I'm sure I'm late in the game on discovering this one, but Trent Reznor has proved once again that, love him or hate him, he's always been a forward thinker. Newly freed from the shackles of his contact with Interscope, he's launched a new site at remix.nin.com. It's a platform...
Defense attorney John Cotrone stood before Broward Circuit Judge Ana Gardiner in her marble-laden courtroom and dropped in what seemed like a jab at her honor. It came after Gardiner, the chief criminal judge for the 17th Judicial Circuit, asked for an amended file on Cotrone's case. The lawyer pointed...
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...
A band has some kind of amazing longevity if you can still be "the new guy" after 30 years in the lineup. But that's exactly the case with Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood, whose life story is told in his new book, Ronnie. Unfortunately, Wood's recollections consist of precious little...
Retro soul's got to be damn fine to justify its existence, since the stuff it's modeled on is readily available for listening pleasure to anyone with a computer and access to Rhapsody, iTunes, or any number of re-issue catalogues. Fortunately, the latest from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings qualifies as...
It's hard to find anyone with a subtler touch on the keys than Maryland-born pianist Cyrus Chestnut, who draws from modern and traditional jazz while also flirting with R&B and gospel. Such eclecticism has found him performing alongside the likes of Vanessa Williams, Wynton Marsalis, and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni...
Persepolis is a small landmark in feature animation. Not because of technical innovation — though it moves fluidly enough and its drawings have a handcrafted charm forgotten in the era of the cross-promoted-to-saturation CGI-'toon juggernauts — but because it translates a sensitive, introspective, true-to-life, "adult" comic story into moving pictures...
According to the accepted wisdom in these parts, Florida Stage is just about the best thing going. Like Caldwell Theatre to the south and Palm Beach Dramaworks to the north, it's a big-budget company with high production values and a clientele that smells a little like medicine. Unlike those theaters,...
Reports coming out of Los Angeles and Chicago are sadly stating that rapper Kanye West's mother, Dr. Donda West, died over the weekend "as a result of complications from a cosmetic surgical procedure." The family released a one sentence statement this morning, which read: "The family respectfully asks for privacy...
My audience didn't care," veteran folk singer Tom Rush says laughing as he tries to explain why he didn't receive the same backlash for going electric with his sound in the 1960s the way Bob Dylan did. "I don't know why that was," he admits, "but I think Dylan had...
Mayor Mara Giulianti had had enough of the haters, so she put out a campaign mailer. "Put a stop to anti-Semitism and hate," Giulianti pleaded. "The radical right is already whipping up hate and anti-Semitism in Hollywood's mayoral campaign. Those opposed to Hollywood Mayor Mara Berman Giulianti have stooped to...
Since promising Armageddon in the leadoff bars of Straight Outta Compton, star-producer Ice Cube has been one canny career man. In recent years, he's pulled up stake in the foundering rap game and doesn't seem to think twice about the cred damage that could come from pratfalling through PG family...
There are few places in the world as scandalous as Naples, Italy. From streetside pickpockets to the maniacal scooterists and absent traffic laws, to the underworld mafia, it can be a downright scary place — and they say that nowadays, street action aside, it’s at a law-abiding zenith. So imagine...
The '70s fell to Pink Floyd — and so the Zeroes have fallen to Daft Punk. The French duo started churning out techno/house/electronica music in the '90s. Now, they're globally dilated and definers of that diffuse genre. Alive 2007, their new album, is a live recording from a June concert...
My Lord," you might be saying, "Ween is still around?" And how, brother. Dismissed for two decades as a joke band, Ween has labored in sorta-obscurity while somehow simultaneously selling out shows and winning die-hard converts. How does the band do it? Easy: Ween rules. In fact, the Pennsylvania group...
These reviews are part of our continuing coverage of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Sexina: Pop Star PI. "Probably, intending to be campy is always harmful...," Susan Sontag wrote in her famous 1964 essay "Notes on Camp." "The results are forced and heavy-handed." Never mind that the same could...
It's well into midday on a Saturday afternoon, yet Ivan Neville, on the phone from his New Orleans home, sounds beat. Maybe he's recovering from a gig the night before, or perhaps it's the result of some revelry down on Bourbon Street. Whatever the reason, if Neville's tired now, it's...
As everyone knows, dogs seem to reflect their master's personalities. Likewise, the breeds invented by a nation say a lot about that nation. Germans bred the German shepherd and Rottweilers: smart, loyal, faithful, yet a little cold, and not the kind of dogs you want to piss off. The French...
Do you remember when punk rock used to mean something? (Aside from spiky hair-dos and three minutes of whining about your parents, like some power-chord hungry version of the Fresh Prince.) Thank the gods that Rise Against does. The Chicago four-piece fuses the political musings of Bad Religion with hard-driving...
Having a child destroys your immune system to horror, real or imagined. Before the blessed event, you could laugh off The Exorcist, The Omen, or any of a thousand gory shockers with some wide-eyed tyke as either the prey or the spawn of Beelzebub. Afterward, you can't even see the...
Since about a half century ago, Japan has exported a range of delights to the world, among them: sushi, haikus, bonsai trees, Toyotas, gadgetry, servant robots, anime, Hello Kitty, Power Rangers, Zen-ness. But one thing that’s never fully caught on (and I’m not talking about militarism, whale meat, or Sumo...
So much about Coheed and Cambria's work cries out for ridicule: the '70s-art-rock-derived instrumental wankery, the skyscraping, get-your-Geddy-on vocals... Somehow, though, the act's fourth album, No World for Tomorrow, works in spite of itself. World represents the final chapter of The Amory Wars, the epic tale of Claudio Kilgannon, who...
