June 2009
7 posts
Scott Stapp: Feeling the Music
The skeletons in Scott Stapp’s closet started rattling in 2002 when his drinking and drug use contributed to the breakup of his platinum-selling band, Creed. By Thanksgiving 2005, they’d broken down the door and sauntered out in a succession of events that mocked his then futile attempts to stay sober: the fight with members of punk rock outfit 311; the drunken appearance on Spike TV’s Casino...
Sanz Sound Deafening in Big Arena
Alejandro Sanz’s 1998 live album, Basico, displays a simple but telling photo of the Spanish performer sitting in the spotlight in front of a microphone, guitar on his knee. The unadorned shot captures the essence of what made Sanz popular to begin with: superb guitar skills and a gravelly, flamenco-styled tenor. Fans and music writers often refer to Sanz as a musical poet whose intimate, intense...
The Last Son in Miami: A Personal Remembrance of...
On the day Celia Cruz died, I tried to explain her significance to a gringo friend over dinner. It goes without saying that he wasn’t getting it.
“I know she’s famous, but all I see is a old woman who dresses like a drag queen and looks like she should of retired years ago,” he said. “What so great about that?”
A long pause followed as I eyed him carefully,...
LIFEbeat and the Latin VMAs
Welcome to Miami: home to hip hangouts, flashy awards shows and the second-highest rate of HIV infection in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With such an alarming statistic, one might assume that a collaboration involving Miami-based Latin record labels, executives and local AIDS service organizations would seem like a no-brainer.
Not really, according to...
Roots and Resurrection
Pop quiz: What is Steel Pulse? A. A name for a steel pan drum. B. A tool you can buy at Home Depot. C. A has-been reggae band.If your answer was C, congratulations, pat yourself on the back and go buy yourself a Red Stripe to celebrate.
But if you’re David Hinds, lead singer of Steel Pulse, you know that most people will choose option A or B, and that doesn’t sit well. The band that...
Charity
As I wind my way through New York City’s Soho neighborhood toward photojournalist Scott Harrison’s apartment, my thoughts turn inward as I replay the disconcerting scene from the night before. A private screening of Harrison’s work at the Holasek Weir Projects art space, included heartbreaking video footage of a 34 year-old man named Harris with a basketball-sized tumor protruding from his face....
Progressive Christians are using the music of U2...
As a teenager, Rick Hunter, 35, secretly listened to Van Halen and the Scorpions. His brother, however, openly blasted music deemed more appropriate for their household — Christian singers Amy Grant and Sandi Patti. When he played U2’s Under a Blood Red Sky, his brother argued it wasn’t explicitly spiritual. It was around this time Hunter began to consider how his faith and...