Miami Music Guide
This guide is curated by William Alton, the man behind the @beachedwilly Twitter feed and the bottle of beer missing from your fridge. The guide is in reverse-chronological order and every date is a link. You’ll figure it out.
Thursday, April 26
Headline: Nite Jewel
Where: Bardot
Cost: $10 (early bird)
Ages: 21+
Event Page: HERE
Notes: Retro-synthstress Ramona Gonzalez, the fronting force of Nite Jewel, returns to Miami for the first time since the band joined Secretly Canadian. The disco-loving group is fresh off its debut full-length, One Second of Love, which seamlessly weaves 80s synthpop and 90s R&B with touches of modern indie pop.
Sunday, April 22
Headline: Dick Dale, Charlie Pickett, Skinny Jimmy and the Stingrays, Enough, Heartline Fits and Turboretardo
Where: Churchill’s
Cost: $20 (advance); $25 (door)
Ages: 18+
Event Page: HERE
Notes: Dick Dale is synonymous with surf rock. Charlie Pickett is synonymous with South Florida. Seeing two rock legends on the same stage is mandatory.
Saturday, April 21
Headline: Sweatstock
Where: Sweat Records
Cost: FREE
Ages: ALL
Event Page: HERE
Notes: Sweat Records’ 7th anniversary will be an explosion of South Florida’s best music. The main stage will feature Afrobeta, Deaf Poets, Krisp, Psychic Mirrors, Ketchy Shuby, PLAINS, Arboles Libres, The State Of, and Jesse Jackson performing with a full band. The Beached Miami Stage inside of Churchill’s starts at 4 p.m. with live performances by Axe and the Oak, Shroud Eater, Weird Wives, Haochi Waves, Pool Party, Severe Disappointments, Jellyfish Brothers, Kazoots, and Palette Town. Roofless Records will be curating a typically outlandish good time on Churchill’s Patio Stage starting at 6pm with Container (Nashville, TN), Vico (Tampa, FL), Diamond Hymen (Tampa, FL), Adames, Dim Past, Dyslexic Postcards, Devalued, The President, No Children, and Toad Eyes.
***
Headline: Record Store Day @ Radio-Active Records
Where: Radio-Active Records
Cost: FREE
Ages: ALL
Event Page: HERE
Notes: Live music by Lil Daggers, The Band in Heaven, Suede Dudes, Beach Day, Loud Valley, and The Baron Sisters. Along with exclusive RSD releases, Radio-Active will have concert ticket giveaways, a 4-for-$1 LP sidewalk sale, a 2-for-1 Iron Forge Press limited-edition concert poster sale, all day and night food truck service (Boba Station, Porkalicious, Ms. Cheezious, Slow Food Truck, Nacho Bizness & Cool Haus), vendors outside all day specializing in “record” themed merchandise, a Radio-Active/RSD commemorative photobooth, live screen-printed RSD 2012 shirts, giveaways from Limited Fanfare Records, and a rickshaw service to take you all around Flagler Village.
***
Headline: Raekwon with Maino
Where: Bardot
Cost: $20 (early bird)
Ages: 21+
Event Page: HERE
Notes: Fresh off of a performance with Freddie Gibbs earlier this month at Ft. Lauderdale’s Revolution, the Chef heads south on I-95 to give you another shot at Wu-Tang greatness. Brooklyn’s mixtape extraordinaire Maino will take a turn on the Red Carpet.
Friday, April 20
Headline: Rammstein
Where: BankAtlantic Center
Cost: $49.25-$94
Ages: ALL
Event Page: HERE
Listen: “Amerika” — Rammstein
Notes: Pioneers of electronic metal, Rammstein stands alone by melding cold, hard electronics, resounding arena heavy metal, and theatrical vocal styles. Rammstein’s music is disturbing, powerful, and sweeping, delivering odes to influences as varied as Nina Hagen, Black Sabbath, and Kraftwerk.
***
Headline: Matthew Dear
Where: Electric Pickle
Cost: $??
Event Page: HERE
Notes: The electrowizard of a million aliases comes to the Electric Pickle for what the venue has termed a “limited event.” To find out how to see Matthew Dear, follow @SAFEmusic on twitter.
***
Headline: Smut Peddlers with Unit Six, Stay Hitt, The 707, and VCR
Where: Churchill’s
Cost: $10
Event Page: HERE
Notes: The Smut Peddlers were like FEAR without an agenda (except for “Fuck You…That’s Why”). Unadulterated rowdy punks with no pretensions, the Smut Peddlers have been raising hell for nearly 20 years. In 2007, the Los Angeles outfit released 1993-1994: The Demos, a must-have collection that features the band at its rawest and funniest.
Thursday, April 19
Headline: Blackbird Blackbird
Where: Bardot
Cost: $10 (early bird)
Ages: 21+
Event Page: HERE
Listen: “Halo” — Blackbird Blackbird
Notes: Mikey Maramag, aka Blackbird Blackbird, evolved beyond the monotony of oceanic chillwave on last year’s Halo, opening up to brighter landscapes and more traditional pop structures while retaining his atmospheric grounding. Halo featured guest appearances by Steffaloo (on four tracks), Emily Reo, and a closing remix by Star Slinger. Stream the album in full on bandcamp.
Saturday, April 14
Headline: TransAtlantic Festival (Day 2)
Where: North Beach Bandshell
Cost: $30 weekend pass, $20 day pass (presale), $25 day pass (at door)
Ages: ALL
Event Page: HERE
Notes: The second and last day of the festival features performances by Quantic Sound System and Pedrito Martinez. For more details, see the listing for Day 1 of the festival below.
***
Headline: Charles Bradley with the Budos Band
Where: Revolution
Cost: $27
Ages: ALL
Event Page: HERE
Listen: “Why Is It So Hard (Live on KEXP)” — Charles Bradley
Notes: If you discovered Charles Bradley last year and subsequently wondered how the hell you overlooked such a grizzled soulful voice, give yourself a break. The Gainesville-born singer’s life is pretty damn incredible. Before 2002, the 63-year-old was a peripatetic line cook, only occasionally showcasing his talents, and then as a James Brown impersonator named “Black Velvet”. Only after being discovered by Gabe Roth of Daptone Records did Bradley get an opportunity to record, releasing singles throughout the 2000s and No Time for Dreaming, his full-length, critically-acclaimed LP, in 2011.
Friday, April 13
Headline: TransAtlantic Festival (Day 1)
Where: North Beach Bandshell
Cost: $30 weekend pass, $20 day pass (presale), $25 day pass (at door)
Ages: ALL
Event Page: HERE
Notes: The Rhythm Foundation presents South Florida with the 10th Transatlantic Festival, a two-day affair featuring performances by Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80 and Gold Dust Lounge on Friday night. The Miami Art Museum Soundbomb Bus, a classic 1970s Volkswagen minibus equipped with a major sound system that is the portable component of MAM’s ongoing The Record exhibit, will boom into action with live DJ sets between on-stage performance, and Mr. Pauer will take over after party DJ duties following each night’s show.
***
Headline: Millionyoung and Sumsun
Where: Vagabond
Cost: FREE (before 11 p.m.)
Event Page: HERE
Listen: “Replicants” — Millionyoung
Notes: Two of SoFla’s best electronica artists come together to wash the Vagabond in waves of chill.
***
Headline: Hunx & His Punx, Natural Child, Lil Daggers, Pool Party
Where: Churchill’s
Cost: $8
Event Page: HERE
Listen: “White People” — Natural Child
Notes: Known for their blatantly erotic proto-rock, Hunx and His Punx return to Miami after playing The Stage in September, this time touring with Nashville’s Natural Child. There are no throwaway bands at this show: Fresh off their sophomore LP, For the Love of the Game, Natural Child is climbing the buzz ranks with its twangy Southern spin on garage blues and Miami bad asses Lil Daggers and Pool Party will open. This will be one alcohol-soaked/fueled, disgustingly sweaty evening. To anticipate Arcot Ramathorn: “It stinks like sex in here.”
Thursday, April 12
Headline: Up for Nothing with Enough!, No Children, Talking Dogs, and Jolly Badfellow
Where: Churchill’s
Cost: $5
Event Page: HERE
Notes: Brooklyn’s Up For Nothing brings its snottily melodic speed punk to Churchill’s. Boasting tremendously tight vocals (solo and harmonized), blistering hardcore-style drumming, and addictively melodic ’90s punk rhythms, Up For Nothing is a blossoming underground punk force. Listen for yourself on UFN’s bandcamp.
Tuesday, April 10
Headline: Scraping Teeth and Holly Hunt with 90s Teen, Normads
Where: Churchill’s
Cost: $5
Event Page: HERE
Notes: When music crosses the threshold of “acceptable” structures, interesting things happen. People get angry. Riots breaks out. Faith is questioned. Satan usually gets all the credit. When Scraping Teeth released its underground noise into the ether in 1993, they were named Spin Magazine’s “Worst Band in America”. And it wasn’t an insult but a merited triumph for Frank “Rat Bastard” Falestra, Scraping Teeth’s founder and a Miami icon. Falestra, whose long list of accomplishments includes recording Marilyn Manson’s original releases and founding the famous Sync Studios on Biscayne Blvd., founded Scraping Teeth in the ’80s as an exploratory outlet for bizarre and varied tunings (a la Lee Ranaldo/Thurston Moore), with a focus on atonal, non-repetitive playing at bowel-shaking volumes. So it’s only natural that Falestra has re-formed Scraping Teeth (for the first time since 2007 with Dimthingshine on drums) with fellow earth-shattering drone explorers Holly Hunt. With Betty Monteavaro on drums, Gavin Perry on bass, and Snakehole’s Autumn Casey joining Falestra on guitar and vocals, Scraping Teeth, like Frankenstein’s monster, is alive! The newly formed foursome will kick off its tour, with Holly Hunt opening, at Churchill’s and go on to wreak havoc during 16 stops along the East Coast.
***
Headline: Beatnik Tuesday with Buffalo Brown, Nabedi Osorio, and Adrian Gonzalez
Where: The Stage
Cost: $??
Event Page: HERE
Notes: In an attempt at historical recreation for recreation’s sake, Yo Miami presents “a mashup of jazz and blues musicians … to transport you back to the 1950s at the peak of the Beat Generation’s reign,” complete with the pungent smell of hookah smoke. The night offers a rare opportunity to see a few of Miami’s best musicians from different bands perform together. Elastic Bond’s Buffalo Brown (guitar), The State Of’s Nabedi Osorio (drums), and Suenalo’s Adrian Gonzalez (keyboard/bass) will come together to deliver sounds before unheard. It remains to be seen if they will perform “starving hysterical naked”.
Saturday, April 7
Headline: The Juan MacLean with Beat Machines
Where: Bardot
Cost: $10 (prepay), $15 (door)
Ages: 21+
Event Page: HERE
Notes: The Juan MacLean, which last performed in Miami during DFA Records’ Art Basel Bash with LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Whang, is the brainchild of John MacLean. With the recent demise of LCD, MacLean’s crossover dance is now DFA’s shining beacon. MacLean, formerly the guitarist for the highly-regarded Sub Pop band Six Finger Satellite, fuses his previous Kraut-loving post-rock synth work with electronica, creating interestingly lush and spasmodic landscapes.
***
Headline: Torche, Hawg Jaw, Holly Hunt, Consular
Where: Churchill’s
Cost: $??
Event Page: HERE
Notes: Before heading out on the road for a couple months in support of their new LP, Harmonicraft, Torche will throw down at Churchill’s with New Orleans spazoid sludge monsters Hawg Jaw (featuring members of eyehategod and Soilent Green). Two of Miami’s purveyors of harsh experimentalism, drone scientists Holly Hunt and oozing horror hardcore outfit Consular, will also take a stab at rattling your brain. Torche’s new album, set for release on Apr. 24, is their first full-length in four years and first release since they recorded three Guided By Voices covers last year for a split EP with Part Chimp on Chunklet Records.
***
Headline: Andrew W.K.
Where: Revolution
Cost: $29
Ages: ALL
Event Page: HERE
Listen: “Party Hard/I Get Wet (live acoustic)” — Andrew W.K.
Notes: Like his music or not, Andrew W.K. is one magnetic fellow. The classically-trained and jazz-educated pianist is one of the most entertainingly positive forces in music. And while there’s some merit in questioning the genuineness of W.K.’s larger-than-life motivational persona (was it cultivated or is he for real?), the Michigan-born musician’s wit, charm, and talent renders the debate moot. If you’ve ever seen Andrew W.K. perform live, you know it works either way.
Friday, April 6
Headline: Soul Fest All Nighter with Blowfly, Ralph “Soul” Jackson, Radioboxer, Friday Funk Machine
Where: Churchill’s
Cost: $12
Event Page: HERE
Notes: Churchill’s plays host to an all-night old school soul fest featuring a couple of soul music’s iconic outsiders. Bizarro soul man Clarence Reid, aka Blowfly, and Ralph “Soul” Jackson, aka The Alabama Love Man, will headline the show.
***
Headline: Raekwon with Freddie Gibbs
Where: Revolution
Cost: $28.45
Ages: 18+
Event Page: HERE
Listen: “Thuggin’” — Freddie Gibbs and Madlib
Notes: At 41, Wu-Tang vet Raekwon shows no signs of slowing down. Last year, the Chef released Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang, a critically-acclaimed LP notable for Raekwon’s still-relevant street-savvy approach, and for utilizing producers others than RZA. Raekwon brings with him Freddie Gibbs, one of hip hop’s fast-rising stars. The brash but stylized Gibbs, who (wisely) lists Raekwon as one of his main influences, has released 12 mixtapes and EPs since 2004. Gibbs has plans for multiple full-length releases in 2012, including a a highly anticipated collaboration with Madlib, together known as MadGibbs.
***
Headline: Panic Bomber
Where: Vagabond
Cost: FREE (before 11 p.m.)
Event Page: HERE
Listen:
Notes: Fresh off of teaming up with fellow Miami DJ Troy Kurtz to make dance music (listen to one of the duo’s debut tracks above), Panic Bomber (aka Richard Haig) is ending a gigging hiatus with a solo performance at the Vagabond.
Thursday, April 5
Headline: Paco de Lucia
Where: Fillmore Miami Beach
Cost: $35-$117
Ages: ALL
Event Page: HERE
Notes: One of the greatest guitarists the world has ever known, Paco de Lucia returns stateside for the first time since 2007. De Lucia, 64, is iconic for his improbably dexterous Spanish guitar playing while melding flamenco, classical, and avant-garde jazz compositions. De Lucia is currently touring with a seven-member backing band including flamenco singers.
***
Headline: Pete Rock
Where: Bardot
Cost: $18 (early bird)
Ages: 21+
Event Page: HERE
Listen: “The Creator” — Pete Rock & CL Smooth
Notes: Living legend Peter Phillips, aka Pete Rock, will throw down at Bardot for the venue’s Living Room Session series. Pete Rock was instrumental in pioneering and popularizing the presence of jazz in hip hop during the early ’90s. It all started when Phillips prominently featured jazz and soul samples along with more traditional beats and scratches on Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s 1991 debut EP, All Souled Out, which featured samples from Freddie Hubbard, Lou Donaldson, James Brown, The Meters, and more. Since then, Pete Rock has released four solo albums, including 2001’s notable PeteStrumentals, and amassed a production/collaboration featuring artists like Tupac, Talib Kweli, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Kayne West, and Jay-Z.
***
Headline: Haochi Waves and Honey Train
Where: Electric Pickle
Cost: FREE
Event Page: HERE
Listen: “Worm Hole (demo)” — Haochi Waves
Notes: The Pickle’s Eclectic Electric night continues with a cross-county night of a couple of South Florida’s freshest and finest. Ft. Lauderdale’s Honey Train, still relative babes on the scene, continue to punch out anachronistic garage rock with aplomb. Haochi Waves, formed from the ashes of Pretty Please, are children of post-punk and riot grrrl, blending bursts of brightness and slacker moodiness with charming vocals and simple, kick ass transitions.
***
Headline: Nevermind: A Tribute to Nirvana
Where: Churchill’s
Cost: $5
Ages: 18+
Event Page: HERE
Notes: Churchill’s commemorates the 18th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death with a tribute show featuring live performances from Armada, The Burnout, The Midnight Hour, DJ Dracula’s Daughter, and more acts to be announced.
Wednesday, April 4
Headline: Morningwar
Where: Bardot
Cost: $??
Ages: 21+
Event Page: HERE
Notes: In February, Miami-based post-rock sextet Morningwar released its first EP since 2010. Featuring four songs, each recorded in a single take, Blackstar Studio Sessions builds upon the exploratory qualities of prog rock, melding hypnotic avant jazz keys, beautiful R&B singing from Gabby Rodriguez, moody guitars, melodic basslines, and cool jazz drum fills. Give it a listen on Morningwar’s bandcamp.
Tuesday, April 3
Headline: We Were Promised Jetpacks
Where: Bardot
Cost: $12 ($10 early bird sold out)
Ages: 21+
Event Page: HERE
Listen: “Quiet Little Voices ” — We Were Promised Jetpacks
Notes: Scotland’s We Were Promised Jetpacks play a familiar brand of anthemic guitar rock, on par with country mates The Twilight Sad and Minnesota’s Tapes N Tapes. Addictive hooks, thick chords, complementary keys, and clean post-punk vocals all contribute to WWPJ’s big sound. In late 2011, the Glasgow foursome released their second LP, In the Pit of the Stomach, which solidified the band’s ability to play mature, slow-rising big rock.
