By JORDAN LEVIN

Rodrigo y Gabriela's drive took them from Mexico City to the streets of Ireland to touring the world. (Mark Metcalfe / Getty Images)

Musical duo Rodrigo y Gabriela’s story is so unlikely you probably wouldn’t make it up for fear of being laughed at. They started as teens in an underground heavy metal band in their native Mexico City, took off for Ireland in their early 20s, and made a living playing guitar on the streets of Europe. Even now that they’ve become world music stars — they’ll hit the Fillmore Miami Beach on Saturday — their uncategorizable mix of metal, flamenco, blues, jazz and other genres, played without vocals, is outside any kind of traditional formula for music or success.

And that’s how they like it, says Rodrigo Sanchez. “We’ve opened the doors to music around the world,” the 36-year-old Mexican guitar virtuoso says from his home in Ixtapa, on Mexico’s Pacific coast. “I think we have helped a little to expand the way you see a rock band and success — if you can call what we have success.”

With 600,000 sales of their 2006 self-titled breakthrough and enthused concert crowds from Japan to South Africa to the United States, Rodrigo and Gabriela are successful by almost any standard. But even when they were playing the sidewalks of Europe, Sanchez says they felt triumphant.

“We always had enough money for our needs, for coffee and Guinness and our friends,” Sanchez says.
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Jupiter quartet B-Liminal (b-liminal.com) features members of two of the top local bands of the 1990s in vocalist/guitarist/percussionist Bryce Rutkowski (Boxelder) and bassist Max Fraser (Doorway 27). On the CD Shore Culture (Secret 7), the reggae input is even more pronounced than it was with Boxelder, thanks to Rutkowski’s influence and the contributions of guitarist Michael Lyons and drummer Mike Berchtold.

Fraser’s tone and bass lines on the songs Conqueror and Strength prove more integral than they were within the pop/rock of Doorway 27. He introduces the strutting The Picture and energized Choices, both highlights because of the harmonic glue that he, Lyons and Berchtold give Rutkowski to surf over.

See B-Liminal (with Orlando band Junkie Rush, and an acoustic set by former Doorway 27 members Bryan Wohlust and Chris Cartrett) at 8:30 p.m. on March 27 at O’Shea’s Pub, 531 Clematis St., West Palm Beach (561-833-3865).

Miami pop/rock band Nothing Rhymes With Orange (nrwo.net) armwrestles between artistry and commerciality on its new CD The Happiness Struggle (Leftfield). Much of that struggle lies with songwriting brothers Carl Almasy Coccaro (vocals) and Rich Coccaro (guitar), but it’s the singer who provides the most dramatics.

On front-loaded prospective singles such as the title track and Offers, Almasy rhymes words with themselves and interjects chants, tricks used more than 40 years ago by singers from Jim Morrison to Robert Plant. Unhappy dirges abound, but the immaculately-produced rocker Escaping Hell features banner work by the brothers, bassist Derek Cruz and drummer Derek Sexton.

See Nothing Rhymes With Orange acoustic at 9 p.m. Saturday at The Living Room, 1709 N. Congress Ave., Boynton Beach (561-742-4399), and electric at 10 p.m. April 2 at Dada, 52 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach (561-330-3232).

‘ROUND TOWN

Slammie Productions (slammie. com) founder Jim Hayward, a Palm Beach Post Web producer, will marry guitarist Susan Bartel (The Cichlids, Mad as Birds) this weekend, and their open-to-the-public reception will be a concert featuring reunited 1990s alt-rockers The Holy Terrors, punk era guitarist/vocalist Charlie Pickett, glam-rockers The Freakin’ Hott, and the premiere of Trailer Shark (an area metal supergroup featuring members of Raped Ape, Stillkept, Indorphine, Cyst, Pro-Pain, and Gonemad). It’s at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday at Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., West Palm Beach ($7, 18-and-older, 561-832-9999). …

An upcoming benefit for Palm Beach County Commission District 2 candidate Paulette Burdick also includes musical reunions. See Gin Weintraub and Andy Stein, formerly of Inhouse; Greg Burdick, Bob Kendall, Gail Darling and Glenn Moody, formerly of the Banyan Street Jug Band; plus the Pickett Sisters; all at 5:30 p.m. March 26 at the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden, 253 Barcelona Road , along Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach ($25, 561-655-9700).

A songwriter and music producer who claims he helped launch pop star Lady Gaga says she squeezed him out of her lucrative career after he co-wrote some of her songs, came up with her stage name and helped get her record deal.

Rob Fusari filed a $35 million lawsuit against the Grammy Award-winning pop star, saying his protege and former girlfriend ditched him as her career soared.

“All business is personal,” said the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a Manhattan state court.

Lady Gaga’s spokesman, Dave Tomberlin, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail sent Thursday by The Associated Press.
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R&B singer/guitarist Teena Marie has been putting together quality music for 30 years.

More: Melanie Fiona mixes many different cultures into her sound | More info, directions

The Ivory Queen of Soul, Teena Marie, will grace the stage this Saturday at Miami’s Fifth annual Jazz in the Gardens concert at Sun Life Stadium.

Recently I caught up with the legendary R&B soulstress who gave us such hits as “It Must Be Magic”, “Square Biz”, “Portuguese Love”, “I Need Your Lovin’” and “Fire and Desire”, the classic duet with funk icon Rick James. Here’s what she had to say about her longevity in the music business, the “color question,” James, her mentor and one-time romantic partner, and the state of music today.

Last year you celebrated your 30th year in the music business with the release of your 13th CD, Congo Square. You took a hiatus to raise your daughter but your comeback has been successful. What is the secret to your longevity?

TM: I’m still really passionate about the music. It’s kind of like breathing for me. It’s still very exciting to me. I still love to perform. I still feel like I have a lot to say. I just live it and I try to be truthful and honest about who I am. Everything I feel is the same thing you feel, the same thing everyone feels. I just have an amazing gift that I’m able to put it into song. God blessed with a beautiful instrument and I cherish that every day of my life. Read the full story

Mike Mineo's album 'Eccentricity' comes out April 9. (Photo by Alex Markow)

With his funky music and personality, Mike Mineo keeps his fans devoted to his solo weekly performances at the Kahuna Bar and Grill in Deerfield Beach and The Lodge in Boca Raton.

Mineo calls his music “avant-garde pop”, as he experiments with various instruments. He first learned to play trumpet, then taught himself bass guitar, guitar, and accordion, just to name a few.

His all-time favorite instrument? “My voice,” he jokes, “because I don’t have to carry it around.”
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Alex Chilton, Charlie Gillett, Johnnie High

Three very different musicians but all very influential die on the same day.

Influential Big Star member Alex Chilton dies

Singer and guitarist Alex Chilton, who topped the charts as a teen and later became a cult hero with Big Star, died Wednesday. He was 59.

Chilton died at a hospital in New Orleans after experiencing what appeared to be heart problems, said his longtime friend John Fry. Fry said Chilton’s wife, Laura, was very distressed by the unexpected death.

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ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Johnnie High, a north Texas country music showman who gave such performers as LeAnn Rimes and Boxcar Willie their early exposure, has died at the age of 80.

High’s daughter, Luanne Dorman, says her father died Wednesday after battling heart disease.

The impresario of “Johnnie High’s Country Music Revue” began his Saturday show in 1974 after converting an old movie theater in Grapevine, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, into the Grapevine Opry. There, he gave Boxcar Willie and Rimes, then a child, some of their first stage experience.

Since 1995, High’s revue has been a weekly fixture at a former Arlington movie theater that later served as a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall. It now airs nationally in syndicated television.

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Singer and guitarist Alex Chilton, who topped the charts as a teen and later became a cult hero with Big Star, died Wednesday. He was 59.

Chilton died at a hospital in New Orleans after experiencing what appeared to be heart problems, said his longtime friend John Fry. Fry said Chilton’s wife, Laura, was very distressed by the unexpected death.

“Alex was an amazingly talented person, not just as a musician and vocalist and a songwriter, but he was intelligent and well read and interested in a wide number of music genres,” said Fry, the owner of Memphis-based Ardent Studios. Read the full story

LONDON (AP) — Charlie Gillett, a DJ and music historian who helped bring music from around the world to wider attention, has died at the age of 68, his employer, the British Broadcasting Corp. said Thursday.

The BBC said Gillett died in a London hospital on Wednesday. He had an autoimmune disease and last week suffered a heart attack. Soft-spoken Gillett was a fixture of the BBC’s domestic radio stations and its international World Service, where his show “Charlie Gillett’s World of Music” offered a wildly eclectic mix of music from around the globe. In contrast to the narrow formats of most Western radio stations, Gillett played everything from Cajun boogie to Nigerian soul to Portuguese fado, gaining a devoted international following. World Service director Peter Horrocks said Gillett was “an inspiration whose spirit of adventure and passion for the rich diversity of global music opened the ears of the world.” Read the full story

This is gonna be a short one, because  the outcome is simple – Little Lacey Brown, let go because America apparently wasn’t thrilled with her version of “Ruby Tuesday.” For she did not change with every new day, and they’re not going to miss you.

I love when the theme provides you with a nifty way to sing people off the show.

I’m not all that sorry Lacey’s gone, although I thought that Andrew was gonna feel the fierce bump of the boot first. If he doesn’t get better, he’ll be following soon enough. I will note that I loved Simon’s trying to get serious with Seacrest about the weird uncomfortable moment between them Tuesday night when Seacrest got in Simon’s face about his criticism of Big Mike. Simon was totally right – it was uncalled for, crossed the line between host and judge, made the poor kid uncomfortable, and just ate up all the air time.

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