You gotta give it up to the Earth. I mean, stuff like mountains, sunsets, dolphins, and shooting stars are totally cool, not to mention cheeseburgers and sex in tall grass. For all you do, Earth, the least we can do is give you a day, and maybe do a little…
The archetypal rock ‘n’ roll story always begins with a bang: It’s nearing 6 o’clock on a golden Sunday afternoon, and the hush of wind through the fan palms and the occasional restless bird are the only sounds outside Elegbaland Studios. Hidden within a ramshackle mother-in-law behind a green-and-yellow bungalow…
The mostly acoustic brainchild of U.K. producer Ben Lamdin, Nostalgia 77 frames vibrant, late-’60s soul jazz and sinister, mid-’70s fusion in the context of modern funk and hip-hop. If the concept seems academic, that’s because it is — but only a meticulous po-mo auteur could fashion such a compelling, ferociously…
One thing about Aretha Franklin: She knows how to keep a man. Since the early ’60s, Franklin has told the ladies a thing or two about how to stay on top of things, so to speak (barring that fluke anthem she did with Annie Lennox in 1985, “Sisters Are Doin’…
My, my, my. South Florida, give it up to the Fluent. Here’s a young band actually — thankfully — doing something different and doing it damn well. I imagine that the four Fort Lauderdale teenagers’ thinking process behind Apartments, their debut EP, went like this: Dude, dance punk is too,…
With his sophomore release, Santa Cruz MC Proe proves conclusively that all music is hip-hop if you just spin it right. Fresh and untainted at 20 years old, Proe fits squarely into the hip-hop generation, which was born into a world where everything from hard rock to doo-wop can bounce,…
Congratulations, De La Soul — you’re the proud parents of a pair of bouncing baby bands! Surprising, since you’re from Long Island and both of your offspring hail from Atlanta. But hey, the four-man Minamina Goodsong follows in your footsteps, adding infectiously funky beats to soulful smarts and hot-potato lyrical…
Let’s talk about one-man bands. I don’t mean solo performers with a guitar and an imperative to annoy but dudes who by themselves play all the parts of a multimember band. You know the (stereo)type: an aging, wild-haired, fashion casualty who writes songs about his dog, his car, his ex-wife,…
File under the “so random we had to publicize it” file — and wait for the whole enchilada, because this party sports some funky sauce. This weekend, hip-hop supa-produca and Miami resident Timbaland is holding the Beach Ball Festival, a competition among 12 South Beach hot spots in a sort…
No need to give you the details on Huey Lewis’ semi-illustrious pseudocareer. You know all the highlights, which center mainly around 1983’s Sports, ’86’s Fore!, and the slew of damnably hummable, soundtrack-ready, radio-dominating hits they spawned. Since that time, Lewis has made a comfy living as a county fair and…
As any driving school instructor will tell you, you can’t teach people who don’t want to learn. Miraculously, Hollywood-based folkie Matthew Sabatella has packaged a history lesson in the guise of a strikingly good album (Ballad of America Volume I: Over a Wide and Fruitful Land, released last month) and…
I’m still trying to figure out what Pompano Beach middle-of-the-road-rock outfit I Digress is referring to with its name. There really isn’t much of a digression from anything on Justice, the group’s straight-ahead, self-released debut. Standard midtempo power balladry dominates the disc, both of the axe-grinding, fist-pumping variety and also…
“Most of my musical and artistic heroes were connected to dope,” former Stone Temple Pilots’ front man, Scott Weiland, says in the April issue of Esquire. “Everyone from William Burroughs to Keith Richards and Gram Parsons to Bird, all the jazz greats — if you listen to the fluidity of…
As one of the oldest musical styles in the world, the classical Indian raga resonates deeply to Eastern ears but often feels distant to Westerners. Even as the Beatles and countercultural America welcomed the beloved Ravi Shankar and his sitar-and-tabla combos into the pop lexicon of the 1960s, the sitar…
We begin with the greatest lyrics ever written: Somber songs of the plaid bartenders Western Unions of the country Westerns Silver Foxes lookin’ for romance With the chain-smoke Kansas flashdance ice pants Beck “rapped” these words in 1996, the artistic apex of “Hotwax,” the artistic apex of Odelay, the artistic…
Of all the human traits rock ‘n’ roll expresses — joy, angst, rebellion, lust — perhaps the most difficult to convey is soul. Rock ‘n’ roll is all about youth, while soul is eager but wise, earnest but earthy. To pull off a legitimate union of the two requires young,…
This week’s episode finds the magical Flask, borne by its intrepid guardian, Johnny Z, stalking the crowded streets of carnivalesque Austin, Texas. Filled with that potent elixir called Jameson, the vessel has been drawn here by the legendary gathering South by Southwest. Annually for the past 18 years, over one…
Back in 1997, the world was thirsty for Thievery Corporation. European acts like Kruder and Dorfmeister and Fila Brazillia were ranking high on the IHI (International Hipster Index), and as Rob Garza and Eric Hilton rose from the D.C. underground with their late-night brand of smoky, dub-inflected beatscapes, downtempo coalesced…
You’ve been rocked by Queen at Pro Player Stadium; C&C Music Factory makes you sweat till you bleed at American Airlines Arena. But I’ll bet a gold-plated belt buckle you’ve never listened to Nelly get hot in herre while a one-ton Black Angus did the Rockaway on a hapless cowboy…
Well, this is interesting. From out of nowhere arrives In Motion, the second album from Lakeland, Florida’s, Copeland. Somehow, unlike so many Central Florida acts, this upstart four-piece actually cobbles together influences that range beyond last year’s MTV pap. Over the course of In Motion’s ten tracks, Copeland moves from…
Lest you forget, Bennigan’s is ostensibly an Irish pub, so it’s fitting that the schlocky chain restaurant should don its tam and go for gold on the most Irish of holidays. Actually, it’s more the dedicated drinkers of the group Kocosante who are responsible for putting together one of Broward’s…
Cowabunga, dude: Spring Break has returned to Broward County — Sunrise, to be specific. Thankfully, the latest incarnation is a wee bit more cultured than the decades-ago golden age, replacing the cheap beer, wet T-shirts, and mindless party music with microbrews, hula-hoops, and heady party music. This past weekend’s Langerado…
