— Samira Winter grew up in Brazil surrounded by music of all genres and wound up a hemisphere away in Boston, Massachusetts. What stuck were her father’s punk records and her mother’s love for Brazilian popular music. That combination informs the dreamy indie, shoegaze-y guitar pop that makes Samira’s band, Winter, such an awakening of the nostalgia and wonder of childhood. Formerly of the Boston underground, Winter have WINTER resettled in Los Angeles. They are currently working on their new record, “Ethereality.”
@mollyktadams
BUMBLEFEST STRIKES BACK, 2 NITES!
MATT ADAMS OF THE BLANK TAPES HEADLINES BUMBLEFEST
Life is long and the days are hot, and the nights are getting hotter here in South Florida’s ever more balmy off-season, which we manage best we can with diversions including, luckily for us, the summer weekend every year when Bumblefest arrives. The annual music and arts festival takes over downtown West Palm Beach with national headliners, the finest melody makers in the surrounding counties, and attendees flooding every available space in order to soak it all up. Thirty-six acts in all will perform on six stages for this eighth edition, and for the first time Bumblefest is expanding to two days, September 13 and 14. But it’s still a birthday party for PureHoney Magazine, and it’s still something in South Florida that we can truly call our own. WMC and Ultra are Miami’s red carpet rollouts for the world’s EDM masses. Art Basel belongs to the global art elite. But here in West Palm we get to keep our little corner of artistic weirdness on Clematis Street with its amalgam of punk, garage, psych, hip-hop and more. — Among the headliners for Bumblefest in 2019 is the Los Angeles collective The Blank Tapes, the working moniker of Matt Adams, a producer of ’60s-inspired music running the gamut of adjectives that describe the dreamy, tuneful, winsome and what-have-you rock and pop of that decade. Essentially, the Blank Tapes are a garage band with a Brian Wilson mastermind behind the controls. But Adams’ colleagues are much more than blank cassettes and passive relayers of his Wilsonian inspiration: Will Halsey of the band Sugar Candy Mountain; Veronica Bianqui, herself a garage pop savant; and Eric D. Johnson, an L.A.-based multi-instrumentalist and leader of folk-rock band the Fruit Bats. Together they make a sound that is a perfect mixture of sun-baked California garage pop and folksy rock. — The Fantastic Plastics, from Brooklyn, N.Y., are a band whose aesthetic is the atomic age ideal of the future — “the future of the future,” as the band calls it. Sci-fi, neo-new wave and television-small-t obsessed, Fantastic Plastics channel the likes of DEVO, the B-52’s and Servotron into a synthfueled, Voltron-like juggernaut that keeps the 808 beats thumping. In fact their self produced album was actually mixed and mastered by Josh Hager of DEVO, The Rentals and Shadowparty. Whimsically named cohorts Drummond Bass, Miranda Plastic and Tyson Plastic keep the party going like it’s 1982, but, like, a ’60s version of 1982. A band that’s just as much a visual treat as an aural one, as evidenced by their offbeat videos and outstanding merchandise, THE FANTASTIC PLASTICS they’ll make resistance futile. So be sure to say hello and get your “future cadet” patch.
Kevin Condon
— If you’re moody and forlorn and need your punk to be of the “post” variety, Big Bliss can fill all of your Interpol-meets-JoyDivision needs, with a style and aplomb that can only come from Brooklyn. Imagine trying to explain to Ian Curtis that his band would become the catalyst for a whole new subgenre of punk music. Perhaps that piece of information would have helped him to cope a little better. At any rate, Big Bliss are masters at taking the sounds that BIG BLISS defined ’80s post punk bands and applying those ideas to 2019 music craft. “Fortune,” off the group’s 2018 release, “At Middle Distance,” is a bass-driven tune with jangly guitars reminiscent of early REM and a hint of U2. It’s a pretty rocking song for a band that seems to have mastered the idea of lo-fi punk.
— The Los Angeles musician Warner Hiatt, who goes by Worn-Tin after a drunk buddy’s misspeak of his first name, rounds out the headlining quintet for Bumblefest 8. Like The Blank Tapes, Worn-Tin also hears the faraway call of ’60s-era West Coast pop. But the reference feels more indirect, with Hiatt bending those echoes to suit his strange, lonely breed of psychpop. His 2018 single “Chartreuse” could be the last call song at some ghostly Lynchian tavern. The album that followed in early 2019, “Cycles,” was recorded by all accounts in a back yard shed, and even in its most ensemble form feels like the work of a troubadour — a solitary voice surrounded by sparse but affecting arrangements.
WORN-TIN
BUMBLEFEST 2 Nights, 6 Stages, 36 Bands, 18+ THE BLANK TAPES, WINTER, WORN-TIN, BIG BLISS, THE FANTASTIC PLASTICS w. Timothy Eerie + Las Nubes + The Dewars + Palomino Blond + The Darling Fire + Lion Country Ferrari + Glass Body + Boston Marriage + Woolbright + Glaze + Spirit and the Cosmic Heart + The Spoon Dogs + Dust Fuss + Pleaser + Nervous Monks + Electric Supply Company + Ghostflower + Soul Particles + All the V words + Obsidian + Ghost Party + Turtle Grenade + Toro Jones + American Sigh + Mega Fluff + The Treetops + Violet Silhouette + In Motion + Makoto + Grima + JR Apollon. BUMBLEFEST will be held September 13 & 14 at venues on the 500 Block of Clematis Street, Downtown West Palm Beach. Stages at Voltaire, Respectable Street, Subculture Coffee Alley, Hullabaloo, and Kismet Vintage. Advance tickets available NOW at Eventbrite. Visit BUMBLEFEST.com ~ Tim Moffatt
PEDRO THE LION at revlive Hammered out of the embers of punk rock and Melvins-grade heaviness, grunge became synonymous with a city. But the burst of notoriety from Seattle’s big explosion cast long shadows from which another musical identity rose to prominence in the back half of the ’90s. David Bazan, a Seattle transplant from Phoenix, Arizona, embodied this transition as the sole creative force behind indie PEDRO THE LION darlings Pedro the Lion. Founded in 1995, Bazan’s slowcore emo outfit drew praise from critics and a legion of fans for its reflective first-person lyricism, which never shied from religious and political themes. A sensitive lyricist operating in an increasingly polarized culture, Bazan wrote with a prescience that seemed to augur greater things for him and his band. Instead, misguidedly or not, he shunned the voice-of-a-generation role that circumstances held out to him. He called an end to the Pedro project, and left his leonine bandmates to seek greener pastures — which they did, scattering to the Shins, Death Cab for Cutie and Fleet Foxes. Bazan concentrated on his solo career — or at least on music released under his given name, since he was always the Lion, really. But by then, four full-length albums, a handful of EPs and assorted compilation tracks had cemented Pedro the Lion’s stake in the transition to the aughts. We can only guess what, if any, political developments might have spurred Bazan, in the winter of 2017, to resume work under the old band name. A new Pedro the Lion album, “Phoenix,” feels more like a homage to his hometown than a declaration of rebirth or resumption of cultural commentary, with Bazan turning the narrative focus to his childhood. Fans will savor this “return” for its familiar sound and fidelity to Bazan’s creative process. It is also an invitation to come along from an older, more eloquent and less guarded storyteller as he allows himself a trip down memory lane. Musically, it may sound as if no time has passed since 2004’s “Achilles Heel.” But the endearing moments of sweetness in “Phoenix” are laden with the inherent sadness of decades come and gone. Pedro the Lion and mewithoutYou perform 7:30pm Friday August 16 at Revolution in Fort Lauderdale. pedrothelion.com ~ Abel Folgar
Mike Colletta
REPTILE ROOM slither into wpb
AUGUST 3
TAKE THIS TO YOUR GRAVE
A LIVE BAND EMO NIGHT
AUGUST 7
POUYA
WITH RAMIREZ & BOOBIE LOOTAVELI
AUGUST 9
THE PURPLE MADNESS A TRIBUTE TO PRINCE
AUGUST 10
THE U.S. STONES
A TRIBUTE TO ROLLING STONES
AUGUST 16
AUGUST 24
PAPADOSIO AUGUST 30
ONE NATION UNDER A GROOVE
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AUGUST 31
BATTLE OF THE DECADES AUDIOECHO & THE STORKES
WITH
SEPTEMBER 7
PEDRO THE LION
STILL ALIVE WITH CRACKERMAN
AUGUST 18
SEPTEMBER 10
WITH
MEWITHOUTYOU
CROWN THE EMPIRE WITH
ATTILA, VEIL OF MAYA, GIDEON, HAWK, LIFE RIGHT NOW
JENNY LEWIS SEPTEMBER 12
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Atlanta has so much going right now: a champion soccer team; up-andcoming neighborhoods; that awesome aquarium; fire Ethiopian cuisine; enough diverse coolness to make you forget you’re in Georgia; and, of late, infectiously danceable electropop.
The only thing not hot about Reptile Room is the ice-coolness running through the trio’s veins. Formed by childhood friends Bill Zimmerman and siblings Sami and Sean Michelsen, Reptile REPTILE ROOM Room have quickly risen to the top of Atlanta’s music scene. The band offers powerful performances on a canvas of psychedelic spirits. They take the best of the L.A. and NYC electropop scenes to create music that demonstrates an unsparing eye for detail. Zimmerman and the Michelsens have been making music on and off together since middle school, with assorted projects leading them down separate paths and back into each other’s orbit. The siblings have a long-running project, the rock band Alchemy, embraced by Atlanta’s alt-radio community. Sami won season three of Atlanta’s “Sing for Your Life” competition in 2015. Their collective chemistry, bolstered by those varied experiences, allows them to work quickly and productively on multiple fronts. In their short span as Reptile Room (a name shared with a title in the Lemony Snicket children’s book series), they’ve released an EP and a few digital singles and have done work for the likes of MTV, Redbull and E! The EP was high on the list of summer jams curated by the city’s alt-paper, Creative Loafing — the payoff of hard work across every available stage in town. Reptile Room songs evolve from individual ideas developed collectively. The inspiration they draw from different genres and other media is audible in their recordings, videos and live sets alike. The Davids (Bowie and Lynch) are a clear reference point — pop sensibilities set against the dark undulations of quotidian Americana. Perhaps that is why Reptile Room feels like something more than just a pop band — a pulsating anomaly in the American south, if you will. Whatever it is they possess, they’ve earned the respect of their city and the uncontested right to export their cool anyplace they like, and leave a trail of exhausted dancers in their wake. Reptile Room perform with Sohn Jamal and Ashiyushi at 8pm Friday August 30 at Voltaire in West Palm Beach. reptileroommusic.com ~ Abel Folgar
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1
CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: Crazy Fingers
KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke Circus CWS: Samantha Russell ARTS GARAGE: Poetry Open Mic
VOLTAIRE: Somewhere Over the Rainbow Pub Crawl DADA: Tasty Vibrations HULLABALOO: Jacob Takos KILL YOUR IDOL: Breaks Yo! CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: Uproot Hootenanny REVOLUTION LIVE: The U.S. Stones (Rolling Stones Tribute) CWS: Homegrown Sinners ARTS GARAGE: Leslie Cartaya ROBOT BREWING CO: Spiral Light: A tribute to The Grateful Dead KELSEY THEATER: Stick To Your Guns, Counterparts, Terror CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: Des, Uproot Hootanany
VOLTAIRE: Glaze, In Motion, Bruvvy, Soul Particles
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2
VOLTAIRE: Doorway 27, Raised by Wolves, The Metropolitan, The Deep Web CWS: Bryce Allyn Band
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Sun City Riot
KILL YOUR IDOL: Bermuda Beach GREEN BAR & KITCHEN: Misty Grotto ARTS GARAGE: Nostalgia Art Opening, Packrat’s Smokehouse O’MALLEY’S: Auras, Red Handed Denial, Vagrant Son, Viscaya, Wicked Playground CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: Unlimited Devotion Days Between
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10
SATURDAY, AUGUST 3
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Bill Mahar
VOLTAIRE: Primp Me Out, Kasha McKee, BEX, H-Bomb DADA: House of I & The Great Fear HULLABALOO: Joey George KILL YOUR IDOL: Immersed REVOLUTION LIVE: Take This To Your Grave CWS: Marcus Amaya ARTS GARAGE: Kofi Boakye ROBOT BREWING CO: Comedy Show CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: Kat Riggins
SUNDAY, AUGUST 4
MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY & SCIENCE: South Florida Symphony Orchestra presents Preserve the Coral Reef DADA: Karaoke KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays CWS: Nyne2Five (A.M.) / Basement Presents Funk Brunch (P.M.) ROBOT BREWING CO: Poetry Open Mic CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: Guavatron Duo
MONDAY, AUGUST 5
DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays
TUESDAY, AUGUST 6
ARTS GARAGE: Comedy Night DADA: Spoken Word Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7
VOLTAIRE: Hip Hop Renaissance ft. Lucerne, Rilco, CK Nito, R3v561, Esckey, RX, something BLK
SUNDAY, AUGUST 11
RESPECTABLE STREET: The Basement Presents
MONDAY, AUGUST 12
VOLTAIRE: Calentura CWS: Guavatron ROBOT BREWING CO: POA KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke Circus
TUESDAY, AUGUST 13
MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY & SCIENCE: Milly Marzipan REVOLUTION LIVE: Pouya DADA: Feather & Marquis KILL YOUR IDOL: The Deadly Blank
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8
FRIDAY, AUGUST 9
VOLTAIRE: Millionyoung, Afrobeta DADA: McFarland KILL YOUR IDOL: Vicewave
RESPECTABLE STREET: Rivers Reunion
REVOLUTION LIVE: Purple Madness (Prince Tribute) CWS: Bobby Lee Rodgers GREEN BAR & KITCHEN: Mac Coe ARTS GARAGE: Gianni Bianchini Quintini ROBOT BREWING CO: Matt Calderin Trio O’MALLEY’S: Dead Girls Academy, Alive In Barcelona, We’re Wolves, Felicity KELSEY THEATER: Wifisfuneral “FREE WEEF TOUR”
CWS: Mac Coe (A.M.) / Basement Presents Funk Brunch (P.M.) ROBOT BREWING CO: Storytelling Slam DADA: Karaoke KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays ARTS GARAGE: Arts Garage All Arts Open Mic Night DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam KELSEY THEATER: Tilian of Dance Gavin Dance CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: D-R-N-U-K Spelling Bee
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14
VOLTAIRE: LIVE ft Jennifer Ashley, SomethingBLK, Demoh, NickFlash DADA: Ashleigh & Connor KILL YOUR IDOL: Chico
RESPECTABLE STREET: The Basement Presents
THURSDAY, AUGUST 15
VOLTAIRE: Calentura KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke Circus CWS: Tropical Smooth
ARTS GARAGE: 3rd Thursday: Art Meets Music
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16
VOLTAIRE: SCOTT YODER, All the V Words, Ghostflower, The Zoo Peculiar DADA: Of One Mind
RESPECTABLE STREET: God Module
REVOLUTION LIVE: Pedro The Lion with mewithoutYou
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Umphrey’s McGee, Magic City Hippies CWS: Nyne2Five GREEN BAR & KITCHEN: Mona Lisa Tribe ARTS GARAGE: Points North ROBOT BREWING CO: The Metropolitan, Intendencia, Bitter Blue Jays O’MALLEY’S: Nick Thomas of The Spill Canvas (Acoustic) CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: The Ries Brothers
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17
VOLTAIRE: JACKAL & HYDE, Mutha’ Funkin Leo / Johnny Dangerously’s B-Day DADA: Big Chief HULLABALOO: The Leafy Greens KILL YOUR IDOL: Keep It Deep
Skoros
REVOLUTION LIVE: Papadosio
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Madero Tango
CWS: Spider Cherry ARTS GARAGE: Fall for the Arts Open House, Otis Cadillac and the El Dorados ft. the Sublime Seville Sisters ROBOT BREWING CO: Comedy Show CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: The Resolvers
SUNDAY, AUGUST 25
CWS: Mike Garulli (A.M.) / Basement Presents Funk Brunch (P.M.) DADA: Karaoke KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays
MONDAY, AUGUST 26
DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays
TUESDAY, AUGUST 27
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam ARTS GARAGE: Arts Garage Jam Session CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: Beers & Brushes
RESPECTABLE STREET: Emo Night Brooklyn
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28
SUNDAY, AUGUST 18
RESPECTABLE STREET: The Basement Presents
CWS: Spred the Dub ARTS GARAGE: Garage Queens and Kings ROBOT BREWING CO: Earth Code, The Inner Court
REVOLUTION LIVE: Crown the Empire with Attila & Veil of Maya DADA: Karaoke KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays CWS: Marcus Amaya (A.M.) / Basement Presents Funk Brunch (P.M.) ROBOT BREWING CO: Sick Puppies Improv Comedy Show
MONDAY, AUGUST 19
DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays
TUESDAY, AUGUST 20
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21
VOLTAIRE: Dirty Laundry Stand Up Comedy Show DADA: The Wavelengths KILL YOUR IDOL: Snow Moon
RESPECTABLE STREET: The Basement Presents
THURSDAY, AUGUST 22
VOLTAIRE: Gabi DiPace, GNBN, Jordan Laurenti, Midnight Karaoke KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke Circus CWS: Mitch Herrick O’MALLEY’S: Stickup Kid, Intervention, Bianca Jazmine CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: The Flyers
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23
VOLTAIRE: 2 Year Anniv w/ ALR, TRIPOPEN BAR 8-10, NO COVER! DADA: The Haunt
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Clubesque presents: Cocktails & Cabaret
VOLTAIRE: RAW DADA: JBay KILL YOUR IDOL: Ashiyushi
O’MALLEY’S: ’68, Listener, Greyhaven
THURSDAY, AUGUST 29
VOLTAIRE: Calentura CWS: Sierra Lane KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke Circus
FRIDAY, AUGUST 30
VOLTAIRE: Reptile Room (ATL), Sohn Jamal, Ashiyushi
REVOLUTION LIVE: One Nation Under a Groove with George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Emmanuel & Friends The Hits Tour DADA: PockIt KILL YOUR IDOL: Shameless Burlesque
RESPECTABLE STREET: The Roast of Alex Bauman CWS: Drew Dockerill GREEN BAR & KITCHEN: Bonn E Maiy ARTS GARAGE: Beautiful Bobby Blackmon and the B3 Band ROBOT BREWING CO: Public Sounds Collective
SATURDAY, AUGUST 31
REVOLUTION LIVE: Audioecho (Chris Cornell), Storkes (Strokes) DADA: No Name Ska Band HULLABALOO: Raised By Wolves KILL YOUR IDOL: The Wire CWS: Poor Life Decisions ARTS GARAGE: Sinatra to Soul: The Chris Thomas Band ROBOT BREWING CO: Super Sonic Saturday CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: Tand
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
500 BLOCK CLEMATIS STREET: BUMBLEFEST 2019: THE BLANK TAPES, WORN-TIN, BIG BLISS, THE FANTASTIC PLASTICS w. Timothy Eerie + RESPECTABLE STREET: Mass Las Nubes + The Dewars + Palomino Blond + The CWS: Fusik Darling Fire + Lion Country Ferrari + Glass Body ARTS GARAGE: Alexis Cole + Boston Marriage + Woolbright + Glaze + Spirit ROBOT BREWING CO: Back Burner Burlesque & the Cosmic Heart + The Spoon Dogs + Dust CRAZY UNCLE MIKES: Spred the Dub Fuss + Pleaser + Nervous Monks + Electric Supply SATURDAY, AUGUST 24 Company + Ghostflower + Soul Particles + All the V VOLTAIRE: 2 Year Anniv w THE SH’BOOMSYum Yum Words + Obsidian + Ghost Party + Turtle Grenade DJs, OPEN BAR 8-10, NO COVER! + Toro Jones + American Sigh + Mega Fluff + The DADA: Matthew Joy Treetops + Violet Silhouette + In Motion + Makoto + HULLABALOO: Mood Swing Grima + JR Apollon RESPECTABLE STREET: Ruined Conflict, Voicecoil, KILL YOUR IDOL: American Grime
MAGIC CITY HIPPIES Fro Rojas .
Miami the EDM mecca is also home to talented local musicians who live mostly off the electronica grid. They play everything from indie to psychedelia to world, and one of the standouts among the resident crews is the funky trio Magic City Hippies. Miami to their laid-back, sun-tanned core, the Hippies are having a notably busy year, with a packed festival schedule, a debut album dropping on Aug. 16, and an opening spot for jam band Umphrey’s McGee in Miami. MAGIC CITY HIPPIES
What began as a one-man project led by Robby Hunter in the early 2010s has expanded to include guitarist John Coughlin and drummer-producer Pat Howard — together a troika playing local (SunFest) and national (Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo) festivals and cultivating a base of dedicated young fans who bop along to the music and mouth the words to every song. Two new singles, “Modern Animal” and “SPF,” transport listeners to these sundrenched environs. But instead of the banging clubs of South Beach, it’s a friend’s house pool in Coconut Grove, on a unicorn float with a frosty cocktail in hand. Behind the infectious, wiggling bass lines, “SPF” boasts a surprisingly emotional lyric considering its subject: a drunken night spent with a stripper after our narrator has lost his longtime love. Imagine Tame Impala spending a week at the beach with reggae rock band Dirty Heads and you get an idea of the sound. Each Hippies song is infused with funk, soul and psychedelia, with some splashes of chill wave and autotune. Hunter has written confidingly about his privileged upbringing in Miami Beach, as on his 2015 song “Fanfare”: “Deep fried in greed life, clam bake by the sea side / Back in ‘99 when I was silver spoon fed / Pops had the Porsche, dolin’ out the bread.” But privileged and uppity is not the feeling you get watching these Miami dudes perform live. With their stage uniforms of Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses, they give off a carefree vibe while still looking hip and polished. They seem like one of us, just going with the flow and dancing to beats that hit in just the right spot. Magic City Hippies open for Umphrey’s McGee 7pm Aug. 16 at the Fillmore Miami Beach. magiccityhippies.com ~ Olivia Feldman
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THAT RECORD GOT ME -sooo- HIGH If 2000’s film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel “High Fidelity” were recast today, misanthropic Dick and manic Barry would have a subplot involving their music podcast and they’d be portrayed, respectively, by Barry Stock and Rob Elba. To be fair, Stock and Elba, both of South Florida, have better social skills than “High Fidelity’s” insufferable record store clerks. And the concept of their podcast, “That Record Got Me High,” is to put aside snobbery — which is ROB AND BARRY not to say feelings — for a fresh attitude towards discussing music. It is, in their words, “Track-by-track opinionated commentary and anecdotes by two rock ‘n’ roll field hands, about albums you know and (maybe) love.” In just over a year they’ve released more than 60 episodes, each about an hour, on records as expected as “The Velvet Underground & Nico” and as rare as Magazine’s “The Correct Use of Soap.” Guests range from local comrades such as Emile Blair Milgrim to punk rock legend Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys. “Some guests we seek out, some seek us out,” Stock tells PureHoney. “They must have a passionate love for an album and the ability and willingness to talk about it.”
RAD SHOWS, ALCOHOL, ETC. OPEN TIL 5AM DAILY 222 ESPANOLA WAY MIAMI BEACH SUB-CULTURE.ORG/KILL-YOUR-IDOL
Stock, who grew up in Orlando, performed and recorded with the Velvet Underground’s Moe Tucker in the mid 1980s. He’s played guitar with Mr. Entertainment and the Pookiesmackers since 2012. Singer-guitarist Elba is best known for the Holy Terrors, Shark Valley Sisters and the Dan Hosker Music Continuum educational project. They click based on a similarly sardonic outlook, general presentability and boundless enthusiasm for rock n’ roll. “Despite the deep cynicism,” Stock says, “it is a show about the love of music.” Their tagline is “Great Records, Questionable Commentary,” and their only rule is albums with lyrics. They’ve taped in homes, studios and clubs, often with raucous results. Elba cites a live episode from frequent TRGMH host Laser Wolf in Fort Lauderdale celebrating South Florida punk legends LOAD: “[T]here were a lot of people from out of town who came in for the LOAD documentary screening,” says Elba. “It really felt like a live gig.” “That Record Got Me High” is released on Thursdays and is available on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud or wherever you consume your pods. thatrecordgotmehigh.com ~ Abel Folgar
NIGHTLIFE
OPEN THURS / FRI / SAT 9PM-2AM 16 E ATLANTIC AVE / DELRAY / HONEYDELRAY.COM
ALR, TRIP TO PLAY VOLTAIRE 2.0 When jazz guitarist Aaron Lebos performs with his trio, Aaron Lebos Reality, the aptness of the band name becomes clear: It really is an experience unto itself. The way Lebos blends moods and genres, the electrifying feel of the performance, the all-out commitment to a musical journey that is both extroverted and reflective, like a trip into your own soul — during that time on stage, the audience gets to step into a reality of the band’s own making. Lebos is deeply embedded into South Florida’s music scene. He boasts impressive collaborations with notable artists such AARON LEBOS REALITY as Nicole Henry, Nu Deco Ensemble, The HoNGs, and Miami’s turntablist jam band, the Spam Allstars. He is a soughtafter session player with ensemble and solo projects to his credit. But Lebos truly brings his vision to life through his trio: Lebos on guitar, Andres Ferret on bass and Armando Lopez on drums. The recorded works of Aaron Lebos Reality are expressions of both artistry and technique. Lebos received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami and a masters from Florida International University, both in jazz performance. Though formal education in music can certainly inspire, it can’t teach the indescribable other quality that Lebos brings to his records and live shows. A Frankenstein’s monster of instrumentalism, the eclectic culmination of sound is somehow perfectly cohesive in any arrangement Lebos chooses. These jazz cats brilliantly fuse with slow jams, prog, funk, rock ’n roll, R&B and world music to create an endless variety of ideas. With their expansive influences, Aaron Lebos Reality give you in one song what you might expect over the course of an entire album. The listener is carried through mellow downtempo grooves, moody blues riffs, slick licks and shredding rock solos, and then hurled back though it all again. Aaron Lebos Reality are known for their original compositions, but also for their improvisational jams. Expect a performance that’s never happened before and will never be repeated. As Lebos once said in an interview with the “Locals Only” program on WVUM, “We open it up for solos and hopefully some madness happens.” Aaron Lebos Reality perform w/ Trip! at night one of Voltaire’s 2 Year Anniversary at 8pm Friday August 23 in West Palm Beach. Open Bar 8-10pm, No Cover! ~ Freddie Zandt
GOD MODULE Dark and danceable, God Module are here to help us commune with the air of doom that hangs over this mortal coil. Starting in the early 2000s, God Mod helped pave the way for an industrial techno sound that defined an era’s subculture: They were an answer to the bubblegum pop that was overtaking music, and they’ve stayed true ever since to their unmistakable darkwave goth sound. Very much in line with their trademark of existential dread, God Module’s 2019 album “The Unsound,” acts almost as a case study on the human condition. The title track declares, “Forever lost, never found/We exist in the frequencies of the unsound.” Throughout the album, dark lyricism and a death-metal vocal style atop fastpaced, adrenalizing beats immerse the listener in a paradoxical vortex of angst. GOD MODULE
The project is a brainchild of Jasyn Bangert, an Orlando native and a vivid embodiment of art reacting to its environment. It is only fitting that one of the darkest pockets in all of music was born just miles from the indisputable “happiest place on earth,” Disney World. (Bangert now calls Seattle home.) There is nothing Disney-like about God Module’s output. Their music is thrillingly bleak. Their videos sample ghastly excerpts of obscure horror and gore films. Whereas God Module on record is largely Bangert’s handiwork, the live show is very much a family affair, aided by longtime collaborator Andrew Pearson and assorted musicians who have cycled in and out of the ensemble. A God Mod live performance shares the wretchedness of their videos, turning the miseries of human experience into an overwhelming electro-goth opera. True to their oxymoronic nature, there is something suspiciously comforting about this. God Module take a collection of misfit onlookers — random souls roaming through life, individuals in an ever more polarized world — and grabs them by the face, screaming directly that we’re all in this proverbial shit hole together. For better or for worse, it’s at that very moment, that the importance of the overbearing darkness sets in. It tells us that we are the dark allowing for light and the light allowing darkness. God Module perform 8pm Friday August 16 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. godmodule.org ~ Freddie Zandt