Allow Wahid to reintroduce himself: The Orlando-born and -based rapper with Jamaican roots, a rapid-fire flow, and a subtly reggae and dancehall-influenced sound has shared WILT/CORNERSTONE, his two-track debut EP on eclectic Los Angeles-based indie label Innovative Leisure. The record might as well be the first flaps of a phoenix’s wings, which brings us to the ashes: Wahid co-founded nine-person …
The members of experimental rock group All Them Witches met in Nashville in the early 2010s. That may seem like a curious locale for a band whose music has more in common with the sonic experimentation of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” than it does the country garb of denim and rhinestones. “Nashville has always had a really excellent …
It’s been a breakout year for Asheville indie-rock quintet Wednesday, and the momentum generated by the band’s latest and greatest album Rat Saw God is poised to carry them right into 2024: Karly Hartzman and company have announced the expansion of their current tour with new U.S. dates, including a February stop at Jack Rabbits, and a documentary on their …
Australian psych band, the aptly-yet-archly named Psychedelic Porn Crumpets are currently stomping through the US on a month-long North American tour with fellow noisy experimentalists, the Austin-based group Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band. The tour hits the Sunshine State in mid-October, with a stop at Jack Rabbits in Jacksonville on Friday, October 20. The Crumpets’ latest, the 2022 full-length album Night …
Legend is a word thrown around far too often. But if there was ever an artist the word “legend” applies to, it would be Smokey Robinson. The iconic songwriter, producer and vocalist was not only a key architect of the Motown sound, but also R&B and soul music as a whole. His uncanny ability to craft tender and catchy romantic …
The title track from Duval singer-songwriter Jeremy Marshall Blanton‘s Strange Cargo EP dropped in mid-October and it’s a certain gem for anyone seeking local musical treasure. While Blanton has worked with estimable area acts including Robert Lester Folsom, Dean Winter and the Heat and Strangerwolf, the flavors Blanton serves up on his debut EP are surely his own. The intro …
On Thursday, November 2, guitarist Martin Barre brings his current tour A Brief History of Tull, to the Florida Theatre. Barre has arguably come full circle. The longtime Jethro Tull guitarist was born in Birmingham, U.K., a working-class town that also produced other formidable ‘60s musicians who went on to form The Move, Traffic and Black Sabbath. Influenced by jazz …
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning. For a comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Folk/Pop The Head and the Heart – Wednesday, October 18 The Amp | St. Augustine Seattle indie-folk-pop act the Head and the Heart return to the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Wednesday. Singer-songwriter Amanda Shires opens the show. More Rock/Psych …
We didn’t get a chance to hear Bad Bunny’s new album, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana, prior to taping this week’s episode. But we did hit some of the other records that highlight a busy week of new releases. Australian singer and actor Troye Sivan put out one of this year’s late-breaking Song Of The Summer contenders …
Pioneering folk-punks Violent Femmes will reissue their self-titled debut with planned digital Deluxe edition release in December and a box-set edition in February. The reissue features numerous b-sides, alternative takes and never-before-heard live performances by the core Midwest trio. The group recently shared the first single from the special anniversary reissue, a live take of the spunky lovesick classic “Gone …
Media Contact: Neily Braren, Promotion & Marketing Associate 904.318.2633 • nbraren@wjct.org WJCT Public Media Selects Anne Schindler to Host “First Coast Connect”Accomplished producer, journalist and editor will begin Monday, October 30 JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Oct. 12, 2023 — WJCT Public Media today announced the selection of Anne Schindler as the permanent host of “First Coast Connect,” WJCT News 89.9’s flagship daily …
Welcome to Songwriting School, where we talk to songwriters about the craft of songwriting. Jake Xerxes Fussell is a folk music treasure and something of a treasure hunter as well. In addition to singing and playing guitar, the Durham-based musician is regarded for his research methods. He finds Southern songs of yesteryear in archives and old field recordings. And after …
What began as a side project in 2020 for Jacksonville singer-songwriter Alissa Leonard (Isabella Parole, Manatella), Souvineer is now fleshed out as a four piece. The deceptively titled “Paradise” is surely not a jam for the Indian summer. Instead, we get a five-minute minor-key contemplation on the arrival of an imminent storm, amends and a paradise “that never ends.” Souvineer …
A longtime fixture on the NYC improvisation scene, violist-composer Jessica Pavone continues her forward-thinking musical endeavors with her latest release, Clamor. A four-movement suite performed by Pavone and a sextet of strings and woodwinds, each movement of Clamor is a kind of poignant homage to things that women have created as a subterfuge against systems put in place to confine …
Journey In Black, the long-awaited sophomore album from jazz vocalist Christie Dashiell features seven original compositions and two arrangements that explore themes of freedom, legacy, grief and joy. Funded in part by Chamber Music America’s Performance Plus Grant, the collection fuses the sounds of improvised music and various styles of Black American Music. Titled Journey in Black, the album boasts …
The Jacksonville History Center will encompass the full scope of local history, not limited just to local music, though that is certainly a big component, and its major selling point up to now. The new museum will be housed inside the old casket factory, built in 1920 at 318 Palmetto Street, right next door to the Main offices of the …
Taylor Swift sweeps silver screens across America on October 13 with her box-office busting The Eras Tour concert film. The film hits theaters just as A24’s 40th anniversary re-release of what’s often referred to as “the best concert film of all time,” post-punk art-pop outfit Talking Heads’ 1984 flick Stop Making Sense, wraps up its nationwide run. But did David …
This Latinx Heritage Month Tiny Desk is celebrating with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover, featuring a wide array of artists from all corners of Latinidad. Villano Antillano kicked off her Tiny Desk Concert with a Britney Spears-approved message: Dump. Him. “Yo Tengo un Novio,” off the Puerto Rican rapper’s debut LP, La Sustancia X, called out the toxic, controlling expectations of …
The certain Northeast Florida Renaissance of forward-thinking and progressive hip-hop has produced another impressive artist in the form of Kale That Raps. Taken from his recent Summer Feels Like… EP, the track “A Heartbeat” is an impressive three-minute mix of soul and languid-yet-assured raps from Kale. A dream-like production of otherworldly backing vocals, ethereal to the point of levitation, a …
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For a comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Guitar Virtuosity Benise – Tuesday, October 10 WJCT Soundstage | Downtown Jacksonville Guitar phenom and “nouveau flamenco” pioneer Roni Benise – or simply: Benise – returns to Jacksonville, hitting the WJCT Soundstage on …
Rapper Earl Sweatshirt’s album-length collaboration with producer The Alchemist had been rumored for quite a while. Its first internet release rolled out on a little-known streaming website over the summer. Now, Voir Dire is officially out everywhere — and it’s a remarkable cross-generational collaboration, full of inventive samples and lyrics that can be abstract and dark, but also hopeful. We’ve …
Powerhouse Chicago-based three-piece Dehd announced both a run of late-summer dates (many of which are in support of electronic-folk band Sylvan Esso) and a fall tour of North America, which includes a stop at Jack Rabbits in San Marco on October 13. The post-punk trio’s 2022 full-length album Blue Skies showcases the band’s knack for reverb-drenched garage rock and harmonious …
Thirty years ago, the Northeast Florida independent music community was many things and, even devoid of nostalgia from any surviving participants, boasted its own kind of low magick. Like much of America, Jacksonville and the surrounding environs benefited from the 1970s punk rock scene that tore down the walls of popular music. Most crucially, in the 1980s, underground musicians made …
Media Contact: Neily Braren, Promotion & Marketing Associate 904.318.2633 • nbraren@wjct.org Jacksonville Today Wins National Journalism Award Daily newsletter named LION Publishers’ Product of the Year JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — October 5, 2023 — WJCT Public Media’s Jacksonville Today newsletter has been named the Product of the Year in the 2023 Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers Association’s Local Journalism Awards. …
Welcome to Songwriting School, where we talk to local songwriters about how they wrote one specific song. Madison Hughes has been singing and playing guitar for most of her life, but her star-studded path into songwriting has been anything but ordinary. The Ponte Vedra native competed on NBC’s The Voice last year, which launched her right into a Nashville music …
Anyone who tells you they know what’s next for Australian experimental-rock sextet King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is lying, with one exception: The hyper-prolific band is never not announcing a new album. This week, they unveiled The Silver Cord (Oct. 27, KGLW), previewing the synth-driven set with the lead single and video triumvirate of its album openers, “Theia / …
Evolution is the word I would use to describe PJ Morton’s career. Morton’s latest, Watch the Sun Live: The Mansion Sessions is simply masterful, and Morton expertly finds his rhythm in the live performance (FYI: his live band features Jacksonville native and Douglas Anderson alum TJ Norris on trombone). Morton excels as the remix king of his own music, in …
This Latinx Heritage Month Tiny Desk is celebrating with an ‘El Tiny’ takeover, featuring a wide array of artists from all corners of Latinidad. Alex Cuba starts his turn behind the Tiny Desk with the barest of musical essentials: a percussive guitar rhythm, the soft scratch of a güiro and a miniature choir. “Ciudad Hembra (La Habana),” a lament for …
Jacksonville indie-pop duo Coyboi deliver hopelessly romantic rock on “Violets,” their new track recorded live at Gainesville’s Heartwood Soundstage earlier this year and released late last week. The project of vocalist Cortnie Frazier and multi-instrumentalist Ihlan Magloire, Coyboi came together in August 2020, a pandemic project that has stood the test of tough times. Though Frazier and Magloire are actively …
When Max Roach died in 2007 at age 83, the iconoclastic musician had truly lived a life that beat to the tune of a different drum. Roach seemed to move upstream, regardless of the tides. He was an early adherent to the DIY indie-ethos. While still in his twenties, in 1952 Roach and Charles Mingus founded Debut Records, after the …
Is it a case of get your hand outta my pocket or get your pocket off my hand? The jury is still out, or yet properly informed, as the global conglomerate Live Nation launches the On The Road initiative, which allows touring acts to keep 100% of merchandise sales on show nights. The company has controlling interest in 338 venues …
Pop is glittery, girly and gay again thanks to Missouri-native Chappell Roan. She just released her first full-length album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, on September 22. Some of Roan’s popular tracks include “Pink Pony Club,” and this summer’s cheerleader inspired anthem “HOT TO GO!” The songs are thematic, dramatic and glamorous, with call-and-response hooks, sensational synths …
The paragon that is Pedrito Martinez has a rather mellow fall 2023 touring schedule, atypical for the normally busy Cuban percussionist. But he has been sure to include a stop in Jacksonville Last here in 2014 for the Jacksonville Jazz Festival and a subsequent pandemic-disrupted show in 2020 that never was, the Havana-born-and-bred talent will be at The Ritz Theatre …
“That Sunday, That Summer,” the newest single by Florida’s own Kelly Green, is actually the third that she’s released since July. Written by Joe Sherman and George Weiss, it was originally recorded for Capitol Records by Nat King Cole in 1963, with his lush, lustrous vocals backed by a string orchestra and vocal chorus, a format that was extremely popular …
“On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was.” The “he” in this equation is, of course, Aaron Samuels, heartthrob of the 2004 hit flick Mean Girls. And the “me” is Cady Heron, played by none other than the great Lindsay Lohan, whose crush on Aaron kept her from math class brilliance. On this day in Mean Girls history, …
Taken from their just-released full-length High Charity, the tune “Dange Close” from Chalk Tiger claws at all of the elements that arguably make punk rock a make-or-break affair. Thankfully, the volition of this Northeast Florida trio has more melodic quirks than rote ’77-style punk while also boasting a surfeit of grit that keeps them from succumbing to coy indie-twee that …
