Wilco may be the essence of eclectic indulgence. Shedding their Americana visage with 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, they successfully redefined themselves as an experimental outfit dealing in atmospheric soundscapes and sonic contradiction. Their daring was rewarded with a pair of Grammy nods for their follow-up, A Ghost Is Born, while…
Although her flamboyant outfits have never been polite, Björk’s past few albums certainly have been. The ice-crystal percussion and melodies on Vespertine were stunning but mannered, like an immaculately decorated parlor, while the nearly a cappella Medulla — an album in which beatboxing and throat-singing replaced traditional instrumentation — felt…
Corey Harris performs Friday, May 11, at the Back Room, 7200 N. Dixie Hwy., Boca Raton. Tickets cost $5, and the show starts at 9:30 p.m. Call 561-988-8929, or visit www.coreyharrismusic.com.
Dulce Pontes performs at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 12, at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. For tickets ($35), visit http://www.carnivalcenter.org, or call 786-468-2000.
Natural Causes perform Friday, May 11, at 10 p.m. at the Office, 2701 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. Visit www.myspace.com/naturalcausesrock.
312 S. Dixie Hwy., West Palm Beach
561-337-4610
www.purplelotuskava.com
The Yard House, and Downtown at the Gardens in general, is hip like a McMansion, hip like Weston, hip like Celebration, Florida, and Irvine, California (also home to a Yard House — probably not a coincidence). In its gleaming dark-wood interior, its cavernous spaces, its polished metal, its assembly-line gourmet…
Last month marked the 20th anniversary of the release of Sign o’ the Times, the album regarded by many critics and fans as Prince’s creative high-water mark. Due to the animus Prince feels toward Warner Bros. (the label that released the double-LP opus… only after insisting it be cut back…
Can we say Alex Cruz is a walking conglomerate? “My whole life, I’ve always been into something, and I end up getting into it so much that it becomes an inconvenience financially,” says the 26-year-old entrepreneur, co-owner of the new Fort Lauderdale-based music studio/clothing store Hi-Top Studios. “So I turn…
Dear Christina, I know this might seem out of the blue, seeing as though we’ve never met and, well, your lawyers have told you never to respond to my requests, but I was wondering if, you know, I could maybe swing by this weekend for Naked Sunday. The way I…
Lady Saw claimed she’s “too nice fi inna cock fight” and “too rich to argue with bitch” on 2004’s “Man Is the Least,” but that was all chat compared to her eighth LP, Walk Out. “Make me introduce you to mi cutlass,” she threatens one heifer on “Chat to Mi…
Boston-based music group Willard Grant Conspiracy sure knows how to make a music critic’s job tough. Whereas most bands can be blithely described with a few words, WGC practically requires a new genre tag. Stylistically, it’s got strong folk-rock and rootsy overtones but isn’t exactly Americana. Instead, WGC couches the…
Leave it to Trent Reznor — one of the few musicians who doesn’t need to hype his art by this point — to trump every other viral marketer with the promotional campaign for the new Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero. Besides leaking MP3s via USB drives left on bathroom…
There is something special that occurs in the universe when Walter Becker and Donald Fagan of Steely Dan get together; perhaps it is akin to a musical meeting of cesium and water, resulting in a strong reaction of melody and lyrics with a few shouts from the amen corner. The…
Take a look at the media coverage of the past few weeks and it’s evident that hip-hop is in the midst of a midlife crisis. Typical of these sorts of life-altering events, the results are not pretty. The genre is facing the same dilemma as a lot of American men,…
In the days of the British Invasion, it was the Beatles and the Stones. In the days of early Jamaican reggae, it was Bob Marley and Toots Hibbert. OK, it may not seem that way now — Marley’s posthumous fame has dwarfed that of the very-much-alive Hibbert, who has been…
Call him the comeback kid. Truth is, Jay Boy Adams is happy he was called, period. When you’ve been away from the music biz for 25 years, you’re grateful if someone remembers your name. With a new album, The Shoe Box, perched high atop the Americana charts, this Texas troubadour…
At a Gwen Stefani show, you are not a citizen of the world but the subject of a commanding cultural empress whose red-lipped orders are your new desires. This is because on stage, Stefani exists in a hugely successful, colorful, and fun Gwen Nation. Not for Stefani is the unrestricted…
There’s absolutely no reason to show up to a reggae show on time. You can almost guarantee that no matter when such a gig is supposed to start, it won’t get going until a couple of hours later. Maybe more. And such was the case at Monday morning’s band show…
An ordinary Wednesday at Alligator Alley, 9 p.m.: Felix Pastorius is warming up on his bass, nimble-fingered, notes flying all over the place. His twin brother, Julius, finishes lashing his drum kit together and sits, working rapidly into a soft groove. The twins’ rhythms work against each other at first,…
Working as the head of a record company is a difficult job. You’ve got artists to manage, sales figures to monitor, record samples to clear, budgets to attend to, and that’s all before noon. Try sticking to this regimen and being an artist on your own record label and you’ve…
It’s a Tuesday evening, and local radio station 101.5 FM is playing Corinne Bailey Rae’s smash single “Girl Put Your Records On” for the umpteenth time. It’s the only song that most American audiences know her by, but she’s touring the States all summer long trying to change that. The…
