Every Monday night at the Hullabaloo in West Palm Beach, the Whiskey Wasps bring their haunting but soothing sounds to Clematis Street. Billy Schmidt and his wife, Rachel DuVall, who are also the creators of the indie-rock band Raggy Monster, make up the duo and bring a different acoustic sound…
Rick Springfield Rick Springfield may be a Grammy award-winning songwriter and former General Hospital heartthrob, but all that success can’t make up for the fact the hopeless romantic still wishes he had “Jessie’s Girl.” Maybe all that will change when the Aussie rocker — and one of the dreamiest 66-year-old men…
Sitting across from me is Billy Schmidt, keyboardist and one of the founding members of West Palm Beach-based Raggy Monster. He’s wearing a a red, sock monkey onesie that immediately makes me long for a similar onesie sitting in my closet. Then I feel a bead of sweat run down…
Lita Ford was a heavy-metal wet dream for a generation of headbangers, scoring several hits in the ’80s, including “Kiss Me Deadly” and “Close Your Eyes Forever” with Ozzy Osbourne. But after years away from the spotlight to focus on raising a family in the Turks and Caicos Islands, the…
Let’s face it. Local bands that dare to do original music have a tough go of it in South Florida. If you don’t have at least a couple of Billy Joel songs in your repertoire and a willingness to do your own take on “Play That Funky Music White Boy”…
Donovan Frankenreiter first got on a surfboard when he was 10, became addicted within five minutes, and turned pro when he was 16. But his isn’t the story of the typical surf bro with a guitar turned professional songwriter. Music came late to Frankenreiter. It wasn’t until after he and…
Rivers West Palm Beach indie rockers Rivers may have reached a new level of maturity, but that won’t stop them from rockin’ the night away with a bunch of Kids in celebration of their latest release, Wide Eyes. “The first EP we were throwing as many darts as we could…
In most industries, joining mom or dad in the family business is expected. Doing so is a rite of passage and a well-worn tradition. But when the family business is rock & roll expectations go out the window. A lot of artists may go into their parents’ trade — think…
Free concerts at a racetrack usually have connotations of washed up good time oldie bands who are a quarter century past their glory years. So it was a pleasant surprise for South Florida hipsters, Thursday evening, when James Murphy took the stage. Murphy, the mastermind behind LCD Soundsystem, did not…
Adam Foster is a South Florida-based DJ and producer, founder of twilightnotes.com, and entertainment director for the Restaurant People. He was named best DJ of 2014 by New Times Broward-Palm Beach. When Paul Baümer and Maarten Hoogstraten began making music together at the Bingo Players in the Netherlands in 2006,…
The mark of a truly great rapper/performer/band always lies in their live shows. And hip-hop concerts are often hollow and full of shouted gibberish. Tuesday night, during what was essentially a mini-festival at Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Big Sean and J. Cole proved that they aren’t your…
It was a hot, sticky night last July when Tim McGraw took the stage in tight blue jeans, a black wife beater, cowboy hat, and boots at what is now known as the Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre. All seemed to be going according to musical plan — until he started to…
Grammy award winning artist Ricki Lee Jones performed at Parker Playhouse last night. The theater setting was perfect for the eccentric singer, who came onstage in sheer tights, a colorful skirt, quarter sleeve vest shirt and boots. “Thank you,” the blonde said to the whoops and cheers she received. “It’s…
In 2012, LCD Soundsystem’s final show at Madison Square Garden was immortalized in Shut Up and Play the Hits, a documentary that looked back at the band’s cultural impact and tailed its leader, James Murphy, the day after the show as he tried to figure out what he was going…
J. Cole The trek from 1401 Forest Hills Drive in Fayetteville, North Carolina to 601-7 Sansburys Way in West Palm Beach, Florida is a pretty long one. But for a dreamer like J. Cole, 677 miles is nothing in comparison to the amount of years it’s taken the rapper to get…
Incubus and Deftones Aug. 14, 2015 Coral Sky Amphitheater Better than: Actually being 14 again. The music that defines a generation is hard to quantify. You know who your favorite band is at any given moment, and as the years pass, you know which ones kind of fall into the…
Think of Weird Al Yankovic as a rock star with an accordion. He’s a gifted satirist, a brilliant comedic actor, and definitely “White and Nerdy” like his parody of Chamillionaire’s “Ridin'” states. And so was his crowd at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts Saturday night — but in…
Mention the name Badfinger and the account of their infamous, tragic story comes to mind. Famously hailed by the Beatles as the next big thing, and signed to their Apple label, the band emerged from the shadow of the Fab Four to be one of the most respected rock outfits…
Last night, Steely Dan’s 23-date US tour closed out in style at the Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach. As is often the case, though, Florida’s bipolar weather nearly ruined everything at just the wrong time. The legendary pop outfit brought along a very special guest in Elvis Costello…
Rickie Lee Jones has always made a point not to repeat herself. While commercial success came quickly thanks to her eponymous debut; its attendant hit single, “Chuck E’s in Love”; and Pirates, her highly praised sophomore set, the tangled trajectory she pursued thereafter gave way to critical drubbing and the…
Before the lights went down and revered Seattle rockers Alice in Chains took the stage Tuesday night at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, a cavernous and sparse emptiness filled the space. It wasn’t too long until that gave way to a ferocious spectacle of lights and smoke. The smoke…
Intoxicated musings, ethereal sounds, and visceral performances made the Doors famous. The band helped drive and inspire much of music’s spiritualism in the 1960s and beyond. Even today, nearly 50 years after the band formed, guitarist Robby Krieger maintains this sentiment. Krieger, touring behind his recent solo album, Singularity, began…
