Blogs

Chalk another victory up for the super-cool promoter folks at New Art School. Their latest coup? The legendary Mudhoney!! I don't want to use the "g" word (ok, grunge) here, but they were one of the first rad bands to come out of Seattle in the late Eighties/early Nineties. And of course, they were on Subpop. And of course, if none of this is ringing any bells, Kurt Cobain loved them and shouted them out all the time -- them, and Flipper, another really amazing band that seems to be sort-of criminally forgotten.

What's more, the band is playing at CHURCHILL'S. Awesome. All info below, and in the meantime, enjoy this video for "Here Comes Sickness." -- Arielle Castillo

Friday June 13, 2008

Mudhoney
(Sub Pop)

w/ special guests

Birds of Avalon (Volcom)
http://www.birdsofavalon.com/

TBA

Doors at 9pm
$15.00 advance - $20.00 at the door

tickets on sale now @
http://www.ticketweb.com

or at Sweat Records
http://sweatrecordsmiami.blogspot.com/ or at Radioactive Records
http://www.myspace.com/radio_active_records

http://www.churchillspub.com
http://www.newartschool.net

Churchill's Pub
5501 NE 2nd Avenue
Miamuh, FL
305 757 1807

(Via Idolator). Liberal mag Mother Jones did us all the favor of putting together an imeem streaming play list of songs used during military prison interrogations, according to various leaked documents. And I have to say -- I, too, would crack pretty quickly if forced to listen to "Babylon" by David Gray more than once or twice.

Among the other selections:

-The Barney TV show theme song
-"Stayin' Alive" by the BeeGees
-"Kim" by Eminem
-the "Meow Mix" jingle

Visit the Mother Jones site here to view the whole list of songs and stream them -- if you dare. -- Arielle Castillo

The Really, Really Good Looking Tour: Cobra Starship, Metro Station, We the Kings, the Cab
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Culture Room

Better Than: The programmed sounds coming from your 1985 Casio keyboard.

The bands on this tour could have held an open casting call, but they wouldn’t have found a better set of screeching, adoring fans than the sold-out, 98-percent female ’tweens at tonight’s show.

Sure, the performers are making a silly poke at the 2001 Ben Stiller-starring comedy Zoolander with their tour title, and they even incorporated Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” before playing, but from the crowd’s reaction, this tour might as well have been a serious male model showcase. Young girls nearly broke out into cat fights, storming the stage, shoving their peers (aka competition) just to make eye contact and snap shots of the bands with their iPhones (Believe me, there were enough iPhones to make this a commercial.). “Did you see him looking right at me?” (said to their friends) and “I want to have your babies” (shouted to the band) were the most popular overheard phrases of the night.

Of course, the bands loved this mob scene. They constantly flirted with the PG-13 status of the audience, tossing in banter about sex as much as possible between songs, “casually” lifting their T-shirts from time to time and making every effort to give a wink and smile at their wildly clamoring devotees. If they didn’t have guitars, I would have sworn they were a boy band. They may have invigorated the crowd with mildly risqué acts, but you couldn’t help but wonder if these guys were also taunting the nervous looking parents standing against the back wall of the venue.

(Note: As this critic learned, anyone wanting to see the Cab should, apparently, arrive well before doors are advertised as opening.)

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…when you can use VOCALOID, a totally fascinating, vaguely unsettling singing synthesizer program from – where else? – Japan. It doesn’t just do the robot voice box or vocoder sounds – this one actually sings, mainly through the reedy female voice of a fictional character, Miku Hatsune (based, however, on a series of recordings by the very much alive Japanese actress Saki Fujita). Users more or less simply input the melody, and then input whatever lyrics, and poof – a near pitch-perfect rendition that sounds almost human. Oh, it works in English, too, although Miku still can’t pronounce certain sounds. A new couple of voice kits, of a girl named Rin and a boy named Len, were released last December in Japan, but Miku remains the most popular.

Of course, YouTube is full of videos of Miku singing either existing songs, or people’s own eerie ditties fit for anime theme music. Here are a couple of my favorites.

(Oh, and thanks to Wired magazine for tipping me off in the new March issue.) – Arielle Castillo

Here’s Miku singing “Lorelei,” from the 1933 Gershin musical Pardon My English.

And here she is singing “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” by Chicago.

In case you didn't already know, Erykah Badu's long-awaited album, New Amerykah, Part One: 4th World War is in stores now. The album came out yesterday on Erykah's birthday and it's tight. Yesterday was also Ky-mani Marley's birthday...and it seems that a musical lovechild between the two artists must be in the cards. Regardless, Erykah's disc is finally out and the tracks I've heard off it so far are banging!!
It's hard to believe this is only Erykah's fourth studio album. It seems like she's been around the music scene forever, and in fact, Baduizm came out 11 years ago. She definitely takes considerable gaps in between projects but motherhood probably has a lot to do with that.
Here's a video for the first single off the album. It's called, "Honey" and is produced by 9th Wonder.

-- Jonathan Cunningham

This one takes me back to the last year that Slum Village was still together as a group and promoting videos for Fantastic Vol 2. Jay Dee was already working on Common's Like Water For Chocolate album and doing beats for a slew of other hip-hop heavyweights but Slum as the world officially knew them were still together.
The video itself is a trip and how they convinced Gary Coleman to be in it is a mystery. Shout outs to Gary Coleman for finally getting laid by the way.

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-- Jonathan Cunningham

By ANDY VIHSTADT

DangerKeys

Photo by Melanie Pullen for Fat Possum Records

Akron, Ohio’s Black Keys called on Danger Mouse and a handful of guests to flesh out their two-piece sound for LP5. Stream the first single, “Strange Times,” at the duo’s MySpace page. Attack & Release hits stores April Fool’s Day on Nonesuch.

Thought @ Work

The Roots return with Rising Down on April 29. Lyricist Black Thought has been quoted as saying, “I want to be the first rap artist to actually make a good 10th record,” although there isn’t much competition (LL Cool J?). “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)” is the first taste from the upcoming LP. Listen to it at Okayplayer.com.

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Leon Russell
February 23, 2008
The Culture Room
Better Than: And old 45 and a Kleenex.

There are very few songs that I’d travel some seventy-plus miles to hear sung live – very, very few. But among that short list is Leon Russell’s “A Song for You.” Covered over the years by the likes of Dusty Springfield, Peggy Lee, and, perhaps most famously, by Donny Hathaway, Russell’s pliant plea for clemency from the girl he let get away is without question one of the most moving examples of what a pop song can do to man, no matter how tough he pretends to be. Hell, even Willie Nelson, himself no slouch as a sinuously sensitive songwriter, saw fit to take Leon’s song out for a sing.

Which made last night’s Culture Room trek all the more historical – and poignant. No, Willie wasn’t in the house, and Peggy, Dusty, and Donny, unfortunately, are all long gone. But Leon the lion-maned was there alright – and very much here, even if he was not so much now.

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Click here to see a slide show of the Jose El Rey's performance.

Jose El Rey at Poplife
February 24, 2008
White Room

Better Than: Shopping at Flamingo Plaza

Local musician Jose El Rey is the embodiment of the Cuban stereotype. He is flirtatiously misogynistic, unbelievably crass and sports a look straight out of Que Pasa U.S.A.? Saturday night at Poplife, he had the crowd literally eating out of his hands in the form of guava and meat pastelitos.

There isn’t much to say about El Rey’s music. It’s a mix between punk-rock aesthetics, fuzzy electro and kitschy pop sprinkled with a Cuban saying or two. His being Cuban is always at the forefront of his performance, giving shout outs to Ñooo Que Barato! all the while sounding like the drunk Cuban grandfather that says the most inappropriate things like, “Aqui hay ma’ pajaros que en Parrot Jungle,” which loosely translated means “There are more birds (gays) here than in Parrot Jungle.”

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Since this festival is only two weeks away, you might as well start mapping out your plans for Langerado weekend now. It's March 6-9, which is right around the corner. Here's the official line-up with set times for all the bands that you want to see. Friday and Saturday are looking extra sexy but Sunday looks solid too. Some of the best bands are playing at the same time so strategize people. Strategize.

-- Jonathan Cunningham

One of Central Florida's most popular jam bands, Shak Nasti, is in town and playing a couple of shows--one in Fort Lauderdale, the other in Coral Gables. Langerado is just around the corner and if you want to get in an early jam fix, go check these guys out tonight and tomorrow night at a club near you.

From a Press Release

-- Born in 2004, Shak Nasti started synthesizing supple thumps and crystalline sheets of joy on top of snow peaked mountains. An aggregate of several genres, the Shak managed to coalesce the biproducts into one tantilizing thing. The band is about connecting to people, lyrically or musically, or sometimes physically. The music cannot be boxed into a specific movement or "club", so consider it a variety band, playing groove, drum'n'bass, reggae, Americana, and a little afro-beat.

Shak Nasti performs on Thursday, Feb 21 at 9 PM at the Dive Bar; 3233 N Ocean Blvd (A1A), Fort Lauderdale.They also perform on Friday, Feb 22 at 9 PM at the Titanic Brewery, 5813 Ponce De Leon Blvd., Coral Gables. Both shows are free.

A.B. Quintanilla being interview by a reporter at his Listening Party.

A.B. Quintanilla & The Kumbia All Starz Listening Party
February 20th, 2008
The Raleigh Hotel

Better Than: Staying at home and listening to a 20-second song snippet from Amazon

Oeuvres, Champagne, and Cumbias? Last night’s listening party sponsored by Zune for A.B. Quintanilla’s new album, Planeta Kumbia, was something of a swanky media circus. The event—held within the exclusive penthouse suite at South Beach’s uber-ritzy Raleigh Hotel—seemed to attract just about every Latin record executive, reporter, and “model type” to ever set foot in South Florida.

The MTV cameras were there, so too were the TV correspondents for Univision and countless other media outlets. Then, standing at the center of the entire ruckus, was A.B. Quintanilla, the main purveyor of the genre known as Tex-Mex-Cumbia.

The media onslaught was to be expected. After all, the 44-year old Quintanilla is one of the best selling producers in the Latin music business. He rose to fame back in the mid 80’s, writing hits like “Amor Prohibido” and "Como La Flor" for his famous sister, the late Tex-Mex superstar Selena.

After Selena’s untimely death in 1995—her ex-manager murdered the famed songstress at gunpoint—Quintanilla took a break from songwriting but came with back the best selling group the Kumbia Kings.

In the group, Quintanilla acts the composer, arranger and base player, past Kumbia Kings alumni like singer Frankie J have gone on to become stars on their own right. Cumbia, by the way, is a traditional two-step style dance from Colombia. Quintanilla, however is no traditionalist and sets modern elements of hip-hop to his Cumbias.

After waiting for all the Latin TV show hosts to interview Quintanilla about his personal life (apparently blue is his favorite color) the opportunity arose to ask him some questions about the new album.

“I feel very proud,” said Quintanilla while sporting a black Kangol hat and sipping mineral water. “It’s really the first record that I’ve made where I like every one of the songs. I really busted my ass on this album. The style is a lot more progressive, to me it sounds like Timbaland meets Cumbia.”

Whether Quintanilla’s Cumbia sound will be a hit in South Florida remains to be seen, especially since our region seems to flavor other Latin Urban styles like reggaetón and Latin hip-hop. Still, the albums first single, “Por Ti” featuring Flex on vocals, sounds distinctively fresh.

“I think my new music will fit in Miami because now I’m doing pop,” says Quintanilla. “The new single is already on the Top-20 Latin Billboard Charts, so it’s reaching people in all parts of the country.”

With that said, A.B. Quintanilla was whisked away by Rodolfo Lopez Negrete—the label head of EMI Televisa—and the listening party officially began at the Raleigh Hotel penthouse swank pad. There was a DJ playing Planeta Kumbia while the bold, beautiful and very thirsty crowd drank premium sprits from the open bar.

The record sounded good, and yeah Quintanilla is right: the new album does add a pop quality to his urban Cumbias, rendering them less harsh and more melodious. But it was hard to listen to the record, as too the many of the Miami Beach scenesters were talking over the music.

Still it was a fun party, next time, though, the DJ should turn the music louder.

Personal Bias: I will always be grateful to Quintanilla for having writing “Amor Prohibido” the best songs Selena ever recorded.

Random Detail: The album Planeta Kumbia features a new band line up, this time and this around they are known as The Kumbia All Starz

By The Way: The album Planeta Kumbia is out February 26th

--Jose Davila

Bleubird is a rapper who has taken an unusual path to success. His style is a combination of the heady white-boy rhymes of Aesop Rock and the rapid-fire spoken-word style of Saul Williams. Hell, call him Allen Ginsberg with shelltoes on if you want to, because he can fit that role as well. He's been rapping on the South Florida scene for a while and isn't afraid to speak his mind, especially if it helps him stand out from all the other bling-bling rappers going left as he goes right. The beats to some of his material are a bit mundane, but the lyrics are strong enough, and he delivers them clearly, so you don't miss a word. Besides his b-boy swagger, there's a touch of guitar and folk music that's a nice change. His newest album, RIP U$A, (Birdfleu) takes a few swipes at the Bush regime and commercialism, but what stands out about the LP is that each song feels like its own minimovie. You feel the emotion in Bleubird's songs, and everything flows well, even though no two songs sound the same.

February, 22 2008 at @ CENTRAL PUB w/ bleubird, astronautalis & dj immortal
2160 mears pkwy, MARGATE, Florida 33063
Cost : 10-15

An ill Astronautilus video.

-- Jonathan Cunningham

The versatile multilingual vocalist Elin was born in Sweden, but you would never know it by listening to her. Her style has a strong Brazilian influence even when she is belting out standards like Gershwin's “Fascinating Rhythm” or her own compositions, as heard on her début CD, Lazy Afternoon (Blue Toucan Music).

“It's pretty hard for me to categorize myself as a vocalist, as I think it's hard for many musicians to categorize their own sound,” she says by e-mail. “I'm very influenced by Brazilian music and singers, as well as jazz vocalists and pop vocalists. I guess I see myself as a vocalist who likes to sings beautiful songs in as many languages as possible.”

On her disc, Brazil indeed seems to have a special place in heart, as she takes on tunes like Ary Barroso's “Aquarela do Brasil” and Jobim's “Bonita.” “I was 15 on summer break from school in Sweden, so I started rummaging through my parents' record collection,” she recalls. “I'd been studying music and instruments since I was 7, and was getting ready to start a music high school that fall. I pulled out one LP only from the whole bunch and chose to play it for no particular reason whatsoever -- It was João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim. I assumed it was jazz, and although I'd never liked the sounds of jazz before, I decided right there and then that I was going to be a jazz singer.”

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So Mad Cobra didn't really have much of a career outside of this track, but for a short while this tune ran dancehalls around the globe. Since it's throwback day, don't be afraid to sing along to this one.

-- Jonathan Cunningham