While American folk music has a long tradition of consciousness-rousing songs and singers — especially in the ’50s and ’60s — there aren’t many fashionable equivalents; notable exceptions, of course, are Brit Billy Bragg and Ani DiFranco. Add to that list one Ed Hamell, better known as Hamell on Trial…
At this point, it really doesn’t matter what young Conor Oberst does. There will be those who snivel and crab about what a milquetoast indie poseur he is, while others will crush hard and valiantly defend his talent. But regardless of the fickle wave of opinion, at age 24, Mr…
Now that Ice Cube is doing slapstick comedy, we can all agree that the edge of gangsta rap is permanently dulled. The writers of Are We There Yet?, which opened recently in South Florida theaters, originally had in mind Adam Sandler to play the lead role of Nick (a mere…
Though downtown Fort Lauderdale currently thrives on hip-hop and rock, it wasn’t that long ago that throbbing dance beats were a significant presence. The venue was the Edge, and its resident DJ, Mike Sharpe, catered to hard-core revelers by throwing all-night parties in the mid-’90s. These days, the South Florida…
Catch one of their live shows and you’ll probably be struck by Atomic Tangerine’s boundless vitality. The Orlando hardrock four-piece is all wide smiles and stage presence; the music is instantly likable and bereft of pop cliché. Watch them and you get no hint of the dark days not long…
John Lennon disappeared before most people had his post-Beatles persona figured out; compare what you know of him to your ideas about Paul McCartney, who’s given us more than two decades extra to understand him through goofy Christmas songs, bizarro pop-star collaborations, and the occasional crappy solo album. So you’d…
Like British counterparts Sidestepper and Da Lata, Domenico+2 offers further proof that Brazilian music can yield some of the most intriguing forays into electro-trad fusion. The key difference between those groups, though, is that Domenico+2 is actually Brazilian. And that indigenous legacy is important: Guitarist Moreno Veloso is the son…
For proof that a Grammy doesn’t always signify a band’s best work, consider British reggae legends Steel Pulse. The band’s 1986 LP Babylon the Bandit swelled with squishy synths, programmed drums, and bubblegum reggae-pop songs with titles like “School Boy Crush” and “Sugar Daddy.” Largely devoid of sociopolitical commentary, it…
The youngest MTV viewers know Xzibit primarily as the host of Pimp My Ride, in which he comes across as the benign, good-humored benefactor of shitbox autos. Musically, though, his grin turns to grim on a regular basis. Weapons is characteristic of his work: a spare, stern hip-hop foray that…
A friend says everyone needs one Ani record but nobody should bother with two. This discounts the achievement of the first half of DiFranco’s career, when she achieved power and clarity on a half-dozen discs. But following Dilate in 1996, which announced her as human even as she brushed something…
The ominous grooves that Shivaree creates for its tales of treachery, frustrated sexuality, and emotional defeat sound like the disjointed music emanating from a carny sideshow tent after midnight. Eerie hints of tango, girl-group R&B, spaghetti Western guitar, and musical saw all drift through the disjointed soundscapes, weaving a spell…
Calvin Broadus — the former gangbanger you know as Snoop Dogg — makes contagious records, is the star/producer of an award-winning porno he shows no skin in, and is forever at the forefront of funkafied hip-hop pimpdom. Others imitate, but who could possibly rival the D-O-Double-G’s laid-back hustler cool, slow…
What’s the principal difference between the altered-consciousness shoegazer and psychedelic genres? The former utilizes fuzzy distortion mainly on instrumental solos, often with wild abandon; the latter has a resolute, translucent haze of distortion blanketing everything. Were-Floridians-now-Texans Baby Robots derive inspiration from both (“shoegazadelic?”) as evidenced by their 2001 release Lakitu:…
Like his contemporary Carlos Santana, folk singer/acoustic guitarist Richie Havens sometimes says flowery things about heightened consciousness and spirituality that veer toward New Age parody, as if the limits of lovey-dovey idealism and the realities of bad drugs never sank in after Woodstock. But as American history repeats itself in…
It’s ironic that alt-country folkster Steve Earle is performing in a venue called the Carefree Theater. If anyone represents the opposite of carefree, it’s Earle, a turbulent voice of lefty political activism. Earle has been around for three decades and 11 Grammy nominations — including two for his most recent…
Miami’s I/O Lounge was at half capacity January 14, the crowd divided between hard-core hip-hop heads and general-interest partiers ready to recite lyrical ringers like “Yo mama’s got a peg leg with a kickstand.” Former Pharcyde fellow Fatlip was headlining, but by the time he wrapped up his couldn’t-call-it-a-comeback set,…
As one of the first European DJs to put down roots in South Beach in the early ’90s, Ivano Bellini played a critical role in exposing South Florida crowds to new sounds. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, to a musical family, Bellini knew early on that his life would be dedicated…
From the “Big Truck Round-Up” banner and the open-air toilet barely concealed by a chunk of drywall to the graveyard of broken instruments strewn around the stained concrete floor, Two Story Double Wide’s Delray Beach warehouse is more reminiscent of a central Alabama shanty than a rehearsal studio — all…
“Indeed, some of my most pleasurable moments on a tour occur in the struggle to secure a working payphone on a rainy night with only 10 minutes until the bus will finally and irrevocably leave my ass behind somewhere in Missouri. For it is of this stuff — an essence…
It was an era rife with history, one engraved with the underpinnings of dance culture. Through the early ’90s, the U.K. music scene witnessed the dual explosion of Britpop and club music, the latter of which united them both through its carefree, drug-fueled settings. The Renaissance label, which picked up…
James “Baby Huey” Ramey (1944-70) is legendary to soul/R&B collectors. Back in the ’60s, the Rolling Stones would squeeze into packed clubs to see him. Popular locally but unknown beyond Chicago, he and his band the Babysitters seemed poised for national stardom, but Huey — cursed with a serious glandular-induced…
He was never going to be confused with Tupac while alive, but the late, great prankster Ol’ Dirty Bastard is now shadowing him in the lucrative hip-hop afterlife. Like Pac, he’s left a maternal hand on his till of posthumous product, the only question being how much of it exists…
