Miami Blog

Ximena Sariñana is nothing if not precocious. The Mexican actress/singer-songwriter claims her love affair with music began at the age of 2, when she attended an Ella Fitzgerald concert and at 7 she was enrolled in singing lessons with famed vocal coach, Ricardo Sanchez at the urging of her neighbor, another well-known Mexican actress/singer/song-writer, Cecilia Toussaint. Around the same time she also took up the piano. At the age of 9 she acted in Hasta Morir, produced by her father, and at by 11 she was acting in telenovelas. It was a natural progression for the bright daughter of artistic parents, producer/director Fernando Sariñana and screenwriter Carolina Rivera.

Ximena has kept busy in the years since, continuing to act in telenovelas and film as well as scoring music for film, earning a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, and finally, releasing her first album last year. Mediocre debuted to much acclaim, landing directly on the Mexican Top 100 Albums Chart at #19 and hauling in the accolades in the process. A smart blend of alternative, pop/rock and vocal jazz, the album nabbed her nominations in both the Grammy and Latin Grammy.

This spring Ximena kicks off her first U.S. tour, the dates of which have just been announced. Her schedule will take her to Dallas, Houston, San Fran, Anaheim, L.A., Chicago, New York, and of course, Miami, among others, including a stop at South By Southwest. The tour kicks off here on April 18th, when Ximena plays the Bandshell in Miami Beach.

Day 3, Friday, March 14

I'll admit, by Friday, day 3 of SXSW, I was already starting to feel the exhaustion a bit, and I was starting to need some motivational cheerleading. Luckily, I got to start the day off easy with the daytime party thrown by the Miami and Broward-Palm Beach New Times' parent company, Village Voice Media, at the cavernous venue La Zona Rosa. The lineup: Health, the Cribs, the Black Keys, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and ....And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

You can read a review of the Black Key's set, penned by Pete Freedman, music editor of New Times sister paper the Dallas Observer, here.

You can also stream a live track from the party, of a newly debuted Black Keys song, here.

Next up, it was out of the crush of the main SXSW drag around E. 6th Street, past downtown Austin, to catch up with hometown boys Torche, who were playing one of a couple of Vice magazine parties on the same block. I walked into a large, sun-bleached park that looked like Williamsburg, Brooklyn, or whatever the Austin equivalent of it is, had puked all over it and distributed lots of free booze on the way -- of course, tall-boy cans of Miller High Life and Sparks. No free water, though, which is why it's so easy to remain, um, tipsy throughout the span of this whole thing.

Slurping on a high-octane Sparks plus, I was checking out some metally looking merch and a Motörhead-logo-painted Scion (nothing says metal like a Scion) when I realized that, 15 minutes past Torche's set time, nothing much was going on stage. Then I quickly realized, I was at the WRONG Vice-sponsored, metal-heavy show full of cool kids on the block. Torche was at the one across the street, at the Longbranch Inn, a really awesome barbecue joint/dive bar that looks ready to fall apart five minutes ago.

With a car like this parked inside, can you blame me for thinking Torche might have possibly been playing there?

So I’ve finally gotten a decent night’s sleep after getting back on Sunday from SXSW. And, while here in Miami, we have to start down the countdown to WMC (next Tuesday! Get excited)! I still wanted to wrap-up a summary of the live music I saw out in Texas. The actual event is such a circus that while I tried to blog daily, I gave up after the first day (which was intense from the get-go – you can read my summary of Wednesday, March 12, Day 1, here).

Day 2, Thursday, March 13

Thursday was one of my busiest days, with a crazy array of genres, and both old and new acts represented.

There was a LOT of quality heavy music at SXSW this year, and Thursday got to an unbelievably, well, fucking awesome start: the Vice magazine/Scion metal party at Stubb’s, with doors opening at the very un-metal time of noon. Also, it was extremely sunny and hot – not good weather for black, or for leather. Didn’t matter to the crowd, which stretched two blocks deep by the time I got there, around 1 p.m. (and just after an abortive set by Norway’s black metal legends Enslaved, d’oh! Not sure why they were cut off early).

The crowd at Stubb's waiting for Napalm Death. Don't worry, I'm sure the dude in green was summarily kicked out for wearing a bright color.

Here’s the second installment from our guest blogger, Sir Winston, proprietor of Churchill’s Pub in Miami. Here are his highlights for SXSW day three, Friday

Rachel Goodrich

Rachel Goodrich woos new and influential friends

Miami native Rachel Goodrich's three-song set at the swanky BMI/Billboard Luncheon on the lawn was truly a coming-out, debutante style. She was accompanied by Mike Bordolon on double bass, and carried, as well, her trademark kazoo and ukulele onstage (besides her guitar). She was one of the newest and as of then, most unfamiliar names to the crowd of high-profile industry professionals. (This was not true of most of the other artists at the gig, which included Grammy nominee Eldar, international star James Yuill, and well-known composer Kaki King). However, she proved herself as someone who soon would be recognized in her own right. The producer and publicity agents at the front table were generous in their praise, and she garnered much applause from a large audience. Perhaps next year she can play a full showcase at SXSW.

The Cool Kids hanging with the next president.

Well, it's another HOT day in Texas and the music is as hot as the temperatures. Some parts of the metro area hit 96 degrees and Austin proper was at 93 degrees today. That's a record for March 14th btw.
Anyway, the music has all been solid and there's tons of crazy collaborations going on. Last night I caught Lou Reed from the Velvet Underground playing a show with Moby backing him up on guitar.
2 Live Crew and Duffy are playing a show tomorrow. So are Talib Kweli and Ice Cube. Go figure.
Anyway...TODAY, I caught a solid DJ set with Chuck from the Cool Kids tearing up the dance floor at the Whisky Bar.
Dude played everything from Chicago house to Detroit booty and Miami bass.
Lot's of madness.
Guests strolling through the party included J Davey, C-Rayz Walz', Dead Prezfrom Dead Prez, Now On, and others.
It was a great time but the best part of the show was when Game Rebellion came on stage and gave everyone some good ol' hardcore black punk done right.
They played a bunch of good originals and some hard covers of tracks by Tupac, Jay-Z, and Nirvana.
Quality hip-hop all the way around. It was the type of show where punk and hip-hop could combine. More like New York 1982 in Manhattan where Bambataa and the Bad Brains could play the same shows.
Hopefully that's a good sign for 2008.

--Jonathan Cunningham

Reporting in from SXSW in Austin, where the proliferation of barbecue, noise, and way too much free booze is starting to severely hamper my ability to take notes.

It’s now day three of the music marathon, and over the last couple of days I’ve caught a few legends, maybe a couple soon-to-be-legends, and … I should make a clever pun here, but I’ll just say, bands that were not so great.

Much of Wednesday is already lost to the sands of time, so a few highlights:

Happy Surprise #1: An afterparty for a screening of the new Lou Reed Berlin movie. I missed the screening, but hustled over to Pangaea (yep, same as at the Hard Rock Live, same logo, same strange piratey décor, only here with more skulls and Texasy touches). First cool random discovery was What Laura Says Thinks and Feelsfrom Tempe, Arizona; a bunch of shaggy, long-haired types with a really pleasant, tripped out, fleshed out psych-ey sound. Kind of like Devendra Banhart but not quite as weird, and with a big backing band. Awesome, creepy harmonies. After that, more excellent retro psychedelics from Austin’s own Black Angels.

Second stop, on to La Zona Rosa to see none other than Van Morrison -- definitely one of the best things about SXSW is, besides the new bands, sort of return appearances by classic artists. What to say about Van Morrison? Rumors of his condition seem to be exaggerated; his voice sounded great, but the whole vibe was a little subdued, and he sat the entire time.

Are the bomb!
For numerous reasons. A) the singers are all talking in funny accents. Love it.
And B) The food. OMG.
British showcase. Hipsters and free bbq+brisket!
Canadian showcase. Yup, Canunks and free brisket! Simple but appreciated.
But the Spanish showcase...papo! Listen. Free San Miguel cerveza. Sangria. Paella. Chorizo (nasty) but whatever. Great music. On my way to see Mala Rodriguez right now at the Spanish party. There's a Brazilian one coming up as well.
Looking forward to the Australian showcase tomorrow. Trying to eat me some Koala.
Holla: )

-Jonathan Cunningham

The world has no clue how he pulled this off.

I'm wide awake. Hungover. Woozy. But I can still see straight and that's all that counts.
Day one of SXSW went by like a blur. Canadian showcases with incredible Texas brisket were a personal favorite. Caught the Black Angels yesterday at Pangaea nightclub. Who knew it was a chain? Same decor as the Pangaea and Gryphon nightclub at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood. And there's a club next door called Gryphon. Definitely a chain. Anyways...free Kettle One vodka made it worth it. The Black Angels were decent but they looked and sounded like a knockoff version of Vietnam.

Hanging with the FADER kids was alright. Felt like Williamsburg, Brooklyn though. It was just a courtyard full of hipsters competing in the hipster Olympics. Not as cool as it should have been. But I did connect with a bomb-ass hip-hopper named 77 Clash (pronounced Two Sevens Clash--taken from the 1977 Culture album of the same name--RIP Joseph Hill). ANYWAY. He's definitely worth checking out as is the Athletic Mic League who rolled through the FADER fort and represented for real hip-hop. That's about all I can remember from last night. You know, Gato Negro wine, Lone Star Beer, and Dewars scotch shouldn't be consumed at the same time. Memory loss ensues shortly afterward. Don't ever try it.

This morning is difficult. Waking up my first thoughts were...what the hell happened?
That's usually a sign of a good night. Thankfully, there was a great breakfast showcase next door to my hotel around 7:30 a.m. so I hopped over to the Four Seasons and caught Steve Poltz play a great set of music off his new album, Traveling, and then I ate some breakfast tacos with Lyle Lovett. He's a friendly guy. So is Billy Bob Thornton. But that was yesterday. Gotta stay focused here. Steve brought his A-game when it comes to folk-rock and kept everyone in good spirits. He's originally from Nova Scotia and sings about Ernie Harwell. I was sold after the first song.
I've got to say, coffee, danishes, breakfast tacos, and live music go together better than I expected. Lovett was having a good time. His flat-top is more tame than it used to be and at one point he leaned in my direction and told me I was much cooler than Julia Roberts.
Okay maybe not. But he was thinking it.

Anyway, I'm off to find more music. As I type, Scott Ian from Anthrax just walked passed me and I've got a feeling Thursday is going to be OFF THE CHAIN!

-- Jonathan Cunningham

The long-haired, natty Lazaro Casanova got his start playing at the now-defunct old Malibu Grand Prix’s infamous Full Moon parties, int he Nineties. But he really became a local marquee name as the musical selector du jour for the main rooms indie-ish dance parties in Miami, most notably at the long-running, now-defunct Revolver. But when pressing play on White Stripes discs got boring, Casanova branched out on his own, at home. Tapping into the burgeoning underground dance scene when it was still in its infancy, Casanova cranked out filthy, searing bedroom remixes of that quickly virally spread across the Internet.

Luckily for him, Miami is also a place where DJs like to party semi-incognito, and eventually he met the guys of MSTRKRFT, who took a shine to him. They recruited him for a national tour, and soon he was playing sizzling, electroey-housey sets, heavily featuring his own chunky, thumping compositions. Since then, he’s become a sort of unofficial third arm of that outfit, rocking crowds of thousands across the world. He still manages to update his blog, Shot Callin’, with the latest white-hot dance music, and his first official EP is in the works. – Arielle Castillo

Saturday, March 15 9:00 p.m.
Vice (302 E 6th St, Austin, TX)

Here's a clip of Laz Casanova playing at Personal Fest last December in Buenos Aires.

This quartet specializes in face-melting volume, pounding riffage, and a churning, breakneck-speed riffage section. But don’t tag ’em with the “m” word – Torche is a band possessing the rare ability to create heavy, heavy sounds that remain versatile and nuanced. With a floating overlay of intelligent, almost shoegazey textures, the band has gained a strangely eclectic, fiercely loyal international legion of fans thanks to opening slots on tours with everyone from Isis to Mogwai. Their self-titled debut LP, released on the indie Robotic Empire, scored raves from the likes of Decibel and Spin. Even Pitchfork raved about their live appearance at the Gramercy Theatre during CMJ last fall with the legendary Jesu. A follow-up full-length is due out later this year on Hydra Head, and, like the debut, was engineered by Kurt Ballou of Converge. You’ve been warned. -- Arielle Castillo

Friday, March 14 1:15 a.m.
Red 7 (611 E 7th St, Austin, TX)

Here's live video of Torche performing "Safe" and "Mentor" last fall at Lee's Palace, Toronto.