Robin Thicke is working hard to move out of his father’s shadow. As the son of Canadian actor Alan Thicke from the hit ’80s sitcom Growing Pains, people initially wondered if his rising success in the music world was due to the fact that his father is famous. But the…
If you were just judging a book by its cover, you would have every reason to think Phantom Planet was a pretty-boy vehicle spewed out of the shallows of Hollywood. You might misinterpret frontman Alex Greenwald’s demeanor as snide and empty. You might also point to the fact that hip…
Thirty-somethings who remember Nikka Costa as the child singer of tunes like “First Love” and “Candy Man” back in the early ’80s probably wouldn’t recognize the soul-inflected, bluesy sound that’s the base of Pebble to a Pearl, her latest CD released on the legendary Stax label. As the daughter of…
“Turn your TVs on/Bet ya all you see is me!” DJ Khaled raps/sings on “Standing on the Mountain Top,” his only tangible musical contribution to his third album, We Global (We the Best/Koch/Terror Squad). This boast is not exactly true — when I turn on the TV, I see mostly…
“Roll It Gal” by Alison Hinds: For lovers of Caribbean music, Carnival Weekend 2008 is easily the best four-day weekend of the year. Folks representing the entire island chain are already beginning to pour into South Florida to participate in the festivities. There’s an almost palpable buzz floating around Broward…
Africa to Appalachia is one of those recordings that demonstrates — and celebrates — the fact that music from disparate cultures has more aspects in common than “separating” them. But Africa to Appalachia isn’t a dry, piously reverent lecture — it’s a meeting of open-eared musicians finding common ground and…
The third installment in Crammed Discs’ awesome series of “Congotronics” releases continues in the praiseworthy path of its predecessors, delivering yet another defiantly nonacademic album of African music. Just like the first “Congotronics” album, the unfuckwithably mind-blowing Konono N°1 disc that gave the series its title, this set from the…
For a buzz band, Blitzen Trapper is extremely modest. Instead of trying to overwhelm listeners with their awesomeness, singer/songwriter Eric Earley and crew create casually adventurous tracks that draw from American music in ways that seem familiar and fresh. “Sleepy Time in the Western World” opens the album with an…
“Spring Love” by Stevie B: Miguel Carver looks devilishly happy as he rounds the corner of the roller rink. He skates close to the inside of the oval, bent slightly forward, lost in his own world. The DJ spins a freestyle classic from 1988 — Stevie B’s “Spring Love.” It’s…
In the sleepy and slightly depressing streets of Coral Springs – even on a Saturday night – relief is hard to come by for insomniacs in need of a fix for, well, something – anything – to do. But alas, I have found a cure – a hope for Coral…
For those who can’t get enough of this pseudo-scandal, it seems that Rick Ross has finally copped (lol) to his past as a corrections officer. After photos leaked recently of his academy graduation, he first flat-out denied it was him, claiming someone had Photoshopped his face onto someone else’s body…
No event that ends with “–con” is complete without highly specialized musical guests. (Just check out, for example, this long list of wizard-centric bands that just rocked the huge Harry Potter convention in Chicago earlier this year. Anime Supercon, South Florida’s biggest anime/comic/manga/etc. convention, which takes place Oct. 31 through…
Antoine Asseraf Je suis fashionable. Ze French iz always at ze forefront of — how do you say? — ze fashion. This iz why French chanteuse Yelle wants you to, eh, wear ze mask she gives online. Silly Americans can hide their fat faces they stuff with ze McDonald and…
You know a band from your city is awesome when one of my favorite people in music, Greg Puciato of the Dillinger Escape Plan, has to ask about them or shout them out every time he’s in town. So it goes with Miami’s own Poison the Well, the decade-plus-running metal-ish,…
Charlie Pickett Bar Band Americanus – The Best of Charlie Picket And (Bloodshot) Both as a music addict and “critic,” I hear lots of music that slips into cult following-status and/or obscurity while less talented musicians reap the big rewards. Take South Floridian Charlie Pickett for example. Throughout the1980’s he…
So if anybody watched VH1’s heralded Hip-Hop Honors program last night, I’m curious to know what people thought. I’m not personally a fan of comedian Tracy Morgan hosting the show (his jokes are funny 60% of the time at best) but everything else associated with this year’s Hip-Hop Honors was…
(Via Steve Huff, via Fark) The VP debate was Rickrolled! Check out the signs in the back. Incidentally, Rick Astley is up for “Best Act Ever” at the MTV Europe Music Awards — twenty years after he was a chart-topper with “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Together Forever.” (No,…
According to a press release that showed up in my inbox this morning, pop icon Janet Jackson has indefinitely postponed her concert scheduled for tomorrow at the BankAtlantic Center due to ill health. Just a week and a half ago, Jackson postponed three shows in Montreal, Philadelphia, and Boston for…
Logan Fazio Jay-Z came out to support Barack Obama at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami Sunday night. Click here to view the full slideshow. Jay-Z Monday October 6, 2008 Bayfront Park Ampitheatre, Miami Better Than: A McCain-sponsored get-out-the-vote concert. No offense, Daddy Yankee. Jay-Z kicked off last night’s show with…
For those who don’t know, Jay-Z is putting on two free concerts in Miami at Bayfront Park starting tonight (Sunday) at 9 p.m. and tomorrow (Monday) at noon. He’ll be here, alongside Wyclef Jean on behalf of Barack Obama’s campaign trying to help register people to vote before the registration…
Did you cry your poor little eyes out because you waited in line for hours and hours but didn’t score any tickets for Sunday’s Jay-Z concert? Well, rejoice because Hov has added a second show in support of Obama for Monday afternoon at Bayfront Park. Doors will open at 11…
Toxic Holocaust, Kingdom of Sorrow, and GWAR Thursday, October 2, 2008 Revolution, Ft. Lauderdale Better Than: A great many “serious” shows I’ve sat through recently … and I will hazard a guess that it was almost definitely more fun than letting my blood pressure rise by watching the VP debates…
