World-renowned, multifaceted guitarist Ron Artis II brings his topnotch chops and impressive improvisational skills to the courtyard of Atlantic Beach’s unimpeachably hip hangout, Hotel Palms, on Thursday, July 15. The Hawaiian-born Artis is best known for his work with his group Ron Artis and Thunderstorm, but his reputation as a crack accompanying player has made him an in-demand musical partner …
Local Spotlight | “Alone” by Lost Club
The first single from Lost Club's new EP is a savvy, technical dream-pop ditty
Hot off the somber heels of last year’s Phantasmagoria EP, comes Lost Club’s forthcoming sophomore release: saudade. Thankfully, the five-song set is no slump. Club founding and lone member Nick Garcia has racked up an impressive racket with bands Weekend Atlas and Dog Apollo. A kind of extension of those group’s similar whip-smart, 21st-century Romanticism finds Lost Club asking the …
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Teal Peel, Ron Artis II, and Laney Tripp; all on tap this week in Jax
Here’s what JME Contributors recommend checking out this week. Indie Teal Peel – Wednesday, July 14 Root Down | Five Points A significant role player in Jacksonville’s indie scene, multi-instrumentalist and producer Taylor Paul Neal is also a movie star, it seems. Neal, who’s a member of or accompanying player with several standout local bands (Bobby Kidd, Leo Sun) with …
How ‘The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill’ Taught Me To Love Blackness
Language advisory: This story includes a racial slur. If he could see through the propaganda which has been instilled into his mind under the pretext of education, if he would fall in love with his own people and begin to sacrifice for their uplift — if the “highly educated” Negro would do these things, he could solve some of the …
New Music Friday: The Top 6 Albums Out On July 9
NPR Music contributors share their choices for the best albums out on Friday, July 9.
West Coast Rapper Vince Staples has never shied from sharing details and stories from his life coming up in and around Long Beach, Calif. But on his latest, self-titled album, he reveals more of what’s in his heart and on his mind than ever before, with vivid and intimate songs about childhood dreams, his family, the scars he carries with him and …
What Makes a Summer Song?
David Luckin on curating the new Summer Songs mix on Anthology
If, like me, you threw on WJCT’s Anthology station over the Fourth of July holiday, you were likely delighted by what you heard. Especially if, like me, you were on the beach when you did so. Breezy, ultra vibe-y, Anthology’s new Summer Songs playlist (playing on 89.9 HD3 and the WJCT App) is a mix of more than 1300 songs …
Black TikTok Creators Are On Strike To Protest A Lack Of Credit For Their Work
Black creators on TikTok are hanging up their dancing shoes until further notice. Tired of not receiving credit for their creativity and original work — all while watching white influencers rewarded with millions of views performing dances they didn’t create — many Black creators on TikTok joined a widespread strike last week, refusing to create any new dances until credit …
Just Announced | Sing Out Loud Fest returns to St. Augustine
Parquet Courts, TLC, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Yola headline an eclectic month of music in St. Augustine.
After a year of livestream-festival weirdness, things are slowly returning to normal. Lallapalooza kicks off in July, marking an earnest return to big-time summer festivals. Popular online music publication Pitchfork brings its indie-heavy fest back to Chicago in September. And here in Northeast Florida, music fans are reveling in the news that the multi-venue Sing Out Loud Festival with return …
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What’s all that jazz? And punk? And Americana?
Another quality week of live music is ahead of us. Here’s what JME Contributors recommend checking out. Jazz Jazz Jam/Various Artists – Wednesday, July 7 Breezy Jazz House | San Marco Popular San Marco music club and restaurant Breezy Jazz House has earned a reputation among the region’s avant garde, as well as fans of live improvisation, for top-notch performances …
‘Summer Of Soul’ Celebrates A 1969 Black Cultural Festival Eclipsed By Woodstock
From the funky, opening groove of the film’s first song, Stevie Wonder’s slinky jam on the Isley’s Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing,” it is obvious the new documentary Summer of Soul (…or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) will be packed with little-seen, landmark live performances. But watch a little longer, as Wonder sits behind a drumkit to whip off …
Local Spotlight | 5 local songs out this week
L.O.V.E. Culture, Tenny Rudolph, DL Is OK, Jesebel and Denver Hall turned our ear this week
Jacksonville artists would not let June go quietly. The month started off with a slew of new and very good releases from Northeast Florida musicians working in a variety of genres. (You can listen to some of our local and non-local faves on June’s Fresh Squeeze playlist). Just as we prepared to coast into the month of July, an equally …
NPR Music’s 26 Favorite Albums Of 2021 (So Far)
Here we are halfway through 2021, this year of stepping back across the threshold into the world. And what are we carrying with us as we emerge? Below, you’ll find two dozen albums that worked their way into the hearts of NPR Music’s staff during those in-between days. Just one pick per person, presented in alphabetical order by artist. (You …
Fresh Squeeze | July 2021 Playlist
New music JME contributors can't stop playing
We’re active listeners over here at JME. We keep our ear to the ground in order to pick the most ripe, juiciest noise emanating from Northeast Florida and beyond for our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist, featuring a couple dozen fresh songs, plucked right from the branch. There are no rules or genre restrictions; just songs we thought were worth a …
Local Spotlight | ‘Florida Baby’ EP
Bedroom hip-hop artist MoonChyldd boasts a distinctive sonic and visual style
Purveyor of chilled-out bedroom hip-hop Moonchyldd has emerged from the confines of her sonic fortress of solitude with her sophomore album Florida Baby. On the nine-track EP Moonchyldd (AKA Briana Hughes) reaches into her singular Duval cool and laid-back style, with contributions by fellow Jacksonville hip-hop artists Rose, SettBabyKeem and Hughes’ sidekick and best friend Ampton. Like most bedroom pop or …
Local Spotlight | “Not My Way”
Denver Hall and WowJus7in team up for a funky cut.
Set and setting, as ever, are always key. Within the first 15 seconds of “Not My Way,” the cornerstone of Chic-style funk is the established foundation and in the opening salvo of the lyrics, weed is smoked, and lines are chopped. Four-on-the-floor and a bassline that bubbles from tentative to propulsive are lit up like a match. Party song? Undoubtedly. …
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Country, Indie and a Hip-Hopera highlight this week's calendar
Music venues are, by and large, historically provisional ventures. San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, the setting for The Band’s Last Waltz in 1976 had its last waltz in 1978. The birthplace of punk, CBGB, closed in 2006 at 33-years of age––which is too old for punk, perhaps. The Fillmore East was only around for three years. Which is why San Marco’s …
New Music Friday | The Top 10 Albums Out On June 25
NPR Music contributors share their picks for the best albums out today.
The artist known as Doja Cat is back this week with a vibrant, unapologetic celebration of youth and sex on Planet Her. We kickoff this week’s crazy-packed show with the song “Payday” and talk about the ways Doja Cat leans more into pop singing and less on the rap that has defined much of her career. We’ve also got highly anticipated releases …
Buckets of (Making it) Rain
What Bob Dylan's $300 million catalog sale means for the recording industry.
A three month span in late-2020-early-2021 saw two monumental art sales. While the $69 million earned by digital-artist Beeple’s Non-Fungible Token (NFT) mosaic (in JPG format no less) at a Christie’s auction in March threatened to turn the visual arts world on its head, the music world was seemingly turned on its ear by another sale in December. No stranger …
Local Spotlight | ‘Blkout’ EP
Blk Jay drops a short but tight collection of crucial hip-hop.
On “Preach,” the opening cut of Blk Jay’s Blkout EP, the Duval-rapper testifies that “They’re gonna feel this: the reign of Black.” Over the course of the release’s short-but-tight collection, he backs up that testimony. Vibes sui generis crackle through Blkout. For one, there is the evident quality of restraint. Jay keeps the momentum at a lax first-gear: “F’sho” is …
Watch | La Luz “In the Country”
Popular surf-centric group drops new single and video.
In the 2010s, then-Seattle-based La Luz burst onto the national scene as perhaps the best of the bunch of several top-notch reverb-heavy surf revivalists. While they were lumped in with a rather diasporic grouping of bands hailing from the Pacific Northwest to the Sun Belt, La Luz’s brand of intricately woven sounds, haunting harmonies undergirding guitarist and lead vocalist Shana …
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A couple of good reasons to enjoy music outdoors this week
One of the best things about Jacksonville’s recent return to live, in-person concerts has been the proliferation of outdoor listening experiences. From the City of Jacksonville dropping a stage on the grassy field where the Landing once stood to the Seawalk Pavilion in Jax Beach once again cranking up its bandshell to the Cummer Museum opening up its historic gardens …
Magic and Loss
Local musician Ryan Turk transforms personal tragedy into creative triumph after unspeakable loss
Ryan Turk has a baffling amount of energy. The longtime Jacksonville musician, recording engineer-producer, and DIY polymath is wired for all things sonic. In the mid-‘90s, the teenaged Turk worked at Warehouse Recording Studios, a facility tucked away in an actual industrial park, off Emerson Street deep in blue-collar Duval County. Just over a decade later, he and his wife …
JME Recommends
Five Jacksonville Indie Rock acts you should know
In the early 1960s, rock n’ roll infiltrated the suburbs, kicking off a decades-long run in which drums-guitar-bass-centric sounds dominated the charts, album and ticket sales, Top 40 radio and the youth-culture milieu in general. Rock n’ roll grew up (kinda) over the years, transformed into rock, then faded after its mid-70s peak, in some ways supplanted by other emerging …
Local Spotlight | ‘Kuongoza’
A new album and companion visual is Ebony Payne-English’s most ambitious work yet
Ebony Payne-English’s status as a local cultural icon was cemented, literally, when she became one of the people featured in a series of murals erected across the urban core. It was actually the second time Payne-English has been immortalized on a wall. “The first time I saw myself on a mural, I was with my daughter,” she says of a …
Local Spotlight | “Memories of U”
Singer-rapper-producer Eddy Braveaux's hero's journey continues with this chill-mode cut
On paper at least, Duval hip-hop standout Eddy Braveaux is brimming with confidence. Braveaux’s ambitious 2020 concept album, the sci-fi-inflected super hero narrative Prototype, showcased the multiplex skillset of the singer, rapper, and producer, as he bounced between sultry electronic vocals on sensual R&B numbers and ferocious rhymes of angsty club-bangers. And with a new single, “Memories of U,” Braveaux …
Local Spotlight | “Way Down In Decatur”
Singular Jax vocalist Sailor Goon charts unique path through bedroom pop production
A distinctive sonic and visual style has has singular vocalist Sailor Goon positioned for a breakthrough.
Crate Diggin’ | Remote Work Rotation
When working from home, these are the records JME contributors like to spin
In the year of the pandemic, working remotely went from a perk limited to those employed by forward-thinking companies to simply the way in which we all work. But judging by the sheer volume of ink spilled on think-pieces related to this paradigm shift, working from home doesn’t exactly work for everyone. For our JME contributors, many of whom stack …
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South Carolina Soul, New Orleans Jazz, and Florida DJ sets
Summer is in full swing. Need proof? Hop on I-95 and take a peek at your temperature gauge. More proof comes in the form of June’s many rituals and holidays. It’s Pride month. This week we celebrate Juneteenth. And many will be flocking to the Atlantic, Intracoastal, or any other waterborne refuge from Northeast Florida’s stifling heat. Need another choice …
JME Recommends
Five emerging Jacksonville hip-hop artists you should know
Here are five Jacksonville hip-hop artists you should know about.
Fresh Squeeze | June 2021 Playlist
New music JME contributors can’t stop playing
The JME team is, by nature, a group of active listeners. We keep our ear to the ground in order to pick the most ripe, juiciest noise emanating from Northeast Florida and beyond. Each and every month, our Fresh Squeeze playlist features a couple dozen fresh songs, plucked right from the branch. These are tunes that our team just can’t …
Local Spotlight | “Only You”
Jax Indie rock quartet rides a new kind of new-wave
Remember doo wop? Of course you don’t, little foundling. You can barely remember your passwords for the apps that you forgot you installed on your still-missing phone. Well, whether through lassoing the archetype or the result of Nth-generation USA pop music radiation, Neptune Beach indie-rock wunderkinds Seagate evoke a total 1950s sullenness and always-in-season despondency woe-jam on their recent single …
Local Spotlight | “I Don’t Know What I’m Doin Here”
Multi-hyphenate Jonathan Grant Berlin cozies up to orchestral folk
Multi-hyphenate Jonathan Grant Berlin cozies up to orchestral folk.
The Music That Made Opal & Nev
Author Dawnie Walton on how Jacksonville’s music scene shaped her critically acclaimed novel
Dawnie Walton on growing up in Jacksonville, the in-group of outsiders at Einstein A Go-Go, and the iconography of Southern Rock.
For Those About to Uke
The five most important ukulele performances in pop music history
The ukulele is perhaps the most oft-overlooked instrument in popular music. Once a staple in jazz ensembles, the smaller, more portable member of the lute family, was largely cast aside in the latter part of the 20th century when the uke’s older, sexier brothers, the six-string and bass guitars, went electric. Still, in the dexterous hands of visionary artists, the …
Local Spotlight | “When You Wake Up”
Indie artist Leo Sun's new single is climate control on an otherwise balmy day
Unlike our tropical neighbors a few ticks south, Northeast Florida doesn’t quite enjoy an endless summer. A new track from Jacksonville indie artist Leo Sun, though, certainly sounds as if it sprouted from a tract of citrus- and hibiscus-lined land; somewhere pleasantly tropical. With auxiliary percussion and an ambience of lap steel “When You Wake Up” is an enjoyably languid …
Crate Diggin’ | Record Store Day Drops
Here’s what local record shops are rolling out for June’s RSD.
With hundreds of reissues, previously unreleased live recordings, unique box sets and eclectic compilations on offer for June’s RSD drop, even the most fervent vinyl fiends are likely to be overwhelmed.