Folk Music Pulls on my Heart Strings.

Folk is a term used loosely to describe music for and by the common people.

I was driving around one afternoon, listening to WLRN NPR my favorite local radio station. Sundays at 2 p.m. the station hosts a really great folk music show, I recommend it.

Well, on this particular Sunday, host Michael Stock was speaking with two UM students: Raffa and Rainer. I was pulling into Walgreen's to get some pictures developed, and they started to play "Boy at the Bar", I had to take a minute and enjoy the music; it was something else -- I had goosebumps, no lie.

Sadly, the shows archives haven't been updated in a while, but they do have a nice selection of Youtube videos:

The Miami locals are making the hike up to Palm Beach County, March 2, at 9 p.m. to play Dada in Delray.

If you've never given folk music a chance, you have to, at least once. It's the kind of music that can get into your core if you let it, the kind of music that can really move someone.

Raffa and Rainer reminded me of that on that Sunday afternoon.

Resolve to see Them on Their Home Turf

"I wanna see you dance, man!" He said after busting out some crazy robot move to The Resolvers sweet and truly reggae sound.
"I'm not there yet man," I pointed out, bobbing my head and mixing my 7-on-7 with a cocktail straw.
There was a awkward moment between he and I.
"I'm so fucking high man, I can't see straight," he reassured me.
All I could do was smile.

It was a perfect scene at Kahuna's, arriving late to The Resolvers weekly Sunday afternoon show. I parked at 7:15 p.m. I should have parked at the meters across the street to avoid the $10 parking robbery next to the bar.

I ordered a 7-on-7, which was proper as the band began to play a dub-style Pink Floyd tune. The place -- that, the Resolvers had played every Sunday for almost two years -- was full of friendly people and beautiful girls.

You could throw a rock into the ocean from the front door of the bar, it's the kind of place I'd expect to catch a really great reggae band; it's a gift they play they weekly.

Come check out my new Sunday hangout, I promise you'll like it.

Two for One!? It's like a sore di- Well, you can't beat it!

I know our Ipod Generation -- born from and raised by strobing television, instant messaging and soft amphetamines like caffeine.

So I'll make this short (enough for the average attention span) and sweet (enough to keep you coming back for me like crack):

• Friday, March 28 @ 8 p.m.
• Respectable Street - The Premier Indie Venue.
• Two bands
• The Handsome Furs - A Canadian Duo, "as sparse and repetitive as possible with the help of little more than vocals, guitars, and a new drum machine." Captivating.
• Violens - A New York Local Sound that say they sound like "Descriptions of nightmares, the passing of time, speculations on spiritual messages, and accounts of psychedelic hallucinations." Brilliantly true description.

I've been on a little bit of a Local music from afar touring South Florida spell, but these are rare opportunities. Don't miss out.

Local Music From a Far Away Land.

There are few things cooler than local acts touring: Beer. Ah, Fuck.

Ok, there's only one thing cooler than local acts touring-- that's beer.

Coming all the way from New York City, The Honeycomb presents Mink. For two tour dates at:

• March 5, 9 p.m. @ Dr. Feelgoods, West Palm Beach. Free
  
• March 6, 9:30 p.m. @ City Limits, Delray Beach.

I have never seen Mink, but they sound pretty fucking good, in my expert opinion; "Fucking" is a industry-technical term.

They've got that real Rock and Roll sound, that is kind of lost in music today -- local, indie or commercial -- mixed with that psychedelic feel that never really existed in music for my generation.

There "About me" on the Mypsace might serve as a perfect example for that psychedelic feel:

"To play until the end of time," drummer Stella Mozgawa continues. "Until the end of the universe."

I feel a flashback coming on now. Wow, I'm hallucinating a Youtube Video:

In the words of Hunter S. Thompson's Attorney Dr. Gonzo on the Way into Las Vegas:

"What the hell are we doing out here in the middle of the Desert?"

A Dive Bar with The Lights Down Low

I drove out to Coral Springs once to see the Lights Down Low. I can't remember why.

I might have just gotten back form a music festival, probably Bonnaroo: wearing a tye-dye T-shirt, smoking grass and bored. They were playing The Walk that night, I didn't know what "The Walk" was. I was kind of confused when I arrived at a shopping center, but I was really impressed with their real funk and jazz sound.

It wasn't the best show ever. A lot of that had to do with the venue -- which was, as stated above, a strip mall -- but Friday, Feb. 29 at 11 p.m. when they play the Poorhouse in Las Olas has real potential.

The Poorhouse is a true dive bar, which is my favorite kind. The selection of beer is amazing, with specialty beers, like my personal favorite Purple Haze. I mean, hot damn, that's good beer.

Beer and Funk? That's a good combination no matter how you define those words.

The Devil Came Down to Las Olas

I found this little gem of a venue by accident. The Atmosphere Lounge looks to be one of the chillest spots in Las Olas.

To be honest, I haven't formally had an opportunity to check it out, but I will be 9 p.m. Saturday March 8. Why?

Well besides $2.50 beers, which is always a plus, Los Diablos is playing.

Now I've never heard these guys, but from the noise on their Myspace, well, I'll bite. Especially for free. It wasn't just the sound, it's their whole Web presentation.

They note they're influences as:

summer months in county jails...
eviction notices...
liner notes of every 70's record our folks ever had...
late night breakdowns...
6 a.m. jobs...
dirt roads...
southern skies...
busted hearts...

All things that I dig and can relate to.

Jake Cline, City Link editor, explains in their "About me section,"

the music of Los Diablos is bracingly authentic, from the high-lonesome cry of Stankus’ steel guitar to Dubin’s penitential, open-wound songwriting.

I couldn't have said it better Mr. Cline, so I won't try.

Throwing a Toaster into a Bathtub Don't Feel This Good

The stage presence energy the The Pots 'n' Pans bring could run Palm Beach County.

In a May City Link article about the band, Dan Sweeney wrote, "With the exception of a few musicians like Billy Boloby [Pots 'n' Pans front man], entertainment is dead."

Boloby, former music editor of New Times, expressed his feelings on the band in the article: "Oh, it's fucking good, man...It's really good."

Typically, these statements come from ego-centric assholes, but Boloby speaks the truth, for example:

"We're trying to stray away from the punk stuff that we all played when starting out," Evan Eastham, vocalist and bassist, told Closer Magazine's Larry Boytano in this Dec article, "But the drunker we get, the more we revert. So we have these garage-y power-pop songs that end up sounding punk."

The band's recently released four-song debuted EP is available on their Website, if you like what you've seen and heard so far.

But everyone knows a CD is nothing compared to the real thing, especially one of The Pots 'n' Pans caliber, so check them out at Backbone Music Feb. 29 at 7:00 p.m., where they'll be playing a benefit show for Fifth Estate magazine with Molten Guava, Monsters, the Walking Dead and Bill Blanks.