Blondie, led by the unforgettably platinum blonde Debbie Harry, was one of the great mainstream successes of the ’70s downtown New York scene. The magic was a sound that artfully blended any number of genres — punk, reggae, even rap — but blended it all together with unabashed pop hooks and…
Since the news of Monterey Club’s closing flooded the local scene, rumors about the future of the venue’s empty space were running rampant. Will they open elsewhere? Would someone new come in? Is a sushi restaurant really going to take that spot? However, within a month of the closing news,…
Just about everyone in 1987 owned the Appetite for Destruction cassette. It is, was, and always will be a rock ‘n’ roll classic. Radio stations and sports bars all around the country still play “Welcome to the Jungle” on a regular basis. On top of that, people still dance to…
Bret Michaels Hard Rock Live, Hollywood Saturday, February 18 Sometimes life doesn’t want you to get to a Bret Michaels show on time. Sometimes it swoops in and places you amid dozens of other cars that are barely moving for hours. And even though during those moments, you think, “Sorry, Bret. Not gonna…
In the vast galaxy that is “Latin music” — a term that means almost nothing, really, as it includes all kinds of genres and language combinations — regional Mexican music is a solar system unto itself. Of the many styles further grouped into this umbrella, one of the biggest is…
Yonder Mountain String BandRevolution LiveFebruary 17, 2012The welcomed departure from both set and setting is essential to the success of a bluegrass throwdown. Airing out the distractions that come with playing a relatively packed crowd, in a semi-swanky metropolitan downtown, are just the first hurdle. Outside of Revolution, Fort Lauderdale’s weekend…
With the sun setting on a certain strain of commercial, latter-day pop-punk, many of that scene’s latecomers and also-rans are understandably growing up, growing out their swoopy bangs, and jumping ship. Exhibit A out of Florida in current pop culture would be Juliet Simms, formerly the singer of Automatic Loveletter,…
Remember when you first heard The Bends? You were likely introduced to Radiohead with “Creep,” and it’s possible you judged it with some disdain. Maybe not at first. At first, it defined the alienation of our times. But definitely after you heard it played as someone’s wedding song. Point is, when…
Authority Zerow/ Voodoo Glowskulls, Skyfox and The Hard RichardsFebruary 18, 2012 Respectable Street From the first line of “A Passage In Time,” a simple melodic suggestion of “here we go” gave frontman Jason DeVore command of the kinetic energy at the packed Respectable Street on Saturday night. Instrumentals from the…
Music and digital nerds are all inappropriately excited after hearing about MoMA’s planned “Kraftwerk-Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8″ announced just this week. The plan is, these godfathers of electronic music will be playing their eight studio releases in order live for whomever was lucky enough to snag a…
A heads up for folks seeking a late-summer musical vacation: Dates have been announced for the annual DeLuna Fest in Pensacola. From September 21-23, an eclectic bunch of acts will play on stages situated on the pristine, white sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast city to barefooted music lovers with hotel…
Call it futurepop, EBM, darkwave, whatever you want — but alternative electronic icons VNV Nation have long struck a chord in Florida, where a predilection for synth-pop is long-standing. The group’s frontman and leader, Ronan Harris, is based in Germany, while his musical partner, Mark Jackson, usually resides in France…
Music vet and New Times scribe Lee Zimmerman shares observations, insights, and updates relating to South Florida’s musical environs. This week: Life with Livesay! Billy Livesay’s been around. Musically, that is. Growing up in Miami and Hialeah, raised by a single mother, and switching schools frequently, he didn’t have the…
Zamora the Torture King feels no pain — sort of. He is part of Hellzapoppin, a clan of sideshow performers who will be hitting up Speakeasy Lounge in Lake Worth on Thursday, February 23, and Alligator Alley in Hollywood on Friday, February 24. Beside him will be Frank Simon, a man with…
Last week, while sitting at a local watering hole talking shop about the area’s music scene (it’s what we mostly do around here), the subject of blazing, distortion-fueled Fort Lauderdale rockers Fevers came up. “What the hell ever happened to those dudes?” Back in May of last year, they enamored…
“I’m a self-proclaimed drealist. I may have invented this word, I’m not sure,” says Bret Michaels, “But I’m a dreamer and a realist. I’m the kind of guy that I dream stuff up big and then I try to go for it.” Though many artists do too much dreaming and…
In the nightlife scene, weekly parties pop up quicker than you can learn their names. But every now and then, a party will establish itself and stand the test of time. It’s happened with such local parties as Flaunt (Respectable Street) and Shake (Vagabond). And with a year under its…
For years, Oski Gonzalez — alternately known as DJ Oski or just Oski — has been hosting all-local multiband festivals in Miami, usually at Tobacco Road. Now, with his partner in Qool Productions, a promoter friend who prefers to go by “Queen of the Scene,” he’s expanding. Recent months have…
There’s no telling us otherwise — the Beach Boys kicked some Grammy ass last weekend. With Brian Wilson back, they sang a pretty undeniably solid “Good Vibrations.” The band is together again, and not just for the Night of Giving Awards to Adele but for a 50th anniversary tour. The…
Singer/songwriter Paleface is often credited as one of the founders of the so-called “freak-folk” movement, a pioneer who influenced later fellow New York artists like Kimya Dawson and company. In fact, he even counted Beck as an early roommate and like-minded musician — and like his buddy, he enjoyed a…
As an alumnus of the late-’90s, early Warped Tour-type scene, Authority Zero is one of the few acts of its ilk not only surviving but thriving on the underground circuit. The group has long specialized in fast, no-frills skate punk blended with reggae and a little ska. It’s nowhere near…
How can one man inspire so many different emotions over the years? In the ’80s heyday of Bret Michaels’ band Poison, he was the ultimate hair-band object of devotion, the kind of guy who would seemingly drink all your whiskey and leave but at least write a song about it…
