With the momentum of roughly two years of touring behind them — including a completely-sold-out 19-date run in February — Jax-based indie rock band Flipturn has announced a homecoming show. Two shows, in fact, at the Bier Hall inside Intuition Ale Works in Downtown Jacksonville on June 16 and 17. Mixing mature pop melodies with earnest lyrics and raw energy, …
New Music Friday | The best releases out on June 2
It’s a big release day for veteran artists who’ve been putting out great music for decades, from Bob Dylan and Foo Fighters to Tanya Tucker, Cowboy Junkies and more. We can’t get to all of them on this week’s show, but we do spend some time with What Matters Most, the first new solo album from Ben Folds in 15 …
Unknown Mortal Orchestra | Tiny Desk Concert
Unknown Mortal Orchestra‘s Tiny Desk concert was more of a family affair than lead singer, Ruban Nielson, revealed during his band introductions. His father, jazz musician Chris Nielson, has been on tour with them to support the band’s latest album, V. During the band’s live show back in April at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., he casually drifted on …
John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy’s Fearless Experiment Sets a New Album Ablaze
A little over 60 years ago, the editor-in-chief of DownBeat magazine asked John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy a deceptively simple question: What are you trying to do? He rephrased slightly: What are you doing? The two saxophonists sat for a long 30 seconds before Dolphy broke the silence. “That’s a good question,” he said. The DownBeat editor, Don DeMicheal, printed …
Playlist | Best New Music of May
Featuring a few dozen new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists, our Fresh Squeeze playlist includes the best new music emanating from Northeast Florida and beyond. Handpicked by our team of contributors, there are no rules or genre restrictions; just songs we thought were worth a share. Our latest Fresh Squeeze includes the lead single from Ghanaian-Australian artist Genesis …
Reissue of “My Black Race” Gives New Life, and Power, to UK Reggae Artist Rupie Dan
From the ever-savvy Death Is Not The End label comes this tasty reissue of a 1982 12” single from UK reggae artist Rupie Dan, originally released on his own Flag Records label. “My Black Race” serves up deep tendrils of bass and drums with filigrees of keyboard, melodica and analog synth stabs, as Rupie Dan takes his time in delivering …
Diners Find “The Power” in a New Sound on Lead Single from New Album, ‘Domino’
Los Angeles-via-Phoenix singer-songwriter Blue Broderick, who records and performs as Diners, has announced her seventh full-length and shared its first single ahead of a fall U.S. tour that includes multiple Sunshine State shows. Produced by Mo Troper (a guitar-pop wizard in his own right) and due out Aug. 18 on Bar/None Records, the new LP’s first preview arrived Tuesday in …
#NowPlaying | Bill Orcutt, ‘The Anxiety of Symmetry II’
From the Miami noise trio Harry Pussy to solo and quartet music, Bill Orcutt has spent decades fire-bombing conventional acceptance of what we consider to be guitar-based music. But adherents hoping for any of Orcutt’s steel-string immolations might need to swing at a curveball with The Anxiety of Symmetry. The Anxiety of Symmetry by Bill Orcutt Like previous “counting albums,” …
NIKI | Tiny Desk Concert
NPR Music’s Tiny Desk is celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. These artists represent just a sliver of the cultural diversity that exists within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. NIKI, a.k.a. Nicole Zefanya, took a circuitous route to the Tiny Desk. Born in Jakarta, she scored a major opportunity by winning a competition at 15 to …
On the Madcap “Leaving the Light,” Genre-Defying Artist Genesis Owusu Powers His Own Creative Forcefield
The precarity is palpable on “Leaving the Light,” the lead single from Ghanaian-Australian artist Genesis Owusu’s sophomore album STRUGGLER (August 18 on Ourness/AWAL). Though he’s currently enjoying a charmed-kind-of buzz in indie and alternative circles, paranoia and persecution abound on “Leaving the Light,” which is paired with an equally maniacal (and darkly gorgeous) video by Aotearoa New Zealand artist Lisa …
On “Foreign Rain,” Jax Goth-Rockers Glass Chapel Channel ’80s Synth-Pop
The new single from Duval goth-rockers Glass Chapel is ‘80s dourness to the max. Band member Jake Phillips acknowledges that “Foreign Rain” is “inspired by Gary Numan and Cold Cave.” And from the icy keyboard tones, disaffected vocals drenched in reverb, not to mention a definite Peter Hook-infused bass-guitar outro, the tune surely paints within the parameters of dark wave …
Jazz Returns to the Jacksonville Symphony
The Jacksonville Symphony has long specialized in offering their music in contexts designed to appeal to people who aren’t necessarily hardcore classical fans, and that has proven key to their success in an era that has been challenging, at best, for the symphony business overall. They’ve dabbled extensively in jazz in the past, but June’s Jazz at the Jacksonville Symphony …
Little Moon | Tiny Desk Concert
When 2023’s Tiny Desk Contest winner Little Moon arrived at NPR, outward expressions of joy overshadowed the inner bundle of nerves this Springville, Utah band felt. The group’s winning song, “wonder eye,” unanimously wowed our contest judges Sharon Van Etten, Baby Rose, Sudan Archives and Albina Cabrera. Tiny Desk senior producer Bobby Carter and I, also judges, were in awe …
Best Concerts in Jacksonville | May 29 – June 4
Sierra Ferrell, Kane Brown, Jazz at the Symphony and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Singer-Songwriter Sierra Ferrell – Friday, June 2 PV Concert Hall | Ponte Vedra West Virginia-native, the eclectic singer-songwriter Sierra Ferrell plays the PV Concert Hall on Friday. Watch | Tickets | Map Pop-Country …
New Music Friday | The best releases out on May 26
The Chicago rapper Lil Durk returns this week with Almost Healed, a sometimes searing, sometimes tender examination of his life after years of loss and survival. On this week’s episode of New Music Friday, we dig into the music, talk about the pain that informs it and how Lil Durk has entered a new period of growth as an artist. …
Four Things I Learned at Shaky Knees 2023
In May, I got to cover the Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the biggest indie-inclined fests in the Southeast. The festival was celebrating its tenth anniversary, bringing in headliners like The Killers, Muse, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips; Shaky Knees’ first-ever headliner, The Lumineers, also returned. And, for the first time in the festival’s …
Tina Turner, Rock and Roll Icon, Dead at 83
Tina Turner, a soul and rock powerhouse known for her octave-defying voice and mesmerizing stage moves, has died at the age of 83. Her death was announced in a statement on her official Facebook page, but offered no details about the cause. In her 2018 memoir, Tina Turner: My Love Story, Turner detailed a litany of health issues she had …
On “Howlin’,” Jacksonville’s Halfway Hounds Unleash a Primal Yowl
The calamitous hindrances of musicians owning their own recording studios remain unheeded, even though the barbarous words are carved on the massive headstones that populate the graveyard of CD-ROM boxed sets and DAT tapes. On the flip, the freewheeling merits of that same boon/curse gave us the Halfway Hounds. The product of not one, but two, accomplished musicians who are …
Kurt Cobain’s Broken Guitar Sells for Nearly $600,000
Kurt Cobain’s black Fender Stratocaster is covered in scratches and chipped wood. The names of Cobain and his former band, Nirvana, are misspelled. And the guitar itself, which was once smashed and put back together, is no longer playable. But on Saturday, the broken guitar was sold at Julien’s Auctions for a whopping $596,000 — nearly 10 times more than …
JME Staff Picks | 2023 Jacksonville Jazz Festival
The Jacksonville Jazz Festival will return to the city’s Downtown on Memorial Day weekend, kicking off with the storied Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition at the Florida Theatre on Thursday, May 25 and continuing with three days and nights of performances on two stages in the heart of the Urban Core. The buzz on this year’s fest is that it might …
Longtime Duval Musician Britt Traynham Authors and Illustrates New Book, ‘Portraits In Jazz’
Over the course of a career that’s now well into its fourth decade, the work of Britt Traynham has always been defined by a dogged diversity, and a relentless work ethic that has now taken him around the world, several times over. He currently lives in Hawaii with his wife and longtime collaborator, Lady Daisey, a veteran singer-songwriter and graphic …
PVRIS Shares New Single “LOVE IS A…” Ahead of Summer Show at Daily’s Place
PVRIS — the Massachusetts-originated metal band-turned-pop-rock solo project of singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Lyndsey Gunnulfsen — has a big summer in store. Ahead of a July performance in Jacksonville, she has released the latest single from her forthcoming album EVERGREEN, the darkly seductive anthem “LOVE IS A…“ “Inspired by the French phrase ‘la petite mort,’ aka the ‘little death,’” as …
Best Live Music in Jacksonville | May 22-28
Zach Bryan, Jax Jazz Fest, Acid Mothers Temple, Pierce the Veil and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Country Zach Bryan – Tuesday, May 23 VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena | Downtown Jacksonville Billboard country chart-topper Zach Bryan plays VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on Tuesday night. Watch | Tickets | Map Jazz …
Playlist | Jacksonville Jazz Festival 2023 Primer
The 2023 Jacksonville Jazz Festival returns Memorial Day Weekend, kicking off on Thursday, May 25 with the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition (feat. Duval drummer extraordinaire Ulysses Owens Jr. filling out th rhythm section), and continues with three days and nights of official programming, plus countless after-hours events, many of which are part of the popular Jazz Fest After Dark Series. …
With Jazz Fest After Dark and More, the City’s Music Scene Extends the Breadth, and hours, of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival Weekend
All That Jazz (And More)
For several years now, the return of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival has meant the return of Jazz Fest After Dark, a slate of programming that extends the breadth and hours of the official festival festivities to venues in and around the city’s urban core. Presented by Moon River Pizza, JFAD is the brainchild of Jason Lewis, the legendary local concert …
New Music Friday | The best releases out on May 19
The rapper Aminé and producer and DJ KAYTRANADA drop their highly anticipated joint project KAYTRAMINÉ this week, a free-wheeling, feel-good party album just in time for summer. We give a listen to several tracks from across the project to open this week’s show, marvel at the lyricism (“Y’all talkin’ like we’re equals when we know you’re Sméagols”) and talk about …
The Unexpected Essentials that Helped Jax Experimental Act golfer two Create ‘bl00db4th6000’
With partner Casey Vandyke, Tyler Fleming is half of golfer two, an experimental noise outfit based here in Jacksonville. So far this year, the pair has released two EPs—dead mouse and, most recently, bl00db4th6000, which Fleming describes as a grouping of tracks that “encapsulates the sound we like to play live.” Each track you hear on the EP was recorded …
On “Hazy,” Gainesville Garage Rockers bed bug guru Share a Dreamy Pummel of Fuzz
Any song with fuzz bass guitar is invariably better than a song without fuzz bass. Let’s get that cosmic truth front and center. The new single from Gainesville-by-way-of-Jax garage rockers bed bug guru features some guttural fuzz bass—heard prominently in the song’s apparent bridge—yet “Hazy” offers up more than just sadistic 30Hz frequency. A dreamy pummel of lock-and-hammer electric guitars, …
Japanese Band, Experimental Psychedelic Rockers Acid Mothers Temple, to Play for Free at the Jessie
One of the globe’s most prolific purveyors of experimental rock, Japan’s Acid Mothers Temple is currently on tour, with more than 12 US dates remaining, including a stop in Downtown Jacksonville, where they’ll play a free show on the loading docks of the Jessie Ball duPont nonprofit center on Friday, May 26. Led by Makoto Kawabata, AMT — with its …
Announcing the winner of the 2023 Tiny Desk Contest
NPR Music received nearly 6,000 entries to this year’s Tiny Desk Contest, the annual search for the next great undiscovered artist to play a Tiny Desk concert. But one Springville, Utah, band rose to the top as its entry surprised the judges, moved them to tears and filled them with hope. Today, we’re thrilled to announce Little Moon is the …
Ulysses Owens Jr. On Who to See & Hear at the 2023 Jacksonville Jazz Fest
Jazz Fest with U
As a supporter of the Jacksonville Jazz Fest since I was about 16 years old, I look forward to the lineup announcement annually. And what excites me about this 2023 lineup is that is includes some of the most dynamic jazz musicians relevant today and still playing at a high level. This year’s fest also includes a vast array of …
On “Backseat,” Jacksonville Singer-Songwriter Sun Child Untangles their Radiant Charms
Somewhere between the prescriptive freedom-with-an-asterisk atmosphere of indie and the predictable wash-and-wear weather of Adult Album Alternative exists the music of Sun Child. Led by beaches native Brooke Garwood (Girl Pluto), the debut EP Everything features six cuts that lean predominately on acoustic guitar and piano arrangements with a production that is polished to a mellow, decorous sheen. “Backseat” is …
In Support of New Album, ABB Scion Duane Betts to Play Jacksonville in July
Local music fans get to experience a performance by Southern rock royalty when Duane Betts performs at Intuition Ale Works on Sunday, July 16. While Betts may tire of his legendary rock heritage, as the son of founding Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts, the younger guitarist-vocalist is a bona fide torchbearer of that rock-music lineage. The fact that the …
Best Live Music in Jax This Week | May 15-21
The Psychedelic Furs, Winona Forever, Songwriter's Night, '90s nostalgia and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. New Wave The Psychedelic Furs – Tuesday, May 16 Florida Theatre | Downtown Jacksonville Iconic British new wave band The Psychedelic Furs plays the Florida Theatre on Tuesday. Watch | Tickets | Map …
On ‘Cedar Island Songs,’ Florida songwriter Laney Tripp Floats in a Vast, Sparkling Sea of Experimental Folk
As a music descriptor, the term “wet” has been common parlance since the early 1960’s. Largely associated with reverb, it’s been used as a kind of shorthand to capture everything from the distant echo of the vocals on classic country tunes to the pedal effects of the single-string guitar leads pioneered by the King of Surf Rock: Dick Dale. If …
New Music Friday: The best releases out on May 12
The singer Rahill is best-known to some for her work in the Brooklyn garage-rock group Habibi. But this week she drops her debut solo album, a collection of genre-hopping songs that are as danceable as they are idiosyncratic. On this week’s show we give a listen to Flowers At Your Feet and talk about the ways Rahill crafts deeply honest …