Considering Ex-Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee campaigned on an anti-gay rights platform in 2008 - it may come as a surprise that he went on Fox News' "Red Eye" program as the resident "doom metal" expert" to extol the virtues of Miami doom metal band Torche - who are fronted by openly gay singer/guitarist Steve Brooks.
Granted, Huckabee is known to play guitar at his rallies - and he does have a semblance of a sense of humor - but the sex, drugs and rock and roll references that Huckabee drops in the below clip would be stunning coming out of any politicians mouth, let alone a "family values" conservative. Among his descriptors of Torche's music: "Imagine if you wrapped a percocet in a slab of bacon, fed it to a woolly mammoth and shouted: "Dance hairy boyfriend! Dance!"
Then in a brief interview, Brooks explains why heavy metal is "the gayest form of music out there", and reveals that his sexual preferences don't run too far from huckabee's older butch build. Maybe if Governor Huckabee is lucky, Brooks will save the last dance for him.
All hail the return of Oleg! After a year-long tenure as a clown in a traveling russian circus, founding member Oleg Bernov has rejoined the Red Elvises as their Bailalaika (that giant red instrument above) player and turned "Ivan & The Red Elvises" back into "The Red Elvises."
Coming off a a pair of fantasy fest dates in Key West, The Red Elvises should be primed to deliver the brand of Siberian Surf Rock/rockabilly that they have perfected during their 11-album, 15 year career.
To see The Red Elvises is to love them. Only the most lifeless cynic would deride their joyful noise as lame schtick. Schtick it may be - but lame it most definitely ain't. You will hear songs about bellydancing. You will participate in a conga line. You will throw down shots. You may pass out on the pool table and wake up on the hood of your car. But no matter what, you will have had a good time.
The Monterey Club is at the south east corner of US 1 and State Rd 84, next to gold coast roller rink. Tickets are $15. Doors are at 8pm.
Twenty years in hip hop is a long, long, time. Bay area rapper E-40 has been on the grind for so long, that he has popularized sub-genres (hyphy) and was among the first rappers to own and operate his own label (Sick Wid It). He's also owned hamburger joints, nightclubs, written a book of hip hop slang and with a little help from Lil Jon, had his first and only smash hit 14 years into his recording career.
Unfortunately, that hit, 2006's Pepe Le Phew-esque dance floor call "U and Dat," temporarily ruined music because it encouraged every other hip hop artist touse T Pain to sing autotuned hooks on their record. Worse, it enabled T Pain to become the least talented singer to ever become a major star.
Thankfully, people are finally getting sick of autotune, and E 40 is back on the grind, doing what he does best. He released two "Revenue Retrevin'" albums this past March, and has plans to release another two ""Revenue Retrievn'" albums next February. Opening up for Tech N9ne at the 500 capacity Culture Room tomorrow night may be a long way from his "Yay Area" mansion - but every little bit of retrieved revenue helps. After all, it's hard out there for a pimp (when you need money for the McMansion mortgage.)
For the last 7 years, Baby Loves Disco has taken dance music off the streets and onto the playground - hosting parties for kids 6 months to 6 years old all over the globe. They were immortalized in Neal Pollack's memoir "Alternadad" and now they have a self-titled album under their belt, produced by hip hop/neo soul luminary King Britt (Digable Planets).
Baby Loves Disco will be rocking North Miami Beach's Cafe Bambini on Wednesday, November 10th at 3pm. Proceeds from the event will benefit Alex's Lemonade Stand , a foundation dedicated to finding a cure for pediatric cancer. Tickets are $10 per "walking human" ("crawlers" are free) and are available here . So if south Florida's parents/uncles/aunts ever wanted to show off their dance moves to their youngins and not get an eye roll -now is the time. And even if you do get one, it'll soon be forgotten with a scoop of post-dance floor gelato.
Cafe Bambini is located at: 3073 ne 163rd street, north miami beach. For more information, call: 305 944-1566
South Floridians of a certain age remember when you could tell the seasonal changes up north by the influx of French Canadian tourists clogging up Hollywood Beach. A silly stereotype of rude, banana-hammock wearing clods took hold. It became so ingrained that even today you can purchase a "french canadian tourist" halloween costume.
Tonight, when the Vagabond's "Shake" party hosts French Canadian laptop guy Poirier, you can find out what would happen if the above caricature had an obnoxious musical baby. Poirier's videos contain close-ups of urinals. He practices musical colonialism by hiring a variety of rappers and toasters to freestyle over his half-thought out electro beats to give him "authenticity." But instead of making a musical whole, all it does is separate the "real" from the "memorex." He's a musical tourist of the worst kind. But as he works a laptop and makes dance music, he gets an equal "shake" in the magic city.
Lucky for him, we truly are one city under a groove.
The Miami Music Scene has been burying a lot of its greats of late, and today I shoveled dirt on the grave of one of Miami's most unique musicians, guitar legend Johnny Salton.
Save for the occasional airplane flying overhead, today's ceremony at Mt. Sinai cemetery in Opa Locka was tranquil and somber. A far cry from the joyful noise Johnny spent his life making. Charlie Pickett, Johnny's singer when he performed in the Eggs, gave a heartfelt eulogy about Johnny's "uplifting" ability. Pickett orated that "Johnny was a natural guitar player" and "he didn't play in squares or circles - he played in ovals."
It's hard to explain Johnny Salton's musical legacy in words better than that - so below is a video containing Johnny's uplifting playing on the Eggs song "Overtown." Later this week we will discuss Johnny's other two bands of note: The Reactions and his most enduring project, The Psycho Daisies. Today, let's listen to the "oval" playing of Johnny Salton. He didn't write this tune, and he didn't sing it - but his stamp on it is unmistakable.
Last year, Jordan Levin's Miami Music Matters expose on the first Miami Music Festival revealed a hopelessly disorganized failure. The MMF steamrolled several acts from overseas and out of town who thought they were in for a proper music festival experience ala Austin's SXSW festival or New York City's CMJ music marathon. Instead they played to empty rooms that had rarely, if ever, featured original live music.
This year, with more sponsorshop and a booked weekend at Bayfront - featuring 90s Miami Bass stars Poison Clan - The Miami Music Festival is seeking respectablity. But their meat and potatoes of shaking down $35 "registration fees" from unknown local bands and placing them in unsuitable venues remains the same. Save for NYC all-girl garage band The Vivian Girls - who are playing some joint on Lincoln Road Mall - instead of Churchill's where they belong- the Miami Music Festival is minus any band worth the day-of-show-one-venue $15 cover charge, let alone the $25 all-inclusive wristband.
It's a trainwreck easily spotted a month away from its three day run in November - but don't take my word for it. Below is an animated callout from Will Lopez of Hialeah punkers Guajiro. He doesn't pull any punches in this brutally descriptive 7 minute screed. My favorite part is when the charactor portraying the festival organizer relates: "I don't care if you scream into a bullhorn and record it on garage band over the sound of sperm whales mating - as long as you pay the fee - you are in."
Booze sponsored free shows have become the new golden ticket in the music business. There's no need to agonize about midweek bombs or gauging your fans with high ticket prices - just get a corporate sponsor who wants to look hip, and let them pay for you to curate cool.
Andrew W.K. has done just about everything in show business. He's played drums alongside our local noise hero Rat Bastard. He had an MTV smash with "Party Hard." He owns a night club, has starred in a film, and played Insane Clown Posse's white trash orgy: "The Gathering Of The Juggalos." He is so interesting, that at one point he was doing a lecture series where he denied being a real person instead of a character ala Menudo. He's the perfect person to play wing man for the old goat in the Dos Equis commercials.
The "most interesting show in the world" is more Jim Rose Circus than "Gathering Of The Juggalos." W.K. is the sole music act, alongside magicians, contortionists and other old world carnival acts And if that's not enough, odds are that Dos Equis will be giving away free samples. So for a good time, click on this link for free tickets while they last.
"The most interesting show in the world" takes place next wednesday, October 20th at Revolution in Fort Lauderdale. You must have a free ticket to enter, along with an ID that shows your age to be 21+.
Soul music legend Solomon Burke passed away this morning on an LA-Amsterdam flight. He died not because he neglected himself by growing to 400 pounds at the age of 70 years old - but because his life was so large, he needed a body that size to carry it. It's hard to imagine anyone else who can manage a business empire while keeping house with 21 kids, 90 grandkids and 19 great grandkids. Now imagine leading a church in addition to maintaining successful secular and gospel music careers on top of it. Is it any wonder the man needed a little insulation?
If you want to read the party line obituaries that attempt to define my friend Solomon Burke by his songs being played in 80s flicks - have at it. They are all over the internet. Sure, Solomon was perturbed that he didn't get full writing credit for "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love." Sure, he would have liked to have been on top of the heap in the 1960s when Soul music was on top. But he was enthused and excited to have been brought back into the spotlight in 2001 with his comeback album "Don't Give Up On Me." That album, composed entirely by famous fans of his like Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan and tom Waits, brought Burke back from the modern-day chitlin circuit, to the NPR crowd. He was current, hip and still had all the pipes he had in his youth.
He was also the funniest man I've ever met. I've traded jokes with Paul Mooney, King Coleman and Rudy Ray Moore. But Solomon's timing, energy and wit was unsurpassed. After the interview I did with him in 2003, he took King Coleman's phone number from me and brutally crank called the mashed potato man / MC of The Apollo Theater, pretending to be James Brown's hyperactive manager Charles Bobbit - not letting King get a word in edgewise.
"Mistah Brown wants to hireyouforabigbigshownextweek, KING canyoudoitformisterbrown? Misterbrownexpectsyou tobethere,you knowhow heis!"
"Whhaaaa" Huuuuuhh"?? A befuddled King answered, 40 years removed from Bobitt's madness.
"King, it's Solomon!" Solomon giggled
"Oh MAAAAaN! You don't need to pretend to me no BROWN!"
In the short time I knew Solomon, we traded wisecracks and hilariously wild stories (Like how he played a KKK rally with his face bandaged up like the invisible man), but he could get deep too. A few minutes after chiding me for not being married, my circumstances appeared to change and I proposed to my girl and got a "yes". I called to tell him the news, Solomon's voice dropped an octave and told me this was a sign from above and he was personally blessing my wedding. Two days later, an unreleased autographed CD arrived in the mail, inscribed to me and my wife.
At our wedding reception, only "Don't Give Up On Me" was played. It's a gorgeous record that was somehow recorded live in very few takes. It got to the heart of his 40 year career and gave him a Grammy to kick off his last decade. I only spoke to him 10 more times after that. He had a busy life - and there's only so much downtime to share with white boys from Miami when you have all that love to spread around the world. Nonetheless he made an impact on my life - and left a giant footprint on music history.
15 years ago, a teenage guitarist named Justin Gracer caught an all ages gig by Juan Montoya's emo/shoegaze act Ed Matus' Struggle. Gracer was mesmerized and did everything in his power to become like Montoya and front his own band in that vein. But where Montoya's guitar heroics were better suited to metal - as proven by his tenure in Torche and his current project MonstrO - Gracer fit the genre perfectly. His love for the Pixies instilled a sense of dynamics and economy that is very rare in young songwriters. His guitar playing was tasteful, he was cute and he could lead a band without seeming like an arrogant ass.
Unlike Montoya, Gracer could sing. But due to his love for the Struggle, he'd write songs that were sans vocals for minutes. Sometimes it would be maddening. On more than one occasion I witnessed folks approach him and say: "You know why Juan doesn't sing? It's because he can't! Sing!"
But Gracer danced to the beat of his own drummer, and his quartet bounced around South Florida waiting for their album to come out on local project label Spy-Fi for nearly half a decade. It finally did- on CDR - at their last gig seven years ago.
This Sunday marks the first Machete gig in 7 years. It's a free show at the Annex aka The Shack North - Humbert's recording/rehearsal studio in Hialeah. The first band goes on at 4 and Machete have to be off stage by 9pm. As the Dolphins have this Sunday off, I can't think of a better way to spend the last bit of the weekend than listening to Gracer hit his high notes.
