“Special music must be made by special people.” That’s how label head Damian Lazarus explained the nature of a Crosstown Rebel for Crossfade a couple of years ago. And proving the true character of his crew hasn’t changed, Lazarus just announced the 2014 lineup for his annual Winter Music Conference…
Car horns frantically beeping during rush hour, neighbors yelling greeting each other at 8 a.m. on a Sunday, and hits of uhntz-uhntz blasting from the strip of clubs that line Washington Avenue till the wee hours of the night. That’s the distinct sound of Miami. But every now and then,…
Nipsey Hussle Avenue D, Miami Friday, January 31, 2014 Better Than: Walking into a Crip neighborhood wearing all red. Draped down in a white t-shirt, his Cuban-link chain and Malcolm X pendant, a blue bandana wrapped around his neck, California rapper Nipsey Hussle took the Miami stage for the first…
Deep in the hells of Guantanamo Bay, extreme bass music rumbles from Bazookas as federal agents use the music of Skinny Puppy to torture prisoners. It’s a fact that has been confirmed by the pioneering industrial band, and that inspired its latest album, Weapon. Now, if you’ve never been to…
Arctic Monkeys Fillmore Miami Beach Thursday, January 30, 2014 British post-punk foursome Arctic Monkeys completed its first performance of 2014 last night for a sold-out crowd at the Fillmore Miami Beach. In support of the outfit’s fifth studio album, AM, the current tour has been ping-ponging across the Atlantic since…
Remember that bizarro nightmare where the sky was burning, the air smelled like scorched flesh, and a deranged pair of necromancers turned you into a puppet that did a weird seizure dance? Well, that was actually a Skinny Puppy show. And next week, the pioneering industrial band’s cEvin Key and…
Ma Dukes is slang for anybody’s mother. But when you talk to hip-hop heads, only one matters. J Dilla was a hip-hop producer from Detroit whose life was tragically cut short in 2006 by a rare blood disease, but his momma, the Ma Dukes, continues to travel the world in…
It’s officially Ultra season, beat freaks. Just yesterday, the EDM fest announced its Phase Two lineup, adding Chance the Rapper, Miami’s own DJ Craze, as well as the Diplo and Skrillex collab Just U, and 50 other acts to the party plan. But already the Ultra Music Festival peeps have…
For a generation of listeners who grew up with the sounds of the American rock scene in the 2000s, the name Panic! at the Disco is all too familiar. Forming in 2004, this Las Vegas band released its debut album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, just a year later…
What’s that barely audible uhntz-uhntz, bro? Just Ultra Music Festival oh-so-quietly releasing 2014’s Phase Two lineup, exclusively via its official iPhone and Android apps. Of course, though, we here at Crossfade are never too far from our cellular devices. So we snagged UMF’s adds for you. Just check the cut…
Stumble down to The Vagabond. It’s almost time to dance. Among the few, true mainland fixtures of Miami’s Winter Music Conference week, this NE 14th Street nightspot perennially provides a WMC lineup loaded with classic house legends like Frankie “The Godfather of House Music” Knuckles, David Morales, Hector Romero, Little…
III Points is coming back. Yes, 3P Productions had so much fun with this past year’s inaugural three-day celebration of art, music and technology that a 2014 edition’s already in the works — but not without a few changes. Instead of Thursday to Saturday, the fest will span the weekend…
Dom Kennedy can’t sell his Get Home Safely LP exclusively at Best Buy without a major label backing him … If you buy that one, then I would like to discuss an igloo property investment opportunity in Nevada that is sure to be prosperous. It comes with its own polar…
Disclosure Fillmore Miami Beach Saturday, January 25, 2014 Better Than: Hearing dance music at a South Beach megaclub. “What do you think they will start with?” I wondered before Disclosure took the stage at the Fillmore Miami Beach. “Probably, ‘F For You’ or ‘When a Fire Starts to Burn.’ My…
Without music, those eight hours spent in a cubicle, the bumper-to-bumper traffic on your commute home, and life alone would be an unbearable nuisance. Good thing we never lack any good vibes in the Magic City. Just check the five best concerts going down this week from indie rock with…
Brace yourselves, a hurricane of Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week posts are coming. We’re kicking off the season with an announcement from one of the newest yet most critically acclaimed events of March’s musical madness. The Red Bull Guest House premiered last year in a big way when…
Relationships are tough. So are ticket giveaways. But as the ladies of Haim might say: We know, we know, we know, we know that you’re gonna be OK anyway. After all, you are a strong, independent, and financially responsible person who’s perfectly capable of purchasing your own $25-to-$35 pass to…
At this current moment, Queens of the Stone Age is the best rock ‘n’ roll band on the planet. A bold statement, to be sure. However, while there exist other artists with similar relevance and artistic integrity, no group so deeply embodies the spirit of the genre’s past while fighting…
It takes cojones to lyrically smack down Jay Z. But Problem Kids don’t fear the Jigga Man. And they’re not afraid of Fidel Castro either. The six dudes of this Miami-based live hip-hop band insist that if they met that bearded despotic madman in the flesh, they would say nothing…
Miami pool parties. A dime a dozen, huh? Then so are all the DJ bros playing them. As in the greater male-dominated dance music scene, female talent is vastly unrepresented. But the folks behind Lost in Paradise aim to change that with a kickass new pool party series bringing the…
Even though, as Carcass bassist, singer, and lyrical mastermind Jeff Walker cheerfully notes, “Life? It’s just food for the maggots and fertilizer for the plants” … That doesn’t mean you can’t take pleasure in the simple (and ultimately meaningless) things, like free tickets to an extreme metal concert in downtown…
Feeling refreshed this breezy morning? Well you should be ’cause it’s a short work week! And what’s better than having to wake up at an ungodly hour just to sit through bumper-to-bumper traffic, as you head to your dark cubicle to respond to countless emails and deal with pesky co-workers…
