Last Night: Ringo Starr at Seminole Hard Rock

Lee Zimmerman Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band July 3, 2008 Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood By now, the traveling nostalgia show that tours annually under the banner of Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band has been honed to a tee. Ringo offers up his best-known Beatles songs and…

Last Night: Tom Waits at The Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts

John Hood Tom Waits performs before a sold-out crowd at the Times-Union Center in Jacksonville, Fla. Tom Waits July 1, 2008 The Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, Jacksonville Better than: Having a hobo in your home for supper – and having him sing murder songs for it. (Dateline: Jacksonville)…

Jamie Lidell at Heathrow Lounge July 18

Jamie Lidell Genre-bending musician Jamie Lidell will be stopping by Heathrow Lounge, a new UK-inspired club on South Beach, July 18. Who else could be behind this booking except the people from Poplife, which will be celebrating 9 years of bringing indie music to the masses that very weekend. The…

Gameboy/Gamegirl: A Hipster Mockery?

Gameboy/Gamegirl sans fourth member and beat producer Miami Horror. Here was what I can’t figure out about Australian quartet Gameboy/Gamegirl, are they embracing hipster culture or are they making an absolute mockery of it? With lyrics like “Vodka and cranberry/Shake it like it’s February/Gin and tonic/The shit is ironic,” it…

Gilberto Gil

“I have a hard time with modern technology,” says Brazilian icon Gilberto Gil, describing the theme of his latest CD, Banda Larga Cordel. “I admit that I use it with moderation, but I am nevertheless fascinated by it.” This awe was the inspiration for his first disc of original material…

Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band

One of two surviving members of the Fab Four, the former Richard Starkey has become a global music legend, mainly because the entire world knows him as Ringo Starr. Within the Beatles, he was relegated to a mostly supporting part, taking the spotlight for the occasional vocal, some comic relief,…

Cute Is What We Aim For

Cute Is What We Aim For is likely the perfect 21st-century pop band. Almost purpose built for short-attention-span marketing campaigns, the four gents in CIWWAF focus so heavily on pop sheen, hooks, and scenester touchstones that it’s often difficult to figure out just what the sum of the parts is…

Peter Murphy

The pale, delicately boned wraith known as Peter Murphy gained his seat as an anointed dark king in the 1970s and ’80s as frontman of the legendary Bauhaus. Channeling the glam theatrics of David Bowie by way of the morgue, Murphy was drama incarnate, a Count Vlad lookalike who sometimes…

Fourth of Jose with Jose El Rey at the Vagabond

Jose El Rey If you haven’t seen local artist Jose El Rey perform live yet, you are missing one of the best spectacles out there. He easily won my heart over when I saw him perform at White Room earlier this year. And when he gave his cousin (niece?) Yarisleydi…

Free Vinyl Giveaway: Verve Remixed Vol. 4

The folks at the Verve Music Group are trying to make sure that the great jazz vocalists of yesteryear are never forgotten. So for the last six years, they’ve been creating a stellar remix series where they select some of the world’s most respected DJ’s and crate diggers, give them…

Last Night: Wisin Y Yandel at the American Airlines Arena

Bryan Falla Wisin Y Yandel Saturday, June 28, 2008 American Airlines Arena Better Than: Watching your mom and dad grind inappropriately to “Noche de Sexo” at last year’s New Year’s party. By 8:45 p.m., the arena had filled up almost entirely and the crowd was antsy. With every cadence, every…

Last Night: SummerFest 2008 at BankAtlantic Center

Sayre Berman Keyshia Cole Lil’ Wayne, Keyshia Cole, Akon and more at SummerFest 2008 Saturday, June 28, 2008 BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise Better Than: Throwback hip-hop fest Power House from the ‘90s with a side of Pop Rocks and OE. For South Florida hip-hop enthusiasts, Saturday night’s South Florida SummerFest 2008…

Kenny Millions Tonight at Radio-Active Records

If you’re not familiar with local avant jazz guru Kenny Millions, then you’ve got some catching up to do. The man is a saxophone virtuoso and if you listen to his music, without knowing anything about his storied past as a musician in other cities, you get the sense that…

Nic Fanciulli at Back Door Bamby Ticket Giveaway

Nic Fanciulli In a sort of last minute booking, British DJ extraordinaire Nic Fanciulli is stopping by the Vagabond Saturday night for its Back Door Bamby party. Don’t know who Fanciulli is? Well let me expand your musical knowledge. He’s a British house DJ that is associated with acts like…

Toby Keith

Depending on your demographic, Toby Keith is either a big redneck or the biggest thing to hit country music since Garth Brooks. The reality is, he’s both, and most casual music fans don’t know what to make of him. He’s famously pro-American (if that wasn’t already clear, check out “The…

Rooney

The L.A. quintet Rooney has not exactly suffered from its Hollywood-style connections or good looks. Frontman Robert Schwartzman is the brother of actor (and occasional rocker) Jason. (This also makes him son of producer Jack Schwartzman and part of the extended Coppola clan that includes his mother, Talia Shire, uncle…

Radioclit

They’ve got perhaps the best DJ-collective name of all time. That alone is reason enough to pay these guys some attention. And when you think about it, if you’re an audiophile, what else turns you on more than good music? Based in England, Johan Karlberg and Etienne Tron have been…

DJ Irie

When it comes to basketball-arena announcers, nobody in the country is as good at it as the Miami Heat’s DJ Irie. While a lot of b-ball fans are familiar with him only through his job with the Heat, he’s also made a strong name for himself as a club DJ…

Lazaro Casanova “Venganza” Remixes Now on iTunes

If you were part of the Revolver scene back in early part of the decade, you know Lazaro Casanova, who we picked as “Best Local Electronica Artist” in this year’s Best of Miami, very well. Then again, if you haven’t heard him spin in a while, you probably don’t know…

Last Night: Modest Mouse at the Fillmore Miami Beach

Logan Fazio Modest Mouse with The Dirty Dozen Brass Band Friday, June 23, 2008 The Fillmore, Miami Beach Better Than: The mental meltdown scribbling in your seventh-grade diary. Modest Mouse and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band kicked off their North American tour together last night to a packed, enthusiastic audience…

Spanish Soprano Montserrat Performing in Miami Beach Wednesday

Montserrat She doesn’t sound very concerned with how many bodies will – or won’t be – occupying seats inside the Byron Carlyle in Miami Beach on Wednesday night. “That’s out of my control,” says Spanish soprano singer Montserrat. “As long as the people there accept my work and I’m able…