You can take the boy out of Miami, but you can't take the Miami out of the Boy. Hometown punk rock hero Raf Classic is back in town for the triumphant return of his 16-years and running outfit, The Crumbs. Sure, Classic may have left town in the dark of night 18 months ago ala the Baltimore Colts. But it's hard to begrudge him a little space. After all, the man has a way of catching up to you when you've lived on a combination of wits and schlitz for two decades.
Thankfully, the smoke has cleared: allowing Classic to visit Miami long enough for The Crumbs to play "April Pool's Day" at Churchill's this Friday night. Songs about alien girl love, homeless bards, and what it's like to be truly "Down at Churchill's" will be performed. Classic will lay down bar chatter like Cheech Marin on a bender. He will embrace "Dade County Trash" and wonder aloud why his bassist's moustache hasn't flown south for the winter. A Crumbs show at Churchill's is a uniquely Miami experience. Attending one is not unlike going to Cafe Versailles at 3 AM, minus the heartburn.
Go and see why Classic has managed to convince five different record labels to underwrite recording sessions in vacation destination conducive to drinking. You won't be disappointed. Unless of course, you wind up with Classic's bar tab.
Rejoice ye local lovers of emo-rock! Broward emo heroes Further Seems Forever will reunite onstage with their prodigal platinum selling singer, April 14th at Propaganda in Lake Worth!
Back in 2000, The now ubiquitous platinum-selling monolith known as Dashboard Confessional was a mere an acoustic side project for Further Seems Forever frontman Chris Carrabba. FSF, an emo-punk band comprised of Carrabba and the members of straight edge hardcore act Strongarm, formed in 1998 and immediately made a mark by getting their tune "Vengeance Factor" placed in the 4th installment of the highly influential Deep Elm Records compilation series: "The Emo Diaries."
The band toured steadily, quickly landing a record deal with high profile indie label Tooth & Nail. Unfortunately, guitarist Nick Dominguez didn't want to leave his day job. So after a few tours with multiple substitute guitarists, Carrabba recorded his debut Dashboard Confessional CD,"The Swiss Army Romance," and began opening for the band with short, solo sets.
Needless to say, those sets were well-received, and Carrabba parted ways with Further Seems Forever after recording their debut CD, "The Moon Is Down."
After Carrabba's exit, FSF soldiered on, often opening up for Dashboard Confessional - before finally giving up the ghost in 2006 when drummer Steve Kleisath discovered he was the last original member and didn't want to play in a Further Seems Forever cover band.
When Carrabba moved back to South Florida in 2009, backyard barbecues and 12 ounce curls with his old band mates led to jam sessions. Those begat this spring's slate of shows, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of "The Moon Is Down." The Propaganda show is a warm up for the Groezrock festival in Belgium. So catch your homeboys in a small club before they play in front of tens of thousands. Ticket information will be released soon on this event page.
While Miami-bred doom pop band Torche have continued to tour the globe and release excellent records since the 2008 Spinal Tap-esque sound check punch-up between then-lead guitarist Juan Montoya (currently in Atlanta metal band MonstrO) and singer/guitarist Steve Brooks that led to Montoya's firing - there was always something missing sonically. As a power trio, Torche lacked the Montoya-created bells and whistles which made their 2nd Lp "Meanderthal" revered by guitar geeks and indie rock critics alike. Furthermore, sans Montoya, Torche didn't sound that different from Brooks' previous combo Floor - a point underlined by Floor's successful reformation last year.
So after two years as a trio (save for one tour with a temp on guitar), Torche have brought in ex-Riddle Of Steel singer/guitarist Andrew Elstner as a permanent member. Saturday night, Torche conclude their first tour with Elstner at Propaganda in Lake Worth. The tour/hazing is a bizarrely routed 10 date affair that apparently was planned with the intention of Elstner picking up his belongings in his native St. Louis without having to hire a u-haul. After crossing half of the US in 10 days, Elstner should be more than ready to play in South Florida, and prove his worth to Torche's local fan base.
The below video, shot last Friday in Richmond, Virginia, proves Elstner to be an able guitarist, accurately playing Montoya's intricate parts, and adding a few of his own. He also can sing, and his harmonies in the clip improve Torche's live sound.
It's obvious that the heavy pop hooks and guitar "bomb string" drops Brooks is known for are best dropped with a wing-man at his side. Here's hoping Torche remain a two-guitar army for the rest of their career.
If there's one thing the Live Nation borg is good at, it's taking big hints. Ultra Music Fest and Winter Music Conference have a falling out and water down their wares over a three week period? Bring on the highest profile gig of "Miami Music Week!"
Boulder, Colorado electro act Pretty Lights is here to fill in the gap for those who were unwilling or unable to throw down triple figures for Ultra's bizarre 2011 mix that opens with Tiesto & Duran Duran co headlining on Friday and closes with 1999 Zen Fest headliner The Chemical Brothers topping Sunday's bill.
Ultra goers should be familiar with Pretty Lights, as they played last year's event. For those not in the electro loop, Pretty Lights is the nom de guerre of producer Derek Vincent Smith, who became famous for releasing entire albums of his mash-ups and sample-based compositions for free on the internet ala Girl Talk. Like Girl Talk, Pretty Lights/Smith couldn't possibly charge for those records because they contain tons of obvious pop music samples that would cost him more money than he could possibly make by selling them. Both acts also are known for their live presentation, which in Pretty Lights' case features a live drummer and a full technical production featuring a giant LED screen, lasers and hundreds of...pretty lights!
While Pretty Lights may use the familiar samples to give the audience a sense they have a well-rounded record collection, instead of overexposure to bad radio - that's not to say he's without his charms. His tune "Hot Like Sauce" is undeniably catchy and trips out Aaron Neville's vocal from "Tell It Like It Is" in ways that Gibby Haynes would be proud of.
Pretty Lights performs Thursday night at the Fillmore on Miami Beach. For some reason, the reserved tickets on the second level are $62, while the rest of the theater is general admission and only $48, so it will pay to show up early (the show starts at 8:30!) instead of on Miami time and have a friend hold your seats while you get party favors from the snack booth.
Scratch a rockabilly guy, and you'll find a Cramps T shirt crumbling underneath his jean jacket and star tattoo. Scratch Vancouver guitarist Big John Bates' Russ Meyer starlet-like dancers - and you might get knocked out cold. Bates and his old outfit, The Voodoo Dollz, were notorious road dogs who encouraged mad, bad, and deviant behavior via nipple tassels that squirted southern comfort and riffs emanated from mainlining a mish mash of music from the sun and chess labels.
A few months back, Bates replaced his drummer, promoted his bassist Brandy "Bones" Anderson to co lead singer, and encouraged his dance troupe, Calamity Kate and Lincoln Electra, to use metal grinders, switchblades, and anything else dangerous that could be used to disturb the peace. The resulting "grindshow" is a more deliberate paced extravaganza that uses Cramps-esque material ("Bad P***y") to attempt to disturb jaded 21st century hipsters and 5th wave greasers.
Thursday night, Big John Bates & The Grindshow play the Monterey Club in Fort Lauderdale, which should be interesting as the joint is small enough to where the sparks from the grinders could land in someone's pomade and create a Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial. But that's nothing a cold PBR and a bar towel can't solve.
Below is a clip from Bates' Vodoo Dollz period, but seeing how the tune is entitled "Burlesque Is Dead", I'm guessing it made the cut into the Grindshow.
The artist known as Bobby Load (nee Johnston) has drunkenly assaulted South Florida's stages for over two decades. A period long enough for him to be both the frontman of the dirtiest, loudest, smelliest, and greatest punk rock band we've ever had, LOAD, (who were kind enough to bestow their name upon him, which remains some 12 years after their last gig) and to play with numerous combos since then , both as a singer (Southern Flaw, various incarnations of bands named after him) and drumming in the final incarnation of the late,great, Johnny Salton's band, The Psycho Daises.
Between 1992-1994, Bobby Load was a bigger rock star than Marilyn Manson. He was better looking, had a much better stage presence and a scream that sent otherwise rational people into maniacal fits of slam dancing and binge drinking. His guitarist, Jeff Tucci, was a monster riff maker. Drummer Fausto Figueredo, aka "Something Smelly On Drums," beat his kit like it owed him money. Bassist Tony Qualls, he of the iron liver, picked out unforgettable bass lines that transcended his chops.
For better or worse, LOAD also had a manager that while clueless in most useful ways - was excellent at getting LOAD as the opening act in front of large, sold out crowds until their own shows were also, large and mostly sold out. The result being LOAD was synonymous with South Florida's metal, punk and alternative scene . What LOAD didn't have was enough drive to tour farther than Texas, where Bobby got arrested for public urination in an alley. Eventually the big-fish-little-pond syndrome ate all the band's oxygen, leaving LOAD's career hopelessly derailed by 1995 and belly-up in 1999.
Since then, Bobby Load has veered somewhere between local music legend and Otis The Drunk from the Andy Griffth Show. At his own shows he's prone to take pre-show naps, using the vocal monitor for a pillow. If it's not his show but still a viable rock and roll thing, you can still count on Bobby to be there with 3-4 old mill waters stashed in his jean jacket. . More often than not, he'll jump onstage to greet the band or attempt to sit in. This habit got him body slammed off the stage mid-show by Jessica from Jack Off Jill at their record release party. Imagine Miss Piggy savaging a drunken Kermit while screaming "This Is My Show! Not The Bobby Load Show!"
Throw a beer cap at a punk rock gig, anywhere in a 100 mile radius, and you'll hit someone with a Bobby Load story. Tonight, at the aptly named "Dive Bar" on Fort Lauderdale Beach, Bobby's newest backing band, "The Vomits" will crank out the garage punk fare that he's championed since 1992, when someone made him a Sonics tape that he proceeded to pull out at every house party he attended for the next five years. Some free shots will allegedly be passed out around 10 for the early birds, and then Bobby Load and The Vomits will open for femme fatale punkers Angry Pudding, garage rock stylists The Instant Whips and Shroud Eater, who play a noisy skronk that Load fans should be into. Undoubtedly, at least a dozen folks in the audience will have a new Bobby Load story to tell after tonight. Here's hoping it doesn't involve the band's name turning the show into the pie eating contest scene from "Stand By Me."
The Dive Bar is located at N. Ocean Blvd, Fort Lauderdale. Doors open at 9:30. Admission is free.
It can be argued that the most influential living group in all of popular music is the 57-years and running R&B group the Isley Brothers. The Beatles covered their hit "Twist & Shout" and turned it into cultural fabric. The movie "Animal House" resuscitated their first hit "Shout" and kept Toga parties going for an extra half century.
And when the times changed, the Isley Brothers changed with them - sometimes laying down the track before the races were ready to be run. They hired a young Jimi Hendrix, who showed flashes of his guitar heroics to come on the Isley's minor hit "Testify" in 1965. After Hendrix's meteoric rise and fall made the world safe for black guitar heroes, Ernie Isley's anthemic solo on "That Lady" put the Isleys back on the hit parade and placed himself alongside Hendrix and Eddie Hazel in the pantheon.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s the Isley Brothers stayed on top of the R&B world, thanks to both Ernie's guitar funk and Ronald's angelic tenor. Together they helped invent the modern R&B ballad template with hits like "Between The Sheets."
After their "Behind the Music" implosion in the late 1980s, they regrouped in early 1990s and hooked up with R Kelly - who eventually produced their 2001 smash hit "Contagious" - which made the Isley Brothers the first ever group to chart in six decades.
Sunday's performance at Sun Life Stadium for Jazz In The Gardens is the first South Florida Isley Brothers show in many years. That more than enough reason to go, even you aren't into their co-headliners Branford Marsalis (the token jazz artist on Sunday's bill) and 1990s soul-pop act EnVouge.
Advance tickets for Sunday's lineup range from $45 -$70. A two day pass for Saturday and Sunday ranges from $70-$125. Doors open at 3PM. The Isley Brothers are scheduled to perform at 10:15, Sunday Night.
In most cases, the one year anniversary of a band is the put-up-or-shut-up moment. Either the band's chemistry is going to work and crank out something worthwhile, or it will collapse due to ego suffocation.
Thankfully, being the only member of the Lone Wolf One Man Band has allowed multi-instrumentalist Bruno Esposito to let his freak flag fly unfettered for the first time. Esposito has marked the first year anniversary of his Lone Wolf project with an album release, which is available for download here.
For whatever reason, Esposito is having his Cd release party up in Mickey Mouse land, 200 miles away from his musical base in Miami where he could force all of his friends to plunk down $10 and support his PBR & Fernet Branca fueled mission to stick his banjo and bass drum into every musical crevice left in the 21st century.
So Thursday night's St. Patrick's Day Carnival at Eve (in the old White Room space in overtown) will suffice as an opportunity for Esposito's Miami mafia to board the Lone Wolf express.
The first time Hillbilly Hellcats singer/guitarist Chuck Hughes played Miami back in 1998, he was so moved by the energy at Churchill's, that climbed up on the middle bar, did his best Chuck Berry walk down the length of it and jumped off to great applause - and the morning discovery that he had dislocated his knee and had to postpone the rest of the tour.
Assuming Hughes and company survived their Churchill's gig last night, Saturday will mark the first appearance by a notable touring band at Titanic Brewery since Dash Rip Rock drank their keg of homemade stout dry in 2007.
One wonder if the Hellcats bothered to read their contract, as the Titanic demands 3 sets for their modest paydays - a requirement that drove even the extremely prolific, cover-happy DRR boys to their last nerve. Midway through their 2nd set, DRR singer Bill Davis got so frustrated at the lame attempts of his volunteer cowbell player to play a set-filling cover of "Honky Tonk Women" that he shouted "Doesn't anyone in Coral Gables know the F***ing Rolling Stones?!"
So if you ever wanted to know what covers the Hillbilly Hellcats have in their grab bag, Saturday night is an excellent time to find out. It's also a safe bet they'll be playing their rap tune about the music business, along with every 3-chord rockabilly stomp Hughes and bassist Lance Bakemeyer have ever written.
Consider it :"An evening (and early morning) with The Hillbilly Hellcats." Or "Everything you ever wanted to know about a rockabilly band (but were afraid to ask).
Winter Music Conference is Czech ex-pat electro impressario Daniel "Whodany" Hubalek's favorite holiday. For 50 weeks of the year, the late hours and chemical excesses of south beach's electronic music scene keep the devoted family man clear of his music's natural habitat.
Most conference attendees utilize WMC's 24/7 schedule to sneak in disco naps during panel discussions or test their accountants' ability to make mojitos a tax write off. Hubalek manages a the daylight hours wisely enough to: entertain his international stable of laptop artists on his Pearlicka label, play matinee gigs at swank hotels, and party with house music's illuminati before his 7-year old daughter Pearl hits the sack.
Hubalek puts the "house" in house music - creating UK dance smashes on a computer that has shared hard drive space with Dora The Explorer and Disney Princesses. His perennially sunny disposition shines through the tracks, even when they are entitled "Drugs Are Bad" or "Drugs Are Very Bad."
So if you are revving up for a serious WMC electronic bender tonight, you should start the night out at Whodany's "Trendsetter" showcase at the Palms Hotel (3025 Collins Ave)l. Unlike the debt-inducing, bottle service joints that litter Sobe's version of debauchery - tonight's extended house music happy hour at the palms is free, and all the food and drink is half off. The gig starts at 5PM, and if you show up early enough, Whodany will comp you a cocktail and tell you the tale of how he and 100 of his closest friends confused Grandmaster Flash in Berlin by shouting Blowfly lyrics during "White Lines."
Pearlicka Records' new, 21 track, WMC compilation "Pearls Of Miami Beach Volume 3" is available at amazon.com and pearlicka.com . A free Whodany ringtone is available on the pearlicka records site as well.
