ZZ TopHard Rock Live, HollywoodFriday, June 8, 2011Better Than: Insert beard reference here. Certain artists get relegated to the dusty and chilly (maybe you should bring a windbreaker, like your audience did) world of the nostalgia category. However lucky these artists are — considering the disposable nature of music in the last…
The one-man powerhouse born Jeff Baker but known in musical circles as King Django is one of the most influential Americans in ska, full stop. In the ’80s and ’90s, he — along with a handful of other figures like the Toasters’ Rob “Bucket” Hingley — was responsible for bringing…
There will be beer! There will be barbecue! There will be Southern-fried rock!New Times has teamed up with Seminole Paradise Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood to present the inaugural Rock N’ Roll Beer-B-Que on July 3.The first band confirmed for the all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink event is Virginia roots rockers…
Those among us with a penchant for high seas partying and hard-hitting bleeps and thuds had to be invigorated by the Holy Ship! initial lineup offering last week. On January 6, 2012, Port Everglades will be overflowing with 2,500 cruisers eager to experience a weekend getaway to a private island…
Over the weekend, a colleague posted less than a shining endorsement of the recently announced 311 Pow Wow Festival slated for August 4-6 in the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park. And readers had reactions that ranged from sadness to contempt to an occasional hateful outburst that somewhat played into her…
Even if the cause for a memorial concert is a sad one, the large crowd of participants toasted the late drummer and promoter Jimmy Pagano at America’s Backyard Sunday with smiles. In the brilliant, sunny afternoon, a collection of area musicians, bar regulars, friends, and family mingled, took photographs, and…
Last night, we crashed a 90-year-old’s birthday party. This sounds like something a very crazy person or a very hungry person might do. Not saying we’re not a little bit of both, but this was a celebration for which it was worth being the creepy stranger at a family party. It…
Update: Read Christopher Lopez’s rebuttal, “311’s Pow Wow Festival is What the Spirit of Suwannee is All About.”Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park is the hippie hideaway of Florida. From up and down the coast, live music enthusiasts gather to frolic in the woods and hula hoop in the fields…
Taylor Swiftwith NeedToBreatheBankAtlantic Center, SunriseThursday, June 2, 2011Better than: a real relationshipTaylor Swift is like any other dramatic 21-year-old girl. Except she has the ability and the means to turn her imagination into a reality. That’s exactly what happened during her June 2 show at the BankAtlantic Center, the first…
Many South Floridians relate to the Langerado Music Festival like it’s our little nephew. We have had lots of fun playing with it, and we adore it, but ultimately we are not its parents and don’t get to make the big decisions in its life. When the fest was born…
Michael Gira said he had no musical skills when he started Swans in 1982. The frontman — who yearns to “annihilate” through piercing sound — has definitely acquired some since then. Swans know how to put on a wedding for the dead, which should be quite exciting when they roll…
One of the funny things that I find about jazz is that whenever I engage in a conversation about it, 90 percent of the time the talk gravitates toward the men of jazz. Granted, there have been some heavy hitters in the world of jazz, but I feel uneasy walking…
At this point in her extreme cultural domination, it seems pointless to bother uttering the word country in the same sentence as Taylor Swift. Though the 21-year-old singer/songwriter makes a few nods onstage to the genre that gave her fame, it was clear from the beginning that her sights reach…
Psy-trance may have once occupied the realm of fringe raver hippies who had run away to India. But the increasing mainstream crossover of Israeli quintet Infected Mushroom has done much to legitimize the genre. Much of that is probably because it’s one of the first acts from the scene to…
For a group that was famously manufactured, the Monkees have outlived vast swaths of their supposedly more “serious” musical counterparts of the late ’60s. Perhaps that’s because the foursome was always more musically gifted than its initial TV-show origins might have let on. After all, though the group’s effervescent, lightly…
Raekwon With Eve, Miami Friday, May 27, 2011 Memorial Day weekend was officially unde rway as Raekwon the Chef rolled into town for the lone South Florida installment of his “Shaolin vs. Wu Tang Tour.” As one-ninth of the infamous Wu Tang Clan, Raekwon has been honing his craft for…
Pharell is like the random ghost of Christmas future of Miami’s music scene. Every once in a while, he’ll pop up at a club — presumably between bouts of buying designer toys and street art — then catch a random local act, murmur his seal of approval, and then disappear…
If you haven’t yet heard of Rocketown, you might possibly be over 25 — an Old Person — and therefore the rest of this doesn’t matter. If, however, you are young and cherub-cheeked and missed the memo, it’s the local branch of the famous all-ages (and, let’s just put this…
Bonnie “Prince” Billy Radio-Active Records, Fort LauderdaleMonday, May 30, 2011We are not exaggerating when we say you could literally hear a pin drop when we arrived at Radio-Active Records shortly after 7 p.m. last night. That was just in time to catch a clean-shaven Will Oldham — AKA Bonnie “Prince” Billy…
South Florida roots purveyors Spred the Dub have built up a large local following with their deep-dubbing gooey goodness. Now area “Spredheads” have a regular night on which they can count to hear this local quintet spread the irie vibes: “Reggae Mondays” at Reef Road Restaurant and Rum Bar. We couldn’t think…
How do spell fun? T-h-e T-h-e-r-m-a-l-s! OK, OK, that’s the Thermals, the opening act at Matt & Kim’s Fort Lauderdale show at Culture Room next Sunday, June 5. The Portland trio specializes in no-frills, unadorned fuzzy rock ‘n’ roll. Most of the time, it’s propelled by punk’s fast tempos and…
For a group that was famously manufactured, the Monkees have outlived vast swaths of their supposedly more “serious” musical counterparts of the late ’60s. Perhaps that’s because the foursome was always more musically gifted than its initial TV-show origins might have let on.After all, though the group’s effervescent, lightly British-inflected…
