As if the name ¨Boca Raton¨ (variously translated as ¨Mouse´s Mouth¨ and ¨Thieves’ Cove¨) isn´t awkward enough, just imagine being a hip-hop group named after a street in this upper-crust South Florida city and trying to eke out some street cred. That´s hard on its own, but when the actual…
Japanese rock band Dir En Grey is huge in its home country, and it´s starting to make waves here in the States yes, they´re the same psyched out rockers who kicked ass at Revolution this past February. The group is the hippest hard-metal band to hit the Western world in…
There aren´t many composers who take the time to encode their music with overtones that activate your cosmic inner being, even among the assortment of ambient opuses found at Whole Foods next to the crystals and the yoga mats. But Eric Dez and Ankhuphara, two Miami-based multi-instrumentalists and vibrational healers,…
Tough and tenacious, Jesse Malin adopts the guise of street punk turned rebellious rocker and unapologetic outcast with a raised fist and an elevated middle finger. Malin´s third album, Glitter in the Gutter, is as contradictory as its title implies a petulant set of songs that celebrate possibility even as…
Folky New York rocker Swati was a classically trained trombonist before she picked up the guitar and started writing songs in her late teens. Her first demo was produced by Steve Lillywhite (U2, Peter Gabriel), and although it caused a buzz in New York´s competitive music scene, it took her…
During the ’70s, a slew of Cuban songwriters and musicians who had their ears tuned to illegal radio from the States started blending Afro-Cuban music with the sounds of American soul and funk. In this collection, compiled by music historian Dan Zacks, who found some of the source tapes in…
Surprise! There is other dance music in Miami besides big-room 7:00 a.m. house. Regulars at small underground spots like Laundry Bar and Blue know this already. Here, a couple mixes from two of Miami’s techno warriors, devoted to that sound birthed in Detroit warehouses and huge everywhere else in the…
Akon already caused an international media stir recently when he told MTV UK he didn’t believe in blood diamonds. (He was defending his own purchase of a mine in South Africa). Then, there was the onstage debacle involving a teenage girl in Trinidad that caused him to lose his Verizon…
So I came across this video while cruising the internet and couldn’t believe how much electronic music has grown since these days. Picture Herbie Hancock teaching Quincy Jones how to make techno beats. Yeah, that’s what I thought, ridiculous right… until I saw this. The year was 1983 and all…
It’s official: The Rock the Bells tour is coming! What started as a couple of shows in NYC and California featuring possibly the best quality hip-hop lineup ever has been expanded into a national tour. Prepare yourself: It hits Miami’s Bayfront Park on August 4. Tickets go on sale June…
Is it just me or is T-Pain dominating the airwaves these days? Everytime I turn on the radio, I keep hearing a T-Pain song, or some remix with brand new T-Pain vocals on the hook. Dude is everywhere. Flirting at the club with R. Kelly on “I’m a Flirt,” buying…
Recently, acts such as My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy have brought the world of eyeliner, girls’ jeans, and angsty lyrics to the mainstream. The success of these bands has prompted the most perplexing, and annoying, question: What is emo? Everybody wants to know. It is the most frequently…
If you missed last month’s KRS-One show at Studio A, you missed out. (When and where else would you get to catch Fat Joe as a hype man?). Still, even though the teacher born Kris Parker seems to make it down here at least once a year, this time local…
Tool performs at 8 p.m. Friday, June 1, at the BankAtlantic Center (1 Panther Pkwy., Sunrise). Tickets cost $52.75. Call 954-523-3309, or visit www.ticketmaster.com.
Bunji Garlin performs at the Unifest 2K7 at Vincent Torrest Park, 4331 NW 36th St., Lauderdale Lakes. The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tickets cost $5 before 6 p.m. and $10 after. Tony Rebel, Ken Booth, Everton Blender, Slice International, Omar Reid, and the Nubian Players Band are also on the bill. Call 954-730-8885.
One-third of everybody’s favorite avant-groovemëisters Medeski, Martin & Wood is on holiday, but John Medeski and Billy Martin are still hard at work. They’ve been together for nearly 20 years, and. for their debut duo session, Martin is at the drum kit while Medeski sticks to the Hammond B-3 organ…
The roster of artists assembled here — Caetano Veloso, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Prince, etc. — would make even the most casual Joni Mitchell fan tingle with curiosity. But the sense of “what would that song sound like done by this person?” dissolves as song after song stalls under the…
Mustangs and Madras continues to play a passionate brand of emo that’s woefully (and refreshingly) out of step with the times. From first listen, the act’s latest release recalls a bygone era when scenester kids took style cues from the geek chic of Rivers Cuomo rather than the guyliner of…
From the time you press play, it’s obvious where hip-hop artist Ziggy tha Don and mixtape host Wildman Teddy-T are taking you on this musical journey. You’re transported into a supersecretive sitdown with the “head of the family,” and Teddy-T is playing Marlon Brando himself. They’re playing on the fact…
DJ Jazzy Jeff was going on award tours and making prime-time television cameos long before hip-hop music was connected to the mainstream. Although many rap artists from the ’80s have either graduated to celebrity status or become the subject of barbershop discussions, Jazzy Jeff, born as Jeff Townes, has managed…
Last Saturday, while the Urban Beach Week throngs crowded Miami Beach, two of the scene’s biggest rising stars were hanging on a public esplanade, just a few miles north in Hollywood. Reggaeton artist Zion and multiplatinum R&B singer Akon had come together near Harrison Street, smack in the middle of…
Ten years gone It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since beautiful troubadour Jeff Buckley went for a final midnight swim in the mighty Mississippi. Ten years since Grace, ten years since that last, haunting “Hallelujah.” But like so many other stars with silver screen looks who have…
