Spearheaded by filmmaker and Animal Tropical/PLAINS drummer Jorge Rubiera, Can’t Stop is playing alongside Sumsun, The State Of, and Honey Train in our tri-county showcase at the Electric Pickle on Saturday night (RSVP on Facebook). Rubiera released the excellent debut Can’t Stop LP, Neighborhood, at the beginning of 2011, and is now working on an EP called Free Tom Petty that will be packaged, naturally, with a Tom Petty mask and feature a remix by ANR singer-guitarist John Hancock. Recorded by Rubiera in his home studio and mixed and mastered by PLAINS frontman Michael McGinnis, “Feel Strange” is “a naive realization that human relationships are complex,” Rubiera says. It’s also a funky, falsetto-fueled hint that Free Tom Petty and the full-length album Rubiera is also working on will both be damn good. Here’s the track.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, Beached Miami is presenting a tri-county showcase on the Electric Pickle’s soothing back patio with Sumsun from West Palm Beach, Can’t Stop and The State Of from Miami, and Honey Train from Fort Lauderdale. DJs Rich Medina, Tim Green, Brad Strickland, and William Renuart will also be on hand to man the decks indoors. For full details on the show, visit the Facebook event page. Here are a few words about each of the bands.
Sumsun: Spearheaded by West Palm Beach native Judson Rodgers, Sumsun creates electronic soundscapes with a chillwave palette that transport listeners to a land where the rain is warm and everyone dances. In 2011, Sumsun opened for Neon Indian and Sleigh Bells.
What better day to celebrate Florida’s darkest skull-cracking metal than on Valentine’s Day? Swamp Abyss Sorcery, an 11-track, all-Florida compilation released today by Gainesville’s Satanik Recordings and organized by d-beat thrashing nutbags Hot Graves, showcases an unofficial corps of metal bands from Gainesville, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami. Quoth Satanik:
“This southern-fried Yeti THROMBIBULOUS ov which I speak is now upon you all, in the form ov this compilation ov bands that are the sound ov what is RIGHT NOW here in the Sunshine State.”
The compilation features three of Miami’s heaviest outfits. Holly Hunt, the droning duo of Betty Monteavaro and Gavin Perry …
While most of us had to enjoy our music on land over the weekend, photographer Monica McGivern was one of the lucky passengers aboard the Bruise Cruise, a three-day “tropical rock’n'roll vacation” from Miami to Nassau and the Bahamas and, sadly, back. This year’s lineup featured Fucked Up, Thee Oh Sees, Vockah Redu, and DJ sets by Jello Biafra and The Vivian Girls, and McGivern was there for all of it. To peruse her photos from the cruise, visit the Beached Miami Facebook page.
New Coke frontman Danny Morales -- he's not kidding about swallowing mics. -- photo by Jeffrey Howard
With just two recorded songs to their name, including #7 on the Top 50 SoFla Songs of 2011, West Palm Beach-based New Coke is one of the most exciting new bands in South Florida. Made up of three inveterate punks with long music resumes — singer-guitarist Danny Morales, guitarist Gabe Schnirnan, and drummer Steve McKean — New Coke combines punk, garage, powerpop, and rock for a resulting blend that features the melodiously jangled guitars of prototypical underground indie yet eludes easy categorization.
Thursday night at The Stage was the second of two land-bound parties preceding the Bruise Cruise, a three-day “tropical rock’n'roll vacation” aboard the Carnival Imagination that launches Friday from the Port of Miami and returns Monday morning with stops in Nassau and the Bahamas along the way. The lineup Thursday night was Miami-based Jacuzzi Boys, The Soft Pack, King Khan and The Shrines, Thee Oh Sees, and Fucked Up. Here are our photos from the show.
Between now and Sunday there is a festival’s worth of worthy live music in Miami, including day two of the Bruise Cruise Kick-off Party at The Stage with Fucked Up, King Khan and the Shrines, and Jacuzzi Boys (Thursday); Com Truise at Bardot (Saturday); and the B-52s at the Arsht Center (Sunday). There’s also an actual festival — the GrassRoots Festival at Virginia Key (Thursday – Sunday), headlined by Chaka Khan and Fishbone — and a Rachel Goodrich show at Bayfront Park with Tristan Clopet and The Jacob Jeffries Band for the DWNTWN Miami Concert Series.
Update: The Bayfront Park show has been cancelled due to threat of rain. Rachel Goodrich is instead playing at Vagabond. See the Miami Music Guide listing for full details.
As a symbol of both good and evil, the owl is prevalent in many cultures and contexts. In Michael Ruiz-Unger’s video for the song “Gown of Frost”, by Miami’s hardcore heroes Capsule, it’s safe to say the giant animatronic bird is one bad hooter. Ruiz-Unger, who also directed Lil Dagger’s “Dada Brown” video, features Capsule playing a midnight set amid a smoky field, while a recently revived woman in white aims to eliminate the Sauron-like owl with a crystal for her weapon. “Gown of Frost” comes from Capsule’s 2011 LP, No Ghost, which also includes “Graft”, #19 on the Top 50 South Florida Songs of 2011.
Show alert! Beached Miami presents Third Thursdays at The Electric Pickle on Feb. 16 with three of South Florida’s best: Guy Harvey, New Coke, and Lil Daggers. Many thanks to Grolsch for sponsoring the show and supporting South Florida music. To learn all of the details, check out the Facebook event page. Here’s a bit about each band.
GUY HARVEY: Recently featured in Brooklyn Vegan, this West Palm Beach-based quartet plays a solar-powered brand of alt-pop revival that catches the ear like a riptide. Singer Adam Perry recently appeared with Surfer Blood on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Guy Harvey’s “Something in the Way” Nevermind Miami cover is probably the best thing you’ll hear today.
The dark prince of 'Sleazy Dreams', The Band In Heaven's new and frightening video.
After a quiet 2011, West Palm Beach’s The Band in Heaven (TBIH) started off the new year with a fantastic albeit horrifying music video (below) and a 7” vinyl released on Jan. 20 by HoZac Records, whose catalogue includes releases by Blank Dog, Black Lips, Dum Dum Girls, Davila 666, Mark Sultan, UV Race, and South Florida’s Teepee and Jacuzzi Boys. The Chicago label was seduced by TBIH’s slow-burn drone and the disturbing images that Alice Cohen wove together for the trio’s “Sleazy Dreams” video.
