Ya gotta respect Ates Isildak. First off, dude’s got a name that sounds like an Eskimo fertility god. Second, as Echo Me, Astronaut, Isildak has released an album of lucid, almost transparent guitar and voice studies, so quiveringly intimate that you can nearly feel his breath on your ear. It…
Mope-rock bands sprouted like mushrooms in the wake of Coldplay’s global success, though few captured the genuine spirit of Chris Martin’s earnest emoting and lyrical romanticism. The Perishers are certainly among the exceptions, a band that details the darker recesses of the brain without letting melancholy overwhelm. Credit this to…
It’s Thursday, typically an off-night for budding social butterflies. It’s pouring buckets, typically a disincentive for bar-hopping alkies. On a strip-malled swath of Federal Highway, John L. Sullivan’s is a high-gloss Irish pub wedged into the generic purgatory of Lighthouse Point. With blue blazers and blond perms gabbing over afterwork…
Here’s a ridiculous statement: Fishbone is opening for Slightly Stoopid. Fishbone opening for anyone is extremely stupid. The venerable Los Angeles ska-punk-funk forebears are probably the best live band you will ever have the sweat-drenched, moshariffic privilege of seeing while we still care about such things. They set the stage…
As a globetrotting DJ from Hastings, U.K., Danny Howells hasn’t seen much of Miami beyond a handful of days spent here spinning records. Still, he creates a vision of the city with his new CD, Global Underground: Miami, released last month. With pockets of support for trance and lounge, Miami’s…
According to ancient Greek legend, the Hydra was a gruesome, nine-headed beast that roamed the swamps outside town snacking on hapless villagers. Supposedly its breath was toxic, and it was nearly impossible to kill. The same might be said for the remaining members of the Grateful Dead, including Mikey Hart,…
If you remember the 1993 Robin Williams movie of the same name, you know what to expect from Jumanji, a seven-hour, beat-laden bacchanal that borrows the flick’s fantastical, tribal elements. The multilevel Club Xit provides the perfect setting for this genre-spanning, Florida-focused event, which features four separate spaces of electronic…
One thing about Aretha Franklin: She knows how to keep a man. Since the early ’60s, Franklin has told the ladies a thing or two about how to stay on top of things, so to speak (barring that fluke anthem she did with Annie Lennox in 1985, “Sisters Are Doin’…
John Denver may have crooned the classic ode to Rocky Mountain highs, but it’s the Samples who currently exude those idyllic notions in both music and mindset. Wielding an irrepressible blend of stoner sentiment, hippie idealism, and jam band finesse, this Colorado quintet has spent the past two decades crafting…
The mostly acoustic brainchild of U.K. producer Ben Lamdin, Nostalgia 77 frames vibrant, late-’60s soul jazz and sinister, mid-’70s fusion in the context of modern funk and hip-hop. If the concept seems academic, that’s because it is — but only a meticulous po-mo auteur could fashion such a compelling, ferociously…
The 42 songs on this three-CD Yo La Tengo career retrospective aren’t sequenced chronologically, but it wouldn’t much matter if they were. The two-decade tale of Hoboken, New Jersey,’s finest indie-rock band resists a linear celebration; rather than an evolutionary journey, it’s one of vast eclecticism and experimentation. The band’s…
Moz is the current poster child for career resurrection, ’80s rock-star division — and if issuing Live less than a year after the release of 2004’s You Are the Quarry, his studio comeback, seems ill-advised, the set’s quality more than justifies its existence. The album is a satisfying musical retrospective…
Independence: Some die for it. Others just rap about it. Living Legends fall into the latter category — though the long-standing Bay Area crew would have you believe that its staunchly indie ideal is noble enough to boast about in every other verse. Classic continues the tradition of sparse beats…
Barrio brothers Tropyco and Bombillo, better-known as the SoFla Kingz, have released an album capitalizing on the current Latin explosion in hip-hop and the rising popularity of reggaeton. The SoFla Kingz previously distributed free mixtapes all over South Florida, but this is their first CD of original songs available for…
The archetypal rock ‘n’ roll story always begins with a bang: It’s nearing 6 o’clock on a golden Sunday afternoon, and the hush of wind through the fan palms and the occasional restless bird are the only sounds outside Elegbaland Studios. Hidden within a ramshackle mother-in-law behind a green-and-yellow bungalow…
You gotta give it up to the Earth. I mean, stuff like mountains, sunsets, dolphins, and shooting stars are totally cool, not to mention cheeseburgers and sex in tall grass. For all you do, Earth, the least we can do is give you a day, and maybe do a little…
For those too young to remember, in the early 1970s, there was a big Southern rock renaissance. Spearheaded by the Allman Brothers, the South sprouted a viable, back-to-the-roots alternative to the major rock power centers like New York and Los Angeles. Following the Bros. were the old-school R&B of Wet…
With its constant genre-swirling theatrics, New York City’s Mindless Self Indulgence has always been on the outer fringes of popular music. The group’s Atari Teenage Riot-style electro-punk fusion has been a consistent middle finger to the mainstream. Not nearly as political as ATR, MSI instead opts for sheer punk-rock brattitude…
“In the early ’90s, clubs like Kitchen and Nemesis pioneered new [goth-industrial] music,” DJ Paul KLoV says. “Today’s scene is falling apart. Kids are looking to mall chain stores for answers, and that’s not gonna cut it.” While you’d be hard-pressed to find many who disagree with him, it’s equally…
Lone lovers are singing bluesy tunes, reeking of wanton lust and sex residue. They’ve got their mean streak on. Outlaws lurking, Hotel and VV are on the prowl. “Get the guns out, get the guns out,” they sing together on “Love Is a Deserter,” one of the highlights of their…
Dylan Mills is not your average 20-year-old. At this precocious age, Britain’s hip-hop wünderkind — better-known as Dizzee Rascal — is already the star of a new music genre he helped establish. He’s also the first hip-hopper to win a prestigious British music award, started his own record label, and…
Let’s talk about one-man bands. I don’t mean solo performers with a guitar and an imperative to annoy but dudes who by themselves play all the parts of a multimember band. You know the (stereo)type: an aging, wild-haired, fashion casualty who writes songs about his dog, his car, his ex-wife,…
