A few years ago, Shyne was set to take the place of the late, great Biggie Smalls at the top of the Bad Boy roster. His self-titled debut generated two popular singles and briefly added the phrase “that’s gangsta” to the short list of rap clichés. Then an altercation led…
Luddites, fear not — Mouse on Mars has not come to alienate you. On this, their eighth full-length, the Mice instead demonstrate a keen interest in nesting within more traditional song structures. And while no one’s going to mistake Mouse on Mars for, say, Harry Nilsson anytime soon, Radical Connector…
Pompano Beach¹s Further Seems Forever began its career in 2000 with heartthrob extraordinaire Chris Carrabba on the mic. He left to form Dashboard Confessional in 2001, and FSF proceeded to go through several lineup changes and relationship woes, all while watching Carrabba claw his way out of Florida to be…
MTV’s “reality” show Cribs may show you what spoiled rock stars and actors can do with assloads of money (i.e., five SUVs in different colors, fountains, stripper poles, heat-sensitive security systems), but the only episode that came even close to reality — meaning paying bills, mowing the lawn, and unclogging…
Just ask the Dixie Chicks: The revolution will not be countrified. But that hasn’t stopped country-rock rebel Steve Earle from making The Revolution Starts… Now, his most political — and sadly unconvincing — statement to date. Whereas his past work deftly straddled the line between rhetoric and song, Revolution thrashes…
Impresario Madlib has adopted a new alter ego and created a new genre. In the U.K., they call it breakbeat. In the U.S., we use the term broken soul. Although some may view Madlib’s transition into DJ Rels as a radical change, Theme for a Broken Soul isn’t too much…
It’s no sworn secret that the ’90s shoegazer icons called Slowdive left an everlasting imprint on Ulrich Schnauss’ psyche. Taking his cue from the U.K. group’s vast, delayed wall of six-string swirls, textured electronics, and distant vocals, Schnauss has created his own IDM-based parallel universe of the Slowdive algorithm, which…
Teedra Moses. Remember the name. Write it down. Because she will be all over the radio very soon, with her debut CD widely recognized as one of the year’s best, so get it before it’s the hottest thing going and you can brag that you realized it first. Complex Simplicity…
For a guy from South Queens, Prince Po — formerly Prince Poetry of the influential ’90s duo Organized Konfusion — places himself in serious company when he gives shoutouts to Depeche Mode, Smashing Pumpkins, Pharrell Williams, Radiohead, Black Sabbath, Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beatles, and the Clash…
The sidewalk in front of the Poor House (110 SW Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale), a meeting place as old as a Georgia sunset for the local rock ‘n’ roll crowd, has disappeared. On a recent Wednesday, patrons driven outside by the night’s noise show sat in white plastic chairs, their…
Christian-irking until its dying breath, Slayer has been the face of thrash music for more than 20 years. In 1986, the band — pioneers of a breakneck, full-throttle sound that combines demented guitar solos; thunderous, double-bass-drum kicks; and toxic bellowing with surgical precision — released Reign in Blood, a work…
The citywide blowjob known as the MTV Video Music Awards reached its apex on Saturday, August 28, the night before the ceremony. Washington and Collins avenues in Miami Beach were clogged with limousines, Hummers, and their poorer Ford and Chevy cousins. The clubs were packed, people were pushed against the…
Martina Topley-Bird is the female vocalist who was the focal point of Tricky’s groundbreaking first three albums. Back then, the two switched traditional roles, with Topley-Bird playing the male to Tricky’s female side. Five years after the duo’s split, Topley-Bird released the essence of her very feminine being in a…
If a spaceship crash-landed in a bourbon-swilling state like Louisiana or Kentucky, the soundtrack reverberating through the smoky haze of smoldering metal would be Comets on Fire’s Blue Cathedral. With their latest release, these Bay Area hellbenders up the noise-rock ante, punctuating a crisper sound with deafening angst and matured…
Dan “The Automator” Nakamura isn’t infallible, but he’s damn close. From Doctor Octagon to Handsome Boy Modeling School to Gorillaz, the respected beat-maker and producer has parlayed a string of innovative collaborations into almost universal critical praise. His latest project, a partnership with vocalist Daryl Palumbo of the emo-core juggernaut…
The title to Damon Gough’s latest epic should be a crystal-clear indicator of what you will hear over the course of the hour. One Plus One Is One is a 60-minute, 16-track musical journey through tales of infatuation, heartbreak, and loneliness, always bringing Gough back to square one. And while…
It’s a shame that in recent years, the magnitude of techno-heralds Orbital was scuttled by the wayside. Sure, 2001’s The Altogether was lackluster, but who knew the undeservedly harsh reaction might’ve been the catalyst for the Hartnoll brothers’ untimely dissolution? Blue Album is the duo’s swan song after 15 years,…
Check out Bleubird, the Secondhand Outfit, DJ Immortal, the LeftOvaz, All Good, and Anonymous Syntax at 8 p.m. Friday, August 27, at the hip-hop garage sale, Seventh Avenue Recovery Center, 16 NE Fourth St., Fort Lauderdale, 954-779-7041.
Myk Porter and his mates in Brandtson have grown accustomed to going largely unrecognized in their hometown of Cleveland. That’s true despite the many technicolor tattoos that checker Porter’s thin frame. “The only thing that’s ever helped is telling people that Brandtson rhymes with Hanson, because people remember Hanson,” bassist…
Believe Blending country, folk, and pop into a seamless package is not easy, but West Palm Beach duo Friction Farm has it down. Singer/guitarist Aidan Quinn (not the actor) and singer/bassist Christine Stay’s latest album is their first acoustic CD, stripped down from the ’70s rock influence of 2001’s Choose…
[The author plays bass for the Heatseekers.] It’s not every day that a band makes it out of Fort Lauderdale. This is for many reasons other than the obvious: It takes a good ten hours just to drive out of the state. On Friday, July 16, almost two months after…
