Blogs

I just got this press release forwarded to me so I apologize for getting this info to folks with such short notice. But it sounds like an alright festival and if bands want to be a part of it, reach out to the organizers asap.
--Jonathan Cunningham

CULTURA Festival '08
Presented by Oski, Queen Of The Scene & Alejandro
May 30th @ TOBACCO ROAD
30 bands, 4 stages, vendors, artists, a Massive drum circle & Musician Jam and other special performances. If you want to be a part of this diverse cultural experience, we need your Bio, a Photo without any logo's or writing, your contact info (phone #, Email, URL) & an MP3.

http://www. myspace. com/culturafestival

Last year, local liquor giant Bacardi threw its hat into the music-event ring with the first edition of B-Live, an all-day, rum-fueled shebang at Bayfront Park's ampitheater. It featured a host of unexpected artist pairings, including headliner Paul Oakenfold playing live, accompanied by a full orchestra. Although the event was well-attended, lots of folks still stayed away, as it was slotted just before Winter Music Conference.

This year, organizers have wised up and given the city's party people a few weeks to recuperate and get excited for the second installment of the free event. And not only is it free, but it's 21-and-over, which can only mean .... some sort of free booze! Hurrah! If you're a fan at all of dance music, you've really got no excuse not to go, considering the lineup heavy on hometown favorites:

More

Bartow, Fl rapper Riskay wrote one of the raunchiest, and funniest cheating songs of 2007. The tune is called, "Let Me Smell Yo Dick" and everybody from the New York Times to Perez Hilton caught wind of the song and wrote about it.
She just got back from SXSW where the performed at one of Hilton's industry parties and now she's headed to Ft. Lauderdale to shoot a video for the song that's made her an Internet phenomenon.
If you can't understand the concept, well, imagine a woman who needs to "verify" if her man has been sticking his schlong where it doesn't belong.
I'm curious if any male rappers want to crash her video shoot tomorrow at Laguna Beach Night Club and challenge her with their own version of the song. I'm surprised a "Let Me Smell Yo Clit" song hasn't surfaced, but maybe a local MC with enough cajones will show up tomorrow with a song raunchy enough to make Riskay blush.

--Jonathan Cunningham

While MSTRKRFT was everywhere, again, this Winter Music Conference, a lot of the talk was about when they'd finally release some new material. (The duo's last full album, The Looks, dropped in 2006).

Similarly quiet in recent years, although not, um, really discussed at Winter Music Conference, is rapper N.O.R.E. Mercifully, he dropped the whole reggaeton thing and last year hooked up with local clique Crazy Hood (Garcia, DJ EFN, etc.) and appeared on Garcia's last album, Life Unscripted. But much more new material is still forthcoming.

Well, fans of both acts (do they overlap, Venn Diagram-style, much?) now have this little nugget to tide them over.

MSTRKRFT feat. N.O.R.E. - "Bounce"

Really. Dig it! It's a welcome shot of vocals and hip-hop swagger for MSTRKRFT, and a really left-field, unexpected move for N.O.R.E. Here's to experimentation.

Download it for free courtesy of RCRD LBL, a new online-only, TOTALLY FREE label featuring hot-stuff artists from A-Trak, to Battles, to Beach House, even Moby. It's supported by ads and click-throughs, soooo get clicking and enjoy. -- Arielle Castillo

I usually never delve into the world of designer toys -- oops, limited-edition figures with varying "colorways," or whatever. But this time around someone's obviously done their Googling and realized I'm a fan of Motörhead, and sent me a press release for this little gem. It's definitely gone on my wish list for whatever gift-giving occasion comes up next.

More

Here's a track a friend suggested I look up, thanks to our shared love of any song using the phrase "booty music" (as opposed to the more journalistically politically correct "Miami bass"). Please start your day with this refreshing jam, "Booty Music" by Deep Side, a multiethnic, locally based quartet of heavily accessorized, attractive young men. The song is produced by -- guess who? T-Pain! Not content to be everywhere vocally, dude is also getting behind the boards and making his own tracks. The results are not bad by a long shot, although the resulting sing-song melody and pitch-corrected vocals make it sound like ... well, a T-Pain song. Which would maybe be good chart news for Deep Side, if, alas, anyone outside of a few geographical hot spots understood what "booty music" even is. Well, at least they'll understand that the boys of Deep Side do not, in fact, like doing it to slow jams: "Everybody don't like it slow/ Consider me one of them folk." But if the deed is done at booty music's hyperspeed BPM, is it really still "making love," as the chorus states it is? So many semantic questions! Chew on them as you enjoy.... -- Arielle Castillo

The monthly, completely undefinable music night at Churchill's known as Night of the Weirds celebrates its final installment tonight. For a brief explanation in this week's issue of the paper, click here. For an in-depth exploration of what Night of the Weirds was all about from Sasha Weisfeld, an active founding member of the local "weird community," read on.

Night of the Weirds takes place Tuesday, April 1, at Churchill's, 5501 NE 2nd Ave, Miami. Doors open at 9 p.m., and admission is free. Those 21 and older are welcome with ID. Call 305-757-1807, or visit www.churchillspub.com.

Now is Over
My life as a Weird
BY SASHA WEISFELD

1996. We were two former New World Art School students who figured we had no future in the rough and tumbled world of business and art. With fathers broken and brilliant, mothers who cared so much we should be gay (we’re not and we’re okay with that), we figured it was all a joke. Carlos Vega (Vidavox founder, current PhD pure math student) and I, Sasha Weisfeld (actor, playwright, performance artist, musician and FIU alumni/ BA Sociology) sat in a townhouse in Kendall. So far, we had only accomplished being known for being talented and smart, doing a lot of drugs in high school, and just being weird.

We dreamed up a band in a townhouse in Kendall. We would play tiny instruments through gigantic amps, sing songs about feeling small in a big world, and become known as Fuckmemommies. It was a joke -- or so we thought.

More

Well, now that Flo Rida's album is officially out, it'll be interesting to see how the album sells. His hit song, "Low" has been the number one song in the country for a long time, and despite the fact that we're paying attention to him because he's local, the entire music industry is looking at him right now to see if his first week sales and overall album sales will be successful.
No offense to anyone but this is the first major hip-hop release of the year. Rick Ross would probably disagree but that's the way it is.
And most folks in the music industry griped that 2007 was a bad year for hip-hop sales.
So if rap music is your bag, support him. Even if that means buying a ringtone.
We'll try to hit you with his first week album sales next Wednesday.
Anyway, here's his latest video, "Elevator" featuring cameos from part-time Miami resident Timbaland.

-- Jonathan Cunningham

Everybody and their grandmother, by now, knows at least the chorus and hooks to local guy Flo Rida's inescapable track, "Low," featuring T-Pain, that's spent a bazillion weeks as the number-one pop song in the country.

His anticipated full-length, Mail on Sunday, drops tomorrow on Poe Boy/Atlantic. (Wonder what the story is behind the title).

Thanks to MTV's online feature "The Leak," you can stream it here and try before you buy. -- Arielle Castillo

http://www.mtv.com/music/the_leak/flo_rida/mail_on_sunday

Since the Bo$$ of the city has a new album out today, it's only right to show Rick Ross some love on CrossFade. His long-awaited album, Trilla, is in stores now so go get it if supporting local artists is important to you. Sure, that's a mixed bag cause Ross probably has more money than BestBuy anyway so it might not seem like he needs your support. But that's bogus. South Florida's music world is at a tipping point right now and the more successful one person's album is saleswise, the better it is for everyone. So go and support the big homey.

Here's a hilarious video of Ross and crew doing what they do.

-- Jonathan Cunningham

(Via Idolator). Liberal mag Mother Jones did us all the favor of putting together an imeem streaming play list of songs used during military prison interrogations, according to various leaked documents. And I have to say -- I, too, would crack pretty quickly if forced to listen to "Babylon" by David Gray more than once or twice.

Among the other selections:

-The Barney TV show theme song
-"Stayin' Alive" by the BeeGees
-"Kim" by Eminem
-the "Meow Mix" jingle

Visit the Mother Jones site here to view the whole list of songs and stream them -- if you dare. -- Arielle Castillo

…when you can use VOCALOID, a totally fascinating, vaguely unsettling singing synthesizer program from – where else? – Japan. It doesn’t just do the robot voice box or vocoder sounds – this one actually sings, mainly through the reedy female voice of a fictional character, Miku Hatsune (based, however, on a series of recordings by the very much alive Japanese actress Saki Fujita). Users more or less simply input the melody, and then input whatever lyrics, and poof – a near pitch-perfect rendition that sounds almost human. Oh, it works in English, too, although Miku still can’t pronounce certain sounds. A new couple of voice kits, of a girl named Rin and a boy named Len, were released last December in Japan, but Miku remains the most popular.

Of course, YouTube is full of videos of Miku singing either existing songs, or people’s own eerie ditties fit for anime theme music. Here are a couple of my favorites.

(Oh, and thanks to Wired magazine for tipping me off in the new March issue.) – Arielle Castillo

Here’s Miku singing “Lorelei,” from the 1933 Gershin musical Pardon My English.

And here she is singing “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” by Chicago.

In case you didn't already know, Erykah Badu's long-awaited album, New Amerykah, Part One: 4th World War is in stores now. The album came out yesterday on Erykah's birthday and it's tight. Yesterday was also Ky-mani Marley's birthday...and it seems that a musical lovechild between the two artists must be in the cards. Regardless, Erykah's disc is finally out and the tracks I've heard off it so far are banging!!
It's hard to believe this is only Erykah's fourth studio album. It seems like she's been around the music scene forever, and in fact, Baduizm came out 11 years ago. She definitely takes considerable gaps in between projects but motherhood probably has a lot to do with that.
Here's a video for the first single off the album. It's called, "Honey" and is produced by 9th Wonder.

-- Jonathan Cunningham

Since this festival is only two weeks away, you might as well start mapping out your plans for Langerado weekend now. It's March 6-9, which is right around the corner. Here's the official line-up with set times for all the bands that you want to see. Friday and Saturday are looking extra sexy but Sunday looks solid too. Some of the best bands are playing at the same time so strategize people. Strategize.

-- Jonathan Cunningham