4/8-5/29 AFRO ROOTS FESTIVAL: Sinkane, Dayme Arocena, Weedie Braimah & Hot, Jesus Hidalgo, Philip Montalban, Jomion & the Uklos, The Everglades Songbook Suite, Johnny Dread, DJ Le Spam, Cortadito, The Resolvers, Gilmar Gomes, Suenalo, Bad Apples Brass Band, Javier Garcia, Jude Papaloko, Itawe, Tomas Diaz, Macs Reggae Samba, Panafrik, Son Mandinga, MiamiBloco, DJ Ephniko, DJ Kumi DJ Lance-O. AFROROOTSFEST.COM 3/25 PROPAGANDA: Spirit & the Cosmic Heart, The Dewars, MrEnc, Brett Staska RESPECTABLE STREET: MASS REVOLUTION LIVE: Marcelo D2, DJ Nuts CISCO POP UP: Jerry Dugger Duo, JP Soars MATHEWS: 56 Ace Band 3/26 PROPAGANDA: Sandman Sleeps, Tank Top, The Dreambows, 8 Path MATHEWS: Completely Unchained (VanHalen Trib) CISCO POP UP: Ras Punk, Jerry Dugger Duo FILLMORE MB: Lil Tecca REVOLUTION LIVE: Cannibal Corpse RESPECTABLE STREET: inti.met residency
3/27 CISCO POP UP: Jerry Dugger, Sista Marybet GRAMPS: Portrayal of Guilt, World Peace 3/28 GRAMPS: Soft Kill FILLMORE MB: Kaleo 3/30 RESPECTABLE STREET: Battle of the Bands 2 3/31 MATHEWS: Jose Almonte 4/1 RESPECTABLE STREET: Immaterial Possession, Room Thirteen, Glass Body, The Dreambows, Heavy Metal Patio w/ No Coffin & DJ Request Denied THE PEACH: Brian Cattelle Art Show GRAMPS: Vacations MATHEWS: Got You Covered Band KRAVIS CENTER: PEAK Mountainfilm on Tour CENTER FOR SUBTROPICAL AFFAIRS: Dylan LeBlanc, Bradley Lauretti, April Nicole ARTS GARAGE: The Lenore Raphael Trio 4/2 THE PEACH: Nervous Monks
MATHEWS: 561 Music Festival: Spred the Dub, Sierra Lane, Sons of a Tradesman, No Name Ska Band, Bryce Allyn Band, Victoria Leigh, Joey Calderaio, BFD, The Shake, Jake Walden Band, Sandman Sleeps, Fall Victim, Jakob Takos, Micah Scott, Josh Miles, Dominic Delaney, Ben Childs, Alyssa Coon, Fox Maple, Paper Carcass RESPECTABLE STREET: Authority Zero, 1983, Straight Jacket PB CANNABIS EXPO: CanXpo.com CENTER FOR SUBTROPICAL AFFAIRS: Springfest at the Center Blues and BBQ Bash with Juke, Scone Cash Players, Lone Wolf KRAVIS CENTER: Complexions Contemporary Ballet CULTURE ROOM: Perpetual Groove
4/3 SWA GREENWAY TRAIL: Run Away 5k MATHEWS: Jordan Richards ARTS GARAGE: The Drew Tucker Orchestra 4/4 GRAMPS: Drug Church, One Step Closer, Soul Blind, Lurk 4/6 FILLMORE MB: Snoh Aalegra
4/7 KRAVIS CENTER: Cameron Carpenter CULTURE ROOM: Skip Marley ARTS GARAGE: Jimmy Shubert - Art of Laughter 4/8 GRAMPS: Tonstartssbandht RESPECTABLE STREET: Powerglove, Immortal Guardian, Mind Virus & MRSA MATHEWS: Krazy Train ARTS GARAGE: Blue Muse Jazz: Cool Jazz Cafe 4/8-5/15 MTN SPACE: John Skibo “Nothing is Difficult Forever” 4/9 RESPECTABLE STREET: RiZe EP Release w/ Irra’s One, The World I See & 500 Block, intimet MATHEWS: Sons of a Tradesman 4/10 RESPECTABLE STREET: Hellzapoppin Circus Sideshow MATHEWS: Jose Almonte 4/13 FILLMORE MB: Clairo, Widowspeak REVOLUTION LIVE: Dragonforce, Firewind, Vision of Atlantis, Seven Spires RESPECTABLE STREET: Dayseeker, Holding Absence, Thornhill & Caskets CULTURE ROOM: The Darkness, Dead Deads 4/14 RESPECTABLE STREET: Luna Luna, Dent May, Pearl & The Oysters 4/15 BAYFRONT PARK: Bon Iver, Dijon RESPECTABLE STREET: Hot Flash Heat Wave, Small Crush, Reptaliens, Basement Presents Eternal Soul on the patio MATHEWS: Project X Band REVOLUTION LIVE: Pillows & Beer FILLMORE MB: Kountry Wayne CULTURE ROOM: The Expendables 4/16 AFRO ROOTS FEST @ GUANABANAS: Philip Montalban, Bad Apples Brass Band, DJ Ephniko DNTN WPB: Sunset Silent Disco MATHEWS: Dark Side of Sol (Pink Floyd Trib) REVOLUTION LIVE: Saved by the 90s
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4/ AF SH M DO Lim Re GR Ko AR Po RE Ju M AR Ro HA
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ESPECTABLE STREET: intimet indie house dance ENTER FOR SUBTROPICAL AFFAIRS: Miami Bloco LA LIVE ARENA: Bon Jovi
/17 MATHEWS: Bryan Smith
/18 RAVIS CENTER: Malpaso Dance Co. AYFRONT PARK: Lil Durk
/22 FRO ROOTS @ DORAL YARD: Cortadito, ude Papaloko, Panfrik, ITAWE, DJ Kumi ORTON MUSEUM OF ART: Catwalk Student ashion Show at Art After Dark. Exhibition 4/27/13 at GallerRE at Resource Depot EVOLUTION LIVE: Latto, Saucy Santana, Kali, Asianae ESPECTABLE STREET: Love Song (Cure Trib), MASS ENTER FOR SUBTROPICAL AFFAIRS: Ana Paz, mothy Laroque, April Nicole, Rick Moon, Nick ounty & the Muchas Cosas Band MATHEWS: Spider Cherry ARD ROCK LIVE: The Who RAMPS: Man on Man
/23 FRO ROOTS @ NORTH BEACH BANDHELL: Sinkane, Dayme Arocena, Son Mandinga, DJ Lance-O OGFISH HEAD MIAMI : RSD, Richie Hell Gumbo mbo Remixes Vinyl Drop, Sweat?... Stout! Can elease, Live Art: Francisca Oyhanarte RAMPS: ADULT., Body of Light, ontravoid, Spike Hellis RTS WAREHOUSE: Warehouse Market Indoor op-Up ft. Makers & Creatives ESPECTABLE STREET: Escape The Fate, Red umpsuit Apparatus & Violent New Breed MATHEWS: Southern Blood RTS GARAGE: JD Danner “I Love Rock and oll” The Women of The 70s! ARD ROCK LIVE: Van Morrison
/24 FRO ROOTS @ LONG PINE AMP: verglades Songbook Suite ESPECTABLE STREET: Xavier Wulf ARD ROCK LIVE: Van Morrison
/26 EVOLUTION LIVE: JXDN
/27 EVOLUTION LIVE: Jacob Collier LLMORE MB: Koffee ESPECTABLE STREET: Battle of the Bands 3
/28 FRO ROOTS @ GREEN PARROT: ortadito, Tomas Diaz OLLYWOOD ARTSPARK: Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn MATHEWS: Jose Almonte RAMPS: Nothing Nowhere, Poorstacy, arolesdaughter, Guccihighwaters, Snarls
/29 LLMORE MB: Beth Hart MATHEWS: Switch N Whisky ESPECTABLE STREET: Intelligent Hip Hop Patio
/30 ESPECTABLE STREET: intimet indie house dance MATHEWS: Maximum Friction RTS GARAGE: Copeland Davis “Jazz to Classics”
/3 LLMORE MB: Primus, Battles
VIA CAPTURED TRACKS
REPTALIENS
though. Their songs cover conspiracy theo arcana. It’s an audio surrealist, Art Bell “C through a sun-drenched synth-pop dream Cole and Bambi Browning, Reptaliens, as “sci-fi art, cult mentality and deep conne dreamscapes somewhere between abst sonically and visually.”
Where past Reptaliens releases were e newest offering, “Multiverse,” is a produc two-piece version of their past output, stre alternative, guitar-driven ’90s rock than the Bandcamp, the Brownings were in a loop Jane’s Addiction and from there the music off,” Cole . “It was so fast and easy and fun
Is it true? In many cases with bands like th entertaining. And when you’re dabbling in when it’s not? If you can think it, then yo extraterrestrial, cultish, mind-control stuff c VHS visual style and their cheerful Helvetica messaging in there that says, among othe not to obey.
Reptaliens play with Small Crush and Ho at Respectable Street in WPB. reptaliens.b
ALEXA VISCIUS
WIDOWSPEAK by David Rolland
When the Brooklyn indie rock duo Widowspeak — singer Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas — released the title track and video for their sixth album, “The Jacket,” this winter, they added a covering note that sounded almost valedictory. WIDOWSPEAK The jacket in the song, they wrote, is an article of clothing representing “all the cliches (imagined and real) of being in a band, rock and roll, youth, projecting ‘cool’ (or thinking you do),” they wrote, “and believing in the power of symbols and costume to help find and define your true self.”
So if the new album sounds like a trip through time, that’s probably no accident. The mood is reflective for a partnership that started in 2010. On new songs “While You Wait” and “Everything Is Simple,” Hamilton’s beautiful, ethereal voice is like a ’90s college radio dream, summoning Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star and Margo Timmins of Cowboy Junkies. The songs dwell in a state of tuneful melancholy that makes you long for rain and a full day in bed to just nod along as you play them on repeat. Thomas sketches out opening chords for the title track, and then switches on a fuzz tone that flashes forward to the turn of the millennium, when a sleeker breed of garage rock band like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Raveonettes was making noise. Widowspeak’s own persona is the kind you might find in a cocktail lounge in a David Lynch movie, never more so than in their faithful, early-career rendition of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.” But the new material represents a leap forward in the band’s assuredness and its capacity to stay in a listener’s subconscious. Bootleg footage of their past concerts show a band able to translate their moody atmospherics to the stage. They’re the openers for singer-songwriter Clairo on “The Sling Tour” visiting Miami Beach in April, so be sure to arrive in time to experience a sound that can have you jangling through the fourth dimension. Widowspeak open for Clairo 8pm Wednesday, April 13 at the Fillmore Miami Beach. widowspeakforever.com
REPTALIENS
by Tim Moffatt
The everything old is new aesthetic is now not so new anymore, and there are plenty of groups who utilize lo-fi in lieu of charisma or personality. When your shoegaze is a schtick or your aw-shucks persona is a cover for past acts of toxic machismo, what can you do but co-opt a personality?
Reptaliens seem to be the real deal, ories, alien interactions and other “X-Files” Coast to Coast” radio emanation filtered mscape. Created by husband and wife s described on their Bandcamp, draw on ections” to create “lo fidelity chameleon tract expressionism and surrealism both
ensemble productions, the Oregonians’ ct of Covid lockdown: a stripped-down eamlined to essential elements. It’s more e psychedelic haze of earlier work. Per their of listening to “Been Caught Stealing” by c just started to flow. “That really kicked it n that we said, ‘Let’s do more like that.’”
his, the legend is fit for print and twice as n sci-fi, isn’t the legend really the truth even ou can manifest it. And this is where the comes in. Be wary of the band’s grainy, a fonts. There’s subliminal, Reptalien-brain er things, “Buy our merch,” and it’s tough
ot Flash Heat Wave, 8pm Friday April 15 bandcamp.com
VIA ADULT.
ADULT. by Tim Moffatt
The ’90s were dominated by the dour haze that was grunge and adversely the golden age of hip-hop. The aughts were messier: Subsets of subsets of genres and reference points sprouted every which way. But along one branch, the decade encompassed both rap-rock for raging frat dudes and dance punk ADULT. that spoke to the David Bowieleaning alternaboys and riot girls. The young people of that era, it seems, just needed to dance it out or mosh it out, or something? ADULT., formed in Detroit in 1998, hail from the dance floor, like peers such as Chicks on Speed, Peaches, Fischerspooner, Ladytron, the Faint and Le Tigre who embodied a millennial Gary Numan meets Devo by way of lo-fi new wave aesthetic. Being from Detroit also matters: You can be in a band and be from Detroit to varying degrees of success. But to make it out of Detroit alive and with a career you have to be good, like really good. It’s not called Detroit Rock City for no reason. MC5, White Stripes, Dirtbombs, the Stooges, Alice Cooper, the Temptations, the Supremes, Eminem — you see what I’m getting at here? Detroit music is cataclysmic to the rest of the mellifluous world. Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller, the two art school devotees who as ADULT., bring that energy to their electropunk anthems. The duo spent their formative years playing in other outfits, cutting their teeth in the Detroit scene and making their names before coming together professionally and romantically. They formed Ersatz Audio, their own record label, to have complete control over their musical and artistic output. This kind of freedom lends itself to artistic achievement that owes nothing to anyone but the artists. Much like their Michigan brethren, this sort of free-thinking creativity has kept ADULT., relevant way past the expected shelf life of their contemporaries. Give it up for the denizens of Detroit and their resilience; now let’s get down! ADULT. with Body of Light, Kontravoid and Spike Hellis play 8pm Saturday, April 23 at Gramps in Miami. adultperiod.com
ANDY WHITE
Tonstartssbandht by Abel Folgar
If the finest purveyors of experimental psychedelic rock spend the bulk of their lifetimes creating a catalogue of work that guarantees their place in history … how do we even begin the conversation about the über-prolific White brothers? Formed in Orlando in 2008 by guitarist Andy White and drummer Edwin White, Tonstartssbandht — a moniker created TONSTARTSSBANDHT by Edwin while collaging — hit the ground running and never stopped. A slew of studio and live recordings, most of them fulllength, span the duo’s decade-plus of relentless output and far-flung touring. Where most band experimentation precedes a release, the brothers explained their approach to an Australian publication as follows: “We just record wherever and as best as we can. Even a shitty recording can possibly be salvaged or used in a different way … Just hit that button and don’t worry about it.” Their latest, 2021’s “Petunia,” is a little more planned — “created in a sustained manner and in a consistent environment, written and recorded in a single place over a focused period of time,” to quote their Bandcamp. Time off the road helped shape it, in contrast to previous albums made with the brothers often separated by school and work. “Petunia” takes their usual stripped guitar-and-drum sound and overlays hypnotic vocal melodies. The result is thoroughly enjoyable rock ’n’ roll that breathes pure air, never gets cloyingly sweet and recalls the better instances of ‘70s productions and atmospheric cinematics. Opener “Pass Away” comes equipped with a c&w twang that surreptitiously covers the entire album with an infectious positivity. You can’t sit through these seven tracks – five of which clock in at over six minutes – and not feel good. In “What Has Happened” they hit a great balance of tropicalia with the hymnal qualities of Simon & Garfunkel at their eeriest. By the time the album closes with “Smilehenge” and Andy’s vocals teeter on breaking, you’ll be disappointed that it has come to an end but glad you get to flip and start all over again. Tonstartssbandht perform 8pm Friday, April 8 at Gramps in Miami. tonstartssbandht.bandcamp.com
@SAVAGESPARROW
IMMATERIAL POSSESSION by David Rolland
IMMATERIAL POSSESSION
From the top of their 2020 self-titled debut, Immaterial Possession sound very much like their name — eerie, haunting, with something supernatural you can’t quite grasp. There’s an air of Joy Division post punk and a dash of protogoth Siouxsie and the Banshees, but more laid back considering the lo-fi presentation and the playfulness with instruments and arranging.
Singer and guitarist Madeline Polites assures PureHoney that the Athens, Georgia group did not spring from a crossroads or a coven. “Cooper Holmes and I found we both were ripe in the desire to start something fresh and so we made a pinkie promise at an Atlanta dive bar that we’d start a band,” says Polites. “We plucked John Spiegel from the top of the drummer tree of Athens and a few renditions of keyboardists later, we found Kiran Fernandes who made everything really gel, and brought with him clarinets, congas, saxophone, flutes, and other lively instruments.” The four piece is currently recording a followup album and doing their first out of Georgia dates since the pandemic. Asked how they generally prepare for shows such as their upcoming visit to Respectable Street in West Palm Beach, Polites hints at the possibility of April Fool’s Day mischief: “We usually sketch out a few improvisational elements to give the show a face with a theatrical balance. We surf that alien wave, slap each other in the face and threaten violence if we don’t obey the laws of the set which have yet to be written. Then I smile at the sound person.. all the while casting spells upon them to ensure the sparkliest sound. I rush again to the bathroom for the second time. I uncomfortably remove my casual attire in the darkest landscapes of piss room and replace my skin with black and white morphing faces.. fluff my hair and waltz out as if it never happened.” And that is the recipe for an Immaterial Possession. Immaterial Possession with Room Thirteen, Glass Body and the Dreambows perform 8pm Friday, April 1 at Respectable Street in WPB. immaterialpossession.bandcamp.com
LAURA MOREAU
PEARL & THE OYSTERS by Amanda Moore
Signs from the universe guide us all. Some signs transform everything. And we mean everything. For Pearl & The Oysters, as described on their official website, “winning a free trip to the “Ostreoid Asteroid Resort” (from PEARL & THE OYSTERS whence came their name) on the back of a dehydrated cereal box” catapulted their music career. After listening to the universe and embarking on their cosmic trip these “galactic gleaners began making music together,” their biography says. Like most mind-altering magical experiences, the details of this journey remain a mystery. Curious to know more, PureHoney asked the astro-exotica duo for a glimpse of their founding event. But when the universe speaks directly to you, you keep your lips sealed and follow the golden rule: “What happens on the Ostreoid Asteroid Resort stays on the Ostreoid Asteroid Resort,” as the duo explained. Some clues to the duo’s pre-flight origins tumbled out in an interview. At a high school in Paris, France, co-creators Juliette Pearl Davis and Joachim Polack bonded over a mutual “deep and unwavering love for The Beatles” as well as ’60s song man Burt Bacharach and The Pixies. Carrying similar musical DNA, they wound up at graduate school at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where their musical partnership took off. In 2020 they moved to Los Angeles. From their new base, they’ve weathered the pandemic, released their third full-length album, “Flowerland,” met tons of cool people, opened for Parcels at the 4,000-seat Hollywood Palladium and traveled abroad to play their first sold-out hometown show in Paris. Maybe because Juliette is “low-key prescient,” as described by Joachim, Pearl & The Oysters produced “Flowerland” prior to the pandemic and released it halfway through 2021, affording stressed-out listeners an escape to a euphoric, lounge-pop electric oasis. They’re presently touring with bilingual pop band Luna Luna and singer-songwriter Dent May, and they’re excited about working on new music including “a split EP with our favorite French band Biche.” Pearl & The Oysters perform with Luna Luna and Dent May, 7pm Thursday April 14 at Respectable Street in WPB. pearlandtheoysters.bandcamp.com
AFRO ROOTS fest
VIA AFRO ROOTS
by Abel Folgar
African and African Diaspora music. South Florida’s unique makeup is the fertile soil from which this incredible event has grown and one of the main reasons why the music programming has been able to connect across so many different communities.
What happening will infiltrate hotspots from Key West to Gainesville with delicious music and positive vibes over the next two months? A hint: It started in 1999 at a beloved old bar in downtown Miami, and from there it grew like a seedling dreaming of becoming a mighty baobab. If your answer isn’t the Afro Roots World Music Festival, Afro Roots Fest for short, then it’s time for a friendly hand pulling you out from under that rock. Produced by the Miamibased nonprofit Community Arts and Culture, Afro Roots Fest is one of the longest-running events of its kind and has featured luminaries including the Sun Ra Arkestra, Sanba Zao, Salif Keita, Vieux Farka Touré, Toubab Krewe, Danay Suarez, Alsarah and Fatoumata Diawara.
VIA AFRO ROOTS
“Afro Roots Fest has always strived to celebrate the evolution of African music and culture in our communities,” Jose Elias, executive and artistic director for Community Arts and Culture, tells PureHoney. “We present the arts as a tool for educating audiences on the importance of understanding and embracing our global diversity.”
DAYME AROCENA
What began as an intimate event at Miami’s dearly departed Tobacco Road turned into an experience spanning weeks and locations from Monroe to Jupiter. And as it has since that eventful first night, it continues to carry the gospel of African music and African influences to more and more of Florida.
“This year, we are bringing the festival to Gainesville for the first time, partnering with several branches of the University of Florida School of Performing Arts,” says Elias. “We are also bringing the festival to Hollywood for the first time ever thanks to a new partnership with the City of Hollywood, bringing us to a total of five counties that benefit from our diverse programming. It also furthers our organizational mission in presenting world class local, national, and international artists that represent our world community.” The mission has been supported with enthusiasm by attendees and the area’s cognoscenti, earning numerous media accolades and funding through the Knights Art Challenge. It’s also sponsored by Afropop Worldwide, the long-running public radio hour devoted to contemporary
SINKANE
The following night, djembe master Weedie Braimah, a Ghanaian raised in East St. Louis, will be joined by Elias’s own Miami-based Cuban folk outfit Cortadito and the Brazilian band Maca Reggae Samba to close out the kickoff festivities in Alachua County. Afro Roots Fest continues throughout April in Jupiter, Miami Beach, Homestead and Key West before closing out in May in Hollywood and Islamorada. Other artists include Sudanese-American Sinkane who blends different styles of rock with free jazz and Sudanese pop; Brazilian percussionist Gilmar Gomes; South Florida’s own New Orleans-style Bad Apples Brass Band; Miami reggae royalty Johnny Dread; and Daymé Arocena, an Afro-Cuban jazz singer and a hidden gem of ITAWE the genre who recalls the raw energies of La Lupe and Celia Cruz crossed with Aretha Franklin. So, let’s tie it up nice and neat with one quick question: What culturally diverse and musically jam-packed mustsee festival will you be attending this year? That’s right.
The Afro Roots World Music Festival, from April 8 – May 29, 2022. Sinkane, Dayme Arocena, Weedie Braimah & Hot, Jesus Hidalgo, Philip Montalban, Jomion & the Uklos, The Everglades Songbook Suite, Johnny Dread, DJ Le Spam, Cortadito, The Resolvers, Gilmar Gomes, Suenalo, Bad Apples Brass Band, Javier Garcia, Jude Papaloko, Itawe, Tomas Diaz, Macs Reggae Samba, Panafrik, Son Mandinga, MiamiBloco, DJ Ephniko, DJ Kumi DJ Lance-O. Various locations and hours. For specific lineups, venues, schedules and additional information please visit: AFROROOTSFEST.com
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JOMION and the UKLOS
The 2022 festival kicks off on the weekend of April 8 at the Bo Diddley Plaza at the University of Florida with the incredible jazzfusion Beninese family act Jomion & The Uklos, led by Samuel “Jomion” Gnonlonfoun, founder of the renowned jazz-fusion outfit Gangbé Brass Band. They will be joined by UF’s own Afro Pop Ensemble and the Pazeni Sauti Africa Choir.
VIA AFRO ROOTS
“Many of our concert events feature musicians from the Greater and Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, as well as from the Americas,” says Elias. “In addition, we have also presented legacy and emerging artists from Senegal, Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and other regions of Africa.”
LINDA
MELI
by Amanda Moore
LINDA MELI
Gig posters didn’t just illustrate the age of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll; they created it. Promotional art shaped consciousness and identity in tandem with the music, and helped different scenes and eras be seen as much as heard. Decades along, the blazing output of artists such as Victor Moscoso and Frank Kozik occupies museums and beckons today’s creators. Which brings us to Linda Meli, a graphic designer and illustrator based in Germany whose work and visual palette are often — though not always — rock posterpowered. Meli’s Matisse-like creations for this month’s PureHoney are a world of their own, while a spin through her Instagram also reveals mind-altering musical visions. Salmon pink pharmaceuticals cascade over a staring goth-like figure in the record release poster for “Queen of the Pill” by The Jackets. For the band Surfbort, it’s their name, woven through orange flames shooting out of a lighter in the hand of a tattooed punk rocker. One of Meli’s favorite recent projects is a series of lithographs illustrating a typically offbeat Tom Waits song, “Shore Leave.” “My favorite thing to do when I started working as a graphic designer was to create posters, and I just never stopped,” Meli says. “Bringing design and music together is a great passion of mine. I love discovering new music and then try to
Meli’s list of artistic influences covers painters, picture books and lyrics like the eerie refrains of retro folkie C.W. Stoneking’s “Talkin Lion Blues.” She’s also drawn inspiration from ‘50s and ’60s Swiss illustrators. “They made some great book and LP covers,” she says of those midcentury Europeans. “I have also always been fascinated by the countless music (mostly jazz) posters by Niklaus Troxler.” Five years ago, Meli’s connection’s with Alaina Janack, concert promoter and founder of the Bern, Switzerland-based Hush Hush booking agency, got Meli her first gig poster commission, for the Canadian musician Daniel Romano — “which is still one of my favorites,” she adds. The first Meli-Janack collaboration became a productive friendship, with Meli at one point churning out music posters nightly and attending almost every Hush Hush-produced concert. Meli’s client list has only grown since then. “One of my current favorite works is the poster for the Viennese musician Voodoo Jürgens,” she says. “It’s actually an oil painting on cardboard, which I then reproduced on a so-called Riso printer.” Meli also works in photography, ceramics and crafts. She’s a writer as well as a DIY maker. “I still think of myself primarily as a graphic designer,” she says. “But I notice how I’m moving away from that step by step.” Her Instagram represents that evolution with everything from tooth-shaped plant holders — “sensitive, somehow weird grown teeth,” as she puts it — to pocket ’zines to photographs shot analog on 35-millimeter film. Her work all told emanates fragility, dreaminess and freedom with a countercultural vibe — an eternal summer. As she takes on new mediums, she says she’s “trying to find the balance between graphic design jobs and free art.” Her creativity and willingness to branch out — she recently taught herself a method of drawing directly on large stones — can spring from curiosity, boredom or gift-giving. She says the first ceramic tooth plant holder she ever made functioned as “a gift for a friend in the hospital, a good luck charm and roommate.” Most recently, Meli and three friends transformed an old retail kiosk in Bern into a tiny art gallery called “Suuri Zunge” — named, she says, after “a sour candy that my friend bought in that kiosk when he was a kid.” The site hosts exhibitions, concerts, art markets and workshops for young makers, and has its own Instagram at @ suuri_zunge. Outgrowing her apartment, Meli is in search of a studio with room for her paintings and her rather large ceramic kiln. She’s always on the lookout for new projects and inspirations. She mentions another performer in the mold of Waits and Stoneking with a mysterious, old-world air: “I would love to illustrate a booklet for one of Bill Callahan’s songs.” Visit and follow @linda_meli on Instagram LindaMeli.com
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represent it in a visual way.”
JUSTIN VERNON of BON IVER
digitized Kanye lament containing a more r falsetto. They hung out and spoke fondly of the baleful troubadour. (Rick Ross, Miami’s motherfucker” West had flown in.) They team overseen by pop-soul symphonist Frances Fa
And then it was over. Vernon, a big Bernie San political turn had made things difficult. West, to unravel, his marriage failing in full view of a more indecipherable.
And Vernon? Though no stranger to demons “I,I” a Bon Iver album released in mid-2019. In “22, A Million,” before it, “I,I” showcases the and range into places that would have bee openly indebted to West and to black music resonator guitars, now there is Auto-Tune and
Bon Iver post-Kanye is still Bon Iver — note th choir layers of Vernon’s own all-star single, 2 glorious acid yacht rock reflux of “Sh’Diah,” him become a more confident artist. Maybe
Bon Iver with special guest Dijon play 7:30pm Bayfront Park in Miami. boniver.org
BON IVER by Sean Piccoli
Now might be an awkward time to be palling around with Kanye West, and maybe Justin Vernon, founder and frontman of the indie folk collective Bon Iver, saw the crackup coming.
These two exemplars of art as lonely suffering — midwesterners both, but as different as their genres — joined forces in 2010 with “Monster,” an all-star rap jam led by West with muted vocals from Vernon, and “Lost in the World, a recognizable version of Vernon’s wounded one another, the restless rap polymath and own, thought Vernon was just some “hippy med again in 2016 and 2019 for collaborations arewell Starlite.
nders fan, told Pitchfork that West’s rightward , for his part, spent the pandemic appearing anyone reading TMZ and his work becoming
s, he’s back on tour more or less in support of n a way, he’s taking West with him. Like 2016’s continued expansion of Vernon’s repertoire en unlikely without that alliance. Bon Iver are c generally. Where once there were vintage d ghostly D’Angelo harmonies.
he banjo plinking its way through the gospel2020’s “AUATC.” But listening to that, or the it’s clear that West tapping Vernon helped e someday Vernon can return the favor.
m Friday April 15 at FPL Solar Amphitheater at
PRIMUS by Tim Moffatt
PRIMUS patent leather shoe wearer, cognomen “Mud?”
What were your thoughts the first time you heard Primus? Where did you first come across one of the strangest and most prolific bands of the alternative generation? Were they immortalizing Jerry, the winless race car driver? Bounding on about Wynona and her big feral pet, on an album referencing turds in a punchbowl? Dredging up the casualties of one Aloysius Devadander Abercrombie, angry
Many discovered the strange charisma of Primus through “South Park” series, with its cracked theme song. Primus are a band with no limits. They don’t exist in genre terms. They transcend genre; they are Primus. The story (which is true) goes that frontman and founder Les Claypool once tried out to play bass in Metallica. Thankfully it didn’t take, and there is only more gratitude for the absolute farcical strangeness that erupts from one’s skull trying to envision what …And Justice for All would sound like with noodle fingers playing bass. Primus have collaborated — with members of Phish, Tool, Grateful Dead, Possessed and Rage Against the Machine — but largely on their own demented terms. Maybe there was some kind of magic in the air in Primus’s foundational years — the late ’80s tipping into the ’90s — and bands were freer to chase their own flights of fancy. They arrive in 2022 with an extensive, category-defying and exhausting discography, and the credence due a band that has toured with acts as varied as Rush, U2, Anthrax, Public Enemy and Fishbone. Primus, speaking of Rush, are using their current tour to pay tribute to Rush’s “A Farewell to Kings,” playing that trio’s 1977 album in its entirety at every stop alongside Primus’s own ditties. In other hands, this grand gesture toward an artifact of medieval-themed nerd rock would invite skepticism. But this is Primus. They live in a creative, eccentric, stratospheric realm, looking down on the rest of us and deciding which weird gifts to bestow. Primus perform “A Tribute to Kings” 8pm May 3 at the Fillmore Miami Beach. Battles open. primusville.com