Remember that time you made out with the chick that was really a dude? The Brazilian Girls are that sort of gender switcheroo times three. Although singer Sabina Sciubba definitely has ovaries, the rest of the New York-based group are, ironically, not girls. Nor are any of them from Brazil,…
You can’t really soften up the image of a train, but you can power a train on 4/4 and 6/8 rhythms and keep it rolling on tingly mandolins, chilly violins, and the rollicking ramblings of dobro, guitar, and banjo. A big powerhouse train with an enormous heart: that’s Railroad Earth…
“Playing after the Woggles is dangerous,” claims Professor Manfred “The Man” Jones, lead vocalist of the venerable Athens, Georgia, garage-dance band. But this isn’t a homeland-security issue — it’s more like a severely severe blow to the overinflated egos of lesser bands and imitators. Predating the Dirtbombs, the White Stripes,…
Miami’s march into the national indie-rock ranks continues with Baby Calendar. The locally loved trio balances twee-pop tendencies with unpredictable songwriting, occasionally aggressive guitar, and clever, pop-culture-cluttered lyrics. Composed of guitarist/vocalist Tom Gorrio, bassist/vocalist Jackie Biver, and drummer Arik Dayan, the band has been on the road, traveling through the…
Swooping down from the soggy Gulf Coast like a band of funky-ass angels is an all-star band that’s easily the most impressive collection of roots-rock and Americana talent this region’s seen in quite a while. Led by the deranged and dreadlocked Papa Mali, the group comprises North Floridians J.J. Grey…
As part of Factory Records’ biggest act of the ’80s, New Order bassist Peter Hook helped fund the Hacienda club in Manchester, the birthplace of Britain’s acid-house movement. Since then, he’s absorbed firsthand some of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll/indie pop tunes of the past few decades. These days, he’s…
On a dark and stormy night last year, the creepiest band in America was burning bridges at one of the friendliest venues in Palm Beach County. A temporary ban from the Red Lion, two drummers, two bass players, and a new guitarist later, the Creepy T’s return to the scene…
You could finish repaving Clematis Street with all the hyphens: Happy Anarchy is the indie-brass-pub-emo-anthem-jam-rock band you’ve always craved but never thought possible. Hailing from Staten Island, New York, this energetic eight-piece plays the kind of broad-minded music that usually slips through the cracks because of bogus attempts at categorization…
On the short-lived but fruitful 1982 TV show Police Squad (which spawned three movies and countless replicants), the character of Johnny was an informant to whom not only cops went for information but also surgeons, priests, and, weirdly, Dick Clark. Dick pays Johnny and asks: “What’s ska?” Johnny clues him…
Though techno elitists constantly write breakbeat off as lightweight tripe, the backlash hasn’t fazed DJ Icey and Baby Anne one bit. Ten years on, these two Florida-grown club vets are still dropping those patented trapkit-thumping beats with swirling acid lines. The pair obviously know where their target demographic lies, having…
For the most part, dance music seldom holds its own outside the club, but there are exceptions. Recent danceable rockers like the darling Franz Ferdinand and future popsters the Epoxies have put out solid albums completely listenable without chemical or liquid aid. Add now to that playlist the Shiny Toy…
To those rockist stiffs who claim that all jam bands are talentless wankers: Your argument is wholly nullified by Garaj Mahal. This four-piece supergroup is made up of well-credentialed, veteran virtuosos from San Francisco and Chicago who get off on slapping around their extensive jazz background with rubbery improv and…
There are only two places on Earth with the right mix of ethnic and urban influences to spawn a band like Yerba Buena: Miami and New York. This Latin-leaning, multiculti seven-piece actually has roots in both cities, though Manhattan has served as its home and launching pad for world domination…
Thanks to the advent of sound-looping technology, the traditional one-man band can now multiply himself into a veritable one-man symphony. But even with the coolest, newest toys, you have to have serious chops and an innovative approach to keep an audience rapt and dancing all by yourself. That’s where Keller…
Athens may be best known as the brainy birthplace of quirk-pop outfits like R.E.M. and the B-52s, but the Georgia college town is also home to a whole different musical current. Athens’ forward-looking fusion scene has spawned well-known bands like Sound Tribe Sector 9 and Dubconscious, and the heavy-soul funk-hoppers…
So last month you had your shitkickers oiled up and your handlebar ‘stache all in line. You were all set to get off the barstool at Davie Junction and get down at the Tim McGraw show, maybe even catch some eye candy from his wife, the incomparable Faith Hill. Dagnabbit,…
There are two kinds of people in this world: the kind that likes Dave Matthews Band and the kind that likes good music. I’m not saying dear ol’ Dave is a bad person, but he was a much better person before he began believing his own exaggerated press. So for…
There was a point a few years back when hip-hop and hipsterism collided. It was inevitable: the music had spread from the inner city to the suburbs, and rather than turntables and old-school samplers, new acolytes took up laptops and actual instruments to voice their vision of hip-hop’s future. At…
The dance community may have a vaguely socialist aesthetic, but it still gets downright Nietzschean in the way it worships the übermensch: celebrity DJs. And for an up-close view of the will to power, just catch Los Angeleno DJ Dan. As part of Funky Tekno Tribe, Dan helped pioneer West…
It almost makes you wish it had always been this way: live music with 95-percent-nude babes dancing around! Thank you, Jesus, for Gumwrappers! Now, lack of a vestal virgin will not detract from the alternative-metal/dark-rock onslaught that Osiris Rising promises — and you can count on it, since the band…
The truly dedicated know that music is more than a means to good times and a little escapism — at its best, it can be a powerful unifying force and a conduit for a community’s conscience. This past spring, the local music scene came together to raise money and awareness…
Most of us have heard the cliché: “There are no second acts in American life.” But what of the Lazarus known as Meat Loaf? The Loaf, whose mama calls him Marvin Lee Aday, virtually ruled the AM airwaves in the late ’70s with hits “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”…
