During short-haired 1983, while MTV helped heat up the nascent New Wave scene, South Florida generally refused to play along. Who cares about A Flock of Missing Persons at Work Without Hats in the Dark when Buffett’s in the backyard? Lake Worth residents Bill and John Storch were 19 and…
Scott Weiser and Todd Walker never agree about what to call their music. But the Jackal & Hyde duo from Palm Beach Gardens is certain of what it is not. Their Sunshine State of mind is just a geographical happenstance, not a musical one. Try to peg their sound as…
It’s hard not to giggle a little bit at the end of “Ay Distress,” the opening track from the Baptist Generals’ No Silver/No Gold. After a perfectly haunting performance of the slow spare tune, someone’s cell phone rings in the garage studio. With the spell broken and a perfect take…
After seeing Melt-Banana sonically demolish Soho Lounge last November, I struggled to come to grips with what I had just heard. The balanced assault of Yasuko O’s hiccup/sneeze/scream vocals, Agata’s indescribable guitar violation, Rika’s pummeling bass, and Dave Witte’s tighter-than-a-duck’s-ass drumming unearthed something akin to the feeling of sticking a…
Kelly Massing gets pissed every time he opens the phone book. After more than 15 years in the Yellow Pages, he can’t believe what they did to the listing for his Wilton Manors record store, Kelly’s Klassics. After all that time, the phone number is still there, correct and unchanged…
Artists who evoke darker moods and emotions have a tough time of it in the United States. Whereas overseas listeners can place such music into a broader artistic context (after all, the movie 24 Hour Party People made the connection between Joy Division and the Happy Mondays), people here struggle…
Few bands have captured the feeling of love turning from sugar to shit as succinctly as Scotland’s Arab Strap. In the past, Aidan Moffat’s swaggered rants about cheating, jealousy, and other ways relationships go wrong have maintained a brutal honesty. But that has changed (or at least been put on…
In early 2002, Northern California’s Xiu Xiu released one of the most ridiculously challenging and morosely honest avant-garde pieces of indie electronic pop to date, borrowing elements of British post-punk, noisy electronic techno, and, most interestingly, the Gamelan Orchestra. Knife Play was hailed by some and cast aside by even…
Strike up the hype machine: Here come those pasty boys from Oxford, readying another assault on the foundations of rock ‘n’ roll. Whereas on the group’s last two albums — 2000’s Kid A and 2001’s Amnesiac, recorded during the same sessions — Radiohead seemed determined to please only itself, on…
Since his brutal killing during a home-invasion robbery in 1987, what remains of the Peter Tosh legacy? His pro-ganja anthem “Legalize It” is again a potent anthem among young reggae fans. As one third of the original Wailers, alongside Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley, Tosh (born Hubert Winston McIntosh in…
Phaser frontman Siayko Skalsky recently had a daughter. “The first thing I did when I brought her home was put her on the stereo,” he says. “I played her the new Wilco record. I played her some Grandaddy, some David Bowie, some Beatles. A little bit of the new Queens…
Anyone tuning in to Ian McCulloch’s latest solo album expecting to hear another Echo & the Bunnymen release will likely be disappointed. Though McCulloch, that group’s singer, is only in his mid-40s, Slideling could be seen as his counterpart to Frank Sinatra’s September of My Years, made when Ol’ Blue…
Sometimes hype is a good thing. Sure, you get stray Vines. Or you may get stuck with one-trick Strokes. But the retro “Return to Rock” frenzy of 2002 brought the White Stripes to the forefront of pop culture, and for that, we should be forever grateful. In every record store…
Locating the source of Clematis Street’s troubles is harder than finding the headwaters of the Amazon. Several suspected causes of this West Palm Beach malaise: Wild packs of black kids. The post 9/11 economy. The demonic, overcommercialized CityPlace. Or maybe former WPB Mayor Joel Daves, a downtown resident fond of…
For about a decade, European electronica artists like Jazzanova and Les Gammas have mined Latin American records for punchy rhythms and melodies to heat up their tunes. Under the alias Sidestepper, British producer Richard Blair comes straight from the source — the music of his adopted hometown of Bogota, Colombia…
Do not be fooled by the lyric “Give me your hot white cum.” This isn’t the edgy, clever Liz Phair of Exile in Guyville but rather a bland, barely recognizable avatar. And the song, abbreviated “H.W.C.” encapsulates everything that’s wrong with this album: trite lyrics and empty stabs at shock…
In 1961, long after John Coltrane had left Miles Davis’ band for good, Davis remained the undisputed titan of the non-“new thing” cocktails ‘n’ cuff links set. Perhaps his finest hour was the stint he did in April of that year at San Francisco’s Blackhawk club. These sides have been…
In the tradition of politically and socially conscious artists such as Public Enemy and Dead Prez, the talented group of vocalists, producers, and rhyme-sayers — F.I.S.K., WhizM, Taughfeek, Pirahana Jones, Nafia, Shiek, and Clymaxx — on this compilation affiliates itself with the Seerz Movement. Put together by DJ F.I.S.K. and…
For the unsuspecting yuppies who regularly overrun downtown Fort Lauderdale, a Sunday-night trip to Tavern 213 can be a scary proposition. For starters, patrons must battle for a place at the bar with the legion of drunken punks who make a habit of 213’s free shows. Then they need to…
Which lucky lady gets to be wined and dined by Mr. Biggs? Mack Daddy is large. Mack Daddy aims to take you shopping, girl. Buy you everything. Take you away in a convertible under cherry rain. After a glass of Beaujoulais and a Tic Tac, he’ll draw your bath. There…
Since his extravagant Secret World tour back in 1994, Peter Gabriel appears to have aged 20 years and added 20 pounds. That’s of little concern to his fans, one imagines. Undeterred by their hero’s taking ten years to release his last album, 2002’s Up, Gabriel’s core audience remains deeply loyal…
“I hunt, therefore I am.” These are the words inked (in Latin, no less) on the skin of John Blosser, Boca-based National Enquirer articles editor and dulcimer devotee. “I hunt people and information for a living,” explains the man whose investigative skills have also been honed in learning about a…
