:: rock the tropics ::

Ok. This is the deal:

Sometime in the next two months comes a complete site overhaul. Same writing, same music, same principles and partisanship, just more attractive and logical and better. Also, updates will be much more frequent, and if you've signed up for the mailing list, you'll be able to choose the frequency with which you receive Rock the Tropics e-mails. As always, feel free to send comments and ideas.


Please proceed.


Spy-Fi Records Party on the Patio
Saturday, May 17, 2003
9:00 p.m.
Hosted by our favorite local emcee, DJ Zira, aka Spy-Fi's Ed Artigas. Hit the patio for an indie pop par-tay.
Churchill's

Big Sky, Remeber the Ocean
Saturday, May 17, 2003
8:30 p.m.
You can even buy your tickets to this fine local show through the very venue, Respectable Street.

The Sounds Album Listening Party
Saturday, May 17, 2003
Swedish quintet releases its début album, Living in America. Come sample the self-proclaimed "future of rock history." Venue will be fully stocked with band-related merchandise.

Poplife Clubwarming,
with the #3 Pencils
Saturday, May 17, 2003
Poplife
30 N.E. 14 Street
Downtown Miami
(3 blocks West of Biscayne Blvd. on 14th Street)
10 p.m.
18+

The best Saturday-night party in town finally relocates to I/O, located in the Next South Beach, Downtown Miami (buy your Design District property now, while it's still dirt cheap!). $3 drink special from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m., so you can loosen up before you hit the dance floor.


Grandaddy with Pete Yorn, Year of the Rabbit
Sunday, May 18, 2003
Gosman Amphitheatre
6:30 p.m.
$25

If you choose to shell out the headliner-induced, big-time bucks, you'll catch a preview of Grandaddy's new album, Sumday, even before the kids at the Respectable Street listening party on June 13 (see below for details). You'll have plenty more cred points, too, since you'll be seeing and hearing the real thing, live. You will also potentially be assigned the nickname "Hardcore" (refer, again, to ticket prices for details). Not a bad gig. For extra kicks, the opening band, Year of the Rabbit, boasts a cool band name, cool resident graphic artist, spankin' new record label contract (courtesy of Elektra), and début full-length release on June 24. There: now you have more than enough reasons to dig into the wallet/trust fund and make the drive.

David Dondero
with Scott Nixon, J.C. Moya, Zira, and The Stop Motion (unplugged)
Sunday, May 25, 2003
Billabong Pub
8:00 p.m.
$5
18 and up
Presented by Firefly Music.

Radiohead Listening Party
Friday, May 30, 2003
Respectable Street
Radiohead's first single, "There There," off their forthcoming sixth album, Hail to the Thief -- alternately titled The Gloaming,-- will begin to rotate on Monday, May 26, a couple of weeks before the album's scheduled release date of Tuesday, June 10. A track list, European tour dates, and the information I've just relayed are posted in the original breaking-news, bare-bones style here, and elsewhere on their website.

Grandaddy Album Listening Party
Friday, June 13, 2003
Respectable Street
I couldn't tell you how many times I've attempted to dance to "The Crystal Lake" (from 2000's The Sophtware Slump) at various rock-friendly nightlife venues. Awkward as all hell, but that rolling synth line, the backbone of the song, is irresistible, and the guitar makes me want to swing my arms like a marching Girl Scout. Not the prettiest picture, but some of the most exciting and innovative music about. Nature versus machine, the beauty found somewhere in between. That was then, anyway. On June 10, the small-town Cali boys release Sumday, their third full-length effort. The buzz is slowly beginning to make its rounds, and apparently the word is that the new record is less Pink Floyd and more Under the Western Freeway, although the truth, as we all know, is that the beauty of Grandaddy lies somewhere in between.

The New Times' yearly Best of Miami issue is out this week, and I'm more pleased with their local music selections than I ever remember being. That's all due to two excellent choices, which follow.

Lo-fi revivalists Bling Bling got voted Best Indie Rock Band, a much-deserved and well-bestowed laud. For a couple of years now, the boys and girl of Bling Bling have been carrying the torch of raw, unpretentious, hands-barely-on production, keeping it real across South Florida with a series of kinetic live performances. Catch drummer Black Angus in his capacity as party emcee tonight at Churchill's (see above for details).

Posthumous laurels went to Machete, which was found to be the Best Band to Break Up in the Past Twelve Months. What else can I say about Machete in these virtual pages that I haven't already. A good thing rarely lasts as long as they did, and only the Rock and Roll Pantheon knows how many times they got hot-coals close to dissolution, so let's just be grateful for what we had while we had it, and for that ass-spanking last show. Speaking of which, those signed Untitled Music CDs are still sitting on my shelf. (Refer to November 6 entry.) What's up, people?

Other noteworthy recipients of Best Of nods were WVUM for Best Rock Radio Program and The Spam Allstars for Best Band Name, apparently just to give 'em something, because they're so damn good.


Until next time. Keep it bookmarked, keep it real.

:: Unknown 3:26 PM [+] ::
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