Like many first-generation Americans of Cuban descent, married couple Christina “Cuci” Amador and Tony Smurphio — also known as the musical duo Afrobeta — were taught that Cuba was not on their travel agenda. After being exiled from their homeland in the ’50s, their parents, like many others, never returned. It was a sort of fuck-you to Fidel Castro and his crew.
Junglepussy, Noah Cyrus, Drake with Migos, and more of the best concerts in Miami September 17 through September 23.
Best Life Festival got off to a rough start but made it almost worth it with an amazing performance from headliners H.E.R and Ella Mai
Desiree Bannister always knew she was destined to sing. “Music has always been a given for me,” she says. “My mom has always said I sang before I talked. She used to sing to me, and I would mumble back to her. It’s always been a part of me, like breathing.”
On a Thursday night in 1997, the underground stronghold for gritty electronic music, Beat Camp, launched at the South Beach club Zanzibar. It was the year glamorous fashion designer Gianni Versace was fatally shot on his Ocean Drive doorstep just blocks away. Rainbow flags dominated storefronts, venues were 18-and-over, and drag queens, wannabe models, and Kendall kids spilled into the street from the mouths of megaclubs.
Grand Central, Tobacco Road, Bardot, the Stage, Vagabond, Bar Black — the list of Miami music spaces lost too soon is long. Now, on an unassuming corner in Allapattah just west of I-95, a low, flat rectangle of a building holds Las Rosas, one of the city’s newest platforms for live music. Its success has largely been the result of a group of passionate old-timers hustling to keep their dreams for the city alive.
Pot is awesome. Recreational weed is a giggly good time. However, for millions of people, marijuana can be a life-transforming wonder drug. The founder of the annual Medical Marijuana Concert, who’s known simply as Flash, has known this fact for a long time. “We’ve gone from being a fringe issue to being much more mainstream”…
Anthony Bourdain was no stranger to the Magic City’s grittier corners. Aside from being a writer, eater, storyteller, traveler, TV host, and chef, he was also a rock ‘n’ roll lover through and through. Bourdain enjoyed a cheap, cold beer from South Beach’s Mac’s Club Deuce, one of his favorite dive bars, just like the rest of us…
Two middle-aged guys in loud Hawaiian shirts and captain’s hats puff away on pipes in front of a painted backdrop of an ocean. The scene sounds like it could be plucked from a slapstick comedy, right? Throw in a DJ booth on a casino club floor and mixes of ’70s and ’80s soft rock featuring occasional screeching seagulls, and it becomes almost hard to believe.
Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi is bringing the fantasy world of Westeros to South Florida with the help of a full orchestra and choir, plus some kick-ass special effects and stage designs.
Juana Molina is as strange and special as her music. The Argentine singer-songwriter speaks in metaphors and concepts, while her experimental folk/pop music reverberates eerie layers of repetitive synths, sounds, and vocals. Molina’s journey toward creating music is its own story. The influence of her parents — tango singer Horacio Molina and…
Electro-pop singer Børns, born Garrett Borns, is hard to pin down as an artist. Several years ago, the 26-year-old Michigan native went from the tundra of the Midwest to the (mostly) sunny skies of Los Angeles, where he lived in a treehouse and stole Taylor Swift’s mom’s heart along the way via singles such as “Electric Love” and “10,000 Emerald Pools.”
The most important factor in deciding whether to spend your life savings on a festival is often the headliner. At Best Life, Miami’s first R&B festival, H.E.R. and Ella Mai, two of the genre’s leading ladies, are definitely worth a pretty penny. But there will also be lots of newcomers and local artists. Here’s who you shouldn’t sleep on during Best Life Music Festival.
In a few short years, Wynwood Fear Factory has become Miami’s premier Halloween-weekend event thanks in large part to its heavyweight EDM talent. This year won’t be any different. Galantis, RL Grime, and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike are set to headline the two-day event. Also schedule to perform are Deorro, Duke Dumont, Getter, Keys N Krates, and others.
It’s been three months since the rap game lost Jahseh “XXXTentacion” Onfroy to senseless gun violence. His mother Cleo, sister Arianna, famous friends, and an abundance of fans spent the summer mourning the Lauderhill native at various locations, including the place of his murder in Deerfield Beach…
Sammy Hagar can tell you a thing or two about money. And he should know — he has lots of it. His penchant for excess is legendary. He throws himself epic birthday bashes that last for days, sometimes weeks. He owns homes in California, Hawaii, and Mexico, replete with a garage full of bad-ass cars…
Best Life Music Festival, Scorpions, Sting, and more of the best concerts in Miami September 10 through September 16.
Even with an artistic alias as outlandish as the Space Lady, Susan Dietrich Schneider might have one of the most relatable stories in the American music canon.
Brazilain DJ Alok Returns to LIV for a second performance.
Meat Beat Manifesto founder and avant-garde electronic musician Jack Dangers spoke with New Times before his seminal project’s return to the Miami stage.
For an outsider, Steven A. Clark has a clear perspective of Miami. Born in Arkansas, he caught the music bug during his formative years growing up in North Carolina. But even as a burgeoning artist, he was looking for a way out of the slow life of the South. “North Carolina didn’t have enough going on for me at the time,” Clark says.
Miami rap shows have always had a reputation for being shitty. They’re never complete without underage kids moshing in circles, someone’s girlfriend who doesn’t know the artist but tagged along for the hell of it, and every kind of drug you can imagine being passed around in the pit. A $uicideboy$ show is no different…
