Levon HelmWith Ray LaMontagnePompano Beach Amphitheater, Pompano BeachThursday, November 4, 2010Better than: A dry seat at a lousy show.Hours of pre-show rain assured that there wouldn’t be a dry booty in the crowd Thursday, but nobody seemed to be complaining about their soggy seat as they took in a stellar…
I always had a sneaking suspicion that Chris Ruppel harbored some acoustic-late-at-night guitar leanings and they are confirmed here via this MP3 from his solo effort. Most of you will remember him from his days with Dead Letter Post Office and most recently Fireside Social. He left Miami sometime ago…
Major labels of late have rush-released promotional videos to lock up YouTube advertising dollars — and these have generally featured songs we like. See recent smashes by Cee Lo, My Chemical Romance, and Pink. Now the man born Thomas DeCarlo Callaway has returned with another single from The Lady Killer,…
Music video director and South Florida native Carlos Charlie Perez welcomed County Grind into his New York workspace in September for the filming of Los Angeles synth artist Glasser’s “Mirrorage” video. The results color a profile of Perez featured in this week’s music section. This represents his 15th project –…
In September, we brought a pair of MP3s for your enjoyment via our County Grind (Broward/Palm Beach) and Crossfade (Miami) blogs. Aside from the monetary benefits of doing work, I did this because I’ve always felt it my duty to represent local music and musicians throughout the seven years I’ve…
We’re not really sure how much “crap” the folks over at Buzz 103.1 have “cut through” in the past 15 years, but one thing’s for sure: They love reppin’ the Sunshine State. The radio station even put a contest together to add some more local talent to this year’s festival…
To quell the pain besieging fellow employees at the New Times Broward Palm Beach, we announce with pleasure that Randy Moss will not be suiting up in a Dolphins uniform. The past couple of days yielded some serious digs (not Diggs, however) against Moss, a former Viking-Raider-Patriot-Viking who apparently spends…
Carlos Charlie Perez is lip-synching with a pen as his microphone. Bulbs powerful enough for an entire stage illuminate his animated face, painted with a slightly hammy smile and peeking out from under a mop of dark brown hair. A wood-paneled cylinder with rainbow-splashed walls about 16 feet in diameter…
It seems we have earned Ray LaMontagne’s eye contact. Looking back at his past album covers, not until his third do we get a glimpse of Ray’s face. The mustache and beard deny us the opportunity to get too close to the man, whose reticent gaze appears fixed to the…
Looking at the 31-year-old Swedish musician now, it would be hard to imagine that Robyn is cut from the same cloth as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera — minus working for the Mouse. She got her break on the U.S. charts in 1997, thanks to fellow countryman and überproducer Max…
Scott H. Biram and Charlie Pickett might make for an odd couple, but they’re a riveting double bill. For his part, Biram is a rowdy roots rocker, a guy who packs an insurgent attitude and a venomous sneer. His latest album on Bloodshot Records, Something’s Wrong/Lost Forever, offers ample evidence…
Never Shout Never’s music is simple, purposeful, and short. Many of Christofer Drew’s tunes, concentrated on a handful of EPs and the 20-minute mini-album What Is Love?, clock in at two and a half minutes — for an internet attention span. “I think it’s easier for kids to concentrate that…
For a way-too-long moment in the mid-’00s, too many hardcore-offshoot bands boasted names about days/months/seasons or some form of the verb “to die.” The music too was a similarly broad, indistinguishable mishmash of screaming alternating with singing alternating with breakdowns and back again. Buffalo-based lifers Every Time I Die were…
South Carolina-born Zach Deputy, AKA the human amplifier of soul, croons his way down to South Florida to share his one-man show with curious new ears and enthused followers. At the Bamboo Stage at Boca’s Funky Buddha Lounge & Brewery, his looped-out, beat-boxing dance party will take multitasking to unimaginable…
The lineups of past Alternative Press tours have usually consisted of bands that opt for pop-laced harmonies over high-decibel growling, but not this year. With metalcore coheadliners Bring Me the Horizon and August Burns Red, AP might as well include earplugs with every ticket purchase. This entire night of wall-shaking…
SPL is less a sonic experience than a full-body assault via bass. Sam Pool, the man behind the Sound Pressure Level moniker, prefers to tread the darker waters of drum ‘n’ bass and dubstep, so the fact that bass is central to his sound should come as no surprise. Where…
Back in the early 2000s, cool kids everywhere became obsessed with all kinds of lupine creatures. You had Wolfmother and Wolf Eyes and Aids Wolf. But only one furry, fanged crew — Montreal’s Wolf Parade — really seemed to possess the cunning, coyote-like survival skills to live on that skinny…
Clad in a black bra that barely concealed her astonishing rack, the woman carried drinks over to her husband, a lanky gent with graying hair who was seated on a couch in the VIP section. She was beautiful. Probably in her late 50s, she appeared much younger: bleached-blond hair; tanned,…
This week sees the release of the CompOWLation Vol. 1, a collection of songs recorded by student artists in Florida Atlantic University’s Commercial Music program. To kick off the release, Whole Foods Market (across the street from the FAU campus) in Boca Raton is hosting a release party on Friday…
The Ambry German and American Restaurant3016 E Commercial Blvd., Fort LauderdaleCall 954-771-7342, or visit ambryrestaurant.comI walked through the quaint, pocket-sized “beer garden,” pulled open the brassy, cathedral-like door, and poked my head inside the Ambry. It was dimly lit, with brick walls, wooden ceilings, arched windows, and the aroma of…
Glimpses of the South Florida Scene is a weekly column devoted to the artists thriving within Broward and Palm Beach counties featuring interviews with the folks making it happen. This week, West Palm Beach’s (and New York City’s) Tumbleweave.Tumbleweave is Ben Mendelewicz and Matt Cutler, who make irreverent songs that…
In August, Pompano Beach emo group Further Seems Forever confirmed reports of a reunion featuring its original lineup — including former (and well-known) lead singer Chris Carrabba. So far, the band is set to perform a one-off at Belgium punk and hardcore festival Groezrock Festival in April 2011. Meanwhile, Further Seems…
