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image via amagill's flickr

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If you are into dazzling, disjointed hip-hop beats, then you have probably heard of a whiz kid and producer that goes by the name of Prefuse 73. Born in Miami, but raised in Atlanta, Prefuse 73 (born Scott Herren) also records under various monikers like Savath & Savalas and Delarosa & Asora. Still, he's best known and admired around the world for his flawless work as Prefuse 73.

After releasing his debut 2001 album, Vocal Studies + Up Rock Narratives, Herren earned the attention and respect of underground electronic music aficionados. And though his production technique is firmly rooted in hip-hop, Herren's work also delves deeply into the realm of electro and ambient, making Prefuse 73 a difficult artist to pigeonhole.  

So it's very fitting that the eclectic Prefuse, along with Elliot Lip and local hero PG 13, is performing this Sunday at Miami Beach's Heathrow Lounge for the last night of Art Basel. "I got a lot of friends in Miami," says Herren, speaking via phone from his Brooklyn home. "I also started doing a lot of stuff for [Miami-based label] Schematic. I have some close friends down in M.I.A., but I'm not very good at communicating with people when I'm not around, so I'll be cool to be visiting."More >>

The obvious similarities between Secondhand Serenade, hailing from the suburbs of California's Bay Area, and homegrown sensation Dashboard Confessional are impossible to ignore. Like Dashboard Confessional, the name is a framework for a shifting project led by a singular talent; John Vesely is to Secondhand Serenade what Chris Carrabba is to Dashboard. Both projects began as one-man acoustic acts, which blossomed along with their popularity into bands in their own right. And, most strikingly, both groups are helmed by pretty, tattooed men with meticulously greased quaffs, who emote over lots of acoustic guitar on those two classic subjects: love and loss.

But Vesely's work, to thousands of thousands of fans, stands on his own. He's got a knack for singing with a hushed urgency, as if he were letting listeners in on a secret. Even if it's somebody else's secret — the songs on both his debut album, Awake, and his followup, A Twist in My Story, which dropped this past February on the upstart Glassnote Music, were all written specifically for special women. Awwww. Hardened hearts need not apply here.

And meanwhile, the self-made sensation who grew his fan base in the early days through MySpace, breaks further and further into the mainstream. "Fall For You," the lead single off A Twist in My Story, was certified platinum earlier this year; its video continues to receive heavy rotation on outlets like VH1. A deluxe version of A Twist in My Story, featuring an EP's worth of new material, is due out early next year.

After the jump, read a full Q&A with Vesely. -- Arielle Castillo

Secondhand Serenade performs tonight with Cute is What We Aim For, Automatic Loveletter, and A Rocket to the Moon at Revolution, 200 W. Broward Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale. The show starts at 6 p.m., and tickets cost $19. All ages are welcome. Call 954-727-0950, or visit www.jointherevolution.net and www.ticketmaster.com.

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Once upon a time – the mid- to late Eighties, to be precise – heavy metal ruled the rock landscape. On the pop side, of course, there were the infamous hair bands. But on another, more underground but no less popular side, were a number of faster genre offshoots, presided over by a pantheon of guitar gods. And near the top of this Olympus was the flamboyant Yngwie Malmsteen, a Swedish-born sensation whose technical skill and bombastic power on the axe were nearly unmatched. Single-handedly, he developed a much-copied symphonic, lightning-fast, arpeggio-laden style of playing that launched him, for a brief period in the late Eighties, into bona fide mainstream success.

Just how revered was Yngwie during this period? Well, for one thing, he was the first ever musician to get his own name-brand guitar model made by Fender, in 1986. And from 1984 to 1988, Malmsteen scored an album a year in the Billboard top 100.

We all know what happened next – grunge became the next mainstream big rock thing, and metal was driven back underground. Still, Malmsteen survived, buoyed by a less visible, but still very, very large global audience of shred enthusiasts.

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Last night, Miami’s Hobie Beach – located on Virginia Key, just over the Rickenbacker Causeway -- was filled with tour buses, Maybachs, an orange Lamborghini, a couple of Bentleys, and some limousines. Lil Wayne was in one of the tour buses, as this was to be the video shoot location for his hit song “Mrs. Officer,” a song about making love to a female police officer, with classic lyrics like, “All she wants me to do is fuck the police.”

The film crew set up as a group of real police officers gathered around a police car. The red and blue sirens flashed, and their faces glared at me as I took out my camera. “I do not want to see my picture on the internet,” said one of them, as I put the camera back into my pocket.

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It’s possible that the musicians of Washington, D.C.-area punky, metally, bluesy hard rock quintet Clutch do not know how to take a break. They blasted out of the gate running in 1991 with a seven-inch single, “Passive Restraint,” snagged a deal with EastWest Records, and hit the road. Since then, across 12 albums, they’ve often forgotten to come home, building a near-mythical reputation for explosive live shows, whose bootleg recordings are coveted and traded by the band’s legions of fanatical followers.

Led by the slightly gruff, but doggedly determined Neil Fallon, the band has touched the near-mainstream a few times, most notably in the earlier part of this decade with the albums Pure Rock Fury and Blast Tyrant. However, its unpredictable music evolution, traversing everything from stoner rock to hardcore to blues, as well as Fallon’s uncompromising, obtuse lyrical references, have kept Clutch firmly in cult territory. It’s just fine with the band members, though, who have severed ties with their most recent label, DRT, in favor of distributing their latest live DVD/CD combo, Full Fathom Five, through their own web site.

New Times caught up with Fallon recently by phone to discuss the band's regained autonomy and current tour. The full interview follows after the jump. -- Arielle Castillo

Clutch and the Sword perform with Graveyard and Never Got Caught. Friday, September 26.
Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Hwy., Ft. Lauderdale. Doors open at 7 p.m.; tickets cost $19.99 in advance. All ages. 954-564-1074; www.cultureroom.net and www.ticketmaster.com

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The Sword are a hard-hitting, sludgy, but epic quartet from Austin, Texas, who are preoccupied with very metally subjects like Norse mythology and the science fiction writings of George R. R. Martin. And irony be damned, they’re damned serious about it. “It's not a joke at all,” says the colorfully named drummer, Trivett C. Wingo. "You could say, like, how serious was Led Zeppelin when they recorded 'Immigrant Song?' They were pretty damn serious."

Taking the dirt-sifting textures of doom metal but giving them an amphetamine kick, the songs on the band’s second and latest album, Gods of the Earth, seem somehow crushed by the weight of gravity, but also about to break free from its grasp. For various reasons – perhaps its alt-heavy hometown, its relative good looks, its penchant for properly fitting clothing – the band has been, occasionally, tagged as “hipster metal.” Those who would wield that term, however, would be ashamed to use it in front of one of the band’s biggest fans: none other than Lars Ulrich, of Metallica. He’s just taken the Sword on tour with his band in Europe, and will take them through Metallica’s high-profile U.S. tour this fall. Who’s laughing now?

New Times caught up by phone with Wingo recently to discuss the band's latest album, its current tour with Clutch, and its upcoming opening slot for Metallica. The full interview follows after the jump. -- Arielle Castillo

Clutch and the Sword perform with Graveyard and Never Got Caught. Friday, September 26.
Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Hwy., Ft. Lauderdale. Doors open at 7 p.m.; tickets cost $19.99 in advance. All ages. 954-564-1074; www.cultureroom.net and www.ticketmaster.com

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