I’ve been singing ‘We are the youth gone wild’ for 20 years, man… I’m fuckin’ 40!” Sebastian Bach exclaims over the phone before telling me to hold on a second. There are some voices in the background, then some shuffling sounds, and then he’s back. “Sorry, dude; I’m getting my…
On a recent Saturday night, the tiny space of Sweat Records in Miami’s Little Haiti is filled with curious scene kids awaiting an avant-garde performance. At first, it’s unclear if any of the local bands are going to be worth a damn, but there’s an audible buzz that picks up…
There must be something about the summer months. It seems like every other bubble-wrapped package that shows up in the mail these days is stuffed with offshore audible treats. While I obviously can’t review them all, here are a couple of albums that have been banging loudly at the New…
Summer’s heavy precipitation might have you thinking Fort Lauderdale’s Flamenco in the Sun Festival is a misnomer. Then again, that brow-beating Andalusian sunlight is probably what got the Southern Spanish region’s rhythm-makers crying long, mercy-begging ojalas in the first place. With all that stomping and pounding, it’s hard for God…
It’s ironic, of course, that consistency, longevity, and predictability have come to be the hallmarks of “true punk,” but that’s where we are more than three decades after Johnny Rotten blew his nose all over things. As Jello Biafra recently sang, there’s all these bands singing their “hits from the good…
Dweezil Zappa can’t stop talking about his late father. “Frank’s music just needs to be heard,” he says. Alongside brother Ahmet and several of Frank’s former sidemen, Dweezil now re-creates his dad’s music on the Zappa Plays Zappa tour, featuring material from the elder Zappa’s mid-’70s heyday. “People tell me…
The smooth jazz sets the tone. The bartenders keep their distance, approaching only when called. And the wine is taste-tested before it’s added to the list. It’s little things like this that make the Grape Merchant a necessary stop if not the perfect spot for date night. If you know…
Listening to the music of the Jacob Jeffries Band is better than any antidepressant you can imagine. The talented foursome is one of my favorite local bands right now, as their songs and stage presence manage to keep everyone at their shows in a good mood. How do they do…
Sigur Rós’ latest is positively festooned with danger signs: first album to be mainly recorded outside its home base of Iceland, first to feature a track sung in English, and the first co-produced by a big-shot dial-twister (Flood, of Depeche Mode fame). Somehow, though, this series of seemingly suspect compromises…
At 95 years of age, Mississippi Delta-born pianist Pinetop Perkins is still an active performer and one who is still able to hit his piano’s keys with amazing dexterity. The proof is on this beauty of a blues CD, in which the veteran shares the spotlight with an array of…
It takes only a cursory listen to Aimee Mann’s alluring new album to affirm that the only thing possibly forestalling a commercial connection would be its inexplicably feisty title. Too bad; the songs on this disc are among the best of her ever-evolving career. While there’s some similarity to Mann’s…
There’s no denying that Fourth Dimension is one of South Florida’s hardest-working reggae bands. The group gigs constantly — at least four or five nights out of the week — playing all three counties in South Florida (none of that Miami-only bullshit), and they’re actually worth a damn when they…
Did music really used to be less complicated, or does it just seem that way? Maybe it’s just that life used to be less complicated, and music is simply a mirror of its times. Or something like that. Whatever the case, Two Men With the Blues was recorded live at…
It’s safe to assume it was the first time a bunch of West Kendallites appeared in the New York Post’s infamous “Page Six” gossip column. And it’s especially notable because they did so for indirectly inciting a minor riot in L.A. alongside a famously celebrated, then disgraced, then semiredeemed memoirist…
I’ll just come out and say it: The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino horrifies me. It’s a depraved place full of slot machines, waitresses in hot pants, and plenty of people betting way more than they can afford. But that grand little nation of contrived decadence also fascinates me…
Jose D. Duran Poplife founders Barbara Basti and Aramis Lorie. Nine years is a lifetime in clubland. It’s hard to stay relevant in a business in which the trends change as fast as the minds of the people who frequent it. So when perennial indie party Poplife turns 9 this…
Going for the Haitian vote. Lord knows the Democrats are going to have to pull out all of the stops this November to take over the White House and this latest news might help them do it…or it could backfire. According to NME, part-time Miami resident Wyclef Jean along with…
So there’s been a local rumor existing for quite some time that famous Miami rapper Rick Ross used to work as a correctional officer before he started in the music industry. It’s something I never spent too much time thinking about, but also never doubted either. A man’s gotta eat,…
Here’s the latest variation in the ever-popular Guitar Hero competition circuit: a Hard-Rock-Cafe-sponsored bonanza focusing specifically on the game’s all-Aerosmith edition. The Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Rocks the Hard Rock national tour takes place in 15 different cities; next Monday, July 21 marks the Miami date. And while the Seminole Hard…
Danny Daze As far as local DJs go, Danny Daze easily comes in as one of my top five favorites. Why? Because he is better than most DJs in the nation, and even better than most DJs who have come to rule the blog house “genre.” But I sort of…
This humble blog, South Florida Music Scene Past and Present, is on CrossFade’s blogroll, but it’s such a wealth of local music history goodness that I wanted to highlight it for this installment of Throwback Tuesdays. I sat down to delve into the entire archive of posts last night (good…
Ari Justin Rothenberg Gym Class Hereos performing at the Warped Tour’s Miami stop at Bicentennial Park. Vans Warped Tour Saturday, July 12, 2008 Bicentennial Park, Miami It was hard to say whether any band or artist stood out most on this year’s Vans Warped Tour. The sounds varied from the…
