Erykah Badu & Common August 4, 2007 Chakra The Review: This past Saturday, a dose of real Hip Hop and R&B drowned out the typical South Beach sounds of music. Hours after the curtain closed on the uber-hype Rock the Bells festival, Gorillas Lifestyle Marketing ( www.gorillasrevolution.com) brought conscious rap…
Hippiefest The Turtles featuring Flo and Eddi, Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals, Mitch Ryder, The Zombies featuring Colin Blunstone & Rod Argent (Time of the Season), Country Joe McDonald, Mountain featuring Leslie West & Corky Laing, and Badfinger featuring Joey Molland Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino August 2, 2007 Better Than::…
Matthew Dear Asa Breed (Ghostly International) Matthew Dear has breathed new life into Detroit techno. “Hands Up For Detroit,” his debut single from 1999, became an anthem for the city, invoking the spirit of the mid-’80s, when the “Belleville three” ruled the clubs while inventing techno. After eight years of…
Young Buck Buck the World (G-Unit/Interscope) The autumn release of 50 Cent’s Curtis surely has Interscope execs sweating like pigs praying not to be butchered. Will Curtis save the G-Unit empire or hasten its demise? While they’re waiting, the suits should parse related releases for hints. The formulaic Rotten Apple,…
In true space-age, dance-music-weirdness style, Green Velvet was birthed as the alter ego of an alter ego: that of Cajmere, AKA Curtis Alan Jones, a reigning house-music artist of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Cajmere was always a little more out there than the other disco dons of his…
Just minutes after the end of the recent Democratic presidential debate, Vinnie Paz is nonplussed. As the frontman of the rugged Philadelphia trio Jedi Mind Tricks, he’s always been a rabble-rousing MC. On the 2006 track “Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story,” he spits verses from the point of view of…
Coming this Thursday, check out both the Broward-Palm Beach and Miami New Times papers for coverage of the Projekt Revolution tour! The tour takes place Friday, August 10 at the Sound Advice Ampitheatre in West Palm Beach. Headlining are tour founders Linkin Park; accompanying them across two stages are My…
First, to clear up any confusion: This is the Radiators from New Orleans, the three-decades-plus-strong bluesy, funky rock group, not the also three-decades-strong band from Australia. These Radiators are sort of the ur-jam band; their first album was in fact a live one. The quintet dips equally into roots rock…
Photo by Santiago Felipe Beyonce July 22, 2007 BankAtlantic Center Better Than: Hating. You gotta love it. The Review: Blue-eyed soulster Robin Thicke was just finishing up his set when I walked into the BankAtlantic Center. So like any good girl on a Sunday night, I head straight to the…
Wu-Tang and LOUD.com offer fans a chance to open for The Wu in Hawaii! From July 16th to August 20th, 2007, Wu-Tang fans have the chance of lifetime. They can log on to LOUD.com, where they will be able to use a unique online recording studio to make and submit…
Tegan & Sara The Con (Vapor/Sire) The musical output of Canadian twins inevitably carries with it a vaguely alien air. One can just imagine Tegan & Sara in Montreal and Vancouver, respectively, engaging in some seizure-like sibling communication and spontaneously birthing The Con. Nothing so medievally weird happened, of course,…
Mary J. Blige July 19, 2007 Hard Rock Live Better Than: Any lip-synching factory-made pop tart we can think of The Review: Last night Mary J. Blige turned the Seminole Hard Rock into the Seminole Hard Soul. Rockin a one-piece black jumpsuit and some killer heels, she started the show…
Jackie Guerrido Premios Juventud 2007 July 19, 2007 BankUnited Center, University of Miami Better than: Staying home, I guess. Univision spent the last several months leading up to last night’s 2007 Premios Juventud playing it up as one that would stand-alone for years to come. Nice try but the Spanish-language…
The Rocket Summer Do You Feel Island Records The Rocket Summer’s major label debut, Do You Feel, rings similar to their two previous full-length albums. Bryce Avary, the band’s songwriter, singer, and instrumentalist has perfected his sound with this release. The Rocket Summer got its start back in 1999, when…
Bad Brains Build a Nation (Oscilloscope/Megaforce) By Saby Reyes-Kulkarni With musicians, like athletes, it’s always disheartening to watch them hang around long enough to see their abilities break down. Bad Brains fans, long beset by the band’s notorious instability, have every reason to expect that a present-day reunion album can…
Just announced: Joel Meinholz, head of the supercool party promotions/whatever company IAmYourVillain, has just booked the legendary Beat Junkie J-Rocc to perform this Sunday at the Chocolate Sundays at Purdy Lounge. (IAmYourVillain is also responsible for the chilled-out, hip-hoppy, skateboarderish, anything-goes vibe of fun parties like Take Out Tuesday at…
In ice-cool genre-mashup circles, Brazil is the de rigueur frontier for new hard-hitting, urban-sexy dance beats. Bonde do Rolê, hailing from Curitiba, is the first group from the baile funk scene to make international inroads, thanks to a chance discovery by Florida-bred DJ/producer Diplo of Hollertronix. On its first full-length,…
Groovebox Symphony @ Studio A You may (or very well may not) remember those glow stick lit nights in the late 90s at Malibu Grand Prix, where the air smelled of Vics and organic electronic mixes begged the body to groove. For many of these Full Moon ravers, candy or…
Morrissey July 14, 2007 Mizner Park Ampitheatre Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Better Than: For Morrissey fans: everything besides sex. But then again, considering that Mozzer is famously “asexual,” for some diehard fans even that may not be the case… The Review: There is a famous Baroque sculpture in the Cornaro…
Passing this along from Pandora’s e-mail list… Hi, it’s Tim one more time… Disaster looms! Yesterday a federal court denied a plea to delay the massive increase in rates webcasters must pay the record labels. This means that, absent immediate Congressional action, the new ruinous royalty rates will be going…
Seven years ago actor Andy Garcia portrayed Arturo Sandoval in a biopic film about the renowned jazz musician. On Sunday Garcia and Sandoval will stand side-by-side on stage. Garcia will try his hands on the congas alongside the Cuban trumpet-player and friends at the Arturo Sandoval Jazz Club in Miami…
So I finally headed out to the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, where the Latin Alternative Music Conference’s headquarters are stationed. At the showroom, you are inundated with an array of products ranging from Gibson Guitars to Microsoft’s Zune, which is trying to beat the iPod in its own game…
