Miami Music Matters

Anti Art vs Art -- Or No Wave vs Nu No Wave? Find Out Tonight at Churchills!

It's the day before Art Basel, which means it's time for Churchill's annual "Anti Art vs Art" extravaganza. Making this year's model interesting, beyond the chance to see dutch keyboard oddity Harry Merry, is the juxtaposition between Tampa Nu-No wave act Neon Blud and our hometown OG noise auteur Rat Bastard.

In this era of "anything the 80s did I can do better (not!)," It's not surprising that a few kids in their early 20s torrented the pre-"sister" Sonic Youth albums and kicked them up a notch with dashes of hardcore punk and early 90s amphetamine reptile postpunk. What is a little surprising, is that Neon Blud have chosen the lowly cassette as the means to release their music. If there was one thing that totally sucked about the 1980s, it was paying $10 for a disposable medium that sounded like mating whales when magnetized/ if you played it enough times to actually enjoy it.

Rat Bastard on the other hand, is old enough to not only have experienced the No Wave scene that changed his life - he took it to another level - winning Spin Magazine's "Worst Band In America" contest with his outfit "Scraping Teeth" back when Neon Blud were in Kindergarten. He doesn't even bother with song structure anymore, preferring just to "kill" anyone within hearing range with whatever madness he can conjure up.

So go to Churchills tonight and place your bets as to which noise entity will beat someone senseless tonight. I'm putting $5 on Rat. That's also the price of admission, so it's covered.

Dashboard Confessional Celebrates 10 year Anniversary of Swiss Army Romance Lp @ Revolution

11years ago, Boca Raton aftercare administrator Chris Carraba knocked out a few songs on his acoustic during some down time at work. He went home, recorded them and made 4 cassette copies. One of the cassettes  landed in the hands of teenage record mogul Amy Fiddler, who annoyed Carraba into recording more songs in that vein and letting her put "The Swiss Army Romance" out under the name Dashboard Confessional.

The rest is music history. Dashboard Confessional  went from opening for Carraba's other band, Further Seems Forever, to becoming the biggest Emo act on earth. Before you could say "emo backlash" Dashboard Confessional was selling millions of records and writing the theme to Spiderman 2.

Tonight, Carraba is following the suit of acts like Megadeth by performing Swiss Army Romance in its entirety. It's a good ploy. He gets to take advantage of short term nostalgia and have an excuse to play some of his strongest material.

Tonight at Revolution, you can expect lots of acoustic sing-alongs and 25 year old girls "screaming infidelities" like teenagers.   Think of it as an innoculation against the upcoming Basel invasion of cooler-than-thou hipsters.

Tonights Show By The Ettes @ The Vagabond Cancelled Due To "Family Emergency"

We get a lot of sketchy cancellations in South Florida. Being at the end of a 200 mile drive to nowhere has its drawbacks. But tonight's cancellation by garage rock act The Ettes is particularly disturbing/suspicious.

While The Ettes claim Nashville as their hometown, all three long-term members are from central Florida.  One would imagine that they spent Thanksgiving at home with their families. So what exactly would a "family emergency" consist of that would necessitate cancelling Miami and West Palm Beach gigs this weekend?  Did someone choke on a wishbone? 

Or did the Ettes just wake up hungover from Tryptophan and not feel like driving to Miami today? I don't see them cancelling their Nov 30 gig at the Bowery Ballroom or the Hoboken and Brooklyn gigs that follow it.. Did that "Family Emergency" have a 3 day expiration date? 

Or are the Ettes allergic to their fancy booking agency's routing? I know I wouldn't like driving 24 hours in 2 days with no shows in between to break it up. In 2005 I did the suicide run of NYC to Miami with just a gig in Raleigh,NC to break it up. That was with a 66 year old singer. Too bad these talented 20-something hipsters who sneered at Florida as "The Land Of The 90s" on their myspace page aren't as tough as a senior citizen with two bad knees.

The Vagabond will undoubtedly be packed to the gills tonight, and they would have enjoyed the Ettes. Of all the nuevo garage rock bands playing, they have one of the better singers. Their songwriting is in the upper tier, just below the Jacuzzi Boys and Davilla 666. But Road Warriors they ain't.

If indeed The Ettes do reschedule  your South Florida dates at a club that buys this last second "family emergency" claim - perhaps they and their overpaid booking agent at Monterrey International can look at a map first and not book their next gig 1500 miles away.

 

 Update: On December 1st, The Ettes responded to this post with a vitrolic, profanity-laced, non-denial on hipster webzine Blurt.

Among other things, The Ettes took exception to their booking agency, Monterey International, being described as "fancy" and wondered if I knew what I was "talking about". Monterey is the home of several multmillion selling acts including (but not limited to): Cheap Trick, Queensryche, Soul Asylum, and George Clinton.  If you put "The Ettes" next to those names, you can play a nice round of the Sesame Street game "one of these things is not like the other."

It shall be noted that The Ettes responded after playing their NYC gig at Bowery Ballroom. After all, driving from Florida to New York in 48 hours is an "emergency situation."

Sade BAC Tickets Go Onsale Next Monday- Just In Time To Wipe Out Your Piggybank After Black Friday

 

To the untrained ear, "Smooth Operator" crooner Sade's million selling comeback this year must seem mind boggling. How can a 80s pop star who had been out of the public eye for a decade go number 1 right out of the box?

Think of Sade as the 21st century Neil Diamond, who also frequently tops the charts these days. Who buys Cds in 2010?  Middle aged folks with kids and mortgages who need a stress buster for the commute home so they can prepare themselves for whatever madness awaits them at home. As Alicia Keys and Norah Jones only make so many records, Sade's "Soldier Of Love" album was a welcome addition to smooth radio playlists and their listeners.

What's less understandable is why Sade thinks $153, $103 and $53 tickets are reasonable to this demographic -especially in these hard economic times. After fees, parking and a few Bud Lights, a date night with Sade will run between $150- $400. Ouch. 

Will this show makes it past the on-sale? Will enough suburbanites forgo yoga class/tennis lessons/paying the light bill in order to pay for a pair of tickets to an event that happens next July? Or will Live Nation cancel the show by March and scale the tour back drastically? Stay tuned.

Iron and Wine Return To Miami Before Releasing Major Label Debut

Nine years ago, Sam Beam was a film professor at the International Fine Arts college who dabbled in 8 track home recording after his family went to sleep. After a couple of his breathy, folkish Iron and Wine demos found their way to Sub Pop records via A&R guy / Modest Mouse singer Isaac Brock, Beam  suddenly found himself with an accidental music career, which has grown exponentially since his critically acclaimed 2002 debut The Creek That Drank The Cradle.

Beam has done just about everything there is to do in the music business. He headlined a stage at the Newport folk festival. He collaborated with Calexico to make a supergroup record. He has appeared on the soundtracks of multiple hit movies (Twilight among them). He has managed to make an arcane genre like folk music hip to 20-somethings.

As a result of that, he outgrew his digs in Miami Shores and moved his wife and five kids to Dripping Springs, Texas - an arid, hilly, semi-rural community an hour outside of Austin resides near cattle ranches, BBQ joints, box wineries and Jeff Pinkus from the B-hole Surfers. Since his move in 2006, tonight's performance at the Fillmore is Iron And Wine's first trip back to Miami. And it finds Beam in the catbird seat, with his next record, Kiss Each Other Clean, being moved from Sub Pop and on to Warner Brothers (who own 49% of Sub Pop). 

The very brief preview of the title track found on Iron and Wine's homepage suggests a lush, more radio friendly sound for the adult alternative radio audience to eat up. Tonight should be a decent preview of what's in store, once the album drops in January. Will Beam remain a critical darling? Or will he turn into 2011's version of Duncan Sheik? Either way, his tunes are sure to be heard at a Starbucks near you.

Toots & The Maytals Headline Allstar Reggae Lineup @ Bayside Rocks Festival

If you are in need of a primer on Reggae music, you need look no further than the two acts on top of Saturday's Bayside Rocks Festival at Bayfront Park. In fact it's impossible to imagine the music existing sans the contributions of The Wailers, of whom Bunny Wailer was a founding member, and Toots & The Maytals - who not only named the genre with his song "Do The Reggae" - but helped guide the music from ska to rock steady to reggae and back to ska with countless hits. Toots & The Maytals classics including "Pressure Drop," "Monkey Man," "Sweet & Dandy," "54-46, That's My Number," and "Dog War" have forever colored the world's musical landscape. While it's impossible to quantify the Wailers' musical contribution - just let it be said that their first single was "Simmer Down."

It's an embarrassment of riches that trickles down to their co-headliner, UK reggae legends Steel Pulse, and a strong supporting cast that includes Kingston diva Marcia Griffiths and St Croix rastas Midnight.

In an age where $35 doesn't even buy a ticket to see LCD Soundsystem at the Fillmore - 35 bucks to see the OGs who pioneered the music played on Jamaican soundsystems is the bargain of a lifetime. The first band is at 2. The city shuts the noise off at 11:45. Magic will happen in the middle.

 

 

Outlaw Country Singer Wayne Hancock Plays The Monterey Club Tonight For Free!

Sometimes living in a vacation destination reaps rewards. The last time Wayne "The Train" Hancock was in Fort Lauderdale, he played a much-fanfared standing-room-only gig at the Monterey Club with his regular touring band for a $10 admission. Somehow, he has found himself stuck in South Florida playing the same joint for free, 10 days before the next published date on his website. 

One can only ponder how this came about. Perhaps his bottle of Jim Beam accidentally wrecked his motel room. Maybe he used his return plane ticket as a marker at the Hard Rock casino. Maybe he showed up to Swing Night, and never left, sacking out on the club's couch. It's possible he drunk dialed the wrong girl, who then gave his credit card to a Nigerian email address. Or maybe Monterey Club owner Rob Stannard has a cop on the payroll, and the Monterey Club is the new Boar's Nest - where country musicians pay off their bar tabs and speeding tickets with a free show.

Regardless, Wayne Hancock will be playing tonight - for free at the Monterey Club with members of The Rock City Angels backing him up. That is cause for celebration. Readers of Miami Music Matters, get off your tails and get thee to the corner of 84 and US1by 10 PM to enjoy this rare free musical gift fate has bestowed upon you. Sure, you may be hungover tomorrow at the office. But at least you'll have a better weekend tale to tell than that aging hippie who saw the Spin Doctors.

 

Brooklyn Girl Garage Rock Trio Vivian Girls "Go To Miami" Tonight

Tonight, Hipster rag Tom Tom magazine are doing the Miami Music Festival the biggest favor ever - allowing them to associate themselves with the only show at the festival that has a bit of imagination. Tonight, In The Red girl garage rock act the Vivian Girls will be rocking Gemma Lounge in...Lincoln Road Mall???

Seeing how the last time anything  that rocked played  Lincoln Road Mall (no, the Fillmore does not count!) was way back in the 80s - because the Cameo was closed for renovations and a couple of punk gigs snuck into the Lincoln Theater - it's pretty special that al fresco diners on the 500 block of Lincoln will be have their $18 salmon salads wilted by the Vivian Girls' three chord monte.

Yummy!

 

 

 

Social Distortion Previews "Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes" Saturday Night At The Fillmore

Long before it was trendy to look like a "Happy Days" extra, Social Distortion exploded out of the Socal punk scene in the late 1970s with a string of singles that set the world on fire, including "Mommy's Little Monster" and "Another State Of Mind" - the former becoming the title track to their first influential album, and the latter becoming the theme song to the definitive punk rock tour documentary of the same name.

After the needle and legal troubles threatened to derail  Social Distortion's singer/songwriter Mike Ness - he emerged from rehab in 1988 with "Prison Bound" - a mid-tempo, rough and tumble record that included a cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring Of Fire" and  found Ness dumping the hair dye and mascara of his early days in favor of Fonzie gear and PBR. The "Prison Bound" tour gig at Churchill's Pub in 1989 remains one of the most talked about shows in the city's punk rock history.

The next year, Columbia records decided they could make a few bucks off of Social D, and released a self titled, radio friendly record for their new, punk rock elvis and his gang of greasers. The video for "Ball & Chain," became a mainstay on MTV and the publicity machine made Mike Ness a star - while Social D's street cred refused to go away no matter how many times Ness shied off playing too many punk blasts that only "the fellas" would like.

When the 3rd wave of punk rock hit in the mid 90s, Ness put the vitrol back into his music and released "White Light/White Heat/White Trash" - with a lead single that seemed to  second guess watering down Social D's sound. The title: "I was wrong."

By then, Ness had compartmentalized Social Distortion as a punk band, and put it on hold for a few years to pursue a more roots-oriented solo career.  By the time the 21st century rolled around, Social Distortion was back in full force, not only as a touring machine, but at a cultural bridge between rockabilly adults who work on cars and teenage kids who slam dance and tag walls.

In January, Social Distortion will release their 7th studio album, "Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes." As it was originally slated to come out in November, Miami Beach has the privilege of hearing those songs before most of the world does. So get thee to the Fillmore Saturday night and hear the story of Mike Ness' life. It's more interesting and tuneful than most.

The Miami Music Festival Kicks Off Friday Night At Bayfront With...The Spin Doctors?!!!

Dear "Miami Music Festival,"

It's bad enough you've come back for a second year after falling on your face last time out, but really, your big surprise headliner for Friday night's free show at Bayfront Park is the Spin Doctors?

Surely with the amount of coin you're spending to fly in the Spin Doctors and rent Bayfront for the night, you could have gotten a band who have had a hit after 1992. Surely, you could have hired one of the many million selling acts who have a connection with Miami, rather than hiring a disconnected one from New Jersey. Surely, you must know that most of the local media are on record saying that you are suspect at best, and a cruel joke at worst.  Surely you know you needed to make a splash with your headliner to give your sketchy, mostly pay-to-play event some much needed credibility.

But instead, you got the Spin Doctors.

Back in 1991,I saw the Spin Doctors play the University of Miami patio. Their brand of vanilla pudding funk was eaten up by the birkenstock-clad college hippies who circle danced around me, half of whom had probably seen them up north at the Wetlands club in New York City. The Spin Doctors were semi-tolerable then, but at least their brand of music was relevant at the time. At least they were on the upside of their career, and not the racetrack and casino act they are today.

I don't mean to beat up on the Spin Doctors. Time and frozen vocal chords have done that already. Hippy funk nostalgia acts have their place. Just not as the headliner of a festival that invokes Miami's name. The Magic City has a rich musical history. We deserve better. Even from you.

Sincerely,

Buy A. Clue