Rick Odria and Ashley Pope

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by Colleen Dougher

A smile is a powerful thing. This week, we found five South Florida musicians with songs about the facial expression. Say “cheese” and read on.

In “A Smile’s Always a Good Thing,” singer-songwriter Mark Spinner explores the power of smiling. “She looked across the room, her smile caught my eye/I had to smile back/I thought, ‘Oh me, oh my,’ ” Spinner sings. “We had a cup of coffee, we smiled all the while/Sometimes, things go right, a smile’s always a good thing.” Spinner says he’s noticed how routine tasks such as grocery-shopping became more enjoyable if done with a smile, but that it was a smile flashed in his direction that inspired his song. “I was at an event and I noticed a girl who smiled at me,” he recalls. “I smiled back, and the song was etched in my mind. I went home and had the melody going through my mind and I just went with it.” Spinner says a smile can brighten a person’s day and convey appreciation, understanding and comfort. “Even over the phone, if a person smiles when they speak with someone … a good vibe ensues,” he says. To hear “A Smile’s Always a Good Thing,” from his 2010 album Comical Persuasions, visit Reverbnation.com/markspinnermusic.

Singer-songwriter Sam Friend says “Smile for the Camera” is about faking it until you make it. After the song’s “Stray Cat Strut”-style intro, Friend sings, “I just can’t wait, plain and simple/To dance with you, to shake the darkness/I just can’t wait … until it’s bright and early again/My hands here have been out, and your best foot seems a bit forward, oh, ya/A meeting where the middle happens/Smile for the camera.” As Friend explains, “We live in a culture that is increasingly gung ho about presenting itself as a smiling, bubbly bunch. This song is about how people are getting into the swing of a newly peaked interest in self-celebrating, and what that means for the rest of our selves.” To hear “Smile for the Camera,” visit Myspace.com/samfriend.

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Just as Rick Odria, a.k.a. My Electric Heart, finishes singing the line, “The first time I saw you, you turned away,” singer-songwriter Ashley Pope launches into the next with “I couldn’t see you with the sun shining in my eyes.” And so it goes as the pair alternates vocals on their highly listenable cover of +44’s “Make Me Smile.” Odria says he and his ex-girlfriend Pope were looking for a song to do together. “’Make You Smile’ has always been a favorite of mine,” Odria says. “It’s just a completely different feel than most of the songs +44 released, and I knew we’d really enjoy making it our own.” To hear their version of “Make Me Smile,” visit Facebook.com/myelectricheartfl. My Electric Heart will perform at the Hard Rock Battle of the Bands 8 p.m. Thursday, March 10 at the Hard Rock Café in Hollywood.

Miami reggae artist Ryan “Jahmali” Thomas also explores the warmth of a smile in “When I See You Smiling,” his song about a smile that inspires love and brightens a morning. His tune contains these important words of advice: “Never let them stop you from smiling.” To hear “When I See You Smiling,” visit Reverbnation.com/jahmali.

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“A Lover in a Fighter’s World,” by singer-songwriter Tommy Bussey, a.k.a. TommyB, starts on a cold, sad note and leads to a warm smile. As Bussey sings, “Like the cold tile floor, my heart can’t take much more/Of getting stepped on and walked over. And like the bright moon tonight, your eyes give me hope to fight/So tonight, I’m fighting off thoughts of this girl, and tonight, I’m becoming a lover in a fighter’s world./Like the warm sun today, your smile gives me strength to say that I can fall in love again someday.” Bussey says he’s bounced around relationships over the years, but that something was always missing. “After spending over a year immersed in my work and almost giving up on love, I met someone,” he explains. “I was randomly introduced to my hairstylist’s cousin, and after only our second date, felt inspired to write ‘A Lover in a Fighter’s World.’ … I was very apprehensive about the possibility of getting into another relationship, but there was something about this girl that really broke down my walls. …This girl made me believe in love again, and just everything about her has totally captivated me.” To hear “A Lover in a Fighter’s World,” visit Reverbnation.com/officialtommyb.

Contact Colleen Dougher at cdougher@citylinkmagazine.com.

Saskya Sky

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by Colleen Dougher

In honor of horrific workweeks, we’ve gathered five party songs from local musicians. Listen to them as you primp for a night out that will make you forget you even have a job.

Lead Rock Stars, the rock-and-hip-hop trio of Lead Man Lacy, Rock Candy and Jae rr Star, also wrote a song about partying VIP-style. In “Party Hard,” they brag, “Pull up in the flyest, crazy whip game/Ain’t no need for words, the bouncers know my name/Yeah, I’m VIP, and bottles are for free/Escort me to my table … What we do, party hard/We having a good time/And I ain’t goin’ home tonight.” Star says he wanted to produce a track with a party and techno-pop vibe. “All I kept thinking was, ‘I want to party hard to this music,’” he explains. “So I kept saying, ‘Party hard.’“ His mantra became part of the chorus. To hear “Party Hard,” visit Reverbnation.com/leadrockstars.

“Call my homies get my girls/We gonna party the night away/We ain’t gonna get in line/VIP all the way,” sings Saskya Sky, a.k.a. the Haitian Princess, in the pop song she calls a departure from her previous tunes. “I was 19 when I wrote ‘Party,’ ” she explains. “I wanted to write something different from my previous songs, which were love songs and songs about things going on in the world. I wanted to do a feel-good song that was fun and about partying.” To hear “Party,” visit Reverbnation.com/saskyasky.

The ultimate drown-out-the-workweek party involves getting lost in music, and “We Live for the Music,” from Miami DJ Robbie Rivera’s third album, Closer to the Sun, is the perfect soundtrack for doing just that. Featuring singer Jerique Allan, the track opens with “We live for the music, no matter what this world comes to. “ Consider the song, with mesmerizing vocals atop rhythmic thumping beats, a prelude to an even bigger party; house music producer Rivera and his wife and business partner, Monica, are the duo behind the infamous Juicy Beach party held each March during Winter Music Conference. To hear “We Live for the Music,” visit Reverbnation.com/robbierivera.

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Reggae singer Calibe’s “It’s My Birthday” is a high-energy collaboration with rapper Ultimate. “Even though it’s not my birthday/I’m gonna party like it’s my birthday,” Calibe sings. “We gonna party like it’s my birthday/It’s my birthday, it’s my birthday.” By the time Ultimate breaks into “It’s my day, nobody gonna get in my way/Give me some of that Grand Marnier,” listeners won’t need that Red Bull he’s requesting from the bartender. Calibe says she and other members of the production team BlackOut Movement were contemplating party songs when DJ Don P suggested the idea of partying like your birthday even when it isn’t. “The first hook melody that came to me is the melody we used. And, of course, I had to throw in the extra Jamaican flavor with the chant ‘Fling up your hands in the air,’“ Calibe explains. “We wanted to make sure that people have every excuse they need to have a great time anytime.” To hear “It’s My Birthday,” visit Reverbnation.com/calibe.

Jimmy Durkin makes no apology for planning to stay out all night in “Party On,” a song in which he proclaims, “I got a note here from my momma/Says I can stay out all night long/She don’t care if I party on … till the break of dawn.” The song was inspired by his memories of the Flick, the Coral Gables coffeehouse his father owned in the 1960s. At the venue, which hosted Dion, Joni Mitchell, Townes Van Zandt, Bobby Ingram and David Crosby, Durkin made coffee, set up the stage and learned about music. “I sat behind the little wall in front of the kitchen door, watching the performers onstage and dreamed of one day writing a song and doing that,” he recalls. Over the years, he wrote many songs and, in 2009, finally gathered the nerve to play an open mike at Luna Star Cafe in North Miami. He continues performing there and also has played at Titanic Brewery, the former site of the coffeehouse that inspired his song. After shows at the Flick, musicians would head to the Grove for more live music. “Being underage and the owner’s kid put me in a bad spot, but I had a car so eventually I was asked to tag along, because they needed a ride,” Durkin explains. “One evening, Vince Martin and Bob Ingram wanted me to come along to the Feedbag to hear this guy they wanted my dad to hire. … Someone said, ‘C’mon Jimmy. I keep a note here in my pocket from my momma, says we can party on till the break of dawn.” To hear “Party On,” visit Reverbnation.com/jamesdurkin. Luna Star’s next open mike, which Durkin now hosts, will begin 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26

Contact Colleen Dougher at cdougher@citylinkmagazine.com.

My Electric Heart

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by Colleen Dougher

Valentine’s Day is all about the heart: heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, conversation hearts, gold hearts. So this week, we scoped out five songs from South Florida musicians about everyone’s favorite metaphorical organ — the one that flutters, melts with sweetness and shatters when that sweetness disappears like so much candy from a box.

Rick Odria, a.k.a. My Electric Heart, ponders Cupid’s spontaneity in “Heartstrings”: “Who would have thought that this morning when I/Walked out the door, you’d walk into my life/Like a burst of fireworks up in the sky/You’re every shade of beautiful in my eyes/ … You’re pulling on my heartstrings, darling/You’re pulling so hard that I’m falling/And when I finally hit the ground/I’ll dust myself off, look around and see/I’m exactly where I wanna be.” Odria based the song on an experience at the coffee shop he frequents. “I walked in one day and saw there was a new employee who happened to be absolutely stunning, and I immediately was overrun by that love-at-first-sight feeling,” he recalls. “Needless to say, I had a few more cups of coffee than usual that day.” To hear “Heartstrings,” visit Reverbnation.com/myelectricheart. My Electric Heart will perform March 19 at the Talent Farm in Pembroke Pines.

Names and hearts carved into trees can last longer than the relationships that inspired them, and RisingSky’s “Love Song” is about the memories that remain after a breakup. It opens with Matt Bross singing, “I’ve got a love song with your name attached/I taught the birds to sing every verse.” Bross explains: “The song is about being young and in love and every amazing feeling that comes along with it. You feel like you can do anything, be anything and you just want the world to know.” Of course, that superhuman feeling doesn’t always last. As Bross sings, “But at least you got a love song/I carved your name on a maple tree/Enclosed a heart meant for you and me.” To hear “Love Song,” visit Reverbnation.com/risingsky.

The folksinger Sarah Packiam wrote a tune that captures the feelings of two people in a warm, comfortable relationship. In “Goodbye Lonely Me,” she sings, “You are the one for me/My toast and cup of tea/ … I wanna hear you when the TV’s on and you’re watching your favorite show/I wanna be with you 8 p.m./I wanna feel you through my moody blues, maybe in the next room/But I wanna be with you even then.” Packiam says, “Being a couple is like the perfect pairing of tasty things in life, like sushi and sake. Some things are just meant to go with each other, and when you find the perfect combo, it’s ‘Goodbye lonely me.’“ To hear her song, visit Reverbnation/sarahpackiam. Packiam will perform 1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11 on WLRN-FM (91.3) South Florida Arts Beat, and 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14 at the Deering Estate in Miami.

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“Hearts Get Broken” by the rock quartet MenO explores the moving-on process in lyrics such as “That’s alright, I’m OK/Hearts get broken every single day/ … I’m just trying to revive/All that hope I had inside/That one day I can find/The one special in my life.” The song, says singer-guitarist Jose Mena, was inspired by a broken heart suffered by his brother, the trio’s main songwriter, bassist and lead vocalist Andres Mena. “It expresses sadness, confusion, anger, hope and all those mixed feelings we get when going through something like that,” he says. MenO will perform Friday at Vinyl and Kai, 1131 Washington Ave., in Miami Beach. To hear “Hearts Get Broken,” visit Reverbnation.com/meno.

Dave Tanner, a.k.a. PopsCapsule, wants listeners to laugh at “Be Mine, Lover.” At least, that’s the response Tanner anticipated when he cast aside his experimental-electronica style to write an R&B tune for his wife for Valentine’s Day. “There’s nothing I need more than to feel your lovin’ arms wrapped around my heart,” he sings. “You’ve got my soul about to explode, you take the pain away/You make me wanna stay for the rest of our life/ … Spending time under the covers/ … I don’t need another lover.” Tanner says his wife “doesn’t like sappy shit” and told him to never write her love songs. “So being the smartass I am, I wrote it, played all the parts and sang it late one night while she was sleeping as a joke to mess with her,” he recalls. “I gave her a disc on Valentine’s and told her to listen to it on the way to work. She was laughing but not amused.” To hear “Be Mine, Lover,” visit Myspace.com/popscapsule. Tanner will perform 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12 with the Chasing Tales improv troupe at Just the Funny Theatre in Miami.

Contact Colleen Dougher at cdougher@citylinkmagazine.com.

Michael Fleming, a.k.a. the Mad Skeleton

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by Colleen Dougher

While not everyone believes in the Devil, it’s a concept many people use to describe the interior voice that tempts them to do things they want to do but know they shouldn’t. That’s the impish demon explored in the following songs written by South Florida musicians.

Anyone who has ever acted spontaneously without considering the consequences may relate to “The Devil’s Playground” by Miami singer-songwriter Chris Alvy. In his song about resisting temptation, Alvy pleads, “Don’t go down to the devil’s playground/Don’t go down to the devil’s playground, please/… I wanna go down to the devil’s playground.” “We all have ventured into ‘the devil’s playground’ at some point in our lives, especially when we are young,” Alvy explains. “That playground is where all the things that tempt you are. So the person is telling himself not to go into it, but at the same time, he wants to.” To hear “The Devil’s Playground,” visit Reverbnation.com/chrisalvy. Alvy, who will release an album on Forward Motion Records this spring, will perform March 29 at Van Dyke Café in Miami Beach.

The Lee Boys, a blues-based gospel group of three brothers and their nephews, all born and raised in Miami, express a similar resist-temptation message in their version of the gospel tune “Don’t Let the Devil Ride.” As the lyrics go, “Don’t let the devil ride/Oh, don’t let the devil ride/’Cause if you let him ride/He’ll want to try to drive/Don’t let him ride.” Visit YouTube to see a video of the band performing the song at Café 9 in New Haven, Conn.

As singer-songwriter Michael Fleming, a.k.a. The Mad Skeleton, puts it in his song “The Devil’s Orchestration”: “I am the devil’s orchestration/This is an ancient melody/I am the basement echo trickster/I am the synchronicity/I cast spells with my guitars/I grant wishes with my strings/I pop the chords that slave my mind combusting everything.” Fleming wanted to write a song without a guitar, so he picked up a banjo he’d just acquired and this song poured out. “I wanted to see how far I could walk through the darkness,” he explains. “I was reading a ton of the ‘cursed’ French poets at the time and really exploring a lot of things. The Mad Skeleton is a bit twisted in the head, not sure how it ever happened, but it certainly did, and the devil is in there along with everything else.” To hear “The Devil’s Orchestration,” visit Reverbnation.com/themadskeleton.

In “Get the Devil Off My Back,” West Palm Beach folksinger Ben Childs explores the struggle that ensues once the devil moves in and ideals “fade till your roots come out and your programming drags you slowly to the grave.” As he Childs sings in the song’s final verse, “All I want right now’s to rediscover what I care about and drag my ethics back/All I want right now’s to rediscover where my soul is at and get the devil off my back/Won’t you help me get the devil off my back?” To hear “Get the Devil Off My Back,” visit Reverbnation.com/benchilds.

Devils are persistent. So just when someone thinks they’ve sent the creature with the pitchfork packing, the phone rings. That’s the premise of Iko-Iko’s bluesy “When the Devil Calls Collect.” “I was reading Revelation drinking strychnine from a jar,” Graham Drout sings. “Big old python ’round my shoulder longer than a Cadillac car/And just when I started thinking this might be my only chance/That phone started ringing and it woke me from my trance/I done some devil dealing way back in my younger days/And you couldn’t tell by looking but I swear I’ve changed my ways.” Drout says the song is about phone calls that dredge up bad things from the past. “I was actually being threatened on the phone by Colombian drug dealers for a bad thing that someone else did, and she had left my number as a contact,” Drout recalls. “My solution was to unplug the phone.” To hear “When the Devil Calls Collect,” visit Myspace.com/grahamwooddroutsikoiko. Iko-Iko will perform Feb. 18 at Bamboo Room in Lake Worth and Feb. 26 at Schnebly Redland’s Winery in Homestead.

Contact Colleen Dougher at cdougher@citylinkmagazine.com.

Sylvia Emmerson (photo by Beth Black)

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by Joanie Cox, Colleen Dougher, Courtney Hambright and Dan Sweeney

While we are the betting kind, we generally shy away from making predictions. We also tend to avoid people who pride themselves on their powers of prognostication, which explains the absence of psychics, tarot-card readers, fortunetellers and astrologers around the City Link office. Well, real astrologers, anyway. But this week, we’re going to break from reason and tradition and state that in 2011, the five musical acts profiled in this story will have a big year. We’re talking very big. King Kong big. Moby Dick big. Maybe even Led Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick” big. For sure, hyperbolically big. That doesn’t mean these are necessarily loud acts, and a couple of them are not averse to performing songs that almost compel you to light a candle and lay your head on a pillow. Preferably a big pillow. We’ve seen your head.

What we’re trying to say is that you’re going to be hearing a great deal about these musicians this year, and not just from us. Each act has recently released a recording, or has one on the way, and none of them is a stranger to the local club circuit. One has started her own dating service, and another will play South by Southwest, which itself is a kind of music-industry dating service, though one in which more asses get kissed than lips. So read on, remember these names and listen up.

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UPSIDE DOWN JENNY
Jennifer Wolfson earned her quirky stage name from a fellow musician, who noticed that the left-handed guitarist played her instrument upside down. Upside Down Jenny is also the name of a rare postage stamp from 1918 bearing the inverted image of a Curtiss JN-4 airplane. “People just started calling me Upside Down Jenny because of the way I play,” says Wolfson, pictured above, “and when I found out about the cool stamp, I thought, ‘Hey, why not?’ ”

A similar carefree attitude brought the former New Jersey resident to South Florida. At 23, Wolfson married her boyfriend of a month in Las Vegas on Valentine’s Day. Two years later, she found herself divorced and on her way to a new life in Miami, where she penned “Fun in the Sun,” an optimistic song about moving on from a failed romance to chill with “some sweet foreign boys” with no strings attached in a tropical paradise.

“It was my homage to women who are getting out of a relationship and just want to let loose,” Wolfson explains. “And that’s pretty much what I did when I got here. I wanted to see palm trees and Cuban men.”

The ambitious entertainer is working on four musical projects: her original rock act, the Upside Down Jenny Band; a solo acoustic show; a cover band named Nightfall; and an electro-pop funk group called Limited Addiction. “There are many different sides to me,” Wolfson says with a giggle. “I’ve always been a rapper at heart. I’m into spoken word with a punk edge. I also have a girl-rock side.”

Now 31, Wolfson plans to release an album of original music, Living Under Powerlines, in June. She has written three songs for the soundtrack of a film titled The Killing of a Japanese Bookie and has even gotten into acting. “I used to own a talent agency,” she says, “so I’m doing some acting now. Last week, I did a Malibu Rum commercial and got to meet Ne-Yo.”

Despite Wolfson’s hectic schedule, her blend of soulful rock and folk ballads remains her top priority. “I like to write music because it’s how I get my emotions out,” she says. “The music became my alter ego. I can say all the things I need to through the music and I’m not afraid.”

After traveling the world on her own Eat Pray Love-like journey, Wolfson found people all have a similar story when it comes to love. “I’ve met thousands of people, and they all seem so lonely, like no one understands them,” she explains. “ ‘He did this to me,’ ‘she did this to me,’ or he got dumped and she got dumped. We all have to move on and realize it will really all be OK.”

Wolfson, who describes herself as “totally and completely single,” says she’s looking for a man who understands she doesn’t follow a 9-to-5 lifestyle. In the meantime, she has started her own dating service called Don’t Die Alone Dating. “I’ve set three people up already,” she says. “And who knows? Maybe I’ll meet the right guy through that.”

Performing in Miami, she also has been inspired to start an organization to help musicians safely load and unload their equipment at gigs. Performance Artists and Musicians for a Safer Community has more than 200 fans on Facebook.com/pamfasc.

“There needs to be more police presence around venues where local music is welcome, as well as more programs for the homeless,” Wolfson argues. “I’ve had guys kick and spit on my car and threaten me if I didn’t give them money while I was trying to pull my equipment in. Many of my friends have had their equipment stolen.”

Wolfson says she would love to see Miami welcome musicians as well as the city treats DJs. “This isn’t Nashville, Austin or New York, where there are a thousand places to play,” she admits. “But I would like to see downtown Miami turned into the next Austin in the next 10 years. We have the talent. We just need the cultural support to have live music at every venue.”

Wolfson will play an acoustic show Saturday and Jan. 29 at Life Boutique, 710 Washington Ave., in Miami Beach. Call 305-397-8841 or visit Lifeboutiquesouthbeach.com. She’ll also perform with Limited Addiction Sunday at Vinyl and Kai, 1131 Washington Ave., in Miami Beach. Call 305-531-2640 or visit Vinylkai.com.
— Joanie Cox

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MILLIONYOUNG
After several years playing in bands, success came quickly to Mike Diaz under the pseudonym Millionyoung. After releasing two EPs, one in 2009 and one last year, both of which featured only his own guitar-playing and samples, Diaz drew the attention of Rob Mason, the founder of indie label Old Flame Records.

“I met Rob when I was playing a show in New York this past summer,” Diaz recalls. “We kept in contact, and he had some good ideas as far as distribution and all. We were on the same page with a lot of stuff, so it just came naturally.”

About the same time he signed to Old Flame, Millionyoung went from solo act to full-fledged band as Diaz recruited some old friends he had worked with in previous bands. “Before, it was just guitar, singing and doing samples,” Diaz says. “That was fun, but I found myself wanting to interact with the crowd more, and that band aesthetic appeals to me. A lot of it’s real instruments and samples, and I didn’t want to have to sample the real instruments, so I needed something more.”

The group’s full-length debut, Replicants, was released last week online. “It’ll come out physically on Feb. 15,” Diaz reports. The album’s dance-ready, throwback sound, which relies on the moody vocals and synth-pop styling of the 1980s, fits in perfectly with the glo-fi hipsterism of the moment.

Having existed as a band for only a few months, Millionyoung already has a date with this year’s South by Southwest. “We’ve got a couple shows already lined up there. We’re gonna be pretty busy this year,” Diaz says. “I went last year and played four or five shows, but we’re hoping to do twice that this year. I was pretty lucky last year. I got to see a lot of shows. There’s a lot of stuff going on. The majority of it’s in five streets by five streets, so you can’t go anywhere without hearing music.”

Millionyoung has loose plans to re-release its old EPs on vinyl, and a tour is in the works that will begin in February and take the Coral Springs-based band to Miami in March. Even Diaz himself is a bit taken aback at the rapid-fire success of the act.

“Yeah, it’s been coming along pretty quick,” he admits. “A lot of it, when we switched to doing the full band, there was a lot of strategy behind switching the songs to that format. So there’ve been a lot of things I wasn’t expecting coming up. But it’s all been good.”
— Dan Sweeney

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THE DEAF POETS
The songs of the Deaf Poets sound as if they were written by musicians with years of hard living behind them. They certainly don’t seem like the work of two men who aren’t even old enough to drink. But in songs such as “Cold Cold Thieves,” singer-guitarist Sean Wouters and drummer Nico Espinosa, both 20, dig deep, producing a style of soulful, blues-based garage rock familiar to fans of the Black Keys and the White Stripes.

Wouters and Espinosa met in a fifth-grade art class, after Espinosa’s family relocated from Argentina. Four years later, they formed the first of seven bands that would bring them to the Deaf Poets. The band released its first EP, Illustrious Punks of Progress, in 2009 and has produced a series of music videos with local filmmaker Joaquin Escobar. Part-time students at Miami Dade College, Wouters and Espinosa are also the organizers of Miami’s Endless Summer, a 15-band concert presented at Churchill’s Pub.

The Deaf Poets’ forthcoming album will include “Little Red Wagon,” a song Wouters wrote while sitting beside Espinosa in an environmental-science class, and “This Pain,” an angry song about working a day job. While Wouters initially wrote all the group’s lyrics, he and Espinosa now share more of the songwriting duties. The new album, which does not have a release date, will feature the Espinosa-penned track “Had Me Waiting.”

“The Black Keys and the White Stripes admitted all the time that [the Keys’] Dan Auerbach writes everything and Jack White writes everything,” Wouters says. “The drummer isn’t really involved and just writes the drum part. But that’s not how I want to work and that’s not how Nico wants to work. He wants to be involved and be part of the music.”

Their friendship enhances their musical bond. “I came to this country 11 years ago and didn’t know anyone,” Espinosa recalls. “I was able to draw and was selected to be in the art club. That’s where I met Sean. He approached me and was my first real friend here. … He’s always been my friend who introduced me to the new culture and then our bond grew.”
— Colleen Dougher

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LAVOLA
In 2010, Palm Beach County spawned a batch of weird and wonderful indie bands. One of the standouts, and definitely one of the most-curious to emerge, is the three-piece, experimental-rock act Lavola. Early last year, Lavola released the four-song EP Black Sea of Trees and introduced itself to South Florida audiences with shows at Churchill’s Pub and Respectable Street.

In June, the band bested some of the area’s top bands in an AEG showcase at Propaganda that scored it an opening gig for Silversun Pickups. The attention from the contest and concert, frontman Julian Cires says, earned Lavola new fans and credibility with promoters that led to opening slots for Dead Confederate at Respectable Street and for TR3 at Roxy’s.

It’s not surprising that Lavola’s arresting performances caught the eyes and ears of talent-seekers. Hard-driving, upbeat songs such as “The Queen Is Dead” — which will be officially released on the group’s forthcoming EP, Leaving Paris — feature long, rhythmic guitar jams that 24-year-old bassist Matt Hanser and 19-year-old drummer Brian Weinthal drive to a headbanging intensity. Throughout all this weaves the band’s most striking instrument: Cires’ voice.

The audacious singer uses screams, groans and whispers to accentuate the images contained in his narrative lyrics. Cires, who graduated with a creative-writing degree from Florida State University in 2009, casts images of floating women, bursting blood bubbles, waltzing nurses and bleeding mascara to create a theme of escaping and killing romantic sentiments that extends between both EPs.

Having cemented the band’s stature with local gigs this fall, Lavola has laid the foundation for another promising year. The band will play an official EP release show at Propaganda Feb. 11. After that, they plan to play local gigs and tour to promote Leaving Paris. An early summer tour to Austin with Sarasota band Lion Choir is already in the works, and the boys are hoping to put together a Northeast tour for the late summer.
— Courtney Hambright

SYLVIA EMMERSON
While performing heartfelt, quiet songs such as “I Could’ve Died” at places such as Churchill’s Pub in Miami, Sylvia Emmerson often doesn’t notice when the patrons are ignoring her to chatter noisily among themselves.

“For me, it’s just as gratifying to be up there personally as it is to [think] that I might be impacting somebody,” she says. “So I play my music and hope that there’s maybe even one person in the crowd who’s listening. If that’s the case I will play my best show ever. I feel like if I stick to my guns and play passionately, there are times when I’ll see the audience go from talking very loud and then slowly, through the set, becoming intrigued and interested. It’s an amazing feeling.”

Emmerson, who released the four-song EP For All Who Wander Jan. 1 on Forward Motion Records, feels at home onstage and says becoming a musician was a no-brainer. Her mother is a pianist, her grandfather was a drummer, and her parents often took her to concerts by artists as diverse as Fiona Apple, Eric Clapton and Marilyn Manson. “They were always interested in finding out about new bands and had a really laidback attitude, so they were never really shocked by acts like that,” she says of Manson. “In fact, they listened to them as much as I did.”

Emmerson was 10 when she got an acoustic guitar for Christmas and 12 when she began taking voice lessons. At 14, she released a demo, performed at SunFest and began playing electric guitar with rock and metal bands at the Culture Room, Revolution Live and the Seminole Hard Rock. From seventh grade onward, school never interfered with her music. “With home school, you can condense all of those lessons into three hours and have the rest of your day free,” she says. “So I spent the majority of my time working on music and playing shows. When I was 17, I was able to play out of town and out of state when I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity when I was in school.”

But last year, Emmerson, now 24, returned to her first love, acoustic guitar. “I felt like I’d grown a lot as a person and changed. Being alone in my room and writing these songs on acoustic guitar was very intimate,” she says. “I write in the way a person would write in their journal and I found it was a great way to express all my thoughts and ideas and purge and heal myself. The intimacy of that singer-songwriter style and just being alone with my instrument and playing really hooked me.”

“Wide Awake,” her EP’s opener, is about that pivotal moment when she decided to go solo. “It’s morning, and I’m washing clean,” she sings. “The sun it holds a mirror up to me/And I’m hurt by the things I see/It’s obvious the night before/It had its way with me/I don’t think I’ve ever been, all I can be.”

“The song is about the moment where I woke up in my life and saw myself for who I really was and I wasn’t digging it,” she explains. “I felt like there was a lot I wanted to change about myself. I wanted to grow and become the person, musician, daughter and friend that I always wanted to be in the world.”

Fernando Perdomo, who founded Forward Motion Records and co-produced For All Who Wander, met Emmerson when playing guitar on her demo 10 years ago and encountered her again last year. “The minute I heard ‘Wide Awake,’ an acoustic demo on her MySpace [page],” Perdomo says, “I was compelled and knew what type of atmosphere I wanted to create production-wise — dark, twangy guitars and very fat-sounding drums played with brushes. On most of the record, we covered the entire drum set in a sheet to give it that dark, almost the Band- or Wilco-like, woody feel to it. I feel like everything about it is warm, and the vibe I get is that she’s a welcoming host to a very dark party, like, ‘Come into my world and I’m going to freak you out, but it’s going to be very comfortable.’ ”

What’s freaky, apparently, is her knack for revealing truths. “She’s an honest, very poignant writer,” Perdomo says. “Her lyrical style is not an easy pill to swallow. It’s a little disturbing and I love it. You feel like a voyeur when you listen to the lyrics, because this is the kind of stuff you find out in diaries.”
— Colleen Dougher

The Postmarks

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by Colleen Dougher

So many people are looking for silver linings in dark clouds these days, trying to feel lucky during bad times. If your transmission blew, you’re lucky to have a car. If you lost a job, you’re lucky to have parents who’ll take you in. If you can’t afford gas, you’re lucky you still have two good legs. This week, we dug up five songs South Florida musicians wrote about luck, both good and bad. You’re damn lucky we did.

“Fighting Off a Bullet With a Rubber Band” by George Zhen is about being more lucky at one thing than at others. “From the day I was born, I’ve been holding onto a rope that’s torn,” Zhen sings. “Building all my castles in the quicksand and fighting off a bullet with a rubber band.” Later in the song, he sings, “From the time I turned 25/I’ve been the luckiest asshole alive.” Zhen says he rarely writes about himself but that the melody, hook and title came to him while jamming and considering his futile attempts to get ahead. “I start reflecting on my life, the mistakes, the not going to college, the things I said to people that I can never take back, my blindness,” he says. “But in this reflection, I know I never want to change anything. Why? I’ve been married to the most wonderful woman in the world for nearly 20 years. I was lucky as hell, and I mean luck in the purest sense, to have been in the right place at the right time to meet her. So with anything else in the world that has seemingly hit me like a bullet, this is one case where I end up as the luckiest person in the world.” To hear “Fighting Off a Bullet With a Rubber Band,” visit Reverbnation.com/georgezhen.

Ana Cristina is a Miami-born pop singer and actress who also happens to be Miss South Florida USA 2011. In “Lucky Accident,” Cristina explores the luck of finding love when not even looking for it. “We didn’t want to fall in love, that’s not what we meant,” she sings. “And what did we do that was so hell-bent/To deserve this lucky accident?/You tripped and fell and landed in my life/You cut right through my heart like a knife/It’s heaven sent, this lucky accident.” To hear the song, from Cristina’s 2008 album Time, visit Reverbnation.com/anacristinafans.

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Miami-based blues artist Albert Castiglia examines a 365-day run of bad luck in “Bad Year Blues.” As the singer-guitarist puts it in his song, “My New Year’s resolution didn’t last too long/Tried to quit smoking, too many things went wrong/It’s been a real bad year, only 12 more months to go/My wife’s been out of work going on eight weeks/Fridge ain’t got no food and my roof keeps getting leaks.” Castiglia wrote the song a few years ago after his wife lost her job and he had to carry the load on a musician’s income. “The song was a product of the frustration and fear from having to figure a way to keep the bills paid,” he notes. By the time he released the song, he says many people were in the same boat as he was. To hear the song, from his album These Are the Days, visit Reverbnation.com/albertcastiglia. Castiglia will perform tonight (Wednesday) at B.B. King Blues Club in West Palm Beach and Saturday at Bahia Cabana in Fort Lauderdale.

Electro-pop musician Jacob Miller explores unfair immigration laws in “Luck of the Draw.” “No way to make it on minimum wage,” Miller sings. “Strong hearts are breaking/Smiles hiding rage/The forests are gone/No soil to hold seed/Mama’s baby’s crying, but mama can’t feed/People are trying/No help in the law/Death can’t be lying, it’s the luck of the draw.” The song was inspired by a story about a group of Haitians who ran across Rickenbacker Causeway after their boat arrived in Miami. “The immigration laws are unfair towards Haitians, and they are plagued by so many griefs in their own country,” Miller argues. “It may be oversimplifying the issue to think of it in terms of luck. But when something like that happens to innocent people, you wonder why some are born into suffering and others are not.” To hear “Luck of the Draw,” visit Reverbnation.com/jacobmiller.

“You’re my lucky charm/You always keep me safe from harm/Dangerous explosives all disarm/Whenever you’re on my arm,” Tim Yehezkely of indie-pop act the Postmarks sings in “My Lucky Charm.” Yehezkely says the song was inspired by a feeling rather than a person. “I was trying to capture that sense of a new love, the high that you get, and how nothing can touch you,” she says of the song from the Postmarks’ Memoirs at the End of the World. To hear “My Lucky Charm,” visit Myspace.com/thepostmarks.

Contact Colleen Dougher at cdougher@citylinkmagazine.com.

Union Cell

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by Colleen Dougher

Florida Christmas cards depict scenes such as Santa surfing or kicking back on the beach with a beer, while Sunshine State snow globes contain a hat, a carrot and other remnants of melted snowmen. So during this holiday season, while our friends in the North scrape ice from windshields and dig cars out of driveways, we offer five songs from local bands about sunshine.

“Great Sun,” a tune from Boca Raton rock band 5th Gear, concerns the power of the ancient Egyptian sun god Ra. Singer-guitarist Jason Snider says he’s a huge fan of the Doors and ’90s stoner-rock bands such as Kyuss. “That’s what kind of sound I wanted,” he says. “So I was thinking of trippy spiritual themes like sun worship. Then, I envisioned driving through the desert through the doors of perception and into the great sun, to the house of the rising sun god, Ra, and praying for the things I wanted.” The resulting lyrics sound like exactly that: “Great sun, give me fortune/Great sun, give me power, control/Great sun, show me the passion/Great sun, give me someone to love!” To hear “Great Sun,” visit Reverbnation.com/5thgear#!. The band will perform midnight Friday, Dec. 31 in the Nectar Lounge at Coconut Creek Casino.

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“Sunshine” by indie-folk duo the Dewars begins: “The dot, dot, dot/The dot, dot, dot/The dot, dot, dot is all we’ve got” and reminds us that “The sunshine is yours and mine, but the stars, they are not ours.” The song goes on to elicit a stop-and-smell-the-flowers, anti-materialism message: “Let the sun shine down on you and me, let our minds drift afar/We’ll lay on the ground, and when the sun goes down/We can stare up at all the stars, but we don’t got the time/He works 9 to 5, she works 5 to 9, just to make enough to get enough stuff, that they don’t have time for.” Anthony Dewar says the song was inspired by people who have a “frustrated and never-satisfied ideal of happiness” and are too busy to look up at the stars or the sun. “ ‘Sunshine’ is about gratefulness, happiness and the realization that the infinite wonder of the universe is vast and perplexing but unreachable — the dot, dot, dot — while the sunshine, our world and surroundings are our life source and can be absorbed and loved firsthand.” To hear “Sunshine,” visit Myspace.com/thedewarbrothers. The Dewars will perform Friday, Dec. 31 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach.

“I’m sitting here waiting for the sun, bring me a sunny day,” Miami’s Chris Alvy sings in “Waiting for the Sun.” The singer-songwriter explains, “The lyrics are a bit abstract, but in the opening lines he’s talking about a relationship gone wrong. … He basically has given up and is again just waiting for the sun — something good — to happen to him. It’s a bit depressing at times, but it’s a feeling we all go through, when things just don’t go the way you want.” To hear “Waiting for the Sun,” visit Reverbnation.com/chrisalvy. Alvy will release an EP on Forward Motion Records in early 2011.

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Miami reggae-soul singer Diana King sings about chilling in the sun in “Summer Breezin’,” a song that’s relevant year-round in South Florida: “So I call Michelle up on the cell/Bring your Nike bikini and nothing else/We’re goin’ to the beach, take the top off the Jeep/And bring Chantel, as well/And the boys upstairs wanna come/But they remind me of Dumber and Dumb … Mmm, I’m just chilling in the sun with my chocolate bun/Ooh, I got a lover, but I might find another/If I drink enough of tequila.” King’s 20-track album Warrior Girl is slated for a March release.

Anyone who has lost a father may relate to “Stay Sunny Day,” which Gabriel Garcia-Menocal, the singer-guitarist for electronica act Union Cell, wrote toward the end of his late father’s chemotherapy in 2007. “I didn’t know what to tell him, so I guess the song is a purge for me, a catharsis,” he says. “But there’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek in it, too.” The song explores Garcia-Menocal’s loss and lack of faith. “I was raised Catholic, so I think all of that is absolute bullshit,” he says. “But it’s a very contrasting thing when you see somebody dying and they automatically embrace their faith. I’m watching him embrace his faith and I’m so not there.” Before “Stay Sunny Day,” Garcia-Menocal had someone else sing his songs because he hated his own voice. “When Rimsky [Pons, of local rock act Humbert] was producing it, he said, ‘I don’t give a shit if you hate your voice. You’re supposed to sing this and nobody is going to sing it more honest than you.’” Pons was right, and “Stay Sunny Day,” from Union Cell’s December 2009 EP of the same name, is a moving song. “There’s no such thing as an eternally sunny day,” Garcia-Menocal says. “You hope it stays sunny forever, but it usually doesn’t. It’s more like a plea than anything.” To hear “Stay Sunny Day,” visit Myspace.com/unioncell.

Contact Colleen Dougher at cdougher@citylinkmagazine.com.

Ava-Mae Curah of Pink Bubblegum

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by Colleen Dougher

For those people working the ol’ 9-to-5, Friday always seems to take forever to arrive. So while you’re waiting for it to come around, check out these songs by South Florida musicians. They’re all about the weekend.

In “Friday Night Fearless,” Miami Beach rapper Soarse Spoken acknowledges Friday as the day to kick back and instructs his foes to raise their glasses high. “Friday night fearless/Feel this and/My people gonna survive so let ‘em hear this/Let the madness die/’Cause when the planets collide/True wisdom will have no man stand at its side/And that is why… there’s sacrifice/And as long as there’s food clothing and shelter, then I’m satisfied/There’s a DJ tonight and he’s spinning the right music/ …I say, ‘Hey, I got something to say’/It might be positive and the crowd might use it/Let the vinyl play.” Soarse Spoken says the song, which includes a shout-out to many Miami musicians and DJs, concerns how he addresses social issues in his music but lets loose come Friday night. “Some might say more than others,” he admits. “Being from Miami and a musician makes it somewhat of a requirement for one to be a nightlife person.” To hear “Friday Night Fearless,” visit Myspace.com/soarsespoken.

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If Fall Out Boy’s lead singer were a Jamaican-born girl with a Cuban mother and an Indian reggae-musician father, she might sound like Pink Bubblegum, a project fronted by Ava-Mae Curah, whose father sang and played keyboards for 1980s reggae band Natural Hii. Pink Bubblegum’s weekend begins with “Pink Friday,” an enthusiastic number about a girl who falls happily in love at a Friday-night party. “I was inspired to write ‘Pink Friday’ simply because I stick with what’s true to my style, and that’s writing fun, feel-good pop music,” Curah explains. “As our name suggests, Pink Bubblegum is all about being true to its core, and that is simple and sweet. I’ve coined phrases such as pinktastik, which describes an outrageously good mood, and since Friday is the ending of most people’s workweek and the beginning of fun, a happy ‘Pink Friday’ seems quite suitable.” If you like sweet and poppy music, check out Curah’s song, because she’s not just any kind of bubble gum — she’s like Sweet and Sassy Cherry Hubba Bubba. To hear “Pink Friday,” visit Reverbnation.com/pinkbubblegum.

Pop-rock outfit A Day Like Friday captures the essence of weekends in the band’s namesake song. It begins, “Today’s the day, we’re going out tonight/When I’m with you girl, this feels so right/We’ll paint the city and own this town/ … Imagination tonight is the key/Let’s dress up, forget who we are, run around, act like the stars/On a day like Friday, it’s like a Saturday morning, when you sleep the next day away.” To hear “A Day Like Friday,” visit Reverbnation.com/adaylikefriday.

If you completely screw up your Friday evening, there’s always “Saturday Night.” That’s the title of the Thieves of Crayons song that begins: “Well, it’s Saturday, man, did last night suck/I woke up late and I don’t give a fuck, well/I didn’t mean to hurt you and girl you know I love you/I’m just like that when I get boozed/I’m gonna call some friends and make up for what I’ve done/Yeah, tonight I’m gonna have some fun.” Singer-bassist Vitor Viana says he wrote this song “in hopes of it being a song people could dance and relax to at a beach party.” To hear “Saturday Night,” visit Facebook.com/thethievesofcrayons, The band, which also includes singer-guitarist Alu Luie Soto and drummer Sals Hunter, will play with Death on Two Kegs, Pina De Muerto and Toad Eyes, 8:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17 at Churchill’s Pub in Miami.

Million Young’s ambient-electro-surf tune “Weak Ends” is a play on words, and the sound may take you straight into a weekend-appropriate trance. As the lyrics go, “And when you dream of your weekends/The scent of the soft air, playing with your dark hair/Your eyes fixed on night skies/We loved, or at least we tried/Just promise to not change/When morning comes, remain.” The weekends, however, never remain. By Monday, they’re gone, leaving us with only harsh reality and the dream of another weekend. To hear “Weak Ends,” visit Myspace.com/millionyoungmusic.

Contact Colleen Dougher at cdougher@citylinkmagazine.com.

Just a few thousand of our closest friends came out to consume a hell of a lot of beer.

Mission accomplished.

Huizenga Plaza, Ft. Lauderdale – Dec. 3

Videographer: Conor Garrity
Edit: Matthew Williams

Check out photos and become our fan on Facebook here ]]> http://www.citylinkmix.com /beerfest/city-link-beerfest-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.citylinkmix.com /music/thank-you-djs/ http://www.citylinkmix.com /music/thank-you-djs/#comments Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:40:09 +0000 admin http://citylinkmix.com/?p=3722

John Digweed will play the Vagabond.

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by Joanie Cox

It’s Thanksgiving, and every relative you haven’t seen all year has drifted into town demanding you play tour guide. Escape with some house parties in Miami that will leave you thankful that you can ditch your crazy cousins at midnight and dance off those candied yams until dawn.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 24

Mansion
1235 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 305-531-5535, Mansionmiami.com
Although Steve Aoki’s birthday is Nov. 30, he’ll celebrate it almost a week earlier. The electro-house DJ whose father created the Benihana restaurant chain will host this soirée, at which DJ Ron Luna will spin a mashup of house, hip-hop and ’80s tunes with DJ Konflikt. 11 p.m.-5 a.m. Tickets cost $25 at Wantickets.com.

Space Miami
34 N.E. 11th St., Miami, 305-375-0001, Clubspace.com
Billed as the first annual Spacegiving Music Fest, this party will feature more than 16 DJs in three rooms. In the techno room, Chris Liebing, Alexi Delano, Mathias Kaden, Maurizio and Danyelino will spin with Dsan Powell and Mario Liberti. The party will continue in the house room with Louis Puig, Lazardi, Armand Pena, Cocodrills, Justin Sheppard and others. DJs Radamas, Efx and Elijah King will appear in the open-format room. 10 p.m.-5 a.m. Admission costs $20 before midnight and $30 after. Visit Wantickets.com.

The Vagabond
30 N.E. 14th St., Miami, 305-379-0508, Thevagabondmiami.com
Unleash your totally rad side at the eighth annual ’80s Prom. Break out the Z. Cavariccis, fingerless gloves and hair crimpers. Jipsy will immortalize memories of the night with her photo-booth snapshots, while DJ Smeejay will play makeout music in the garden. DJs Tommy Gunn and Carlos Llanos will kick up the party Wang Chung-style by spinning new-wave tunes. DJ Hottpants will pump out the freestyle beats that put Miami on the booty-bass map back in the day. 9 p.m.-5 a.m. Tickets cost $10 at Wantickets.com.

THURSDAY

The Vagabond
30 N.E. 14th St., Miami, 305-379-0508, Thevagabondmiami.com
Legendary house and techno DJ John Digweed needs no introduction on the electronic-music scene. He’ll face off against DJ Craze for a mashup set that will benefit the Community Partnership for Homeless. 10 p.m.- 5 a.m. Tickets cost $10 at Wantickets.com.

FRIDAY

Cameo Miami Beach
1445 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 786-235-5800, Cameomiami.com
British breakbeat DJ James Zabiela will scratch and loop the complicated beats for which he’s known alongside DJ Christian Falero, whose lightning-fast turntable skills have earned him residencies at Cameo and Mansion. 11 p.m.-5 a.m. Tickets cost $20 at Wantickets.com.

The Doubletree Surfcomber Hotel
1717 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, 305-532-7715, Surfcomber.com
During the Work! Pool Party, guests can splash around to dance mixes by Phil Romano, Ana Paula and Stephan Grondin. Proceeds will benefit the South Beach AIDS Project. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Tickets cost $30 at Wantickets.com.

Liv Nightclub
4441 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, 305-674-4680, Livnightclub.com
Swedish House Mafia member Axwell gives new meaning to spending the holidays with “the family.” Remixing songs for Madonna, Usher, Cyndi Lauper and Nelly Furtado, Axwell recently told DJmag.com his favorite part of DJ’ing is, “making people happy.” That rocks. Progressive-house DJ Mednas will open. 11 p.m.-5 a.m. Tickets cost $75 at Wantickets.com.

Mansion
1235 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 305-531-5535, Mansionmiami.com
Diddy will rock this event with the Miami Heat’s official mixmaster, DJ Irie, for a post-Thanksgiving party that’s going to inspire you to “pass the Ciroc.” 11 p.m.-5 a.m. Tickets cost $25 at Wantickets.com.

Revolution Live
200 W. Broward Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954-727-0950, Jointherevolution.net
The Dancegiving Music Festival boasts a sick lineup, with house-music headliners such as Steve Aoki, Robbie Rivera, Wolfgang Gartner, LA Riots, Cedric Gervais and Mario Ochoa. Doors will open at midnight. Tickets cost $48.30 at Wantickets.com. For more information, visit Dancegivingfestival.com.

SATURDAY

Cameo Theatre
1445 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 786-235-5800, Cameomiami.com
Brooklyn-born rapper Fabolous turned 33 on Nov. 18 and is busy preparing his latest album, Loso’s Way 2: Rise to Power, for release while also revamping his clothing line, Rich Yung Society Clothing. The rapper will perform tonight with DJs LS One, Affect and Mummy. Be on the lookout for any suspicious smoke coming from Fabolous’ tour bus; last year, Arkansas police found 500 pounds of weed onboard. 11 p.m.-5 a.m. Tickets cost $20 at Wantickets.com.

Liv Nightclub
4441 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, 305-674-4680, Livnightclub.com
Soul-funk house DJ Erick Morillo has spent the past few weeks traveling to exotic locales such as Abu Dhabi, Angola and Switzerland to play gigs for househeads and royalty. Tonight, the Colombian-born DJ, who produced the 1993 dance hit “I Like To Move It,” will perform a marathon set. 11 p.m.-5 a.m. Tickets cost $150 at Wantickets.com.

Louis
2325 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, 305-531-4600, Louismiami.com
Gossip-monger Nik Richie of Thedirty.com will host this party that we’re pretty sure sportscaster Erin Andrews won’t be attending. (Richie reposted nude shots of Andrews at the top of his Web site after her lawyer demanded the photos be taken down.) While he’s been pegged by his dirty disciples as the “God of the Internet,” Richie dismisses such adulation. “I am not a god,” he writes on his site. “I am a person with a dream who will be getting drunk after Thanksgiving.” Finally, he says something we can respect. Surprise DJs will spin. 11 p.m.-5 a.m. Tickets cost $25 at Wantickets.com.

Mansion
1235 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, 305-531-5535, Mansionmiami.com
Richie Hawtin, who composed music for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Italy, will revive his alter ego, Plastikman, on a forthcoming boxed set. Detroit DJ Gaiser also will perform. 10 p.m.-5 a.m. Tickets cost $30 at Wantickets.com.

Space Miami
34 N.E. 11th St., Miami, 305-375-0001, Clubspace.com
Steve Angello is the badass who famously denied Paris Hilton her hip-hop music request during a 2009 Winter Music Conference party. A member of Hilton’s entourage slapped the Swedish House Mafia DJ, and Angello later Tweeted, “For someone who claims to make records … don’t come into a booth and ask me to play hip-hop and then have your doorman slap me. Or at least if you wanna do that … don’t moan about it when we all kicked off. Don’t be so fucking rude.” Paris is still burning. Luis Puig will open. 10 p.m.-5 a.m.. Tickets cost $45 at Wantickets.com.

SUNDAY

Set
320 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, 305-531-2800, Setmiami.com
House producer David Penn is known for mixing old-school melodies with modern beats. Born in Madrid, Penn has mixed songs for disco darlings such as the Scissor Sisters and Chic. He’ll perform alongside resident DJ Louis Dee. 11 p.m.-5 a.m. Tickets cost $25 at Wantickets.com.

Contact Joanie Cox at jcox@citylinkmagazine.com.