What — you were expecting something good, something innovative to tour through South Florida? Off-the-beaten-path, interesting, unusual music is rarer than rocking-horse manure in this corner of the continent. Until the shifting tectonic plates move Broward/Palm Beach farther up the peninsula, more-fashionable fare will continue to shunt its services northward…
The only contact South Floridians likely have had with Alejandro Escovedo (yes, he counts Sheila E. and her dad, Pete, as relatives) was when his seminal nuevo-Western outfit, Rank and File, toured the country opening for Los Lobos. Now he’s matured into one of the finest Latino singer-songwriters in the…
Do you have your Free the West Memphis Three T-shirt yet? No, it’s not a promo item for a Blair Witch Project sequel but a spinoff of a true tale based on the 1993 Robin Hood Hill murders in West Memphis, Arkansas. Three eight-year-old boys were found slain, and three…
Spring fashions include lots of pastels, of course. But the real key is that they’re casual, yet oh-so-sporty. Did you think our mid-May batch of local CD releases would be any different? Sure, these new ones have less chiffon than in previous years, but let’s try a couple on and…
New Jersey’s Yo La Tengo regularly sends reviewers into enthusiastic fits. Over the course of the band’s 14-year career, the critical darlings began to attract followers who weren’t necessarily rock writers. Now, with their tenth release, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, Yo La Tengo has scaled a new peak…
“I’m sick of people who see my hair color and see that I sing pop music and think that I’m automatically a clone of Britney or Christina!” complains rising teen star Mandy Moore. “Not that that’s a bad thing, but I’m not another Britney and I’m not another Christina. I’m…
Back in 1995 Fort Lauderdale hardcore act Puya was mixing blazing speed metal, Latin rhythms, and Spanish-language lyrics into a powerfully potent concoction. That formula won the band fans throughout the state, a slew of local awards, and by 1998, a major-label deal with MCA. Now Nonpoint, a West Palm…
Slow and low, that is the tempo, but San Francisco’s Timonium doesn’t exactly fit the soft-core parameters established by sleepytimers Idaho, Low, or Codeine. Instead of remaining pretty and complacent, Timonium isn’t afraid to pump up the volume. On Suspende Animation, the band takes four long songs and spins them…
We wanted to report that the response to the first Bandwidth column — asking readers to suggest a new name for the Winter Music Conference — was off the hook. However, we cannot. Our office slang-slinger has determined that catch phrase is past its expiration date. He’s found a replacement…
A youth crisis is upon us. Our children are in peril, their minds atrophying like lunchmeat in the sun. Only one man has the solution. “The sad state of the fuckin’ nation, dude,” observes ex-Skid Row screamer Sebastian Bach, “is that the kids have never seen bands like Mötley Crüe…
“Battle of the bands” competitions remind us of high school or, worse, movies starring Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox about high-school “battle of the bands” competitions. The nationwide Bandemonium contest visited our state last month, and three South Florida groups nearly rose to the top. In fact the town…
Glenn Danzig is a cartoon character. No, really: Just take a look at the cover of the new Danzig album, which pictures the singer emerging from a bog like DC/Marvel’s Swamp Thing. Inch-deep third-degree burns scar his massive biceps. “Yeah, I’ve got 666 burned into my arm,” he deadpans, in…
South Beach during the Winter Music Conference is a futuristic scene with sci-fi elements galore: Newfangled illicit chemicals, glow sticks, and Vicks inhalers. Sexual energy threatening to combust at every turn. Vinyl, abandoned as antique by the rest of the recording industry, flourishes as the hard currency of the movement…
Gitane Demone comes as close to a gothic-rock diva as anything this country has produced. And that’s just the way she wants to keep it. After nearly two decades at the forefront of the goth scene, Demone scoffs at the prospect of mainstreaming her sound. “I think I’d rather die,”…
The dance-music pipeline is easily clogged. New subgenres sprout virtually overnight, adding confusion to an already crowded scene. London-bred DJ Aphrodite is like the mason of the drum ‘n’ bass movement — straightening, strengthening, and fortifying the foundation of the style. Characterized primarily by speedy, rapid-fire beats, drum ‘n’ bass’…
Sometimes music doesn’t need to be art. Just give the folks psychotic hillbilly gee-tar, lyrics celebrating an unholy alliance between food and sex, and throw some fried chicken around. That’s the way Southern Culture on the Skids (or SCOTS, for short) does it. The Chapel Hill quartet is renowned for…
