The Y100 Jingle Ball December 15, 2007 The Bank Atlantic Center School will soon be coming to a brief respite as youngsters gear up for the holiday break. In celebration, every teen and tween in South Florida seemed to have congregated at the Y100 Jingle Ball with parents in tow…
Guess what her favorite band is. Big Bang Radio Swampgrass Willy’s December 15, 2007 Saturday seemed like it was a day of Big Bangs. South Florida’s hard rock juggernaut, Big Bang Radio, played three shows within a 10-hour span to celebrate the release of their debut album, To Mars from…
Chad “Pimp C” Butler 12/29/73-12/4/07 By John Nova Lomax I came late to the UGK party. I was out of the country for much of their rise from 1992-1995, and then I lived in Nashville, where their legend had not yet spread, until the end of 1997. Even after moving…
Stephen C. Foster, composer of Florida’s current state song There’s been talk of getting rid of Florida’s state song for years. “The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)” by Stephen C. Foster was officially adopted in 1935 — less enlightened times, shall we say. At the end of 2007, it…
Jethro Tull at Hard Rock Live Thursday, December 13, 2007 They may belong to an elite group of Sixties survivors, but unlike others of that ilk, Jethro Tull have never attained the special stature accorded others of that ilk. Sure, “Aqualung” remains a perennial classic, and the band’s brainy synthesis…
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Andrea Bocelli’s concert at the Hard Rock Live Wednesday night. I knew he had sung a duet at one point with Celine Dion, and I was worried that the entire concert would be in that vein: cheesy, easy listening pop. I was pleasantly…
Talk with any serious record collector around these parts, and they’ll tell you that Miami was once a rich haven for Southern soul music. Though tiny record labels often existed for only a few years at a time, they were good at finding cheap session players, raw talent, and cranking…
Internationally renowned guitar hero and Texas blues honcho Johnny Winter has been recording and playing shows with his brother, fellow bluesman Edgar Winter, since he was 15 years old. Since then, he has released over 30 records in just under 40 years as a recording artist, a prolific output for…
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…
With a voice like warm melted butter and songs that defined the “quiet storm” slow jam genre, the voice of Anita Baker ruled the airwaves during the ’80s and early ’90s. From the moment she released Rapture in 1986, Baker became a mainstay on R&B radio. Songs like “Caught up…
It’s funny that one of the greatest gifts to South Florida musickers this year is coming from San Francisco, but it’s pretty fitting that the givers are called Kreamy ‘Lectric Santa. The famed avant-punk-whatever quintet is flying in from the Bay Area to stage a festival, heartwarming to anyone who…
Music DVDs are typically used as stopgaps between CD releases or to drum up support for some other project (movie cameo, tour, impending jail sentence) that an artist is promoting. Most amount to little more than hastily shot concert films, music-video compilations, or the latest chapters in continuing sagas about…
While pop-punk arguably wore out its welcome awhile ago, the lads in Good Charlotte have at least had the decency to spice up and rearrange their sound over their last two albums, especially their latest, Good Morning Revival. The funny thing is, Good Charlotte thinks they’ve been wrongly labeled from…
There’s no reason to try and classify the softly beautiful yet surging downtempo rock ‘n’ roll that Mexican band Café Tacuba makes. To pigeonhole them, 18 years into their career, is just silly. They’ve been labeled one of the greatest rock en español bands for years, a title they used…
Cumbia isn’t the type of music that’s typically associated with American funk. Sure, you can do the proverbial watusi to a cumbia any night of the week depending on what nightclub you’re in, but there’s generally a distinct difference between Andean cumbia music and the funked-out grooves of ’60s psychedelic…
Local band, Map of the Universe, hit the South Florida scene in late 2005, after Ed Artigas and Ivan Marchena’s band (acclaimed local act Bling Bling) called it quits. Along with drummer Johnny Calderin, they started gigging all over the tri-county area, spreading some righteous hooks and melodies while releasing…
There are certain riffs that are forever emblazoned within the soundtrack of rock ‘n’ roll: the Beatles’ “Day Tripper,” the Stones’ “Satisfaction,” the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” and Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” Then there’s that opening guitar lick to “Locomotive Breath,” the inevitable showstopper in…
By the time the mid ’70s were underway, half of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest innovators were already dead. Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison (and those were just the J’s) were dying off one by one, and it was easy to think: Man, heaven must have one hell of a…
Cagney’s Bar 5983 S. University Dr. Davie, FL 33328 954-680-9578 You’ll probably miss the sign as you drive past Cagney’s on Stirling Road. I did. Many times. And I live a few blocks down the street. What you won’t miss is the dozen or so hogs, choppers, or whatever they…
The ’70s fell to Pink Floyd — and so the Zeroes have fallen to Daft Punk. The French duo started churning out techno/house/electronica music in the ’90s. Now, they’re globally dilated and definers of that diffuse genre. Alive 2007, their new album, is a live recording from a June concert…
Not to minimize Buck 65’s abilities as a rhymer, but it must be said: the greatest thing this man has brought to contemporary hip-hop is dirt. There’s dirt and noise and grime and spilled drinks all over Buck’s records, and his rough, full-throated voice is just part of it. The…
Retro soul’s got to be damn fine to justify its existence, since the stuff it’s modeled on is readily available for listening pleasure to anyone with a computer and access to Rhapsody, iTunes, or any number of re-issue catalogues. Fortunately, the latest from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings qualifies as…
