOFX’s “Stickin’ in My Eye,” Rancid’s virtuosic bassist Matt Freeman adds a hyperkinetic undercurrent…
It would be tempting to lump Spanish singer Malú in with the Britneys, the Mandys, and the Jessicas. At first glance Malú seems eligible for the post-Mickey-Mouse-Club-on-the-road-to-stardom world: She’s another pretty nineteen-year-old who lives with mom, has no discernible vocal technique, and sings about love and heartbreak in the adolescent-cum-adulthood…
Hip-hoppers made their mark by fashioning art from unusual source material. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that Slick Rick, one of the genre’s most hallowed forefathers — who will be featured at Beyond 2002 — gets a lot of ideas from the movies. But not from the ones…
We’re in a recession. We’re coming out of a recession. We may never have been in a recession, just a slump. These are the kinds of conversations bandied about in the music community, following one of the worst years for the industry in a long time. But a little economic…
Old tech and tackheads from back in the all-vinyl day surely recall “drum drops,” those groovy discs of nuthin’ but the drums, cut after cut of basic beat played by pro-session stickmen and women. Used primarily for movie and TV cues, as well as basic, pre-sampling looping, drum-drop records were…
Rising up from the ever-growing Philadelphia underground, 40th Dimension has spent the last several years building a strong rep through various self-released projects. After treating listeners to their outstanding debut EP, The Clarence Beeks Project, and dropping two quality singles, the duo are now releasing their first full-length. 40D’s approach…
Dave Bazan may have graduated from the Doug Martsch School of DIY musicianship, but he still plays well with other kids. Since he released Winners Never Quit as a one-man band in 1999, he’s added Casey Foubert on bass/keyboards and Trey Many on drums. On Pedro the Lion’s latest release,…
Just after midnight on the bus that runs across the MacArthur Causeway from Miami to Miami Beach, aspiring Kentucky trance DJ Soren LaRue and unknown Indiana breakbeat jock APX are sprawled across the handicapped section, backpacks full of promo CDs balanced on their knees. They’ve come to the twelfth annual…
Not much these days lives up to the idea of the present we’ve sold ourselves through the culture of the past. Didn’t it seem ten years ago, when alternative rock was just beginning to elbow its way onto radio playlists — when weird shit like dancemeisters My Life with the…
Living in Miami since 1987, Cuban-born Carlos Gomez and Canary Islander Marta Ramirez have been offering audiences a rich blend of traditional and original trova interpreted with impressive authenticity. This weekend the husband-and-wife duo celebrate the release of their much-awaited debut CD, Trova Bolero, with a series of shows serving…
Ho-hum. Classic reggae and Indian film music. Tell us something new. Decades after their big breakthroughs in the late 1960s, reggae and filmi have become marginalized by their popularity. Stuck in their respective niches, the genres haven’t gained appreciable momentum from the sputtering but occasionally lively world-music bandwagon. Innovation has…
Touring musicians, by the nature of their jobs, usually have a couple of ZIP discs’ worth of colorful tales. That goes several times over for anyone who has spent time on the road with Miami’s still-so-horny Luther Campbell. That’s why, despite a brand-new album of their own and big-time recognition…
“Just when I was thinking of getting out of the business … ” begins Beres Hammond. Before he can finish a chorus of boos breaks in, letting the Jamaican soul crooner know exactly what the audience thinks of that idea. The singer lets the response stand as an explanation of…
