The Obama campaign needs your help. This election is crucial for the state of FL.
Please send an email to ssagel@mac.com
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Live in South FL? Support Obama?
Calling all volunteers in the tri-county area.
The Obama campaign needs your help. This election is crucial for the state of FL.
Please send an email to ssagel@mac.com
The Obama campaign needs your help. This election is crucial for the state of FL.
Please send an email to ssagel@mac.com
Friday, August 29, 2008
Earth Dance Miami Saturday September 13th
Taking place inside Soho Studios at 2136 NW First Avenue, Earthdance Miami 2008 is the headlining event for September's Wynwood Gallery Walk and will make Miami part of a global unifying experience that brings together people in 350 locations around the world together to celebrate peace and environmental awareness. "What we are doing here is real," says Earthdance Miami Producer Theresa Amandi. "This is not some hippie, granola music fest. These are genuine efforts by Miami's brightest and globally concious citizens to raise awareness, not only of our local communities, but this planet as a whole; from one of fear and doubt to one of love, light and certainty."
The defining moment of Earthdance is the synchronized "Prayer for Peace," played at every location around the world at exactly the same time. The Miami peace prayer takes place at 7 p.m. You don't want to miss this symbolic surreal binding moment.
In fostering its mission, Earthdance Miami will be co-hosted by astrologer Christopher Witecki, whose irreverent insights on Soul Garden TV, have helped millions of people find spiritual awareness. In addition, Earthdance Miami will feature a sneak preview of OPEN: Miami, the shipping container converted into a sustainable living space created by Miami visionaries Javier Sanjuanbenito, Hugo Mijaes and Albert Gomez.
The all-day festival will also have a variety of green activities and lectures conducted by the Environmental Coalition of Miami Beach, eco-friendly accessories maker Ecoist, The Kabbalah Center, The Standard Hotel and many others. Earthdance Miami 2008 is presented by M.E.A.D. in association with Plum TV and Miami New Times. The goal is to foster a mission of peace, environmental awareness, and harmony throughout the global sphere while supporting local environmental non-profits. A portion of the proceeds will go to Environmental Coaltion of Miami Beach, a local, non-profit organization dedicated to educating Miami-Dade County residents and vistors to adopt responsible environmental behaviors and raising awareness for our local ecosystem.
"Most people would not expect such a vibrant, cutting-edge and conscious scene coming out of or even existing in Miami" says Sustainable Recordings producer Erick Paredes. "That all these artists, environmental groups, promoters, media outlets and production companies have come together on the common grounds of this international event says a lot about Miami's new evolving culture and image to the world.
"The Live Acts Locos Por Juana, Miami's electric Latin urban orquesta Agape featuring Nadia Harris, the internationally acclaimed band that encompasses neo-soul, dub, broken-beat, nu-jazz, Latin and dub-house Miami-based Spanish funk band Lanzallamas Monofonicas. Reggae fusion sensation Fitzroy Miami underground hip-hop masters ¡MAYDAY!
A few Earthdance Miami facts
1. Earthdance Miami 2008 will have kids activities from 3-7pm so families are encouraged to attend. Soho Studios is an indoor air-conditioned space and we strong encourage you to bring blakets, rugs or cushions so you can relax and enjoy the show.
2. Tickets are $20 at the door. $10 if you RSVP via email to earthdancemiami@gmail.com. Your name will be put on a list. Guests will receive a special edition reusable gift bag designed by SBK Global and will be filled with green goodies.
3. Earthdance Miami will be webcast LIVE and we will have screens streaming footage from Earthdance festivals in Greece, Australia, California and Amsterdam. There will be food, soft drinks, beer, wine and sake sold at Earthdance, so you all can relax and make a day out of ithe experience.
4. Do not miss the the global peace prayer at 7 p.m. This is the most important magical moment of Earthdance Miami so we encourage people to arrive before 7 p.m. and be part of this amazing spirtual moment.
For more event information:
http://www.earthdance.org/miami
http://www.myspace.com/musiceducationartdance
http://www.myspace.com/earthdancemiami
http://www.plumtv.com
http://www.miaminewtimes.com
http://www.soulgarden.tv
MUSIC BINDS US ALL
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The HEAVY PETS Playing at JAZID in Miami Beach This Saturday Night
"The Heavy Pets combine elegant songwriting with blazing chops, thought-provoking lyrics and a heavy, danceable backbeat."- HighTimes.com
The Heavy Pets have been writing and playing original music together for over ten years. Based in Ft Lauderdale, FL, The Heavy Pets have played over 450 shows together under various names, and have shared the stage with acts such as Particle, Oteil Burbridge, Tea Leaf Green, and George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic.
Guitarist Jeff Lloyd made his South Florida debut jamming with George and P-Funk at Revolution New Years Eve '04-'05 and has since appeared with the funk legend twice, including an April 20, 2005 rager at the Culture Room with Bernie Worrell. The Pets first blipped on the national radar screen when they were selected to play the 2006 Langerado Music Festival, where they performed alongside acts like Ben Harper, The Disco Biscuits, and the Black Crowes. They followed the festival with a tour of the Northeast, hitting venues like NYC's the Knitting Factory, The 8X10 in Baltimore, and Albany, NY's Red Square.
The High Times “Unsigned Band of the Week” (May ’06), followed the Northeast run with an amazing weekend at the Green Parrot in Key West, where they performed 8 sets of material with no repeats. In September, The Heavy Pets performed at the Symbiosis Gathering in Angel’s Camp, CA, and October brought them to the Maple Leaf in New Orleans to perform with Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes. In addition to priding themselves on impeccable musicianship, the band has a staggering catalog of original material. March ‘007 will bring their double-disc debut album entitled “Whale” - a 21-track behemoth that ranges from progressive, high-energy, guitar-driven rock n roll, to funky reggae, to inspired, reflective folk music.
The Heavy Pets have been writing and playing original music together for over ten years. Based in Ft Lauderdale, FL, The Heavy Pets have played over 450 shows together under various names, and have shared the stage with acts such as Particle, Oteil Burbridge, Tea Leaf Green, and George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic.
Guitarist Jeff Lloyd made his South Florida debut jamming with George and P-Funk at Revolution New Years Eve '04-'05 and has since appeared with the funk legend twice, including an April 20, 2005 rager at the Culture Room with Bernie Worrell. The Pets first blipped on the national radar screen when they were selected to play the 2006 Langerado Music Festival, where they performed alongside acts like Ben Harper, The Disco Biscuits, and the Black Crowes. They followed the festival with a tour of the Northeast, hitting venues like NYC's the Knitting Factory, The 8X10 in Baltimore, and Albany, NY's Red Square.
The High Times “Unsigned Band of the Week” (May ’06), followed the Northeast run with an amazing weekend at the Green Parrot in Key West, where they performed 8 sets of material with no repeats. In September, The Heavy Pets performed at the Symbiosis Gathering in Angel’s Camp, CA, and October brought them to the Maple Leaf in New Orleans to perform with Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes. In addition to priding themselves on impeccable musicianship, the band has a staggering catalog of original material. March ‘007 will bring their double-disc debut album entitled “Whale” - a 21-track behemoth that ranges from progressive, high-energy, guitar-driven rock n roll, to funky reggae, to inspired, reflective folk music.
The Gonzo Tapes To Be Released
This October 28 Shout! Factory will make available the previously unreleased Gonzo Tapes in a newly produced collection titled The Gonzo Tapes: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, in concurrence with the Magnolia Pictures film release of "Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," directed by Academy Award®-winning director Alex Gibney.
Legendary Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson knew from the beginning of his career that he would one day be famous and so became a dedicated archivist of his own writing, saving copies of all his correspondence including personal letters, drafts for magazines and books, angry letters to his editors, and even notes written on cocktail napkins. But most important to Thompson was his tape recorder, which allowed him to document his experiences as a participant rather than an observer, often setting it down in a bar or hotel room to pick up the mood and conversation, or to record what it was like spending days speeding down highways with the Hell's Angels.
Recorded by Thompson between 1965 and 1975, these tapes capture his thoughts and descriptions both as they're happening and in reflection, as he would often go back to rerecord commentary. Filmmaker Alex Gibney, producer Eva Orner and Gonzo archivist Don Fleming were given permission by Thompson's widow to explore the boxes of tapes stored in the basement of his Owl Farm home in Woody Creek, Colorado, left behind after Thompson's suicide in 2005. Fleming transferred the audiocassettes and reel-to-reel tapes to digital files, and they made their way to the cutting room for the film "Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson."
Gibney, the producer/writer/director of the film who also made "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," and "Taxi to the Dark Side," writes in his introduction to The Gonzo Tapes, "These tapes were pure gold, lending an intimacy to the film that it couldn't have had otherwise." As Loren Jenkins writes in the notes that accompany The Gonzo Tapes, "The idea that these tapes will now be made available to the public to help reveal some of what went on behind the Gonzo screeds is something I believe Hunter would delight in if he were still alive today."
The Gonzo Tapes features original cover artwork by Gonzo artist Ralph Steadman, an introduction by film director Alex Gibney, an essay by journalist and Thompson's fellow foreign correspondent Loren Jenkins, and notes by The Gonzo Tapes producer Don Fleming, former frontman of the Velvet Monkeys and Gumball who has produced Sonic Youth, Alice Cooper, Hole, and more.
Disc 1 of the 5-CD set is titled "Hell's Angels," and includes Thompson's notes from a year of riding with the infamous biker gang, an unprecedented feat from which Thompson made a name for himself and which famously became a book. Discs 2 and 3 contain the notes that materialized as his well-known novel Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, and eventually of course a major motion picture.
Disc 4, titled "Gonzo Gridlock 1973–1974," captures Thompson in the years following the completion of his book Fear And Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72, recording his thoughts for a new novel, drafts of a never published Rolling Stone story involving Fear and Loathing cohort Oscar Acosta, a cocaine-fueled never-written assignment from Rolling Stone on a book titled Cocaine Papers: Sigmund Freud, as well as notes and an argument with Ralph Steadman during a 1974 trip to Zaire where he was to report on the legendary "Rumble In The Jungle" between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali for Rolling Stone, and which he skipped for a swim in the hotel pool.
Disc 5, titled "Fear and Loathing in Saigon," finds Thompson traveling to Vietnam just days before the fall of Saigon in 1975, where, armed with a cooler of beer and wearing Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, he rode to the front line and observed the final major combat action of the war. The day before Saigon fell Thompson left for Laos to work on a story he had in mind about CIA concentration camps.
[Published on: 8/22/08 Jambase.com ]
Monday, August 18, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
The power of music
With brains wired for song, we derive pleasure, feel less pain
and transcend our body's limits
By Judy Foreman
Boston Globe
Dan Ellsey, 33, was sitting in his wheelchair in a soulless room at Tewksbury Hospital, his virtually useless arms and weak torso strapped to the chair for safety.
Suddenly, as soon as we were introduced, he arched his back, grinned broadly, and aimed the riveting power of his dark brown eyes at me, as if eye contact were his only means of transcending the prison of his body.
But it isn't. In the last few years, Ellsey, who was born with cerebral palsy, has discovered another, almost miraculous, way of expressing himself: music. Not just listening to country and soft rock, as he has done for years, but composing music himself with a special computerized system called Hyperscore, developed by composer-inventor, Tod Machover, professor of music and media and director of the Opera of the Future group at the MIT Media Lab.
I stand there, awed, as we listen to Ellsey's music, which on the computer has an abstract, eerie sound that swells and recedes like ocean waves. As we listen, we watch on the computer screen as the "score" - colored lines on a graph that represent different instruments - unfolds before our eyes.
A look of pure bliss crossed his face. For Ellsey, as for most human beings, music has almost inexplicable power - to rouse armies to battle, to soothe babies, to communicate peaks of joy and depths of sorrow that mere words cannot.
Just why evolution would have endowed our brains with the neural machinery to make music is a mystery.
"It's unclear why humans are so uniquely sensitive to music - certainly music shares many features with spoken language, and our brains are particularly developed to process the rapid tones and segments of sound that are common to both," said Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist whose latest book, "Musicophilia," is about the brain's sensitivity to music. Some researchers, he added in an e-mail interview, believe that in primitive cultures, music and speech were not distinct. Other researchers debate which came first in evolution, speech or song.
What is clear is that the brain is abundantly wired to process music.
Scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute, for instance, have found dramatic evidence on brain scans that the "chills," or a visceral feeling of awe, that people report listening to their favorite music are real. Music that a person likes - but not music that is disliked - activates both the higher, thinking centers in the brain's cortex, and, perhaps more important, also the "ancient circuitry, the motivation and reward system," said experimental psychologist Robert Zatorre, a member of the team. It's this ancient part of the brain that, often through the neurotransmitter dopamine, also governs basic drives such as for food, water, and sex, suggesting the tantalizing idea that the brain may consider music on a par with these crucial drives.
But music has the power not just to awe but to heal. If a person has a stroke on the left side of the brain, where the speech centers are located in most people, that "wipes out a major part of communication," said Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, chief of the Cerebrovascular Disorder Division and Stroke-Recovery Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
But if the right side, where a lot of music is processed, is intact, some stroke patients can use "melodic intonation therapy," which involves singing using two tones (relatively close in pitch) to communicate. Schlaug's research suggests that with intense therapy some patients can even move from this two-tone singing back to actual speech.
Stroke patients with gait problems also profit from neurologically based music therapy. At the Center for Biomedical Research in Music at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, director Michael Thaut and his team have shown that people partially paralyzed on one side can retrain to walk faster and in a more coordinated way if they practice walking rhythmically, cued by music or a metronome. Combining rhythmic training with physical therapy also helps stroke patients recover gait faster, he said in an e-mail.
"Music helps us organize our movement," said Kathleen Howland, who has a PhD in music and cognition and teaches at Lesley University in Cambridge. Twenty years ago, she said, therapists tried to get stroke patients to walk better by flashing lights at them. But music, especially rhythm, works much better, she said.
A number of studies show that music therapy - the use of music for medical goals - can reduce pain. In a 2001 study on burn patients, whose burns must be frequently scraped to reduce dead tissue, researchers found that music therapy significantly reduced the excruciating pain. Patients undergoing colonoscopy also seem to feel less pain and need fewer sedative drugs if they listen to music during the procedure, according to several studies.
But not all studies have been so clear-cut. One 2007 review by the Cochrane Collaboration, a nonprofit, international organization that evaluates medical research, involved pooling data from 51 pain studies; it showed that listening to music can reduce the intensity of pain and the need for narcotic drugs, but cautioned that, overall, the benefit was small.
Music therapy may also improve mental state and functioning in people with schizophrenia, according to a 2007 Cochrane review. Premature infants who listen to lullabies learn to suck better and gain more weight than those who don't get music therapy. And Deforia Lane, director of music therapy at the University Hospitals Ireland Cancer Center in Cleveland, has found an improvement in immune response among hospitalized children who played, sang, and created music compared to children who did not get music therapy.
Indeed, the list of potential benefits from music therapy seems almost endless (check out the website of the American Music Therapy Association, musictherapy.org).
For some people, like Dan Ellsey, they can be nothing short of liberating.
As the sound of Ellsey's music faded away the other day, I asked him what message he would like to tell people through his music. Painstakingly, he tapped out his answer, aiming a laser device on his forehead to highlight pictures and letters on his computer.
"I am smart," he wrote, arching his back, joy beaming from his eyes. "I have a good personality."
Anything else? Eyes alight, he tapped: "I am a musician."
Correction: Because of a reporting error, the Health Sense column about the power of music in Monday's Health/Science section misrepresented research comparing the use of flashing lights and music to help people walk better. The research was done on healthy volunteers, not stroke patients.
and transcend our body's limits
By Judy Foreman
Boston Globe
Dan Ellsey, 33, was sitting in his wheelchair in a soulless room at Tewksbury Hospital, his virtually useless arms and weak torso strapped to the chair for safety.
Suddenly, as soon as we were introduced, he arched his back, grinned broadly, and aimed the riveting power of his dark brown eyes at me, as if eye contact were his only means of transcending the prison of his body.
But it isn't. In the last few years, Ellsey, who was born with cerebral palsy, has discovered another, almost miraculous, way of expressing himself: music. Not just listening to country and soft rock, as he has done for years, but composing music himself with a special computerized system called Hyperscore, developed by composer-inventor, Tod Machover, professor of music and media and director of the Opera of the Future group at the MIT Media Lab.
I stand there, awed, as we listen to Ellsey's music, which on the computer has an abstract, eerie sound that swells and recedes like ocean waves. As we listen, we watch on the computer screen as the "score" - colored lines on a graph that represent different instruments - unfolds before our eyes.
A look of pure bliss crossed his face. For Ellsey, as for most human beings, music has almost inexplicable power - to rouse armies to battle, to soothe babies, to communicate peaks of joy and depths of sorrow that mere words cannot.
Just why evolution would have endowed our brains with the neural machinery to make music is a mystery.
"It's unclear why humans are so uniquely sensitive to music - certainly music shares many features with spoken language, and our brains are particularly developed to process the rapid tones and segments of sound that are common to both," said Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist whose latest book, "Musicophilia," is about the brain's sensitivity to music. Some researchers, he added in an e-mail interview, believe that in primitive cultures, music and speech were not distinct. Other researchers debate which came first in evolution, speech or song.
What is clear is that the brain is abundantly wired to process music.
Scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute, for instance, have found dramatic evidence on brain scans that the "chills," or a visceral feeling of awe, that people report listening to their favorite music are real. Music that a person likes - but not music that is disliked - activates both the higher, thinking centers in the brain's cortex, and, perhaps more important, also the "ancient circuitry, the motivation and reward system," said experimental psychologist Robert Zatorre, a member of the team. It's this ancient part of the brain that, often through the neurotransmitter dopamine, also governs basic drives such as for food, water, and sex, suggesting the tantalizing idea that the brain may consider music on a par with these crucial drives.
But music has the power not just to awe but to heal. If a person has a stroke on the left side of the brain, where the speech centers are located in most people, that "wipes out a major part of communication," said Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, chief of the Cerebrovascular Disorder Division and Stroke-Recovery Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
But if the right side, where a lot of music is processed, is intact, some stroke patients can use "melodic intonation therapy," which involves singing using two tones (relatively close in pitch) to communicate. Schlaug's research suggests that with intense therapy some patients can even move from this two-tone singing back to actual speech.
Stroke patients with gait problems also profit from neurologically based music therapy. At the Center for Biomedical Research in Music at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, director Michael Thaut and his team have shown that people partially paralyzed on one side can retrain to walk faster and in a more coordinated way if they practice walking rhythmically, cued by music or a metronome. Combining rhythmic training with physical therapy also helps stroke patients recover gait faster, he said in an e-mail.
"Music helps us organize our movement," said Kathleen Howland, who has a PhD in music and cognition and teaches at Lesley University in Cambridge. Twenty years ago, she said, therapists tried to get stroke patients to walk better by flashing lights at them. But music, especially rhythm, works much better, she said.
A number of studies show that music therapy - the use of music for medical goals - can reduce pain. In a 2001 study on burn patients, whose burns must be frequently scraped to reduce dead tissue, researchers found that music therapy significantly reduced the excruciating pain. Patients undergoing colonoscopy also seem to feel less pain and need fewer sedative drugs if they listen to music during the procedure, according to several studies.
But not all studies have been so clear-cut. One 2007 review by the Cochrane Collaboration, a nonprofit, international organization that evaluates medical research, involved pooling data from 51 pain studies; it showed that listening to music can reduce the intensity of pain and the need for narcotic drugs, but cautioned that, overall, the benefit was small.
Music therapy may also improve mental state and functioning in people with schizophrenia, according to a 2007 Cochrane review. Premature infants who listen to lullabies learn to suck better and gain more weight than those who don't get music therapy. And Deforia Lane, director of music therapy at the University Hospitals Ireland Cancer Center in Cleveland, has found an improvement in immune response among hospitalized children who played, sang, and created music compared to children who did not get music therapy.
Indeed, the list of potential benefits from music therapy seems almost endless (check out the website of the American Music Therapy Association, musictherapy.org).
For some people, like Dan Ellsey, they can be nothing short of liberating.
As the sound of Ellsey's music faded away the other day, I asked him what message he would like to tell people through his music. Painstakingly, he tapped out his answer, aiming a laser device on his forehead to highlight pictures and letters on his computer.
"I am smart," he wrote, arching his back, joy beaming from his eyes. "I have a good personality."
Anything else? Eyes alight, he tapped: "I am a musician."
Correction: Because of a reporting error, the Health Sense column about the power of music in Monday's Health/Science section misrepresented research comparing the use of flashing lights and music to help people walk better. The research was done on healthy volunteers, not stroke patients.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Rodrigo and Gabriela Tonight at the Fillmore Miami Beach
Biography
Rodrigo (Sanchez) and Gabriela (Quintero) are two fast-fingered, Dublin-based, Mexicans with a unique sound created on acoustic guitars. Their music is difficult to define, straddling both world and rock, and often imbued with timeless Hispano – classical influences. The fire in it comes from their life-long passion for metal music. This spring, "Rodrigo y Gabriela," beat both the Arctic Monkeys AND Johnny Cash to number one in the Irish charts.
Rodrigo is a deft finger-picker who can move from raging speed to sensual soul in the space of a fret, while Gabriela employs fast, rhythmic techniques. Her percussionist's thrashing of strings and drumming of the instrument's body inevitably raises comparisons with flamenco – which they acknowledge as an influence but swerve as a pigeonhole. The duo's repertoire flies beyond familiar Latin folk guitarists' styles because of the metal connection: their reworkings of Led Zep's "Stairway to Heaven" and Metallica's "Orion" are musts, and the presence, on "Ixtapa", of the fiery Hungarian gypsy violinist, Roby Lakatos, is inspirational.
The Story
Rodrigo and Gabriela met as teenagers, at the Casa de Cultura (Culture House), in Mexico City, where Rodrigo's brother was Director. Rodrigo was playing drums in his band Castlow - a code word he never revealed to Gabriela, and changed to Tierra Acida (Acid Earth) when she joined them on guitar. The couple drifted together through music; teenaged metal fanatics who both failed entrance to the Conservatory and moved into rock. Before joining Tierra Acida, Gabriela ran three girls' bands, Las Brujas (The Witches), Subterraneo and Las Formigas (The Ants) at once: Terra Acida had a disciplined work ethic: "It was mental!" she recalls, "we rehearsed five hours a day, every day, with very short breaks, and not much talking!"
Tierra Acida played in Mexico City's roughest clubs and lived off day-jobs (Gabriela taught Metallica riffs to local kids; Rodrigo at a TV station, doing music for programmes). They recorded an album but wouldn't sign the record contract, planning instead to concentrate on learning more guitar styles. In fact, they just hung out with friends and survived by playing bossa novas in the hotel bars. "Then we decided to travel to Europe".
Their first port of call was Dublin, Ireland. "It was the most unknown place to us", explains Gabriela, the talkative one. "Also, a Mexican girl offered us her house there." They landed in Dublin at night, spoke no English, and had $1,000 between them. They found a note on the door saying actually, sorry, but they couldn't stay there after all, so the taxi driver drove them round hostels and hotels all night. Eventually they rented a place - and soon the money disappeared: "So - we had to busk".
That was 1999: "We were very exotic specimens!" They built a reputation and landed gigs in people's homes, at wedding parties and gallery openings, playing covers and their own compositions, "We still wanted to be metal composers, but everything came out as Latin!"
Dublin was booming then, with new music venues and galleries and a thriving rock scene, and the two Mexicans jammed with local folk musicians in the bars. In winter, they moved to Denmark and started again - this time busking at minus three degrees! The brief Copenhagen experience inspired two numbers on this album, "Diablo Rojo", a scary roller-coaster ride in the city, and "Viking Man", their nickname for a homeless man they befriended, who pushed them into busking on the freezing streets.
Next, they hit Barcelona, but this time, the club owners assumed they played Mariachi, and wouldn't let them play in their own unique style, so Rod & Gab ended up jamming on Barca's main drag Las Ramblas getting heavy duty hassle from the Catalan cops. Just in time, a call came from Ireland to come back and play the newly opened Sugar Club. Damian Rice, then a busking friend, invited them to support his shows, and in 2003, they released "Re-Foc", and a year later, "Live Manchester and Dublin," which both launched them onto the World Music circuit – and beyond.
The Music
Rodrigo and Gabriela describe their style as 'Fusion music': "It's mainly got Latin harmonies and rhythms but the structure is rock. It's not jazz because it's structured, and we don't improvise; our solos are exactly what's on the record, as a metal fan and guitarist you always want to hear the same f**king solo!"
Influences range from family salsa records to Gabriela's aunt's Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Queen, and Led Zeppelin vinyl, with Rodrigo also embracing a similar classic rock lineage. But, crucially, they grew up during Mexico's 'metal era.' "People expected two acoustic guitarists would play classical music, but we dropped in extracts from Led Zep, Hendrix and Metallica, then we did the same with "Stairway to Heaven!" Their music is instrumental "with very lyrical themes."
Mentions of flamenco influences raise sharp responses: "To many music fans, it sounds like flamenco, and we're great flamenco fans, but we don't play it" says Gabriela. "The only similarity is that our music is guitar music and it's very rhythmic."
This album's producer John Leckie (Radiohead, Muse, My Morning Jacket) arrived on the scene via a demo sent to him by their Irish record label, and he called the very next day. The three agreed to record 'live', and Rodrigo and Gabriela were placed in the same room in a studio in Bath, England, to perform as if on stage: "We played each track over and over, and only 'Orion' has overdubs." Ruby Lakatos, the fiery gypsy violinist was the only outsider, and his presence on "Ixtapa" is wonderful. "We saw him on TV", Gabriela remembers, "Playing at a concert in Amsterdam, and we sent him our music. He improvised this whole piece in two hours!" From the many, many live versions, Leckie chose 'the one.'
Doors open at 6pm
Wednesday night
Fillmore Miami Beach
1700 Washington Ave. Miami Beach, FL 33139. 305-673-7300
MUSIC BINDS US ALL
Rodrigo (Sanchez) and Gabriela (Quintero) are two fast-fingered, Dublin-based, Mexicans with a unique sound created on acoustic guitars. Their music is difficult to define, straddling both world and rock, and often imbued with timeless Hispano – classical influences. The fire in it comes from their life-long passion for metal music. This spring, "Rodrigo y Gabriela," beat both the Arctic Monkeys AND Johnny Cash to number one in the Irish charts.
Rodrigo is a deft finger-picker who can move from raging speed to sensual soul in the space of a fret, while Gabriela employs fast, rhythmic techniques. Her percussionist's thrashing of strings and drumming of the instrument's body inevitably raises comparisons with flamenco – which they acknowledge as an influence but swerve as a pigeonhole. The duo's repertoire flies beyond familiar Latin folk guitarists' styles because of the metal connection: their reworkings of Led Zep's "Stairway to Heaven" and Metallica's "Orion" are musts, and the presence, on "Ixtapa", of the fiery Hungarian gypsy violinist, Roby Lakatos, is inspirational.
The Story
Rodrigo and Gabriela met as teenagers, at the Casa de Cultura (Culture House), in Mexico City, where Rodrigo's brother was Director. Rodrigo was playing drums in his band Castlow - a code word he never revealed to Gabriela, and changed to Tierra Acida (Acid Earth) when she joined them on guitar. The couple drifted together through music; teenaged metal fanatics who both failed entrance to the Conservatory and moved into rock. Before joining Tierra Acida, Gabriela ran three girls' bands, Las Brujas (The Witches), Subterraneo and Las Formigas (The Ants) at once: Terra Acida had a disciplined work ethic: "It was mental!" she recalls, "we rehearsed five hours a day, every day, with very short breaks, and not much talking!"
Tierra Acida played in Mexico City's roughest clubs and lived off day-jobs (Gabriela taught Metallica riffs to local kids; Rodrigo at a TV station, doing music for programmes). They recorded an album but wouldn't sign the record contract, planning instead to concentrate on learning more guitar styles. In fact, they just hung out with friends and survived by playing bossa novas in the hotel bars. "Then we decided to travel to Europe".
Their first port of call was Dublin, Ireland. "It was the most unknown place to us", explains Gabriela, the talkative one. "Also, a Mexican girl offered us her house there." They landed in Dublin at night, spoke no English, and had $1,000 between them. They found a note on the door saying actually, sorry, but they couldn't stay there after all, so the taxi driver drove them round hostels and hotels all night. Eventually they rented a place - and soon the money disappeared: "So - we had to busk".
That was 1999: "We were very exotic specimens!" They built a reputation and landed gigs in people's homes, at wedding parties and gallery openings, playing covers and their own compositions, "We still wanted to be metal composers, but everything came out as Latin!"
Dublin was booming then, with new music venues and galleries and a thriving rock scene, and the two Mexicans jammed with local folk musicians in the bars. In winter, they moved to Denmark and started again - this time busking at minus three degrees! The brief Copenhagen experience inspired two numbers on this album, "Diablo Rojo", a scary roller-coaster ride in the city, and "Viking Man", their nickname for a homeless man they befriended, who pushed them into busking on the freezing streets.
Next, they hit Barcelona, but this time, the club owners assumed they played Mariachi, and wouldn't let them play in their own unique style, so Rod & Gab ended up jamming on Barca's main drag Las Ramblas getting heavy duty hassle from the Catalan cops. Just in time, a call came from Ireland to come back and play the newly opened Sugar Club. Damian Rice, then a busking friend, invited them to support his shows, and in 2003, they released "Re-Foc", and a year later, "Live Manchester and Dublin," which both launched them onto the World Music circuit – and beyond.
The Music
Rodrigo and Gabriela describe their style as 'Fusion music': "It's mainly got Latin harmonies and rhythms but the structure is rock. It's not jazz because it's structured, and we don't improvise; our solos are exactly what's on the record, as a metal fan and guitarist you always want to hear the same f**king solo!"
Influences range from family salsa records to Gabriela's aunt's Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Queen, and Led Zeppelin vinyl, with Rodrigo also embracing a similar classic rock lineage. But, crucially, they grew up during Mexico's 'metal era.' "People expected two acoustic guitarists would play classical music, but we dropped in extracts from Led Zep, Hendrix and Metallica, then we did the same with "Stairway to Heaven!" Their music is instrumental "with very lyrical themes."
Mentions of flamenco influences raise sharp responses: "To many music fans, it sounds like flamenco, and we're great flamenco fans, but we don't play it" says Gabriela. "The only similarity is that our music is guitar music and it's very rhythmic."
This album's producer John Leckie (Radiohead, Muse, My Morning Jacket) arrived on the scene via a demo sent to him by their Irish record label, and he called the very next day. The three agreed to record 'live', and Rodrigo and Gabriela were placed in the same room in a studio in Bath, England, to perform as if on stage: "We played each track over and over, and only 'Orion' has overdubs." Ruby Lakatos, the fiery gypsy violinist was the only outsider, and his presence on "Ixtapa" is wonderful. "We saw him on TV", Gabriela remembers, "Playing at a concert in Amsterdam, and we sent him our music. He improvised this whole piece in two hours!" From the many, many live versions, Leckie chose 'the one.'
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