Lots going on musically in the MIA, plus a few international acts I can’t get enough of…

First up: PANIC BOMBER.  Classical-pianist/music-engineering-technology-major-turned-dance floor-composer-extraordinaire .  He recently was voted “Best Electronic Artist” in Miami and played at my Friday night party a few weeks ago with a full horn section and it was BAD ASS, part Daft Punk and part rock star.  The whole room was jumping until the end when they demanded an encore.  Do yourself a favor and download the free EP off his website or just launch the “Panic Player” and listen.  He’s playing again on Friday the 13th and I can’t wait…

More local goodness…  Afrobeta are one of Miami’s most popular musical acts.  The duo of the mightily afro’ed Tony Smurphio and the funky, petite Cuci Amador (think Lady Kier meets Debut-era Bjork) make groovy, dancey beats and have a huge local following.  They are the number one local band who people come into my record store asking for – and they haven’t even put out a debut album!  Ms. Cuci also appeared looking fierce in the video and song for “Electro Movimiento” by Calle 13 (cai-yay tray-say) who are a MAJOR Latin group.  Below are her parts from the video or you can watch the whole thing here.

Another Miami act who people are chomping at the bit for an album by is local troubadour Jesse Jackson.  To answer your first question, yes that’s his real name.  He’s often referred to as “Miami’s Tom Waits” and plays all over town either solo or with a rotating group of musicians.  He is finally pretty darn close to releasing a whole CD and I know for a fact it’ll sell a ton of copies, at least in Miami and hopefully all over, once it’s out.

As for the non-local, Mando Diao are fucking amazing, like The Jam reincarnated through a bunch of sexy Swedish guys.  How are they not more famous?  Perhaps the odd name?  They’re huge in Europe…  Anyway, I just got their most recent release “Never Seen The Light of Day” and like their previous albums, it does not disappoint.  One of the last times I went to SXSW I lucked and got to see them live front row and the energy was incredible.  Here’s their video for “Dance With Somebody” (nearly 10 millions views!) which GZA actually just had the Hood Internet remix so he could flow over it, so dope.

I also can’t stop listening to Monsters Of Folk.  With all those righteous dudes involved, how could it go wrong?  Thankfully, it doesn’t.