For its 50th anniversary, join us in an online listening party for Joni Mitchell‘s Blue. NPR Music’s Ann Powers will be joined by singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, who performed her own tribute to Blue in 2019, for a live conversation about this monumental album. The event will take place on the anniversary of the album’s release, June 22, at 2 p.m. …
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 …
Go | Live Music Recommendations
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 …
Trojan Records, Legendary Reggae Label, Resurrects A Long Out-Of-Print Trove
Updated June 18, 2021 at 9:47 AM ET Growing up in Southern England, Bob Bell fell in love with Jamaican music as soon as he bought his first recording, in 1963. As far as he was concerned, the explosion of musical creativity in that country, fueled by thousands of Jamaican immigrants in the late 1950s and early 60s, was being …
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 …
Go | Live Music Recommendations
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.
Go | This Week’s Live Music Recommendations
String and synth virtuosity is on display in and around Jacksonville
From improvisations on standard jazz fare to digital and bleeps-and-blips, here’s JME’s live music recommendations for the week of June 7-14.
Go | This Week’s Live Music Recommendations
Check out these three local-heavy lineups at independent venues
Live music returned to Northeast Florida in earnest in April with Downtown Jax’s outdoor concert series, Jax River Jams. May saw more venues reopening, adding capacity, etc. as music fans responded in kind, heading out and opening up their wallets. June is slated to be the next phase in the region’s return to live music, with smaller, more intimate venues …
JME DJ Sessions | Summer Jams
Three new tunes from Jax-based artists, all perfectly timed to invoke summer.
We often think of summer music as the kind of breezy, carefree pop that emanates from, or at least calls to mind, paradisiacal places. Think your dad’s yacht rock; Jimmy Buffet in Key West, The Eagles and the whole Laurel Canyon scene. Maybe reggae. Or, my favorite summer sound, traditional Hawaiian music. With Northeast Florida averaging something like six months …
Go | This Week’s Live Music Recs
Kickstart your Endless Summer with Jazz Jams, garage rock, and more
The month of April in Jacksonville surely made it feel as though live music had returned. As the Jax River Jams brought local standouts and nostalgia acts together for a weekly series of outdoor shows, the enthusiasm for a communal, music-centered experience was clearly visible. More than a year since the pandemic shuttered music venues and put the brakes on …
Crate Diggin’ | Unsung Summer Albums
Here’s what JME contributors are spinning this summer.
In Northeast Florida, seasonality is loosely defined. There’s no snow (the flurry of ‘89, notwithstanding). But, unlike our tropical neighbors a few ticks south, we don’t quite enjoy an endless summer. There are some positives to this negotiation, of course––we can spend more time outdoors, largely avoiding moon-tans and Seasonal Affective Disorders. For music lovers, the changes in weather, temperature …
JME DJ Sessions | April 2021
Connecting you to the beautiful noise coming out of Northeast Florida.
As home studios and desktop production software––Ableton, Logic, Pro Tools––has proliferated over the last decade or so, music production has mirrored the projections of Moore’s Law; advancing at a record clip. Simply: music creation has never been more accessible. Meanwhile, streaming services like Spotify and platforms like YouTube have given artists a direct line to their audience. No need to …
Local Spotlight | “IHY”
Jacksonville hip-hop standout Blk Jay deliberately leaves the questions unanswered
In new video for “IHY”, hip-hop standout Blk Jay deliberately leaves the questions unanswered.