Kiss it dudely.

Torche's 2005's self-titled effort on Robotic Empire had everybody making the obvious comparisons to the last echoes of Floor still floating around. Meanderthal was 2008's breakthrough as far as finding a unique voice distancing from the band members' individual pasts (besides Floor, Cavity, Shitstorm, Mehkago N.T., Ed Matus' Struggle, Panda Bite, Tyranny of Shaw, Tunes for Bears to Dance To, etc...) and then a slew of EPs and splits kept the appetites whet and the band in the spotlight.

This is good. This is what you expect. And while those sourpusses over at Pitchfork might want to wield their "mighty" cool swords all over town, remember this: Steve Brooks was setting up his mastery of the "guitar bomb" for the very bands these people went gaga for when they were in diapers and the internet was Al Gore's feverish dream. It's true.

So now comes the band's new album, Harmonicraft. And if those cranks at Pitchfork feel like "predictability" is at play on this album, I posit the following: This is new guitarist Andrew Elstner's first ride on the bull that is Torche, and here you have everything that you need for a solid album: soaring vocals, gruff guitars, a well-gelled rhythm section, and varied compositions that work together symbiotically to create a full and ethereal aural experience.

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Tim Hicks

If you play or attend local music events, you have probably seen Tim Hicks on the dance floor. He moves like a jellyfish in the shifting and unpredictable currents, somewhere in between the dark depths and glimmering surface. 

He shows no preference as to what sort of music is being played. Whether it is note perfect death metal, the nervous songs of a fledgling singer-songwriter, or '80s new wave from a DJ booth, Hicks allows it to move him and bows to the performer whenever there is a pause.

In his own musical pursuit, called Adna, as in his performance art, he welcomes all vibrations and treats them kindly, transmuting the spectrum of challenging and delightful emotions into sympathetic, ambient sounds via voice, guitar, and an array of effects processors. Adna's latest release, Lent Keep, offers 25 minutes of improvised, meditative drift.

Hicks celebrates the release this Saturday at the Bubble, along with special guests, at an event that will feature live music as well as collective live drawing and painting.

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The supercool album cover was done by local artist Marc Paperscissor.

SoFla Flow pays tribute to South Florida's wonderful jam-band, reggae, and related activity: heady, homegrown, local stuff.

​Deerfield Beach band the Resolvers' new album, Big Band Reggae, debuted at number five on the Billboard Reggae Charts, and that was before it was released online, which happened last week. As readers may have picked up on from various posts (here and here, for example), County Grind thinks this band deserves all the little gold stars of feedback that it can receive. 

Big Band Reggae is a profoundly original statement in the world of reggae, both the album and the sound to which the title refers: the well-nurtured child that this 11-piece musical family has been bringing into the world for a couple of years now. On the six-song record, it's clear that not only is the child up on its own two feet but it's dancing like James Brown. The record delivers it so well that the listener can't help but shake loose and join in.

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Some truth.

​Last week we brought you some choice musical and drinking options for this upcoming romantic debacle known as "Valentine's Day." More >>

Oh! This crap again!

​We've been accused of a lot of things here at the Grind. We've been accused of loving Lil Wayne too much, worrying excessively about dance crazes nobody has ever heard of or cares about, celebrating birthdays of musicians who don't know we're alive... in short, grievances have been made against us as a company and as individuals. More >>

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Black Cobra
Invernal
(Southern Lord Recordings)
blackcobra.net

Say what you will, but South Florida loves all of its children, whether they live here or not. I can't think of a better example of this at the moment than the almighty duo of Black Cobra. And that's not just because album opener "Avalanche" is hacking away at my rapidly deteriorating hearing this instant.

Currently calling San Francisco home, this band features the talents of drummer and multi-instrumentalist and ex-Acid King and 16 player Rafael Martinez and ex-Cavity axman Jason Landrian on guitar and vocals.

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ReverbNation.com

​Palm Beach-based beat maker Shawn Wayne flies his boom-bap colors high and proud on his solo debut, The Wayne Event, released recently on FootWork4Self. Cut from a cloth of men who like their samples soulful, their drums gritty, and their beats between 85 and 95 beats per minute, Wayne's 15-track collection is like a warm embrace from an old friend. And a much-needed hug for many -- where once we were beating back golden-era nostalgia with a Louisville Slugger, 2011 has been a tough year for the classically trained hip-hop head. While rap purists stand around and scratch their heads at the popularity of underground artists like Das Racist, Lil B, and Odd Future, The Wayne Event gives them something familiar and sorely missed to come home to.More >>

Facebook.com

​We all know E. Grizzly's work locally with AlukarD and from numerous ciphers and hip-hop jams around town. What we have here is a fully realized, 13-track album of pure alternative hip-hop goodness titled Helldoesnotexistasweknowit bizzaro mix vol. 0. But let's talk about the bases first; let's talk about New Milly.

New Milly is Grizzly's nickname for his tri-city life in New York, Miami, and Philly. The art and music promotion company Philly Kid Group has given Grizzly free range over numerous tracks by famous NYC underground producer and rapper El-P (Company Flow, Def Jux), and what we have here is as evenly matched an oeuvre as you'll get.

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The Beltones
Cheap Trinkets
(TKO Records)
beltones.com

Last year in September, we had the opportunity to revisit one of my favorite local platters from the '90s, the Beltones' Lock and Load seven-inch on the sorely missed Far Out Records. It was, as it usually is within these pages, a great time to sit, listen to music, and reminisce about those wild times in South Florida punkdom. But as often happens with these BFTP columns, I was saddened over the possibility that I would never see these guys play live again.

Well, thanks to the wonderful efforts by Ms. Nayra Serrano and this weekend's upcoming Mondo Fest, I (we) will get to see South Florida's smoothest lyricist, Mr. Bill McFadden, and his fantastic Beltones! But before we get into the meat of the Cheap Trinkets disc, we had a chance to catch up with McFadden, and here's what he had to say:

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