Reggae band Rebelution has released Live In St. Augustine ahead of their two-night run at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre this week. The concert album was captured at The Amp in September of 2021. Since their 2007 debut, Courage to Grow, there’s been no bigger reggae act than SoCal-bred quartet. Indeed, after the breakout success of their first full-length, Rebelution topped …
Alisa Amador, 2022 Tiny Desk Contest Winner | Tiny Desk Concert
It surely was a day of joyful tears. And those joyful tears for Alisa Amador, the winner of the 2022 Tiny Desk Contest, came at a time when she had been considering putting her music career on hold. For the staff of NPR and the Tiny Desk crew, it was our first Tiny Desk concert with an audience in over …
Fresh Rotation | 3 Songs We’re Listening to Now
Psych-Americana, shoegaze and exquisitely rare garage rock from Cambodia
Each and every week the JME team handpicks the juiciest new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists to add to the rotation on The Independent 89.9 HD4 (and to our tasty, tall-glass-of-a-listening-experience that is our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist). Each song is chosen with intention. And so we often feel like they are worthy of a broader discussion (or at least …
After a Memorable Season, The Jax Symphony is Finishing Strong
The Jacksonville Symphony will soon wrap on its first full season since the pandemic’s peak. And what a year it’s been. This was also the symphony’s first full season without the late Robert E. Jacoby (1928-2021) — an Eagle Scout, an Army tank commander and one of the key philanthropists in Jacksonville’s history. His influence could be felt in places …
Four Takeaways from Shaky Knees 2022
Shaky Knees, arguably one of the best musical festivals in the Southeast, returned to its springtime roots earlier this month — and music lovers from all over the region showed up for it. After being canceled in 2020 and postponed to October in 2021 due to the pandemic, the indie- and alt-rock-heavy festival returned to Atlanta’s Central Park in late …
Ada Lea | Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. Ada Lea‘s Tiny Desk (home) concert opens just as her 2021 album, one hand on the steering …
Depeche Mode founding keyboardist Andy Fletcher dies at 60
LOS ANGELES — Andy “Fletch” Fletcher, the unassuming, bespectacled, red-headed keyboardist who for more than 40 years added his synth sounds to Depeche Mode hits like “Just Can’t Get Enough” and “Personal Jesus,” has died at age 60. Depeche Mode announced the death of founding member Fletcher on its official social media pages. A person close to the band said …
Go | The Best Concerts of the Week in Jax
Bikini Kill, Rebelution, Duval Folx and more
Each week, the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best shows in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. Here’s the rundown of what JME contributors want to see and hear in and around Jacksonville this week. Punk Bikini Kill – Tuesday, May 31 Backyard Stage …
Four Miles Davis Albums to Introduce you to his Singular Genius
Celebrate the Birth(day) of the Cool
Thursday, May 26, 2022 would have been Miles Davis’s 96th birthday. Considering the prodigious output, charismatic influence and outlaw ethos the jazz genius packed into the 65 years he spent on the planet, it’s hard to gauge how the “dark prince” would have felt as an iNonagenarian. From his earliest days as a late ‘40s ferocious bebopper, forging mid-20th-century modal …
Your Guide to this Weekend’s Jacksonville Jazz Festival
What to see and hear at this weekend’s free fest
The Jacksonville Jazz Festival returns this weekend. And from icons like Herbie Hancock to rising stars like Jazzmeia Horn and Christian Sands to contemporary barrier-breakers like Robert Glasper, the festival’s 2022 lineup is arguably its best in years –– given the revered 40-plus-year history of the festival, that’s saying something. Aside from the big names and local standouts playing the …
Go | Bikini Kill at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Update (May 31; 10:00 a.m.): The Bikini Kill Show at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre’s Backyard Stage has been cancelled. From Bikini Kill: “Due to a member of the band testing positive for COVID-19, Bikini Kill will be canceling our show in St. Augustine which was scheduled for today – Tuesday, May 31. We are extremely sorry that we will be unable to …
JME Recommends | Contemporary Jazz Artists You Should Know
The shape of jazz right now
Undoubtedly, Jazz is having a moment. Not since the 1980’s, when many classic albums were re-released on CD, have the ears of mainstream audiences turned toward artists working in jazz, an original and storied American art form. Artists like saxophonists Terrace Martin and Kamasi Washington, multi-instrumentalist Ben Marc and pianist Robert Glasper –– a Grammy award-winner whose jazz-bonafides were well …
Go | The Best Concerts in Jax this Week
Jacksonville Jazz Fest Weekend, plus Phoebe Bridgers and Bright Eyes
Each week, the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best shows in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. Here’s the rundown of what JME contributors want to see and hear in and around Jacksonville this week. Singer-Songwriter Phoebe Bridgers – Wednesday, May 25 St. Augustine …
Just Announced | Steve Miller Band at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Classic-rock icon and one of the most-consistent hitmakers of all time visits St. Augustine in July
The decorated and beloved Steve Miller is returning to Northeast Florida with a stop at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Friday, July 1. As the front-person for the Steve Miller Band, Miller’s laundry list of hits spanning several decades –– “Who Do You Love,” “Take the Money and Run,” “Fly Like an Eagle,” and the inescapable “Space Cowboy” and “The Joker” …
Go | Bright Eyes at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Indie-rock darlings visit The Amp
Icons of the early 2000’s indie-rock scene Bright Eyes continue their current tour, with a Northeast Florida at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Saturday, May 28 . A band of multifarious musicians, Bright Eyes was founded by singer and guitarist Conor Oberst in the mid-90s, and features multi-instrumentalists Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, as well as a rotating cast of …
Fontaines D.C. | Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. Filmed in Chicago’s beautiful brick Irish American Heritage Center during a recent tour, this four-song set begins …
Fresh Rotation | 4 Songs We’re Listening to Right Now
New music from Sharon Van Etten, Khalid, Holiday Ghosts and a long-overdue Terry Allen reissue
Each and every week the JME team handpicks the juiciest new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists to add to the rotation on The Independent 89.9 HD4 (and to our tasty, tall-glass-of-a-listening-experience that is our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist). Each song is chosen with intention. And so we often feel like they are worthy of a broader discussion (or at least …
Announcing the winner of the 2022 Tiny Desk Contest
Choosing one Tiny Desk Contest winner from all the incredible entries NPR Music receives each year never gets any easier — though the process, where a panel of judges and I get to hear so many amazing unsigned artists from across the country who hope to play a Tiny Desk concert, is always pretty exciting. Now, after sifting through thousands …
The Lumineers Love Florida
The Indie-folk darlings discuss kicking off their “Brightside Tour” in the Sunshine State
“We feel like when we go to Florida, for whatever reason, it sort of feels like you’re playing to like a crowd from a foreign country in the fact that they give you so much love disproportionately to other cities in America,” The Lumineers singer and guitarist Wesley Shulz told First Coast Connect’s Melissa Ross. In February the wildly popular …
On ‘Dance Fever,’ Florence + the Machine explores her fractured desires
The pandemic and its subsequent lockdown has forced many people into a self-reflective space. For Florence Welch, the frontwoman of the Grammy-nominated band Florence + the Machine, this moment of solitude came with an intense period of personal deliberation over her seemingly fractured desires. Questions about how to balance motherhood with the bodily experience of being a performer left her …
Go | The Best Concerts in Jax this Week
The Lumineers, Leon Bridges, Beabadoobee and lots of locals
Each week, the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best shows in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. Here’s the rundown of what JME contributors want to see and hear in and around Jacksonville this week. Indie-Folk The Lumineers – Tuesday, May 17 Daily’s Place …
On ‘Stories Up High,’ Laney Jones Seeks the Flow State
Nashville singer-songwriter brings her record to Blue Jay Listening Room
Since her debut nearly a decade ago, Nashville singer-songwriter Laney Jones has been impossible to pigeon hole. In naming Jones one of its Country Artists to Watch in 2016, Rolling Stone magazine said Jones’ music worked just as well “on the indie stage of a bluegrass festival as it would in an iTunes commercial.” For her latest full-length, Stories Up …
Celebrate David Byrne’s Birthday on The Independent 89.9 HD4
Put on a baggy suit, bust out your angular dance moves and turn on the radio.
David Byrne turns 70-years young on Saturday. The singer, songwriter, filmmaker, writer, actor and music theorist has left an indelible mark on both popular music and American culture. Together with his art school pals in Talking Heads, Byrne turned contemporary music on its ear in the ’70s and ’80s. And, as he enters his septuagenarian years, Byrne shows no sign …
Local Spotlight | 4 new tracks by Jax artists out now
New tracks by Duval's own Bebe Deluxe, Sunriver, Jesabel and Little Geronimo
We’re always keeping our ear to the ground in order to put the spotlight on the beautiful noise emerging from Northeast Florida. This week, Jacksonville Music Experience contributors share four new songs by local artists that we think you’ll dig. Let’s dive in. “This Small Town” by Jesabel The phrase small town has been used so often in popular music, …
Meet Raven Chacon, the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize for music
Raven Chacon’s Voiceless Mass received its world premiere Nov. 21, 2021 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, Wis. Far from any kind of traditional Catholic mass, the piece was written by Chacon, a Diné composer, performer and installation artist from the Navajo Nation, for chamber orchestra and pipe organ — specifically for the pipe organ at …
LPT’s ‘Se Quema El Mundo’ is a dance-floor-ready Fire Stoked with Social Commentary
Jacksonville’s mighty 10-piece Afro-Cuban Salsa Orchestra LPT first introduced themselves through a series of monthly showcases in the backroom of Five Points watering hole Rain Dogs, enticing revelrous, full-capacity crowds onto the dance floor. From the jump, they were a force to be reckoned with. A band with a promising future. But right after the group’s debut of original material, …
When it feels like the world’s ending, Sharon Van Etten still cares
“It’s too much,” Sharon Van Etten sings on We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, “but I’ll try.” Well, yes. You don’t really need to know the specifics of Van Etten’s recent experiences to relate, to understand the coexistence of overwhelming fatigue and resigned commitment she expresses. On her sixth album, much of which was written in the sustained trauma …
Go | Jason Isbell, Sheryl Crow and Waxahatchee at The Amp
Two nights of songwriting expertise at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Top-flight songwriters Jason Isbell and Sheryl Crow have teamed up for a co-headlining summer tour, bringing along Katie Crutchfield (AKA Waxahatchee), herself an expert crafter of song. The trio kicks of the first of two consecutive nights in Northeast Florida at St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Thursday, June 9. Crow, who was a much sought-after songwriter-for-hire before striking out on her …
Go | The best concerts in Jax this week
Cellus Hamilton, Dustin Monk and the Hustle, Laney Jones and more
Each week, the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best shows in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. Here’s the rundown of what JME contributors want to see and hear in and around Jacksonville this week. Singer-Songwriter Five For Fighting – Wednesday, May …
Fresh Rotation | 4 new songs we’re listening to right now
New music from Wilco, King Gizzard, Moonchild and Kikagaku Moyo
Each and every week the JME team handpicks the juiciest new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists to add to the rotation on The Independent 89.9 HD4 (and to our tasty, tall-glass-of-a-listening-experience that is our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist). Each song is chosen with intention. And so we often feel like they are worthy of a broader discussion (or at least …
New Mix | Fresh Squeeze
Discover the best new music added to rotation on the Independent 89.9 HD4
Each month, JME contributors pick the juiciest noise emanating from Northeast Florida and beyond for our Fresh Squeeze playlist. Featuring a few dozen new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists, there are no rules or genre restrictions; just songs we thought were worth a share. This month we’ve got a ton of great new music in rotation on The …
Go | John Fogerty at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Legendary singer-songwriter behind Creedance Clearwater Revival plays The Amp
As the singer, guitarist and principle songwriter for the iconic Creedance Clearwater Revival, the Berkeley born purveyor of gritty, incredibly catchy, country-infused rock and roll, legendary American singer-songwriter John Fogerty will visit the St. Augustine Amphitheatre. A GRAMMY winner and inductee to both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, Fogerty’s status as one of …
Go | Grammy nominated pop-rock trio HAIM at Daily’s Place
One of the biggest bands in the world makes a pitstop in Jax
Critically acclaimed pop-rock group HAIM’s 2022 tour of North America brings the sister act to the First Coast for a performance at Daily’s Place Amphitheatre on Sunday, May 8. The Southern California-bred trio, comprised of sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim, has earned a global audience combining deft songwriting, infectious harmonies and crack musicianship over three full-length pop masterstrokes, including …
Rush’s ‘Moving Pictures’ is one of the most influential records of the last 40 years
Don't rush to judgment
The 40th anniversary of Moving Pictures, the eighth studio album by Canadian prog-rock trio Rush, reminds listeners that while the band might be mocked by some music listeners who are arguably standing on hollow virtue, the band’s influence on “overground” and underground music is tacit. Rush are, depending on one’s tastes, prejudices, or even “what-is-hip” indoctrination, remain simultaneously a mythical …
Albert Ayler made sublime music. The world was not ready
A tenor saxophone hops over an interval like it’s a turnstile. And for a moment, the energy alight from two hours of hard-blown, soul-cleansing music seems on the edge of redoubling its power. But fingers fly over piano keys to settle on floating blocks of sound — restless, yet slow, like a train chugging up a hill. The saxophone responds …
Go | The best concerts in Jax this week
Primus, The Fritz, Battles, Madeleine Peyroux and more visit Northeast Florida
Each week, the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best shows in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. Here’s the rundown of what JME contributors want to see and hear in and around Jacksonville this week. Experimental Battles – Thursday, May 5 Jack Rabbits | …