Jose El Rey rules the House of Sex

If you haven’t seen Jose El Rey perform around town yet … you’re missing out. How to describe the legend? He doesn’t really sing, he doesn’t really rap…. He just kind of is, over some tinny 808 freestyle beats. He makes ladies want him and guys want to be him…

Arsis, live at the Culture Room on Wednesday

Arsis, in classical music parlance, most commonly refers to the up-beat, or unstressed parts of a measure. The term seems an odd choice of name for a technical death metal outfit whose lyrics focus on death, defilement, and the destruction of the sacred, and whose pummeling assault leaves no room…

First Phase of Marley Fest Announced…

Well, technically it’s now the “15th Annual Caribbean Fest,” but everybody knows it’s all about the Marleys. And this year, it looks like they’re getting it together musically. While the first few years were mostly reggae, and mostly Marley, things got a little scattered in the meantime. This led to…

Concert Review: 3 Inches of Blood and the Black Dahlia Murder

Hate Eternal, 3 Inches of Blood, and the Black Dahlia Murder Wednesday, January 23, 2008 The Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Better Than:Oh, making offerings to false metal gods? The Review:It’s always a reassuring sign when, after driving almost an hour in torrential rain, one is greeted at a venue’s entrance…

Latest Local Fixation… Black Tide!

I can’t believe I haven’t written about these kiddies before, but I’ll fix that soon. Black Tide are four guys from Miami who are garnering major buzz for their crunching, amped-up, old-school kinda thrashy metal sound. They’ve already got a deal with Interscope, and they’re currently touring Europe with Avenged…

Village Voice’s 35th Annual Pazz & Jop Poll is Online

In case you missed it, this year’s edition of the Village Voice’s “Pazz and Jop” poll is online. It’s an annual roundup of a bunch of music critic’s top-ten lists for the preceding year. For this big-deal anniversary edition, 577 critics responded. Jonathan Cunningham (music editor of the Broward-Palm Beach…

Concert Review: Sofia at Harold Golen Gallery

Sofia January 19, 2008 Harold Golen Gallery Better Than:Tiesto’s faux “progressive” electronic beats Nowadays a lot of electronic music has very little to do with the genre’s original theories of sound experimentation. During its initial stages, weird, non-melodic tonalities ruled the day. For instance, Fifties artists such as Louis and…

King Britt: Full Q&A

In this week’s edition of the print version of Miami New Times, I wrote about legendary DJ/musician/label impresario King Britt’s gig this weekend at Shine. Because of pesky space limitations, I only got to use a few sentences from our near-half-hour conversation. So, for fans, I’m printing the whole transcript…

The Machine, Live at Revolution this Saturday

Not just a cover band, the Machine is the Pink Floyd experience. Not content to adequately recreate a thin smattering of greatest hits, like a live classic rock station, this New York-based sonic Ouija board delves deep into the history and legacy of one of rock and roll’s greatest bands,…

Throwback Tuesday: New York Dolls

So, in just a few hours I’m off to an opening party for Dr. Feelgood’s, a new bar in West Palm Beach co-owned by Vince Neil… Of course, of Motley Crue fame. I’m a big fan of debauchery on nights it shouldn’t technically happen — like Tuesday — so I’m…

Interview: Killswitch Engage

Killswitch Engage are pretty high on my list of bands I’d like to party with. The Massachusetts-based quintet are infamous for drinking lots of cheep bear, causing fun trouble, and reveling in the sort of sarcastic humor that earns their home state’s natives the label of “Masshole.” At the initial…

Interview: Every Time I Die

Andy Williams, guitarist for the Buffalo, New York-based quartet Every Time I Die, is an imposing physical presence for sure. With a close-cropped head, arms covered with a patchwork of tattoos, and a bushy beard, he’s described by tourmate Greg Puciato of Dillinger Escape Plan as “a beast” “When you…

Interview: Dillinger Escape Plan

Dillinger Escape Plan are sort of like a band of vikings, blazing through a town in a maelstrom of chaos that leave the feeble shivering in a puddle of their own secretions. Think noise, destruction, flames — literally, frontman Greg Puciato has been known to shoot fireballs from the stage…

Next Edition of Target GlobalBeat this Saturday

I have to admit, a few times while sort of fuzzy-headed, possibly with a pounding headache, I’ve driven down Biscayne a few times on a Saturday afternoon and groggily wondered, “Hmmm, what’s all the fuss in front of the Carnival Center?” Well, my dumb ass completely forgot that, hello, the…

Marion Meadows at Sandoval’s this Weekend

The West Virginia-born saxophonist Marion Meadows first appeared locally at Arturo Sandoval’s Jazz Club last fall. For this time around, he plans to stick with what worked last time. “It will be the same formula, the same kind of thing that worked last time,” he says by phone. “Not many…

Radiohead to Play in Miami on Upcoming Tour

With In Rainbows the talk of the music industry, and the album’s official debut Tuesday at #1 on the charts, Thom Yorke and co. are ridin’ high. So, it’s time for another tour. And, lucky Miami, they’re gracing us with their presence. Of course, leave it to Radiohead to keep…

Throwback Tuesday: Keepin’ it Seventies

I guess I’m in the mood for feathered hair and strange accents from the United Kingdom, so I will move from Birmingham, England’s E.L.O. on to Swansea, Wales’ Badfinger. Truly one of the great power pop acts of the Seventies, stateside they’ve been somewhat forgotten. Or, when they are remembered,…

Throwback Tuesday: E.L.O., “Mr. Blue Sky”

Taking it back to the Seventies for this one, to the inimitable Electric Light Orchestra. Let’s try to ignore their bloated Eighties stuff like the Oliva Newton-John collabo “Xanadu” — does Seventies pop goodness get much better than, say, “Livin’ Thing?” I’m a particular fan of this strand of their…

CD Review: Various Artists, Well Deep

Various Artists Well Deep: 10 Years of Big Dada (Big Dada) Longevity in hip-hop is increasingly rare, so milestones should be memorialized. Enter Well Deep, two CDs (31 tracks total) marking the first decade of U.K.-based indie label Big Dada. An offshoot of the quick-cut quarry known as Ninja Tune…

Louis XIV, Editors, and Hot Hot Heat at Culture Room tomorrow

The King is Dead, Long Live the King Louis XIV, no longer royally blue BY JONATHAN GARRETT Jason Hill, frontman for the San Diego-based band Louis XIV, knows what it’s like to be hated. On March 30, 2005, a none-too-complimentary review of his band’s major label debut appeared on Pitchforkmedia.com…