Some brave souls may take up the musical saw and coax a few warbling, wobbly whines from it, but Kev Hopper really understands the instrument. He can make it swoon and scream like a whiny theremin or quiver like the lower lip of a crybaby. Though the saw — played…

If South Florida were like other major metropolitan areas around the country, we who live here would enjoy our live music in a renovated old movie house with velvet curtains, cushy seats, an in-house sound board, and so on. But alas, we’re not, and we don’t. So, spoiled nonnatives (yes,…

It’s not easy being Death Becomes You. The shock-rock troupe from Coral Springs has a tough time earning respect in South Florida, where its antics are often viewed as sub­Marilyn Manson silliness. As if that weren’t bad enough, a long-running dispute with a local club owner recently culminated in a…

When Brian Wilson brought his ten-piece band and 55-piece orchestra to Sunrise October 18, the outstanding performance finally cashed Pet Sounds’ postdated paycheck. Though the venue was only half full, the rapturous crowd was half in awe of Wilson, half afraid as he shambled on stage uncertainly like a doddering…

The metaphorical fallout following Fort Lauderdale’s declaration of war against kids who just want to have fun has all the characteristics of the real thing: It’s lingering, radioactive, and cancerous. It immediately infected the town’s nightlife, surprising club owners who were led to believe the law wouldn’t be enforced for…

The Full Moon Project had to happen. Bobby Thomas Jr., says he owed it to Jaco Pastorius. In 1982, Thomas, a drummer who had just begun to play professionally, wound up with about the best gig imaginable: touring Japan with storied fusion combo Weather Report. Sweet as it was, the…

Thanks to Fort Lauderdale’s Procrustean city commissioners (Cindi Hutchinson not included), it’s a bad time to be 18, 19, or 20 years old in the fair city. This group of politicians is a bunch of mamas who do not dance and daddies who most certainly will never deign to rock…

It’s only 9 a.m., but Al Sparhawk is wide awake. Such is life when you’re the father of a six-month-old. As young Hollis Mae Sparhawk lets out an exuberant squawk and her dad gushes on and on about the joys of fatherhood, it’s clear the elder Sparhawk is no ordinary…

Every other month or so, bulldozers and other earth-moving equipment haul tons of local CDs to Bandwidth’s basement bunker. We sift through the rubble and pluck out a handful of platters for review. As a public service, we present our findings to you. Caution: Your results may vary. Prophets of…

“I like music that makes me feel like there’s a soundtrack to my life,” says Deep Sixes bassist Pablo Jakobson. “And when you’re playing spy music or surf music or exotica lounge music, it makes you feel like the film of your life is cool. It lends itself to feeling…

I see dumb people: A lot of dumb people. They packed the September 19 Fort Lauderdale City Commission meeting and spilled out onto the streets. First there was the Boy Scout Bigotry Brigade, featuring 14-year-olds holding signs that read, “Stop the radical gay and lesbian agenda!!” Bandwidth was hanging around…

Pinback’s eponymous 1999 debut found two ex-members of Heavy Vegetable and Three Mile Pilot dicking around with a four-track, making studiously and intentionally low-fidelity recordings and playing cut-and-paste with the results. Some Voices, the group’s new four-song EP, is heavy on the noise gates, looping software, and ProTools wizardry, which…

The fliers started fluttering around downtown Fort Lauderdale about a month ago. Neon pink and fetchingly petite, they promised a flavor of fun heretofore unknown in these humid parts. “Pavement, Pixies!” they shouted. “Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie… and more.” What’s this? Have the 21st-century modern-rock…

Cut from the same digital cloth as its predecessors, Pole 1 and Pole 2 (the only true reference points of any value here), Pole 3 is more minimalist future dub from German eccentric Stefan Betke. Ghostly echoes and thickened bass patterns form the skin of each piece, with the skeletal…

What’s Fort Lauderdale’s nightlife going to look like when we kick out all the underage kids? Skip Murray of the Chili Pepper sees it turning into a “faceless condo hotel earlybird special” kind of place now that the city commission has resurrected — and appears ready to push through –…

Mid-August at the posher-than-thou Power Studios in Miami’s Design District: A well-dressed throng sips expensive drinks as the lights are slowly dimmed and the velvet curtains part to reveal local act Sunday Driver. Technicians make sure guitars are tuned and cymbal stands are correctly positioned. Without warning, the quartet blazes…

D.H. Lawrence’s short story The Rocking-Horse Winner is a cautionary fable about greed. It ends with the death of a child, his toy horse transporting his soul to the hereafter. In the case of the suburban Broward band of the same name, the arrangement is slightly different: souls may well…

Although it’s truly a tiny space, Fort Lauderdale’s Shed Records is doing a big service, providing a mellow, easygoing, and extremely hip scene in a community weighed down by festering strip malls and pervasive corporate record-store tyranny. Now, every Wednesday evening, owner Duncan Cameron is opening the store as a…

Back in April, the Poor House hosted a pair of fine hip-hop-influenced acts from our sultry neck of the woods, giving this observer the impression that some pretty good local music was lurking around. However, the two bands — the Square Egg and Hashbrown — have done an admirable job…

Of great interest to Bandwidth, of course, is a new band from Fort Lauderdale, the Getaway Plan. More accurately, the band’s bassist and guitarist live in Coral Springs, and the drummer is holed up in Delray Beach, while singer Dominic Traverzo makes his home in Hollywood. “I just say we’re…