scott yoder / PLASTIC MAN The deterioration of character in “Der Blaue Engel” (“The Blue Angel”) is one of the most aesthetically pleasing demises in cinema, like a drowning captured in balletic detail. The emotional and physical deaths in the torrid relationship of cabaret vixen Lola Lola and Professor Rath are made more real by the acute visual language of the film. So it is with the music of modern crooner Scott Yoder, which has the feel of crafted SCOTT YODER pop and then a sinister bent that feeds off the intellectual savagery of noir cinema and his own real-life experience as an indefatigable working musician. Visually, he evokes the glam of T. Rex and “Aladdin Sane”-era David Bowie while being more on par musically with the brooding genius of Brian Wilson. “They are one and the same to me,” Yoder says of music and visuals. In an interview with PureHoney, he explains, “At least while I’m alive and on the road I need to illustrate the full idea. To connect the dots and submerge them in a visual experience. Senses are linked that way for me. One always seems to trigger the other.” He goes on to say how his music “accumulates in demo form” from tour to tour and gets shaped through sound checks. Yoder learned his craft in the Washington state psych-rock band The Pharmacy, and became enamored with the road before charting his own path forward. His second solo album is 2018’s almost-palindromic “A Fool Aloof.” For 2019 he is planning a set of new music videos and a campaign of vinyl single releases, and being Yoder he means for both projects to have a symbiotic relationship. On this tour, he is accompanied by frequent collaborator Fiona and touring mates Plastic Man from Italy in what is always a multi-sensory experience. “We’re not some jazz combo in a corner, quietly virtuosic and content with our craft to stay in the shadows at a tasteful volume,” he says. “If we’re demanding you look our way, I have to make sure that when you look it’s not just a handful of schlubs in jeans looking cool and disinterested.” Yoder has formidable help in Plastic Man, who do extended work on this tour, opening with a set of their own and returning to the stage as Yoder’s band. Founded in Florence, Italy in 2012 by guitarist and singer Raffaele Lampronti, Plastic Man have alternated between trio and fourpiece, but whatever the lineup, the devotion to psychedelic pop in all its indulgent sensory overload prevails.
KILL YOUR IDOL
The band has two full-length albums to its credit, variations on psych-rock PLASTIC MAN themes proving Plastic Man are as flexible as their namesake. 2015’s “Don’t Look at the Moon” is laced with monochromatic 13th Floor Elevators cues, while 2017’s “Sounding Aquarium” is poetic like Captain Beefheart’s “Trout Mask Replica.” Plastic Man’s layered take on traditional psychedelic music mixes in the requisite ’60s acid wash with same-era surf and garage punk, stoner rock grandiosity and a touristic little bit of country twang. It’s a punchy sound that might also seem tongue-in-cheek, maybe even delightfully naïve, and if it’s all a bit cartoony, consider the possible inspiration — but not the one you’re probably thinking. While the DC Comics character of the same name easily comes to mind, look further back and farther away to Renzi and Rebuffi’s 1952 creation, Tiramolla, a stretchy stick figure of a character who’s been getting himself into all kinds of hijinks through several iterations since. This tour’s international flavor doesn’t stop with Plastic Man. French expats who’ve somehow found themselves living in the collegiate wilds of Gainesville, Florida, Juliette Davis and Joachim Polack are the fab happening known as Pearl & the Oysters. Their music is a breathing tapestry formed in some strange alchemic space between foundry and loom. Imagine liquid fire passing through a sieve and being spun into ornate carnival-esque metalworks. Or just think X-Ray Spex PEARL & THE OYSTERS with digital prowess. Since PureHoney premiered their video for the dreamy “Lake Alice” last February, Pearl & the Oysters have released “Canned Music,” a shimmery second full-length album. Scott Yoder plays 8pm March 8 at Voltaire in West Palm Beach with Plastic Man, Pearl & the Oysters and Dirtbike. ~ Abel Folgar
RAD SHOWS, ALCOHOL, ETC. OPEN TIL 5AM DAILY 222 ESPANOLA WAY MIAMI BEACH SUB-CULTURE.ORG/KILL-YOUR-IDOL
igor & red elvises MARCH 24 Rock ’n’ roll may be the goto term for anything that has guitars or gets inducted into a hall of fame whose home resembles an ancient tomb. But there are still potent reminders out there of rock ’n’ roll as shorthand for rising up. Igor & Red Elvises saw it as their escape hatch in the 1980s from communism and folk music in their native regions of the Baltics and Russia, long after Americans themselves regarded cuffed IGOR & RED ELVISES Levis and “Jailhouse Rock” as retro. That look and sound inspired bandleader Igor Yuzov and collaborators to follow dreams of stardom all the way to the Santa Monica public promenades where they were discovered. Ever since, Yuzov and a rotating cast have been making albums, contributing to soundtracks and living their best rock ’n’ roll life. They also featured in “Six Sting Samurai,” a post-apocalyptic 1998 film tale about a Buddy Holly clone in a burned-out “Lost Vegas” where everyone is vying to be the new King. With the old-fashioned club gig having to compete harder for mind share in the age of Coachella, III Points and Ultra, it’s fair to ask what interest rock ’n’ roll holds for young people. A study done last year found millennials choosing vacation destinations based on live music, but that could just as easily mean dance parties or desert festivals laid out like genre buffets. But if people still crave raw, live stage performance, then the reckless abandon embodied by America’s perennial teenage rebellion still has a claim on our fancy. The blues had a baby with country and jazz, and it refused to grow up. That’s what Igor & Red Elvises heard, and that’s what inspired countless guitar slingers, ivory ticklers and rabble rousers with greased hair and a bad attitude. Even EDM music, hip hop and other genres far removed from “three chords and … “ pay homage to the scene that jump-started western youth culture. Igor & Red Elvises do their part as total disciples, continuously inspiring kids to get fresh cuts and dance, and upholding rock ’n’ roll in all forms — especially the kind with pompadours, fast cars and groovy crooners. Igor & Red Elvises play w The Gutter Tones on March 24 at Voltaire in West Palm Beach. ~ Tim Moffatt
pinc louds from brooklyn “Imagine you wake up one day and you are happily trapped inside a giant piñata with the Pixies, Billie Holiday, the Chordettes, Daniel Johnston and Carmen Miranda. Then the world opens up with the swing of a stick and all of a sudden you are at a children’s birthday party and there’s all the cake and Coca-Cola you could ever want.” It sounds like a party DJ’d by acid-eating unicorns under a blitzkrieg of hardcore LEDs, and that’s Claudi Love of the Pinc Louds describing her music in an interview with PureHoney. The Brooklyn-based band is the grownup manifestation of Love’s childlike musical dreams, with herself on guitar, vocals and kalimba. A core trio features Ofer Bear on bass and Rai Mundo on drums, with additional work from Marc Mosteirin on keys and Pedro on percussion. CLAUDI LOVE of PINC LOUDS
“We all believe in the same thing, which is having fun and making people have fun through beauty,” she says. “We try to find beautiful sounds that not only move our guts and our brains and our chests, but also our feet and arms and bellybuttons.” This sound is rooted in Love’s experience as a street performer and collective band influences that run the gamut from rock ‘n’ roll and its kin to jazz/fusion, world music and cabaret. This wild aural ride is also a byproduct of Love having been raised in sun-drenched Puerto Rico. Their latest effort, “Delancey St. Station,” is a fourteen-track epistle to the downtown New York subway station the band played as buskers. It recreates the commuter platform’s around-the-clock bustle and is an ornate, fully-realized musical experience inviting deep dives and continuous dancing. The Pinc Louds plan new releases later this year, one featuring their new, Spanish-language material. Love delights in the band’s ability to combine known elements into new, magical feels. She’s also very confident of the power her band has and says of the upcoming tour, “if this is not one of the top five shows you’ve ever been to (you, the reader), we’ll give you a free CD/frisbee. See you there!” The Pinc Louds play 8pm March 19 at Voltaire in West Palm Beach. pinclouds. bandcamp.com ~ Abel Folgar
VOLTAIRE: Paleface, Beartoe, Adam Sheetz, David K
VOLTAIRE: Scott Yoder (Seattle), Plastic Man (Italy), Pearl & the Oysters, DirtBike
FRIDAY, MARCH 1
RESPECTABLE STREET: Spring Break 90’s Party
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28
VOLTAIRE: McFarland (RIYL: Reverend Horton Heat, Social Distortion, Tiger Army)
DADA: Holy Dances ARTS GARAGE: Surreal Whimsy Art Exhibit Opening Reception, Chuchito Valdes
RESPECTABLE STREET: Synth-Daddy presents Modern Mimes
HONEY: The Cover Girls
MATHEWS BREWING CO: Bryce Allyn Band ARTS GARAGE: Kevin Maines and the Volts KILL YOUR IDOL: No Wave & Bermuda Beach CULTURE ROOM: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Astari Nite ROBOT BREWING CO: Jonathan Auerbach Trio, Endangered Breed, The Metropolitan ANDY’S LIVE FIRE: The Copper Tones
MATHEWS BREWING CO: B-Side Band ROBOT BREWING CO: Back Burner Burlesque CHURCHILLS PUB: Vieja Estripe (PR), Sudakas (Orlando), Thrash or Die, Riot Agents
SATURDAY, MARCH 9
SATURDAY, MARCH 2
HULLABALOO: The Quarter Roys KILL YOUR IDOL: Breaks Yo!
VOLTAIRE: Deb Silver Jazz, DJ Three, Onionz, Noel Sanger
DADA: The State Of HULLABALOO: The Quarter Roys ARTS GARAGE: An Evening with Steve Ross SEMINOLE CASINO: Willie Nelson PROPAGANDA: 156Silence, No Good Deed, Scatter Shot MATHEWS BREWING CO: Artikal Sound System KILL YOUR IDOL: Immersed Music
RESPECTABLE STREET: Tinderbox Circus Sideshow ROBOT BREWING CO: Antelope: Phish Tribute CHURCHILLS PUB: Femme Fest
SUNDAY, MARCH 3
VOLTAIRE: Mardi Gras 3 of 3 Sons of a Tradesman DADA: Karaoke MATHEWS BREWING CO: Altered Roots Duo ARTS GARAGE: The Cultured Tour Presents: Church Boy Gangsta
GRAMPS: Speedy Ortiz
CHURCHILLS PUB: Jah Vibes KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays
MONDAY, MARCH 4
VOLTAIRE: Yum Yum w DJ Infante DADA: Open Mic CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays
TUESDAY, MARCH 5
FILLMORE: Dropkick Murphy’s DADA: Spoken Word Open Mic
VOLTAIRE: TaTas Birthday Jam w/ Johan Danno, Rasta Rick Ray, Moon Kaboom, DJ Nikitin
KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6
VOLTAIRE: Love thy Neighbor ITB DADA: Wavelengths KILL YOUR IDOL: Obsidian CHURCHILLS PUB: Drop out Of Life
THURSDAY, MARCH 7
VOLTAIRE: Cypher 1: Papazan & Geenius Papazan, Wex the Master, Riccardo, Romanstoic
DADA: MIXTAPE | tiny KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke Circus
RESPECTABLE STREET: Hot Mess ARTS GARAGE: Poetry Open Mic CULTURE ROOM: SOJA, Passafire
FRIDAY, MARCH 8
DADA: Big Chief CHURCHILLS PUB: #Unlitter
VOLTAIRE: Fever Disco Party, Geenius Trio DADA: The Manzino Collective
FILLMORE: Gary Clark Jr
RESPECTABLE STREET: Cold Cave, Adult., Vowws
ROBOT BREWING CO: Best of Boca Comedy Show Hosted by Mike Cintron MATHEWS BREWING CO: The People Upstairs CHURCHILLS PUB: Leftover Crack, Dayglo Abortions, Days N Daze REVOLUTION LIVE: The Infamous Stringdusters, The Copper Tones
SUNDAY, MARCH 10
VOLTAIRE: Carinae (Mass), Sun Parade (Mass), Ben Katzman’s Degreaser
DADA: Karaoke KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays TARPON RIVER BREWING: The Flamingo Flea, Indie Market 50+ vendors and Live Music by Joshua Diaz, Odd Star Music MATHEWS BREWING CO: Indigo Dreamers ARTS GARAGE: Ruben Caban Septet CHURCHILLS PUB: Weedeater, ASG, Beitthemeans, Toke
MONDAY, MARCH 11
VOLTAIRE: Go Funk Yourself: DJ Nikitin DADA: Open Mic CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays
TUESDAY, MARCH 12
VOLTAIRE: SQUID: Endangered Breed, Koffin Varnish, Immature Creatures, Closer to the Ocean
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam ARTS GARAGE: All Arts Open Mic
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13
VOLTAIRE: Love thy Neighbor ITB DADA: Billiam Bennet & Eric Thibodeau KILL YOUR IDOL: The Mojo Hands
THURSDAY, MARCH 14
VOLTAIRE: Sweet Sweet Songwriter Sessions DADA: MIXTAPE | π (pi) CULTURE ROOM: J Boog KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke Circus
RESPECTABLE STREET: Voice of Addiction, 1983 The Band MATHEWS BREWING CO: Almonte Solo ARTS GARAGE: Dante Vargas and the Cat Band CHURCHILLS PUB: Blues Night with Mojo Hands
FRIDAY, MARCH 15
VOLTAIRE: The Sh-Booms, The Haunt, Hurricane Party, Summer Gill, Ella Herrera DADA: Xotic Yeyo KILL YOUR IDOL: AmericanGrime’s Proper
RESPECTABLE STREET: Deep Frequencies
CHURCHILLS PUB: VRSTY, Level, Glass Hands MATHEWS BREWING CO: The Flyers ROBOT BREWING CO: Balkun Brothers, A Nirvana Tribute
SATURDAY, MARCH 16
VOLTAIRE: St Patricks Day Party
DADA: A Good Rose HULLABALOO: Joey George & The Deadbeat Daddies KILL YOUR IDOL: Keep It Deep ARTS GARAGE: Sean Chambers Band
RESPECTABLE STREET: Emo Night Brooklyn
MATHEWS BREWING CO: Crazy Fingers CHURCHILLS PUB: Paddy’s Punk Fest ROBOT BREWING CO: Chelzee Art Show with Townsend, Any Other Color, Dashawn Watson, The Greyt Adventure, Katt Watts
SUNDAY, MARCH 17
VOLTAIRE: St Patricks Day Party
MATHEWS BREWING CO: St Pattys Day Party => Summer Gill, Spred the Dub DADA: Karaoke KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays CHURCHILLS PUB: The Black Market
MONDAY, MARCH 18 DADA: Open Mic
VOLTAIRE: Mixed Match Monday: Mr. Palm Beach KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays CULTURE ROOM: Lords of Acid, Orgy, Genitorturers, Little Miss Nasty CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam
TUESDAY, MARCH 19
VOLTAIRE: Pinc Louds, tba
ARTS GARAGE: Carole J. Bufford- You Don’t Own Me: The Fearless Females of the 1960s ROBOT BREWING CO: Robot Comedy Fest with Matt Donnelly, The Mind Noodler CHURCHILLS PUB: Metal V Noise
SUNDAY, MARCH 24
VOLTAIRE: Igor & Red Elvises, The Gutter Tones
DADA: Karaoke KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays CURRIE PARK: Valerie Tyson Band ARTS GARAGE: Portrait of a Queen Starring Cece Teneal CHURCHILLS PUB: Dubday WMC party
MONDAY, MARCH 25
VOLTAIRE: Vibes: Underkut DJs DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam
TUESDAY, MARCH 26
VOLTAIRE: SQUID: Loyal to a Fault, Coral Canyons, Wavelengths, Bitter Blue Jays
DADA: Comedy Open Mic
FILLMORE: Bob Weir & Wolf Bros
KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam ARTS GARAGE: Arts Garage Jam Session
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27 DADA: Ella Herrera
VOLTAIRE: RAW Neo Soul Nite
CHURCHILLS PUB: Pedestrian Deposit
FILLMORE: Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets O’MALLEY’S: Rivers of Nihil, Entheos
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam
THURSDAY, MARCH 28
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20
RESPECTABLE STREET: Shredder 1984. Dream Shore
RESPECTABLE STREET: Flatfoot 56 VOLTAIRE: Dirty Laundry Comedy
DADA: Brown Bear & Fitch CHURCHILLS PUB: Stumble & Fall with Rat Bastard
THURSDAY, MARCH 21
DADA: MIXTAPE | Vatican Tattoo Studio “Takeover” feat. Artists Jeff Kozan, Dana Hauser, EV Talesman, Frank Luca, Richard Wood
VOLTAIRE: Funktion hosted by Public Sounds Collective KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke Circus MATHEWS BREWING CO: Summer Gill ARTS GARAGE: 3rd Thursday: Art Meets Music
RESPECTABLE STREET: Hot Mess CHURCHILLS PUB: All Folk’d Up
FRIDAY, MARCH 22
VOLTAIRE: Thelma and the Sleaze (Nashville), Palomino Blond, Vagnauts, Woolbright
ROBOT BREWING CO: Tame the Lyons EP Release DADA: The Castafellas MATHEWS BREWING CO: Tasty Vibrations Band ARTS GARAGE: Night at the Movies- Svetlana & Delancey Five
RESPECTABLE STREET: Mass CHURCHILLS PUB: Off Orbit
SATURDAY, MARCH 23
VOLTAIRE: Cat Eye Club
DADA: MIXTAPE |Frequencies KILL YOUR IDOL: WMC: Immersed
LAS ROSAS: The Messthetics (featuring members of Fugazi), Mary Lattimore CHURCHILLS PUB: The Secret Show
FRIDAY, MARCH 29
VOLTAIRE: Guavatron, Tand
DADA: Wavelengths KILL YOUR IDOL: WMC MATHEWS BREWING CO: Krazy Train ARTS GARAGE: Biscuit Miller and the MIX
RESPECTABLE STREET: All The V Words
ROBOT BREWING CO: VIBEAT w/ Sherrine Mostin CHURCHILLS PUB: Swingin’ Utters, Lost in Society
SATURDAY, MARCH 30
DADA: Jordan Esker & Red Light Motel HULLABALOO: Markis Hernandez Trio KILL YOUR IDOL: WMC: Breaks Yo!
RESPECTABLE STREET: Pop Up Craft Fair ARTS GARAGE: Yamit and the Vinyl Blvd MATHEWS BREWING CO: Joel Desilva Band
VOLTAIRE: Buck Rogers
ROBOT BREWING CO: The Broken Sound Band 26 DEGREE BREWING: The Copper Tones CHURCHILLS PUB: Sick of it All, Iron Reagan, Coldside
DADA: Steve Pomeranz Band
SUNDAY, MARCH 31
HULLABALOO: The Ricca Project MATHEWS BREWING CO: Spider Cherry O’MALLEY’S: Xavier Wulf
KILL YOUR IDOL: WMC: Keep it Deep ARTS GARAGE: The Wildfire Band CHURCHILLS PUB: Pink Flamingo’s Pizza Party
VOLTAIRE: Dance Floor Sessions, Kasha Birthday RESPECTABLE STREET: Vesper Wood
VOLTAIRE: JM & the Sweets
carinae, sun parade MARCH 10 If time travel is farfetched as a scientific pursuit, we can at least console ourselves knowing we’ve mastered it by other means. What is music if not a vessel for travel to the past or to futures most of us can scarcely imagine? Two present-day bands on tour together, Carinae and Sun Parade, are well-matched examples of timewarping sound. Escaping winter in their home state of Massachusetts, these kindred spirits will descend on South Florida with complementary and contrasting versions of space-time intoxication. Formed from the swirl and stellar dust of earlier psychedelic rock explosions, Carinae are aptly named for an unstable star that somehow survived a massive explosion. Here on Earth, Carinae also survived a tornado — a twister that swept through western Massachusetts in February 2017 and toppled a tree on to the band’s group home. No one was injured, but the house and its contents were demolished. CARINAE
G. Teensma
Carinae can be enigmatic, bombastic, thoughtful and eerily calming all in the same breath. The music made by this collective of star children has an airy beauty that is distinctively indie in character, but it’s also immersive and deeply rhythmic. Carinae are the multiverse under a groove, and on songs such as “Someday” and “Empty Headed Animal,” the effect is transporting. Band member Kasey Greene tells PureHoney that Carinae are readying a new album that could be released as early as March.
SUN PARADE
Also hailing from the final frontier, Sun Parade have a time-tripping, atmospheric sound of their own On songs like, “Steal My Thunder,” from the band’s 2018 album, “Shuggy Mtn Breakdown,” the band displays a ’70s musicality with vocals tiptoeing into the ’80s and an audio layer of mid-’90s grunge. On their new single, the comingof-age tale, “Young Adult,” Sun Parade deploy Bowie-esque lyrics and harmonies reminiscent of The Turtles: “… hanging around in the outer space/ it’s looking up, you’re in tip top shape/ You’re a young adult, a big American baby/ You don’t like the things you don’t understand.” As an expression of youthful angst and a dig at American exceptionalism, “Young Adult” is timeless. Carinae and Sun Parade perform with Ben BEN KATZMAN’S DEGREASER Katzman’s Degreaser and TBA on March 10 at Voltaire in West Palm Beach. carinaeband.bandcamp.com, thesunparade.com ~ Freddie Zandt
the sh-booms MARCH 15 If you never saw the late, great Charles Bradley or any of his Dap Records cohorts, you missed an experience that only soul music can provide. All great art makes the user feel something; soul music touches your entire being, an all-encompassing embodiment of what it means to be alive. Artists like Amy Winehouse had a lot to do with re-introducing a ’60s soul sensibility to a new mainstream. Yes, Sharon Jones THE SH-BOOMS and the Dap Kings, the Detroit Cobras and many others had been at it long before Winehouse’s “Back to Black” album broke through in 2006 with the Dap Kings as her studio band. But her fiery embrace of the music in all its soul-stirring glory — and her uncut 21st Century lyrics and persona — created a pop phenomenon. So bands like the Sh-Booms owe a bit of gratitude to the fallen British songbird as well as to Bradley and the late Jones. And none of those forbears is with us any longer to help keep the soul revival stoked. So with that genuflection properly seen to, let’s move on to how the Sh-Booms, with singer Brenda Radney front and center, will blow your mind with their nine-player rock and soul revue. The band made its bones in Orlando, which remains a base and a source of community support even as the Sh-Booms have gained national momentum touring with big-name acts including the B-52’s, being profiled on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” and having their music featured in an episode of the CW’s “Supergirl.” The cool thing about being in a soul band in 2019 is how wide-open the frontier is. The Sh-Booms have shared stages with hip-hoppers and indie, punk and garage bands as well as fellow soul stylists. It’s measure of how free of borders kids are today in their pursuit of musical good times. With “The Blurred Odyssey” due March 22 on Miami’s Limited Fanfare label, the band will have its first full-length album album as a calling card, and more fuel to keep the soul torch blazing. The Sh-Booms, with Hurricane Party, the Haunt, Summer Gill and Ella Herrera, play 8pm March 15 at Voltaire in West Palm Beach. ~ Tim Moffatt
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gary clark jr MARCH 9 Frank Maddocks
If you’ve yet to have your “I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard Gary Clark Jr.” experience, you’re long past due. Clark’s peers in Austin, Texas know the guitar-playing singer-songwriter for his artistry and technique — no small thing in the famously judgy music capital where Clark was born and resides. But with his roots sunk deep in everything from blues to bluegrass to savage rock GARY CLARK JR. ’n’ roll, Clark the musician’s musician also speaks to any listener, anywhere, with an ear for what’s authentic and true. Clark’s new album, “This Land,” is a continuing testament to the wideranging musical influence of his hometown. “I kind of got introduced to everything by watching ‘Austin City Limits,’ which had Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray,” Clark says in his label bio. “It all kind of hit me at once, and I just loved anything that sounded bluesy or rock & roll that felt dangerous and had loud guitar solos up front.” It’s also as politically pointed as anything by Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen. But there is an urgency to Clark’s music that is beyond the reach of someone who hasn’t lived as a black person in America. The album finds Clark grappling with racism — past, present and persistent — and meeting it with defiance and hope. The title track is itself a delicate balance of the beauty of blackness, and the difficulties of living that beauty in America. Scorching and metallic, bluesy, hip-hop and industrial, the song surprisingly and gorgeously culminates in a thought-provoking acoustic coda — like a folk tune played on a porch on a peaceful summer evening. Clark’s vision of music is vast and inclusive. But his crushed velvet sound — smooth, soulful and warm yet raw, earnest and worn — is all his own. And if you’ve seen him live, you already know he can turn a nihilist into a monk. He’s taken his Texas upbringing — singing gospel with his siblings in church, moonlighting in Austin clubs and dives — and fashioned it into a universal voice. Gary Clark Jr. is for the people. Gary Clark Jr. performs 8:30pm March 9 at the Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theate. garyclarkjr.com ~ Freddie Zandt
Shervin Lainez
speedy ortiz MARCH 3 Taken from the “Love & Rockets” comic universe by his own hand, Eulalio “Speedy” Ortiz was the doomed character and deus ex machina of the iconic imprint’s “LOCAS” storyline. The series’ authors, Los Bros Hernandez, placed Speedy in an L.A. milieu of tribal families, romantic entanglements and strong women, with his actions and calamitous death propelling the story arc in ways seldom seen in comics.
It makes sense, then, that musician and poet Sadie Dupuis would turn to the character as she was living SPEEDY ORTIZ through personal losses and working on a new musical project. A quartet with Dupuis in the lead, Speedy Ortiz was born of misfortune, and is rife with complexity and nuanced beauty. Joined by Andy Molholt on guitar and Darl Ferm and Mike Falcone on bass and drums respectively, Speedy Ortiz are indie rock with touches of alternative and saccharine pop, blended as if for sound-tracking lucid dreams or animated features. Think of it as music created in the throes of a Michel Gondry mise en scène brainstorming session and supported by “Adult Swim” sheriffs and budgets. The quasi-surrealist approach has paid off for Dupuis and Co., who are bridging eras, spanning classic alt-indie music and more modern takes. They’ve shared bills with the Breeders and Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus — the latter making for an interesting literary connection. Like Malkmus’ former band mate David Berman, Dupuis has an MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is a published poet. The third studio LP from Speedy Ortiz, “Twerp Verse,” is a trove of discoveries commanding repeat listens. Hooks hide in walls while poignant wit propels narratives worthy of a Love & Rockets storyline. Synths and tonal applications provide depth, and the distilled influences yield complicated hummables that are also infinitely danceable. Her background as a writer and poet shows through in the compression of the musical structures. The name suggests an endpoint that was imaginable even at the project’s beginning, or at the least it contains an acknowledgement that some things are finite. But whether or not Speedy Ortiz, the band, continue to live and thrive, Dupuis and her collaborators have already fashioned an enduring storyline. Speedy Ortiz plays 8pm March 3 at Gramps in Miami with Ohmme. speedyortiz.com ~ Abel Folgar
cold cave / ADULT / VOWWS Amy Lee
The farther away we get from the ’80s, the bigger the era’s musical legacy becomes. It’s like we’re spinning a yarn describing a period a long time ago in a place far away filled with angular haircuts and bizarre sounds that shaped music for generations to come.
Cold Cave, a.k.a. Wesley Eisold, is the perfect example of this aesthetic’s long reach: Take a hardcore kid — a genre also defined in the ’80s — and prime him with gothic synth pop in the Joy Division mold; shake, light the fuse and step away. Cold Cave leans heavily on the sounds of a particular era, but consistently redefines what that means to the zeitgeist. COLD CAVE
While the idea of a goth-hardcore hybrid entity might sound improbable or just weird, this sort of experimentation with genres and sounds is exactly what the ’80s were known along with the sonic vocabularies born then. In that way Cold Cave remains true to its roots. There’s only so much raging one punk can do before they need a different outlet for expression. In this case it’s darkwave and dance. Joining Cold Cave on this tour are ADULT, a duo from Detroit who blend punk and danceable rhythms to make something that can appeal to anyone with ears. And then there’s VOWWS, from L.A. via Australia, who have had quite enough of your ’80s references, thank you very much. The duo is a pastiche of Nine Inch Nails industrial with anything else that tickles their fancy. Yeah, got it, the ’80s are a huge influence, blah blah. But when utilizing very specific sounds, as all three of these outfits do, references are inevitable. Their soul resides not with any single genre — those are to be used and discarded as their music requires — but in their determined experimentation and ability to build off the past to make the future a little more fun, danceable and possibly dark. If that tendency gets consistently tagged as ’80s, so be it. Screw it man, everyone likes to get down to a good tune. Even the punks got to dance sometimes. Cold Cave, ADULT and VOWWS play 8pm March 9 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. ~ Tim Moffatt