Following an unfortunate turn to homogenized Latin pop with Tito Puente Jr., the Musicians Exchange returns to pristine form this week when it hosts jazz multi-instrumentalist/legend Ira Sullivan. As Chicago became a linchpin in both the jazz and blues scenes in the 1950s, Sullivan emerged as one of the city’s…
The dysfunctional family is now as American as Mom and apple pie. Time was, the American family was reflected on TV in such sugary shows as Ozzie and Harriet or Father Knows Best. But the world has turned since then, become a decidedly weirder place, and unless you were going…
Since bodybuilding began coming into the public eye, probably first due to the 1976 film Pumping Iron, the activity has grown by leaps and bounds, much like the muscles on any of its competitors. In fact, bodybuilding can even be officially called a sport; the International Federation of Body Builders…
Ah, summertime in South Florida. The struggle of the tourism industry to survive another off season. The unforgiving heat and humidity, broken only by the torrential downpour that occurs for 30 minutes every day, usually exactly when you don’t want it to. The distinctly unique, meaty sound that issues forth…
Years ago, in the era before the Williams sisters, Andre Agassi shocked the tennis world by wearing Day-Glo colors to matches. This was simply not done. Not even John “Middle Finger” McEnroe was audacious enough to wear anything but white with a few tasteful stripes occasionally. This was a gentleman’s…
For all his shuffling about on MTV’s ridiculously successful voyeuristic hit The Osbournes and for all his mumbled stammers of “What the… why does… I don’t… Shaaaaron!,” Ozzy Osbourne exhibits few traces of these frailties on-stage. Sure, he doesn’t leap about like he did in the salad days of Sabbath,…
Deep in the uncharted wilderness of the Wild West (we like to call it Davie), in the midst of a cluttered office strewn with concert posters, a T-shirt autographed by Phish guitarist/singer Trey Anastasio, and practically the entire collection of Simpsons action figures, many of them still in their original…
The last time these boys from Jacksonville were in the area, we interviewed their lead singer and told you all that if you are a fan of blues, country, funk, or any combination thereof, you must see them at the Bamboo Room. For those of you who didn’t listen, shame…
There’s something going on in the Rust Belt besides auto-industry layoffs. Along with bands such as the White Stripes and the Greenhornes, the Come Ons are part of a garage-rock revival that has crept slowly across the nation, building speed like an old Camaro. Unlike the more punky Stripes, the…
After Jim Morrison dropped dead in 1971, the remaining Doors issued two more albums before abandoning all hope. But while Robbie Krieger and John Densmore went off to form the Butts Band and go from nice, folksy blues to unadulterated crap in two albums, Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek stuck with…
There are two kinds of people at New Times — those who hate Dave Matthews and those who like Dave Matthews but express ambivalence toward him for fear of those who hate Dave Matthews. (One of the haters is editing this very article; fans unhappy with its less-than-hagiographic tone should…
Bernie Worrell measures up as one of the greatest sidemen of the 1970s and ’80s. Along with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins, he is largely responsible for the psychedelic party sounds that made Parliament/Funkadelic arguably the greatest funk band in world history. As keyboardist for the P-Funk mob, Worrell’s sounds…
You’d think that after releasing its first album in a couple of years, 2001’s Here’s to Shutting Up, seminal indie band Superchunk would at least be able to pull off headlining a national club tour. This, after all, was one of the most important indie bands of the 1990s. Superchunk…
Fans of The Howard Stern Show and everything it stands for — gratuitous T&A, sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, and so on — can have their fill this weekend. Although the King of All Media and his most recognizable sidekick, the redoubtable Robin Quivers, will both be absent, a group…
The name Ellen DeGeneres has been stuck on the end of adjectives such as groundbreaking and pioneering so many times that she might as well change one of those to her first name. Of course, it wasn’t always like that. And it really isn’t quite that way anymore, now that…
Following a successful tour of the Northeast, New Orleans’s Papa Grows Funk arrives in Florida this week, where the band demonstrates why it’s the hottest thing to come out of the bayou since your Uncle Louie’s Cajun pepper sauce. Theryl deClouet, lead singer of Galactic (another collective of funky New…
Rather than spend another night at the standard Broward or Palm Beach watering holes, why not take a trip down to Miami this Sunday to get in touch with your inner rock ‘n’ roll child? With long-time drummer Tommy Larkins in tow, Jonathan Richman brings his naive schtick to South…
Back in 1993, Franni Howe-Southern, a woman who had dedicated the past decade or so to promoting local roots music, decided to have a little party. She got a few bands to come to her back yard, threw down some barbecue, and 50 people showed up. Each year, more and…
Joe “Queer” King is a Toys R Us kid: He never grows up. The band he fronts, the Queers, has now been around for 20 years, and yet its junior-high-school sense of humor has continued unabated for all that time. “I just hang out with retards, and it helps me,”…
Ah, nothing like riding down the roads on your hog. You’ve got your nothing-but-leather-and-denim wardrobe on, a beard down to your chest, and the wind in your face. Maybe you have one of those teeny little black helmets, but if you are one of the lucky ones with $10,000 in…
Did you know that Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is the Shore Diving Capital of the World? Sure, it doesn’t look like much more than your basic, archetypal beach community, what with all the little surf shops, bars, and restaurants with names such as the Sea Ranch Diner, along with the beachfront motels and…
It’s hard to think of Green Day as somebody’s old man. Punk lends itself to youthful exuberance, which makes even the originators of the punk revival seem like a bunch of boys out for a joy ride in their daddy’s car. But many in the silly string of punk and…
