And now for something completely different. NASCAR! Yeah, I said it, and you read it. Legions of those left-turn-lovin’ rowdies inundated South Florida last weekend for the final beer bash — I mean competition — of the season, held at the Homestead Speedway. Normally, that fact wouldn’t register a blip…
While the Experience might be Jimi Hendrix’s better-known backing crew, few would disagree that the Band of Gypsies was the better-playing. And while Hendrix provided the Gypsies’ six-string pyrotechnics, the heart of the group was Buddy Miles and his supremely in-the-cut drums. Miles wrote and sang the classic “Them Changes”…
Summiting the Rickenbacher Causeway on a bicycle at sunset offers a startling take on Miami. The whitewashed skyline juts like an artificial reef out of Biscayne Bay, which stretches far below and southward into endless Atlantic. Cars whiz by indifferently, and the warm evening air is palpable with sound and…
If you can think of another aging rocker with more lives than David Lee Roth, please let us know. First and foremost, he’s the man who made Van Halen the undisputable prototype for ’80s power-pop rock (Disagree? Tell me: Which is more iconic — Eddie’s shredding on “Eruption” or Dave’s…
Just because South Florida’s only real seasonal transition is from Hurricane to Tourist doesn’t mean we can’t aspire to an ambiance more earthy and romantic. One easy way to fade into that fall feeling is to adjust your wardrobe. So come November, Beatcomber trades in the hot-pink Zubaz for the…
Think about South Florida’s intimate relationship with Cuba and the Caribbean and the influence it’s had on our indigenous music scene. The same sort of cross-cultural, stylistic leg-humping goes on in Southern California across the Mexican-American border, and there’s no better example than L.A.’s Ozomatli. The bilingual, genre-smashing, Latin-funk-rock-rap outfit…
The Numb Ones make music that’s brazenly unnecessary: cornball, big-haired, ’80s-rock retread played by hipster, greasy-haired, ’80s-rock acolytes. But believe it or not, the whole unsubtle, steamroller package is not such a bad thing. See, necessity might be the mother of invention, but it’s no relation to good times. And…
Cell phone cameras. MP3-playing sunglasses. Laser-pointing, voice-recording, de-ionizing salad spinners. Thanks a lot, technology — now everything that does anything does something else too. The musical equivalent is, of course, the Benevento-Russo Duo, the Brooklyn-based drums ‘n’ keys outfit that’s the Optimus Prime of genre-crushing hybrid bands. With a well-practiced…
Even in South Florida, signs of autumn abound: The bountiful cocaine harvest is over, kids carve up German tourists for jack-o’-lanterns, and the goofballs at NOAA run out of alphabet. Another of fall’s many rituals that local music lovers have come to expect is Moonfest, the annual costume-studded bacchanal that…
What do you get the world’s most famous globetrotting DJ for his latest tour? How about a traveling, half-million-dollar stage show complete with buto dancers, taiko drummers, trapeze acrobats, carnival showgirls, a chorus of singers, a hundred lasers, and some hair-singeing pyrotechnics? It’s a worthy start, at least, to compliment…
For the last ten years that the Grateful Dead hauled its gypsy-rock caravan across America — that golden decade of 1985 to 1995 — the band was the highest-grossing touring act in the country, outselling pop superstars like Michael Jackson and Madonna. After head Deadhead Jerry Garcia went the way…
You didn’t ask for it, but you got it. To accompany the upstart Nocturnal and the granddaddy Space, Downtown Miami is now home to a third big-budget übersupermegaclub called, fittingly, Metropolis. You can actually count Metropolis as numbers three through seven, since the 35,000-square-foot monster is home to five distinct…
Trent Reznor is not unhappy. He’s not tortured, distraught, deluded, strung-out, miserable, or bitter. The Nine Inch Nails auteur is, however, angry. The bile that seethes through With Teeth, his first record in six years, which debuted at number one in May, is the emotional link to his first three,…
San Francisco has long been the bastion of slinky, soulful house music, and homegrown hero Miguel Migs is one of its biggest proponents. With a strong background in songwriting and performing, the Santa Cruz-born DJ fell into the NorCal dance community in the late ¹90s after a stint as guitarist…
Warning: Do not play Better in your office unless the boss is gone and your shit’s done for the day. Franz Ferdinand’s follow-up to last year’s acclaimed, multiplat debut is like a double shot of hard liquor — once it kicks in, your whole outlook is deliciously skewed for the…
After founding member and lead guitarist Mikey Houser succumbed to cancer in the summer of 2002, many a Widespread Panic fan (call ’em Spreadheads) figured the ride was over. But the hard-touring, hard-rocking Georgia six-piece brought in a new axman and followed Houser’s directive to keep going without him. Earlier…
Of all the big Kahunas at the Hukilau, the third-annual gathering of tiki fanatics that just wrapped up October 9, none stood taller than the diminutive, white-haired Robert Drasnin. Pushing 80, Drasnin is a musician unknown outside the tiki circuit. Within it, though, he’s so revered that during his Friday-night…
Other critics have proclaimed that despite their foot-stomping, banjo-busting jamborees, the Hackensaw Boys emit a raw, moonshined vigor closer to Dust Bowl punk rockers than to modern bluegrass revivalists. And (shocker!) they’re right — catch the Boys in concert and you won’t believe how quick you’ll be barefootin’ stagefront and…
Swooping down from the soggy Gulf Coast like a band of funky-ass angels is an all-star band that’s easily the most impressive collection of roots-rock and Americana talent this region’s seen in quite a while. Led by the deranged and dreadlocked Papa Mali, the group comprises North Floridians J.J. Grey…
Miami’s march into the national indie-rock ranks continues with Baby Calendar. The locally loved trio balances twee-pop tendencies with unpredictable songwriting, occasionally aggressive guitar, and clever, pop-culture-cluttered lyrics. Composed of guitarist/vocalist Tom Gorrio, bassist/vocalist Jackie Biver, and drummer Arik Dayan, the band has been on the road, traveling through the…
Named for the Irvine Welsh book Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance — a drug-infused collection of short stories more altered than life-altering — emo-lovin’ new wave punk-rockers My Chemical Romance aren’t known for being doe-eyed softies. Still, bassist Mikey Way took time out from his tour schedule to share…
Something like an Amazonian leprechaun, Curumin is a mythical jungle troublemaker in the guise of a feral child. His favorite tactic was misdirection — with his feet facing backward, poachers would never know exactly which way Curumin was heading. The same could be said for Luciano Nakata Albuquerque, the multitalented…
