Lo and behold, R.E.M.’s 14th studio album actually lives up to its speedy title. Accelerate is loud, quick, and dirty, spinning by so fast it takes multiple listens to absorb. It’s full of buzzing guitars and stream-of-consciousness discontent, along with an abundance of Mike Mills’ choirboy harmonies and sinewy bass…
Hyped as the next big thing by British music rags and blogmobs alike, Foals comes out of the starting gate with heavy expectations on its full-length debut Antidotes. This upbeat, guitar-fueled post-punk dance band churns out an exciting sound just when you were beginning to think such characterizations could be…
Having taken a brief detour into North Africa on his 2005 album La Kahena, San Francisco globalist DJ Cheb i Sabbah returns to the South Asian milieu that served him so well on his first few albums. Devotion finds Sabbah again toying with elegant, ethereal structures, compiling traditional instrumentation and…
A hot, beautiful spring Saturday shouldn’t be spent indoors. There’s too many beautiful women, waves, and other distractions awaiting you. But that’s exactly where I found myself this past Saturday, at Fort Lauderdales’s Laguna Beach nightclub, in the afternoon, hanging with Central Florida’s own Riskay for her first official video…
There’s a metaphor somewhere in Sam Beam’s hair. Something that equates his newly expansive locks with the richer, full-bodied sound he now peddles as Iron and Wine. Something that correlates the furtive minimalism of his early recordings (done while he was teaching film at FSU and Miami International University of…
The biggest social networking website has realized it’s time to recognize the fastest-growing population segment in the United States. Enter MySpace Latino, a bilingual sub-site within the MySpace juggernaut, launching now after a beta period starting last year. Just like the original MySpace, it boasts star-studded “secret shows” to which…
Taking their cues from dub pioneers like King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry, Austin-based quartet Grimy Styles is ushering in a new wave of exploratory dub. The group’s latest album, Rewind, boasts tweaked-out klezmer, gypsy dub, and other global grooves that are creatively rehashed. Their heavy, syncopated beats beneath a…
A certain amount of insurgency might be expected from an artist whose last name is Earle and whose debut comes courtesy of Bloodshot Records, a repository of upstart Americana. Surprisingly, 25-year-old Justin Townes Earle, son of Steve, veers away from the renegade regimen that distinguishes other famous alt-country offspring —…
Argentina’s Flavio Mandinga, one of the founding members of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, has crafted a solo project that explores various sonic textures and defies genre classification. Simply listen to “Ministra,” a rocksteady-tempo track seemingly inspired by early UB40 with a touch of psychedelics. Later comes “Polaroid 66,” which draws from…
When you first pop in Cat Shell’s debut disc, Cat’s Outta the Bag, you can’t help but notice the retro sound of the lead-off track, “I’m Torn.” It’s full of simple and subtle guitar work, winsome sax, and the alluring vocal style that Shell is turning into her trademark. While…
It’s all about perspective at Harrison’s Wine Bar: It’s either a small place, or an intimate setting. The people are either (how do I say this without pissing off the PC police?) older, or they’re mature. The brunet in the low-cut blouse and her date are either discussing your excellent…
Crossing the line isn’t always a difficult task when you’re a ‘shock jock’ personality hosting a morning radio show, who garnered a following by being crude, rude and all things beyond. But two of the most successful at the craft agree there’s tasteful and then there’s tasteless, while defending what…
Just got this press release about an award show party that’s jumping off tomorrow night at Spirits Nightclub. Puerto Rico’s Black Guayaba will be on hand rocking as will a host of other performers. The Annual Billboard Latin Music Conference is being held at the Hard Rock Casino this year…
British bands in the ’80’s had a strange sense of style. Of course, that’s a relative statement, but I was reminded of it when I came across the video from the Fine Young Cannibals and their international hit, “She Drives Me Crazy” from 1989. I don’t know what happened to…
Last Night: Caribou at the Culture Room Saturday, April 5th, Better Than: Making your own Tie-Dye Shirt. The Review: Pulling into the parking lot of the Culture Room, I felt a little bittersweet seeing all the available spaces. It’s rare when an indie band like Caribou decides to grace S.Florida…
Say Anything, Manchester Orchestra, Biffy Clyro, Weatherbox Friday, April 4, 2008 Revolution Live Better Than: Being spoon-fed dinner in a straight jacket Say Anything lead singer Max Bemis has got enough issues—enough to, well, write a 27-song double disc detailing those issues, which he did in the band’s 2007 sophomore…
Caribou Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale April 5, 2008 Better Than: Having The Amboy Dukes drop by to help you with your homework. First things first. I (and you, if you were lucky enough to be there) have gotta thank Ahmed Gallab of Sinkane, who took over the traps for Caribou’s…
Bret Michaels The Florida Marlins’ Super Saturdays series at Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens April 5, 2008 Better Than: Watching Rock of Love’s Daisy mangle the national anthem Saturday night, sometime during the seventh inning of the Florida Marlins — Pittsburgh Pirates game, the Fish were up 7-3, and the small…
Lucy Orozco Better Than: Being home alone drunk on a Saturday night, listening to Wu-Tang on your iPod. Cappadonna, a lesser known part of the Wu Tang Clan family, was supposed to perform Saturday at Studio A. Instead, club personnel posted a sign at the entrance asking anyone to call…
Bartow, Fl rapper Riskay wrote one of the raunchiest, and funniest cheating songs of 2007. The tune is called, “Let Me Smell Yo Dick” and everybody from the New York Times to Perez Hilton caught wind of the song and wrote about it. She just got back from SXSW where…
While MSTRKRFT was everywhere, again, this Winter Music Conference, a lot of the talk was about when they’d finally release some new material. (The duo’s last full album, The Looks, dropped in 2006). Similarly quiet in recent years, although not, um, really discussed at Winter Music Conference, is rapper N.O.R.E…
It’s no secret that Khia, of the famous 2002 cunnilingus anthem “My Neck, My Back” is not the biggest fan of Miami’s top female rappers. Early on, there was the debacle involving Jacki-O over her status as the self-dubbed “Queen of the South.” Then there was her beef with Trina,…
