Black Friday, the annual glut of retail deals that traditionally follows the annual glut of holiday feasting, is upon us. And while you’re no doubt inundated with targeted advertisements for minimalist Le Creuset knockoffs, expensive-yet-precariously-easy-to-lose earbuds, Pelotons, et al. across all your social media feeds, we at the Jacksonville Music Experience encourage two things: Shop Local Buy Music If you’re …
After Her Voice Made Her an Icon, Björk Became Something Rarer: an Ecosystem
In a 1997 documentary about Björk, U2 frontman Bono spoke of the Icelandic pop star’s voice as a weapon. “The girl has a voice like an ice pick. Such a pure sound,” he gushed. “When The Sugarcubes played with U2, I would be preparing in the dressing room, and even if I couldn’t hear the band … I could always …
Jacksonville Concert Promoter Tib Miller had an Insatiable Need to Share Music
Jacksonville’s creative community lost an integral, if not low-key, impresario this week. If you’ve been to a concert in Northeast Florida and seen a band that surprised you, or if you bought tickets to a show and thought, “Wow, I can’t believe this artist is coming to Jacksonville,” it’s likely that Tib Miller booked it. For nearly 25 years, working under …
The Taylor Swift Ticket Fiasco is Refocusing a Spotlight on Ticketmaster’s Dominance
Ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour have not gone, in the words of the chart-topping singer, all too well. Mixed messages, long wait times and temporary outages on the Ticketmaster website left scores of fans frustrated and empty-handed when the first wave of tickets for the 52-date Eras Tour, scheduled for next year and Swift’s first since 2018, went …
Watch | Acid Dad performs “Searchin'” live at the Jessie
New York-based garage-psych band Acid Dad has built a substantial national following, blending ’70s guitar riffage with the primal energy of ’60s rock and roll across sprawling collections like 2021’s Take it From the Dead. The trio — Vaughn Hunt (vocals, guitar), Sean Fahey (vocals, guitar) and Trevor Mustoe (drums) — stopped through Jacksonville during a recent tour of the …
Randall Bramblett Talks About a Career Spent Pushing the Sonic Boundaries of Modern Roots
While barely in his twenties and fresh from dropping out of a college career studying religion and psychology, Randall Bramblett made his recording debut in 1970 with Goose Creek Symphony. Considering how esoteric and indefinable that particular drugs-meets-jug-band group were, it was an auspicious beginning for the young multi-instrumentalist whose career remains inventive and unpredictable. In the fifty years since, …
There’s Still No One Like Santigold
As frequently as music fans tend to point to the early 2000s as the dawn of our digital enlightenment, consider the ways those first few years online now feel like the dark ages. Bound by terrestrial radio formats, genres still mostly dared not mix on air — and when they did, a song that perfectly blended hip-hop and R&B might …
The Dandy Warhols, Os Mutantes, Sudan Archives and more to headline Winterland V in Jacksonville
Locally founded and independently run nonprofit music festival Winterland will return to Downtown Jacksonville’s Riverfront Plaza in February, according to a press release. And if the headliners for this year’s event are any indication, Winterland V is set to be the biggest independent music festival in recent memory. And, like last year, it’s free to attend. Portland’s perennial purveyors of …
How The 1975’s Matty Healy Became the Bad Boy you Love to Roll your Eyes at
This piece contains language that some readers may find offensive. When Matty Healy told an interviewer recently that he’s obsessed with the duality of having a dick, was he joking? It’s hard to tell. A little context: In that conversation, as throughout The 1975’s new album, the singer was commenting on the curses and blessings of his gendered existence. The …
Low’s Mimi Parker had a Voice that Let the Light In
Mimi Parker died Saturday, but her voice rings out in the present tense. It’s eternal, radiant. It’s a warm, fragile thing, that voice. It shimmers warmly but cuts through the din like a spotlight. It wavers but holds focus. For just one example across nearly three decades of music, listen to “The Plan,” from Low‘s 1996 album The Curtain Hits …
Local Spotlight | 4 New Tracks by Jax Artists Out Now
New music from LANNDS, Eddy Braveaux, Racewall Mosquitoes and The Dewars
We’re all about music discovery here at the Jacksonville Music Experience. As we unearth new tunes from artists around the globe almost daily, we love to shine the high beams of our Local Spotlight series on the beautiful noise emerging from Northeast Florida. This week, we’ve got four great new tracks by Jacksonville artists. Let’s dig in. “Suburban Legends” by …
Fresh Squeeze | November New Music Playlist
New music from King Tuff, The 1975, Cate Le Bon, Jordana and more
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. Our latest Fresh Squeeze playlist includes a rootsy-psychedelic return from King Tuff, new dreampop …
NoSo | Tiny Desk Concert
Baek Hwong, the artist who performs as NoSo, arrived at NPR’s headquarters on a sunny Friday afternoon that followed a week of relentless rain in Washington, D.C. The change in weather was apt for the Los Angeles-based artist whose music often sheds light on dark times. I first discovered NoSo when they entered the Tiny Desk Contest back in 2019. …
Just Announced | Fort Mose Jazz & Blues Series 2023
Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples, Christian McBride, and more headline second-annual festival at St. Augustine’s historic site
From February 10-19, the second-annual Fort Mose Jazz & Blues Series presents six concerts to celebrate the historic and cultural importance of Fort Mose, the site of the first free African settlement in what is now the United States. This year’s series features performances by Mavis Staples (February 10); Christian McBride’s New Jawn (Feb. 11); Valerie June (Feb. 16); Gladys …
The gripping ‘Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues’ confronts the artist’s complexities
Louis Armstrong made his first transatlantic voyage in July of 1932, sailing from New York City to Plymouth, England, aboard the ocean liner RMS Majestic. This was a triumphant visit for Armstrong, whose bravura feats as a trumpeter and rugged ebullience as a singer had already made him a sensation on both sides of the pond. But while the British …
On ‘Blue Rev,’ Alvvays finds euphoria in noise
It takes just six seconds into the first song on its latest album for Alvvays to pull a new trick out of its sleeve. For a moment, “Pharmacist” feels like what it is: a long-awaited reunion with these Canadian noise pop purveyors on their small-town home turf, a few muted synth notes and a preset drum machine tick-tocking while Molly …
Watch | Bad Madonna on the JME Soundstage
Back in September, singer and guitarist Alexis Rhode released Iron Fist, her second EP of 2022 as Bad Madonna. On Fist, Rhode traded the rootsy acoustics of her first five-song collection, Velvet Glove, for grit and distortion, teaming with guitarist Dylan Young and a crack rhythm section — Storm Bauer (bass), Joey French (drums) — to pack Fist with ample …
Go | Australian punks The Chats at Underbelly
Even Dave Grohl is a fan!
Quotable Australian punk sensation The Chats are on tour in support of their latest album Get F*cked and are set to stop in Jacksonville on Wednesday, October 26 at Downtown’s Underbelly. Surfacing first from the Sunshine Coast, the band has repurposed their deranged sound in Brisbane, going completely rogue with vicious rebellion by means of gruff vocals and blitzkrieged guitar …
In the haze of ‘Midnights,’ Taylor Swift softens into an expanded sound
Can Taylor Swift soften up? Like many high-achieving workaholics, I imagine she’s lost the instinct and, practical girl, uses enhancements. In the evening, with her lover nearby, does she vape a little Lavender Haze CBD Rosin and focus on the quietude creeping into her body beneath the relentless chatter of her thoughts? Does she grasp his hand and put it …
Staff Picks | PorchFest 2022
What to see and hear at Springfield's annual porch party
Springfield residents love their porches. More than augmentations of their home’s living and entertaining space, the porch is an extension of Springfielders’ personalities. Which is why no event better captures the character and charm of this distinctive Downtown Jacksonville-adjacent neighborhood than the annual Jacksonville PorchFest. Taking place across four square blocks east of N. Main St. between E. 4th St. …
Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson Tell Their Truth Plainly
The duo embraces classic country sounds on 'I Walked With You A Ways'
At the heart of I Walked With You A Ways, the debut album from Plains, there’s a sense of freedom. It’s the freedom of driving fast down an enormous, dusty road: “tak[ing] the quickest route on this 4-lane highway,” but also “crying on the highway with my windows down.” It’s the kind of liberation that comes from finding your own …
Go | Kevin Morby at Intuition Ale Works
With a critically acclaimed new album, the popular singer-songwriter makes a stop in Jacksonville
Singer-songwriter Kevin Morby is currently on tour in support of his critically acclaimed new record, This Is A Photograph (out now on Dead Oceans), and will make a pitstop in Jacksonville at the Bier Hall inside Intuition Ale Works’ Downtown taproom on Tuesday, October 18. Before 2014’s critically acclaimed Singing Saw, Morby was already a veteran of the indie music scene. …
Local Spotlight | New Tracks by Jax Artists Out Now
Animal Clinic, Visitation, Crescent and Jay Myztroh
We’re all about music discovery here at the Jacksonville Music Experience. As we unearth new tunes from artists around the globe almost daily, we love to shine the high beams of our Local Spotlight series on the beautiful noise emerging from Northeast Florida. This week, we’ve got four great new tracks by Jacksonville artists. Let’s dig in. “Heart Beats You …
Bob Mould Crams a 40-Year Career of Alternative Noise into a Solo Electric Show
Alt-rock pioneer Bob Mould, who founded both Hüsker Dü and Sugar (among other projects), performs a solo-electric show at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall on Friday, October 14. He recently spoke with First Coast Connect host Melissa Ross about the gig, his 40-year career and his latest work. Listen to the interview below. Bob Mould performs at the Ponte Vedra …
Blink-182 are Getting the Band Back Together with a New Tour
Blink-182, San Diego’s kings of pop-punk, are getting the band back together. Tom DeLonge is rejoining bandmates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker for the first time in seven years. The band announced via their web site and social media that they would be embarking on a world tour starting in March 2023 are are releasing a new song, “Edging,” on …
Watch | Ebony Payne-English at Blue Jay Listening Room
Jax multi-disciplinary artist performs “Kuongoza”
I could think of no better venue to feature the music of Ebony Payne-English, than the intimate Blue Jay Listening Room. The depth of the Jax-based rapper-poet-author’s music, after all, requires intentional listening. Stream Ebony Payne-English’s music on your preferred platform Payne-English, fresh off the release of her 2021 full length, Kuongoza, and just months away from releasing another album, …
Mexico’s Son Rompe Pera Bang the Marimba at the Crossroads of Cumbia and Punk
In celebration of Latinx Heritage Month, NPR Music is spotlighting a series of artists across Latin America who are engaging with their musical heritage in unique ways. From reworking conservative genres for new eras, to teasing out modern sounds from old-school instruments, these artists represent the wide range of experimentation that makes up contemporary Latin music. Earlier this year, in …
Local Spotlight | 4 New Songs by Jax Artists Out Now
Tai Boujie is "So Florida." And so are the rest of these Duval artists.
We’re all about music discovery here at the Jacksonville Music Experience. As we unearth new tunes from artists around the globe almost daily, we love to shine the high beams of our Local Spotlight series on the beautiful noise emerging from Northeast Florida. This week, we’ve got four great new tracks by Jacksonville artists. Let’s dig in. “Nature Boy” by …
Fresh Squeeze | The Best New Music of October
Stream & discover something to love
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. In recent weeks, icons of independent music Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Built to Spill …
Go | Indie-folk band The Head and the Heart at St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Neo-folk revivalists bring their jangly hits to The Amp in October
Indie folk band The Head and the Heart will visit the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Thursday, October 13, as part of the group’s first tour in more than two-and-a-half years. A seminal band of the neo-folk revival that was gaining steam in the mid to late aughts, the Seattle-founded group’s eponymous 2010 Sub Pop release remains one of the iconic …
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ‘Cool It Down’ is an Exhilarating Yet Unhurried Return
The audacity, to be an artist who waits nearly a decade to release a project — to sit out the conversation that long. The news cycles that whirr by, the social feeds left to rot on the vine. The refusal to chase the currency of constant, insistent relevance. It’s jarring nowadays. And when that artist is, say, a beloved rock …
Watch | Howdy live in the Studio 4 at WJCT
Beaches-based singer-songwriter performs a couple Gulf-and-Western style ballads
Jacksonville Beach-based singer and guitarist Landon Gay is a true saltwater cowboy. And therein may lie secret to the unique Americana sauce he’s injected into the four singles he’s released under the moniker Howdy, which have collectively racked up more than three-quarters-of-a-million plays on Spotify. Indeed, embedded in Howdy’s lofi, minimalist ballads is a palpable authenticity — in the pace …
Pharoah Sanders, Giant of Spirit-Driven Jazz, Dies at 81
Pharoah Sanders, the revered and influential tenor saxophonist who explored and extended the boundaries of his instrument, notably alongside John Coltrane in the 1960s, died on Saturday morning in Los Angeles. His death was announced in a post on social media by the record label Luaka Bop, which had released his celebrated 2021 album Promises and confirmed by a publicist …
Another Side of Bad Madonna
Jax singer and guitarist Alexis Rhode goes electric on her new EP
As Bad Madonna, singer-songwriter Alexis Rhode encapsulates what it means to be genre-bending, something so many artists tag on to the back of their bios but rarely succeed in achieving. Earlier this year, the Jax-based Rhode released the debut Bad Madonna EP, Velvet Glove, a collection of five songs that sound like country-twanged journal entries. Less than six months later, …
The Uneasy Confessions of Alex G
The devout 'God Save the Animals' distills the songwriter's eccentric style
With over a decade of released music behind him, Alex G has long taken a playfully distorted approach to songwriting, like he’s filtering his music through a funhouse mirror. The 29-year-old artist often addresses or morphs into fictional characters: insecure teenage girls and children with names like Sarah, Alina, Sandy. Flashes of storybook innocence, tales of guarded treehouses and stolen …
How Charley Crockett Makes New Music Sound Old (and Old Music Sound Brand New)
Charley Crockett knows his story seems far-fetched. “People always tell me, ‘Man, you didn’t ride trains — that’s not possible, no one does that anymore,’” he says, sitting at his tour bus’s small table. Crockett is clearly frustrated – the fact that he’s traded train cars for tour buses and street corners for venerable stages that he shares with even …