Six years after forming and three years after exploding onto the scene, Rose Hill Drive has finally issued its debut full-length. Similar to the way Ford has retrofitted the new Mustangs to recall the classic look of the fastback coupes, Rose Hill Drive is a riff-driven throwback to the heyday…
Surrounded by mountains of amps stacked and cranked to unhealthy heights, Jucifer can shatter half of generic modern metal’s fibulas with feedback alone. The co-ed Atlanta duo literally rattles plaster loose. Drummer Edgar Livengood pounds the skins so hard, he’s broken bones of his own midset. The smash/riff/bash stoner rockers’…
Without a doubt, Battle Axis is one of South Florida’s hardest-working (and most underpaid) rock bands. It usually plays live twice a week and can be found in almost any rock-friendly venue with a stage — most recently at the South Florida Tattoo Expo, where it played an hourlong set…
Labor Day’s always a good time to catch up on some much-needed R&R after a long, work-free (and party-heavy) weekend. And after this Friday’s Fluff Ball at Karma Lounge, you’ll need at least a day’s rest to get back in gear. Under the direction of local promotions gang Full On…
There are some genres that should never have mixed. Take rap and metal. Please. How did that ever get so popular? Just think: If the equation had been slightly altered at its onset — say, with smooth, acoustic rhythms and soulful singing instead of half-assed metal riffs and tuneless barking…
Ah… the sugary bliss of Little Anthony and the Imperials’ six decades-long career. From the fame-making super-smash-hit “Tears on My Pillow” to the woman-done-me-wrong angst of “Hurt So Bad” to the ass-shaking “Shimmy, Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop,” Little Anthony and the Imperials have certainly cemented their role in American music. With…
Hahahelp! fits into a long Miami tradition of experimental noise-trash music, in the line of Harry Pussy, Laundry Room Squelchers, Monotract, the Curious Hair, and others. The band exists as a collection of odds-and-sods drums, cheap synthesizers, out-of-tune guitar and bass, and improvised vocals. The group began as a free-form…
A few months ago, I had my first conversation with Jared Cole, a local DJ, promoter, producer, singer/songwriter, and, um… stoner. Anyone who’s met Cole knows that this guy likes to toke. And toke. Cole’s promotions venture is called Toker Productions, and his “Top 24” friends on MySpace (www.myspace.com/jaredcolemusic) include…
Sometimes I just need to hear live music, and I don’t care what it is. Going to shows is a ritual, and when I miss a week of seeing bands play, I get the itch to worsen my tinnitus. I wasn’t in the mood to drop $20 to get bumped…
He’s not internationally known, or so he says. But as the voice behind one of the most popular hip-hop tracks of all time, 1988’s “It Takes Two,” Rob Base is known by more than just his native Harlem. Alongside his trusty sidekick, DJ E-Z Rock, Base broke out with the…
Emo — the all-purpose label given to bands that, well… there really is no conventional way to define the emo sound. It’s attitude, countenance, and clothing style. And the four bands coming to Ray’s Downtown this Sunday — Kansas’ Koufax, New Jersey’s ActionReaction and the Finals, and Illinois’ the Forecast…
Forty years after guitar rock got really loud (and 20 years after mullets freely roamed the landscape), Cleveland is still a classic-rock town — and the James Gang might be Northeast Ohio’s greatest contribution to the music that defines it. School chums Jim Fox and Ronnie Silverman formed the band…
White Whale doesn’t quite qualify as an indie supergroup, but members of the combo have some noteworthy credentials: Guitarist/vocalist Matt Suggs previously performed with Butterglory, while bassist Rob Pope was one of the Get Up Kids. Their know-how informs WWI, an uncommonly accomplished debut with a minimum of blubber. Even…
In its own unaffected way, Detroit foursome Slumber Party recalls the early, more eclectic daze of late-1970s punk rock and new wave’s first flowering. Whereas most bands in the ’00 era can be summarized in word fragments (emo, grindcore) or nebulous nouns (noise), Slumber Party freely appropriates aspects of assorted…
Strange Fruit Project hails from Texas, but apart from the twangy accents, the group sounds nothing like Houston’s chopped and screwed thugs and grille-pushers. The crew’s remarkably soulful sound begs for comparisons to early Slum Village or perhaps a post-neo-soul Native Tongues. Its rhymes similarly eschew materialist fantasies, preferring instead…
As the nine-minute-plus version of the Jam’s “In the Crowd” that opens disc two of this set winds down, a brief coda of the guitar chords that end the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” emerge. Makes sense; back in the late ’70s, when Weller led the Jam, he was the…
Who heard Mary J. Blige rhyming with Busta and Missy on the “Touch It” remix? Well, certainly more than just “Louis and Gucci.” The first guest to surprisingly grab the mic on the collabo cut, it’s clear that the “Queen of R&B” is not content with collecting royalties and occasionally…
Outbreak 2006 promises to be a two-day spread bridging styles and egos between South Beach and downtown Fort Lauderdale without the requisite infected monkey. No. Instead of panic, the atmosphere will be controlled by rawness: b-boy and b-girl battling, cyphering, DJs, and live-action graffiti by Young N Careless. The Revolution…
Is 2006 the Year of the Wu? If we take inventory of what the remaining Wu-Tang Clan members have been up to, all signs point to yes. In the beginning (of 2006, that is), there was Ghostface Killah’s Fishscale. Then came Inspectah Deck’s Resident Patient, followed shortly by Masta Killa’s…
Hip-hop, you don’t stop… or so they say, right? Actually, that’s exactly the case this week. After two days of poppin’ at Revolution (with Wu-Tang Clan on Friday and the b-boy battle on Saturday), the FTL’s looking more like the ATL. And on Wednesday — well after Wu-Tang’s gone back…
The Phenomenauts could be the most inspired shtick-rock band to hit the scene since the day someone brought a Mexican wrestling mask to a Los Straitjackets practice. The Phenomenauts’ shtick is simple yet effective. Bearing costumes, props, and helmets, they invade the stage as psychobilly spacemen out to make the…
The Devil made me do it. Or maybe it was the music. Whatever the case, that sure as hell wasn’t Fats Pompano running around Ozzfest with a “borrowed” all-access pass, going places he shouldn’t have gone and witnessing things he shouldn’t have seen. It was my body, maybe, but someone…
