There aren’t too many bands in South Florida that pride themselves on making truck-driving music. The sweaty-armpit-style, four-to-the-floor country rock that’s almost nonexistent around these parts, might have a sizable audience — but there aren’t that many venues where you can still relax and hear it. So it’s no wonder…
OK, we weren’t sure what a “haggis” was exactly until we were told it has something to do with a Scottish delicacy consisting of boiled sheep innards. Which, for the most part, is pretty fucking disgusting. On the other hand, considering the delectable music made by Toronto’s Enter the Haggis,…
Despite the fact that his latest album, the optimistically dubbed Face the Promise, represents his first new set of songs in nearly a dozen years, Bob Seger is, to borrow the title of one of his most resilient oldies, still the same when it comes to his blue-collar rock ‘n’…
After 15 years and eight albums without a single shift in personnel, Sloan obviously feels empowered to exercise its ambitions. That’s evident on Never Hear the End of It — 30 tracks crammed onto a single disc, hence a title that seems something of an understatement. Owing to its distinctly…
Although Bob Marley’s meteoric career was cut short by a bout with cancer in 1981, his legacy lives on in the Wailers, the band he helped found in the late ’60s and later fronted for much of his career. Few groups would have such an indelible impact, given the fact…
Donna the Buffalo’s eclectic mix of rock, country, folk, reggae, zydeco, and bluegrass isn’t nearly as inexplicable as its handle, which means… well, we’re not quite sure, actually. Suffice it to say, there’s no Donna among them, and there are certainly no big woolly mammals granted onstage access. The defining…
As is readily apparent from the name itself, imadethismistake operates from a somewhat tenuous perspective, a place where trauma and uncertainty seem to reign supreme. Kylewilliam Campol, the primary mistakemaker, offers up a heartbroken narrative recapping a bittersweet farewell to a dying lover (“Staring Blindly Into a Dull Sunset”) and…
Given their eclectic mix of Mississippi Delta blues, jazz, country blues, roots, and ragtime, the Banyan Street Jug Band might be as informative to scholarly types as it is entertaining. Indeed, its performances suggest the aural equivalent of being whisked back to an earlier era, to places where itinerant musicians…
Ever since he helped form the Squirrel Nut Zippers back in the early ’90s, multi-instrumentalist Jimbo Mathus has made a habit of tapping into one eclectic style after another, inspired by archival genres that rarely turn up on today’s musical radar. Just as the Squirrels mimicked the vintage juke-joint jazz…
You can reinvent the wheel, and you can reinvent the reinvention. The Hep Cat Boo Daddies, a rough, tough South Florida power trio, manages to do a little of both, drawing on a diverse amalgam of blues, rock, surf, funk, and rockabilly to fuel their highly charged musical motif. While…
Though they share the same name as a well-known furniture retailer, Miami’s Modernage doesn’t tout comfort or clarity of design. Far from it, in fact — Modernage’s music is seeped in post-punk anguish and intensity, a sound that reflects the anxiety and uncertainty of modern times. Formed in late 2003,…
The roots-rock arena has become a crowded venue of late, proving it takes ample distinction to outpace the competition. Until now, Chris Knight’s chief claim to fame may have been the fact that his sophomore album, A Pretty Good Guy, was released on September 11, 2001 — certainly a dubious…
In a region populated by alt-rockers, rappers, and an overabundance of like-minded cover combos, the Tunes and Tones’ homespun ramble and sway provides South Florida with a rare hint of an Americana attitude. Not that these four homeboys are big on down-home twang; aside from the backwoods strum of the…
Oftentimes, singer-songwriter types are unfairly branded as wimps and wussies, especially when their music de-emphasizes edge in favor of emo. Fortunately, Pete Yorn has managed to find a happy medium. His third studio album, Nightcrawler, marks a quantum leap forward in terms of both urgency and impact, a creative advance…
The Rolling Stones may be the model for sustained survival skills within that fickle arena known as rock ‘n’ roll. But any mention in that exclusive domain must also include Cheap Trick, a band now celebrating its 30-year milestone as the prime movers of American power-pop. While early breakthrough hits…
It’s taken only two years for Revolution to become Broward’s most ambitious venue for live music. In that time, the club has played host to an astonishing mix of artists, from Fall Out Boy to the Black Crowes, Wu-Tang Clan to the Church, and Lagwagon to Liz Phair — more…
Despite the fact that Jennifer O’Connor has been likened to songwriters like Liz Phair and Elliot Smith, such comparisons don’t say anything about O’Connor’s melodic sensibilities or her ability to spin a phrase. Sure, O’Connor has a tendency to spew some venom on occasion. And true, she does anchor her…
Before there was Beck, there was — ahem — Beck. Not the smooth-crooning hipster but rather Jeff Beck, the guitar god extraordinaire, who courted rock reverence by virtue of the searing fretwork that defines his signature style. Whereas early contemporaries Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page were cast in the company…
When Nirvana released Nevermind in 1991, hair-metal bands like Poison seemed hopelessly irrelevant. “The pendulum swung,” Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille recalls. “The backlash was strong, instant, and venomous. But time changes things.” That it does. Nirvana is long gone, along with most of the bands that followed in its flannel-flying…
It would be difficult to imagine two artists who better embody the spirit of authentic Americana than John Fogerty and Willie Nelson. Each has established an indelible imprint, from the relentless refrains that framed Fogerty’s Credence Clearwater Revival hits to the rugged, backwoods drawl Nelson navigated. Likewise, their careers paralleled…
There’s always been an innate English eccentricity in the music of singer/guitarist Richard Thompson. But his latest opus is perhaps his most oddly ambitious. A live DVD/double-CD set detailing a millennium’s worth of popular song, it paints the survey in broad strokes, melding old folk melodies, carols, and madrigals with…
Although it’s often dismissed as simply another ’70s stadium band, Journey boasted an impressive pedigree that molded its early albums into articulate examples of true progressive posture. Born from the original Santana band — the same outfit that performed at Woodstock, no less — Journey went on to become one…
