Concert Review: The Psychedelic Furs at Culture Room, May 26

The Psychedelic FursWith Nothing Rhymes With OrangeThe Culture Room, Fort LauderdaleWednesday, May 26, 2010At the Culture Room Wednesday evening, the Psychedelic Furs opened their 16-song set with their first major hit “Love My Way.” With the current lineup consisting of original members Richard Butler (vocalist) and Tim Butler (bassist), longtime…

Imogen Heap Showcases Vocal Artistry at Fillmore Miami

It’s a bit too easy to write off Britain’s Imogen Heap. Catch her latest single, “First Train Home,” on the radio and you might assume she’s just another in a long line of wispy, throaty singers with a secret yearning for some far-off place, dulcet words echoing over top-of-the-line electronic…

Revolution Welcomes Hip-Hop Legend Afrika Bambaataa

At 53 years old, Afrika Bambaataa has truly earned the title “Grandfather/Godfather of Hip-Hop.” With a body of work spanning nearly four decades, this former Bronx street-gang warlord and founder of the Zulu Nation is one of three recognized originators of break-beat DJing and among the first performers to take…

DJ Icey Leads a Night of Funky Breaks at Respectable Street

South Florida may be home to booty bass, but it was Orlando that set off the craze known among rave enthusiasts as funky breaks. An offshoot of another electronica subgenre known as break beats, funky breaks developed in the ’90s and incorporates Miami bass, standard break-beat counts — like a…

Kill Miss Pretty Plays Florida? Yeah! at Poor House

In the latest edition of Florida? Yeah!, curated by Fort Lauderdale arts collective the Bubble, Boynton Beach dark-wavers Kill Miss Pretty headline a varied local bill. Fresh off an appearance at Exxxotica in Miami in mid-May, the vivacious Alicia Olink and band are working a new single, “Judy Garland,” a…

K-os Brings Melodic Rhymes to Revolution

Long before Drake made Canada a viable hip-hop nation, there was another young rapper waving his maple leaf with pride. He went by the name of k-os (all in lowercase; stands for “Knowledge of Self”) and had a little song called “Superstar Pt. Zero” that eventually worked its infectious beats…

Murs Tops Culture Room’s Hip-Hop Bill

Knotty hip-hop wordsmith Murs just can’t stop. With more than 20 albums to his credit since the mid-’90s, he has just dropped Fornever, a collaborative album with producer 9th Wonder. The album marries two creative types obsessed with pushing the boundaries of hip-hop, including a fresh revisit to Common’s classic…

Concert Review: Bamboozle Roadshow at Cruzan Amphitheatre, May 25

Bamboozle RoadshowWith All Time Low, Boys Like Girls, Good Charlotte, Forever the Sickest Kids, the Ready Set, Cartel, Cady Groves, Hanson, Stereo Skyline, Great Big Planes, the Downtown Fiction, Mercy Mercedes Cruzan Amphitheater, West Palm BeachTuesday, May 25, 2010Check out a slideshow from the concert here.The Bamboozle Road Show stop…

Tonight! Psychedelic Furs at Culture Room

Director John Hughes both championed and obscured the Psychedelic Furs, and it’s a wonderful shame. On the soundtrack to Pretty in Pink, Hughes caught the Furs when they were at their absolute best and, in the ears of most music listeners, cemented them there for all time. With the title…

Concert Review: Daryl Hance at the Funky Buddha, May 21

Daryl HanceWith Yankee Slickers and SososThe Funky Buddha Lounge, Boca RatonFriday, May 21, 2010Beers were flowing at the Funky Buddha on Friday, and three bands scheduled that night gave us everything they had, if only for a short while. Daryl Hance of Mofro fame was down from Jacksonville on his…

UPDATED: A Hunter’s Pace at Respectable Street on Saturday

Babe-fronted, Delray-based A Hunter’s Pace has churned out aggressive indie rock energy for less than a year, and already the band is garnering attention for both an earnest vitality and vocalist Sheila Hafsadi’s adorable stage presence. You’d be lucky to catch them at Respectable Street this Saturday. It’s a bummer…

Best of the Best 2010 Spotlight: Serani

The 27-year-old Serani’s 2008 single, “No Games,” with its sped-up, hiccuping beat and indelible chorus, was everywhere that year. A debut album of the same name followed in 2009, but since then, he’s been working to prove he’s no one-hit wonder. Newer songs like “When It’s Cold,” “Naked,” and “Romance”…

Concert Review: Zane Lamprey at Culture Room on May 19

Drinking Made Easy Tour With Zane Lamprey, Steve McKenna, and Marc Ryan The Culture Room, Fort Lauderdale May 19, 2010Better Than: Drinking alone at your house while watching Three Sheets.The Review:Upon driving by the shopping center that houses the Culture Room, onlookers might’ve been wondering if they were actually in…

Tonight! Astronautalis Opens for the Supervillians at Respectable Street

Its refreshing to find an experimental white rapper with a verifiably authentic background in hip-hop. Former Jacksonville resident (now Seattle transplant), Astronautalis is one of the few genre-striding MCs who can claim as much lineage to ’90s golden-era rap like Nas or Lord Finesse as any appropriately reference-able indie group.Although…

Best of the Best 2010 Spotlight: Lady Saw

Since the mid-’80s, Lady Saw has represented for the females in the highly male-driven world of dancehall. And throughout her career, she’s racked up a lot of firsts. She was the first female dancehall artist to headline major genre events outside of Jamaica, the first to win a Grammy, and…

Best of the Best 2010 Spotlight: Barrington Levy

Barrington Levy has had two musical lives, it seems, in the past few decades. There was his first one, as a wildly popular singer of reggae and a splash of early dancehall, a career which began in the ’70s and netted him hits like “Collie Weed” and “Under Mi Sensi.”…