Musical dexterity is well and good. But better yet, try writing melodies with hooks your listeners can hold on to. Take the Samples, for example. Having attained credibility with the college crowd by prefiguring the jam-band template in the mid-’80s, this Colorado combo has largely eschewed the rambling, numbing style…
Local poet and idiot savant Renda Writer is well-known for his dedication to “the scene.” He throws open-mic nights, poetry slams, and artist showcases all over Broward and Palm Beach counties in an effort to keep “the scene” alive, however you interpret that. For the most part, it’s simply his…
Evanescence October 23, 2007 BankUnited Center Better Than: Entering a bat cave with an angel by your side. It seems only natural that Amy Lee is perfectly at home in arenas. After all, her voice is the size of the sky. Even at a coo, it rises from the horizon;…
Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Cat Power October 22, 2007 Studio A Better Than: Finding out Syd Barrett still sings in honky tonks. The Review: The last time I caught Cat Power at Studio A, it was just her, her pain, her anger and her keyboard – and a crowd of…
Ky-Mani Marley has a new reality TV showing airing this week on BET J that should be worth watching. The Jamaican-born, Miami-bred artist always stays busy–either writing new music, working on films, or hustling in a variety of positive ways. He’s currently on tour doing 50 dates with Van Halen…
Poco/Firefall October 20, 2007 Gulfstream Park Before Uncle Tupelo, before Son Volt, before Steve Earle, before the other champions of roots rock and insurgent Americana, there were bands like Buffalo Springfield, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Poco, groups that helped etch a well defined link between rock ‘n’ roll and…
James Blood Ulmer October 20, 2007 The Colony Theatre, Miami Beach Better Than: A back alley brawl between jazz and blues. The Review: Back when I first moved in New York, one of the greatest musical pleasures I had was catching James Blood Ulmer get all “avant-gutbucket” at a dingy…
Hot Hot Heat October 19, 2007 Culture Room Better Than: A B12 shot of mid-‘80s nostalgia. The Review: I hate beginning with a negative (there’s too much bad in the world already), but I will say this: if I never had to stand through another song by Bedouin Soundclash, my…
Hot Hot Heat October 19, 2007 Culture Room It’s exactly 8 p.m. when I pull up to the parking lot of Culture Room. The night air is surprisingly cool and comforting as I freak out about not being able to find parking. A few maze-like trips through the lot yield…
The Skatalites: Many Rivers to Cross. More Jamaican Artists that you can shake a stick at. Bergeron Rodeo Grounds October 20, 2007 Better Than: Watching the Miami Dolphins lose to the New England Patriots in the ‘Manhandle South of the Panhandle.’ Jamaica as a nation has an incredibly rich musical…
“I had a dream I could buy my way to heaven. When I awoke I spent that on a necklace.” Oh Kanye, thou utter no truer words than thee. When it comes to financial planning and money management, the last image that would pop into most people’s minds would be…
Kid Rock The Fillmore Theater Miami Beach October 18, 2007 Better than: A Miracle Whip and Wonder Bread sandwich Love him or hate him, Kid Rock makes an impression. From the moment the house lights went down at Miami’s Fillmore Theater Thursday night, the air in the room was electrified…
Miami may be in the south but it’s about as far from the Blues as you can get. Thankfully, you can break out the bourbon and revisit the hard times this Saturday when James Blood Ulmer, a high-powered, sharp-picking blues guitarist, blows into town. The Village Voice has called Ulmer…
Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Al Jarreau and George Benson Hard Rock Live October 17, 2007 View the concert slidehow. A good friend of mine recently said to me, “I know you like photographing old people.” Well, in response to that, I have to say that when I have the chance…
In this month’s Penthouse magazine, 36-year-old Bob Ritchie, better-known as Kid Rock, is asked about the title of his latest album, Rock and Roll Jesus. His answer? “I believe in Jesus; I think it’s great to promote his name.” It’s the kind of working-class, well-what-did-you-expect answer that’s endeared the rocker/erstwhile…
This San Diego-based outfit is surely tired of the constant comparisons they’ve garnered to Ozomatli. But the similarities are hard to ignore; after all, both groups have brown people in their ranks … brown people who speak Spanish. And both groups put forward a power-to-the-people message via intoxicatingly effective live…
Soul music is always a bit more enjoyable when Patti LaBelle is singing it. For more than 40 years she’s been contributing hits to America’s musical lexicon — first as a member of the Ordettes, then Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells, then as the lead singer of LaBelle, and finally…
Twenty years ago, Exposé was one of the biggest girl groups ever to hit the dance and pop charts. The group had a long list of Top 40 hits like “Point of No Return,” “Let Me Be the One,” and “Seasons Change,” to name a few, and it was without…
If there’s one thing Asheville, North Carolina, is good at exporting, it’s sure-fire music talent — especially of the Afro-hippie variety. That town’s got more dub, Afrobeat, and West African percussion acts fronted by Anglos than you can imagine. Interestingly, most of them are pretty good, but one Asheville group…
If you stumble onto your favorite familiar, well-trodden path of earth tonight, you won’t find your weekly drum circle bros. Nay, hand-percussion instruments and less portable toking tools will also be abandoned for the next 48 hours in honor of the two-day stint by jam-band-powerhouse Medeski, Martin & Wood. The…
Guster October 14, 2007 The Culture Room Better Than: And egghead keg party 10 years after graduating college. Thank Zeus for huge favors: Last night Guster did not open for Barenaked Ladies or Toad the Wet Sprocket or Modest Mouse (as they have in the past), nor did they play…
Octopus Project, Humbert, Zombies! Organize!!, Electric Pizza Party City Limits October 9 We rolled up to City Limits just as Humbert, the second band of the night (Emergency Pizza Party had the early slot), was about to play. The lights dropped as the boys were settling in near their instruments…
