In the mid ‘60s, the division between the races was never more distinct. Despite the emergence of Motown and the assimilation of soul into the musical mainstream, most pop ensembles remained sharply segregated, with musicians of one race or gender rarely performing alongside musicians of another. While bands like the…
Jay Simonson’s prediction for Friday’s show: “It’s going to be loud, and I’m going to climb on stuff.” It’s one of the few straightforward answers Simonson, lead singer of the Minneapolis garage-rock band France Camp, was willing to give over the phone, where he was joined by drummer Dylan Rosebringeth…
Most of us came to know Elijah Wood when we saw him destroy a very evil ring, thereby saving Middle-Earth from a lifetime of slavery and losing a finger in the process. Oh, spoiler alert. Sorry. Then he unleashed his inner Cesar Millan to play Ryan in the FX series…
Maybe it’s the heat, or the traffic. The perhaps easily available flakka probably doesn’t help either. But Miami has always been a magnet for insanity. So why should we expect any less from Miami’s music world? 2015 is officially in the past, but before we leave it there completely, it’s…
When asked to define black metal, there is a long pause from Olav Bergene, the lead singer of Norway’s 1349. A second passes and then another and then, in his Norwegian accent, he explains the fundamentals of the loud, fast and heavy musical genre that his life revolves around. “Black…
10. Electric Piquete. Performing live on the Pineapple Stage with DJ Kenyi Succar. Hosted by Joe Cardona. Presented by Miami Boheme. Friday, January 8, 9:30 p.m. Ball & Chain, 1513 SW 8th St., Miami; 305-643-7820; ballandchainmiami.com. Admission is free. Ages 21 and up. If you haven’t experienced Little Havana nightlife yet, shame on you. But,…
During the very early portion of New Year’s Eve, the final 24 hours of 2015 were being celebrated in typical Miami party fashion: waiting in an anaconda of a line before entering a club and taking enough selfies to fill a high school yearbook. Perhaps the clamor at LIV was somewhat…
On January 1, you’ll roll over in bed ready to swear off the booze forever. But when it comes to hangovers, we tend to have the memory of a goldfish, so on January 2, we’re guessing you’ll be ready to kiss and make up with your ol’ pal whiskey. Showskii…
10. NYE 2016 with Pamela Anderson. Music by DJs Breezy, Mikey Rawk, Avistra, and Paul E. Thursday, December 31, 9 p.m. Fifty at the Viceroy Hotel, 485 Brickell Ave., Miami; 305-503-4417; viceroymiami.com. General admission tickets cost $100 plus fees via wantickets.com, and include open bar from 9 p.m. to midnight and a champagne toast; VIP packages are also…
If there are two acts that smile more on stage than Imagine Dragons and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, their dentist deserves a raise. And the free show Wednesday night on the sands of South Beach gave a projected 20,000 plenty of reason to smile back. The event was a pep…
We’re strange creatures, us humans. Each time our planet completes another circle around the sun, we put on sparkly clothes, drink too much champagne, and try to find someone to connect lips with. Is it a ritual that makes sense? Not really. But it’s a tradition, and there’s no place…
Last night, Jews and gentiles alike gathered at the modern musical cathedral that is the Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for a special performance by Matisyahu. The reggae loving, Jewish beatboxer was back in South Florida celebrating the ten-year anniversary of his breakthrough album, Live at Stubb’s…
Having begun the year with a record about how frustrating it is to live in the 21st Century, Hot Chip will be doing its best to welcome 2016 on a more uplifting note. On New Year’s Eve, the London-based synth-pop maestros will perform a DJ set at Bardot. Following Jamie…
Spoken from first hand knowledge, Jam Cruise is insane. These people come from all over the country to, once a year, get together, leave all fucks ashore, and have a blast. In a year full of more music cruises than fish in the sea, this one stands out as one of…
Wherever you might stand politically on this year’s historic thawing of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations, one positive outcome we can probably all agree on is the freshly opened floodgate of cultural exchange. Case in point: El Tropicana de Cuba will perform its first stateside show in more than three decades at…
These days, that familiar expression, “What’s old is new again” seems especially apt. Communal combos like the Punch Brothers, Steep Canyon Rangers, and Donna the Buffalo have proven that axiom time and time again by combining a traditional sensibility and reverence for their roots with a modern, energized approach that’s…
Speaking on behalf of everyone everywhere, people love to hate Pitbull. He’s like your crazy uncle that you secretly enjoy listening to but don’t wan’t to introduce to your friends. Like, if we still had iPods, Pitbull would be on all of ours, but we’d try and hide his songs…
The British have some funky ways. They call cookies “biscuits” and eat meat pies. They still sing “God Save the Queen” in 2015, when most people find themselves losing faith in both God and the queen. When a Brit gets “pissed,” he gets drunk, not angry, and he might ask…
Growing up, my family celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas. My father, a Jew, helped us light the Menorah. My mother, a catholic, decorated the Christmas tree. And me, a greedy little materialistic boy with a sweet tooth, ate cake and opened presents until I passed out upon on a pile…
This New Year’s Eve, you could do worse than your own private table on South Beach with four of your closest friends, two alcoholic bottles of your choice, and the best seat in the house to a midnight fireworks display. Actually, you could do a lot worse. Like, imagine no…
Matisyahu was as singular an artist as there’s ever been: a Hasidic Jew, long beard and forelocks included, unearthing the Judaic underpinnings of Rastafarian reggae and reconnecting them to his faith. But when Matisyahu the man (born Matthew Miller — he adopted the Hebrew moniker in 2001) broke away from…
Though it’s a country smaller than California, few places match Italy’s appreciation for the finer things in life. Nobody shells out the big bucks for luxurious North Korean leather, after all. Italians have an astute attention to detail and a brilliant eye for design. Sports cars from the small towns…
