Six Pack To GoVarious Artists(Stiff Pole Records)www.stiffpolerecords.com In honor of Richard “Big Stiff” Konwinski, who passed this past July in Tampa, I’ll be juggling between the County Grind and Crossfade blogs doing my Blast From the Past thing on the record label that he founded, Stiff Pole Records, that, in…
The name Jack Johnson alone can make some folks involuntarily close their eyes and find themselves on a sunny beach. They hear his voice and brush imaginary sand from their shoulders. Keep those eyes closed and look beyond the sun-bathing beauties, piña coladas, and playful breakers. If you’re like Jack,…
I’ve been a fan of Orion since I first heard him spit on the Elastic Bond album. Then I had a chance to hear his debut CD, Esperanza, and I was floored. Here he is, producing and rapping along with Smoke and Miras, Sci-22, and Brown I on a video…
Boca Raton retro rockers Blond Fuzz, currently in the midst of filming a music video, keep churning up discussion prior to October’s release of Perfect Breakfast. Earlier this year, the Fuzz posted an unhinged take on the Velvet Underground, and here, we have a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival…
Who said you can’t go home again? Certainly not Tears for Fears. The band’s trajectory has technically been intact for the past 28 years — although its two principals, Roland Orzabel and Curt Smith, parted after peaking in the early ’90s. While Orzabel carried on with the band’s branding, Smith…
The name Jack Johnson alone can make some folks involuntarily close their eyes and find themselves on a sunny beach. They hear his voice and brush imaginary sand from their shoulders. Keep those eyes closed, and look beyond the sun-bathing beauties, piña coladas, and playful breakers. If you’re like Jack,…
Fueled by Napster’s file-sharing revolution in the early 2000s, the mashup made it possible to hear two songs you hate at the same time — and not just in nerdy tape traders’ bedrooms but on the dance floor. Pittsburgh producer Girl Talk’s Night Ripper became a genre template in 2006,…
Along with the Specials, the Selector, Madness, and Bad Manners, the English Beat excelled at putting a British stamp on Jamaican ska and reggae in the late ’70s and early ’80s. The name was tagged with their nationality to differentiate them from an American outfit also dubbed the Beat, but…
Miami’s “lo-fi garage” act of the moment, Lil Daggers, has earned a rep outside of Florida for good reason. Often lumped in with other bands of a similar ilk, the Daggers’ accessible yet brazen, organ-speckled, sometimes-Spanglish tracks are heavier than that. Bringing that weight down on Little Munich — a…
The latest extravaganza in South Florida’s current crop of concert offerings intent on rekindling musical memories for Baby Boomers is the affectionately dubbed HippieFest. Although its appeal to would-be hippies is questionable, the list of classic-rock regulars is, as always, well up to par. Headliner Jack Bruce had a long…
The Glitch Mob sprang into summer 2010 at the top of the electro game, debuting a new live set style at Coachella 2010, followed by the release of its mature and polished May album titled Drink the Sea. Soon after, the trio raged the massive Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado…
Sometime about six years ago, Hank Williams III first felt a strain in his throat. Then in his early 30s, his attempts at belting out a twangy ballad about loneliness mustered only a raspy, huffing sound — not the yodeling crack his audiences had grown accustomed to. “It was the…
The ukulele is not just for the Aloha state anymore. The burgeoning popularity of the petite babe of the guitar family whose Hawaiian name translates to “jumping flea” seems to be happening quicker than the time it takes that little parasite to leap onto your pet. This Saturday, August 28,…
CocoRosie never ceases to amaze us. Sisters Bianca (“Coco”) and Sierra (“Rosie”) are two of the most recognizable mustached ladies — barring only the bearded lady at the circus. But why go to the circus when you can actually see the performance art meets full-on stage spectacle that is CocoRosie…
Natalie Merchant sounds exactly like one might expect. With her clipped tones, old-world accent, and a stoic yet reserved demeanor, she clearly inhabits her persona as pop’s foremost folk princess, a role she first assumed nearly 30 years ago at the helm of 10,000 Maniacs. At age 46, she still…
B.o.BWith Yelawolf, Playboy Tre, MaydayRevolution, Fort LauderdaleTuesday, August 24, 2010To see more photos from the concert, click here.The Review:Atlanta rapper-singer Bobby Ray Simmons was overwhelmingly successful at reaching his mixed audience over the course of a jam-packed 65-minute performance on Tuesday. Clad in a tight white T-shirt with a vest…
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 the Clementines. The Clementines have a “song” on their MySpace page titled “Unbridled Enthusiasm” — two…
In our Moving Units column, Mike Ramirez at Fort Lauderdale’s Radio-Active Records graciously keeps us up-to-date and comments on the current releases flying out of his store each week.Once you get past the Holden Caulfield lyrics (“I hate myself man, but who’s to blame?”) on Wavves’ latest, King of the…
Baths, AKA Los Angeles electronic music prodigy Will Wiesenfeld, has one of County Grind’s favorite albums of the year not created in our local environs in Cerulean. And indeed, “Lovely Bloodflow” and its stutter-step beats and helium vocals can be credited for a heaping portion of this infatuation. Now, in…
As the lore of B.o.B — whom a colleague recently dubbed part rapper, part Jack Johnson — has grown significantly with the single “Nothin’ on You” (more on that here), his opening act tonight at Revolution, Yelawolf (right), has a chance to hit pop paydirt with a much grittier approach.Already…
Music vet and New Times scribe Lee Zimmerman shares stories of memorable rock ‘n’ roll encounters that took place in our local environs. This week: First impressions and mistaken identities. It’s funny, but for as long as I can remember, people have insisted that I resemble one rock star or…
The third Think Pink Rocks benefit, which features a bevy of hip-hop/R&B talent from the SRC Records roster, hits Mizner Park Amphitheater on October 2. This year’s performance roster features Auto-Tune specialist Akon, who performed at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center back in March, Asher “I Love College” Roth,…
