John Ralston

Local indie-rock fans have long since considered soft-toned rocker John Ralston as a hometown hero. As a native of Lake Worth, he’s rocked out South Florida’s scene for years, opening for, and occasionally headlining with, other local-but-exploited acts like Dashboard Confessional and Legends of Rodeo. But now Ralston has honed…

Prodigy vs. The Prodigy: A Primer

Booze and music trivia sometimes go hand in hand. Imagine that you’re half way sloshed at your favorite speakeasy and (true to form) the tongue starts loosening up. The jukebox across the room sucks, and to pass the time, you start talking about your favorite bands. Talking Heads (right on)…

Prodigy From Mobb Deep in Fort Lauderdale Today

That’s what I said? But last night around 6 p.m., my phone was ringing off the hook from a publicist trying to get me to do a sit-down interview with P who’ll be here today talking about his upcoming album, HNIC2. If you don’t already know, Prodigy was recently sentenced…

Juvenile Backs It Up

I don’t know what it is about this song that gets a party started so easily, but Juvenile’s 1999 cut, “Back That Ass Up” is just classic booty music that defies the notion of booty music. Aside from the title, it’s a hell of a well-composed song which features Juvie…

Throwback Tuesdays: Orishas

It’s been awhile since the world has heard anything out of the Cuban emigres, Orishas. The group, which captured the hearts and eardrums of world music fans back in 1999, did put out the album, Antidiotico, a few months back, but that was mainly filled with their past hits and…

Rick Ross Talks About New Album

So Rick Ross’ upcoming album, Trilla, has been pushed back to February 08. That’s probably a good thing considering everything Def Jam has put out in the fourth quarter this year has felt like a tax write-off without any real push. Ghostface and Beanie Sigal immediately come to mind. Since…

DJ GQ Mixtape Release Party This Saturday

South Florida’s mixtape king, DJ GQ, is having an album release party this Saturday, at Art Bar in downtown Fort Lauderdale. He’s dropping the Let Em Know Vol. 20 mixtape with guest appearances from DMX, Junior Reid, Pitbull, Trina, Kevin Lyttle, Mr. Vegas, and N.O.R.E., all of which are not…

More on Iggy and the Stooges Last Night

Let me preface this by clarifying something: I’ve got great gams. It’s true. Everyone has something: hair that doesn’t go flat, perfectly long lashes, soulful eyes, curvy hips. But me, I’m a legs girl, so it’s strange that I don’t think about them all that often. In fact, until last…

Last Night: the Stooges at Art Basel’s Art Loves Music

Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Iggy Pop and the Stooges performed as part of the Art Basel kick-off. See a slideshow from the concert. “I AM YOU!!!” Stooges frontman Iggy Pop bellowed, extending a bony finger at the swirling mass of flesh bouncing up and down on the sand in Collins…

Jukebox in the Sky

Hey, music lovers, have you seen the new iPhone yet? The one that lets you read the New York Times, listen to Mozart, and watch music videos while it makes you a pot of coffee — all at the same time? OK, forget the coffee-making feature. Still, today’s cell phones…

Middle Distance Runner

You know a band is both indie and shoegazy when its name is in the middle of a song by indie shoegaze giants Belle and Sebastian. Now that may just be a coincidence (“Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner” was composed a full ten years after this Washington, D.C.-based quintet…

A Beautiful Accident

I’m a big fan of beautiful accidents,” Skeleton Key leader Erik Sanko says. And he might as well be. Though he is referring to spontaneous creative accidents, Sanko also admits to being mystified that Skeleton Key — which formed in 1996 amid a thriving downtown New York arts scene —…

Moving On Up

It’s typically a good sign when members of a band are packing up their things and moving. Their former neighbors probably aren’t too mad about it, and the band is probably in the midst of success and on its way into bigger and better surroundings. For the members of Kingston-based…

On Keeping Kidman

Actors and actresses have a long history of falling for musicians. But, generally, those musicians are rock stars, sexually ambiguous pop stars, and members (or former members) of boy bands. Country stars have always ranked on the “cool list,” below white rappers but higher than reality show music competition winners…

Wu-Tang Clan

Wu-Tang Clan’s fifth album, 8 Diagrams, comes at a time of group strife. Ghostface Killah and Raekwon have laid into Wu ringleader and beat maker RZA for the album’s creative direction. Calling Wu a sinking ship and RZA a “hip hop hippie,” Raekwon claims the beats on 8 Diagrams are…

Os Mutantes

Though over the years there had been much speculation about an Os Mutantes reunion concert, the event would not happen until almost 30 years after the breakup of their final lineup in 1978. In the fall of 2006, three of the band’s original members (brothers Arnaldo and Sergio Dias Baptista,…

Tony Bennett

Frank Sinatra once dubbed him the best pop singer in the biz, and when it’s the Chairman of the Board himself doling out the praise, you’re inclined not to disagree. Indeed, while best known by the masses for his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” (recorded 45…

Perpetual Groove

The name of this four-man posse of Southern musicians implies that audiences can jam out to their music endlessly. And part of that is true — the band is known for its rolling sets and college-town hippie vibe. They are from Athens, Georgia, and it’s a fact that bands strong…

Girls, Girls, Girls

If you have breasts and attended a Mötley Crüe concert in the ’80s, there’s a good chance that you had sex with one of, some of, or the entire band. But, ahh, wasn’t that the raison d’être for being a rock star during the greatest decade of rock decadence mankind…

Duck Soup

Duck Soup 3809 Powerline Rd. Fort Lauderdale 954-561-9134 From the road you’ll read “Soup” in big, bubbly, yellow and orange letters, but the name is Duck Soup, as in the 1933 Marx Brothers classic. Don’t mention that, though. No one’ll know what the hell you’re talking about. The light on…

Gigi Dover

So earthen is Gigi Dover’s singing that it might be echoing through canyons on the seven continents right now, with or without her involvement. But at the base of her voice is an underground welt — some sort of cosmic canker. On her new CD, Nouveau, she collaborates with her…