Up until a few months ago, Miami felt empty. The shortage of Afro-Caribbean rhythms in a city built by Afro-Caribbean immigrants was downright shameful. We had become the Big Mango tree without roots. But then Tumbao happened, and Afro-Caribbean beats found a permanent home at the intersection of I-95 and…
London’s hot soprano crooner Ellie Goulding found a lot of success with her debut album, Lights, especially Stateside with her single by the same name. But that kind of multiplatinum, worldwide success doesn’t come easy. To thrive like Ellie, an artist must approach their career with tons of determination and…
Jorge Villamizar is unloading an arsenal of his best work with an intimate gig at Bardot.
It’s been a hell of a year for the Suol label, scoring international chart-topping success on the strength of an uncompromising A&R vision and formidable string of releases. And the man behind it all is DJ-producer, tastemaker, and all-around musical badass Chopstick, AKA Chi-Thien Nguyen. Suol can only get bigger…
“The sun is shining, the breeze is softly blowing, and we’re thinking of you.” Those far-out good vibes come courtesy of your friends at the Virginia Key Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance, who’ve just announced the 2013 lineup for their second annual South Floridian celebration of Cajun, country, blues,…
On April 19, 2002, Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley’s body was found in a Seattle apartment by his mom, dad, and city cops. According to the autopsy, he had OD-ed on a combination of heroin and cocaine approximately two weeks earlier. Most grunge fans and rock observers assumed…
Beat freaks are notoriously giving. They’re the digital age’s equivalent to the free-loving longhairs of yesteryear. Reincarnated hippies, if you will, in little more than neon short-shorts and camelback backpacks. As such, DJ-producers have become some of the YouTube generation’s biggest rock stars. But above all, they’ve become some of…
What do “Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Moses, Chuck Norris, The Little Prince” have in common? They’re all awesome dancers. And they all serve as wellsprings of inspiration for Krisp, a four-member “indie/dance/chillwave/dance-rock” band — Andres Ledesma, Jason Mavila, Alex Lopez, and Charlie Woods — that’s been bringing whimsical party tuneage to…
Hey Thurston: We love you, too! Yes, it’s true. The Sonic Youth founder, Chelsea Light Moving axeslinger, and all-around Renaissance dude-nerd can’t get enough of the Magic City. After attending every single event hosted throughout the entirety of Dade County during Basel 2012, Moore included a gig with Rat Bastard…
Back in 2006, it was pretty much impossible to escape the filthy bassline and dark husky vocal refrain of Dutch DJ-producer Sander Kleinenberg’s “This Is Miami.” For obvious reasons, the electro-house scorcher became an absolute anthem in MIA — the theme song for our city’s status as a dance music…
Free-spirited? Supersexy? “Hungry for hedonism, music and an extraordinary lifestyle”? Welcome to Generation Wild, a “unique concept tour,” according to the official hype, “ready to explode in a city near you.” The beat-freaking lineup: Awesome “Bong” bro Deniz Koyu, the 17-year-old Spanish EDM phenom Danny Avila, house blog fave dBerrie,…
Why does SoBe get such a bad rap, bro? Sure, it’s crawling with rich douchebags in button-down dress shirts. And the parking sucks. And the drinks are ridiculously expensive. But it’s also home to formerly law-breaking Frenchmen, $10 underground minimal techno throwdowns, and the Mustache Revolution. Just check out this…
The “Red Headed Stranger” and the “Okie From Muskogee” ride again. That’s right … Ol’ Willie Nelson — the pot-smoking, braid-wearing, hippie-loving outlaw country legend — just announced some new 2013 tour dates. He’s bringing his son Lukas, young gun Jamey Johnson, and the rest of the Nelson family down…
Back in April, we here at Crossfade waxed enthusiastic about a growing breed of live acts redefining electronic dance music. Well, one local who sees eye to eye with us on the virtues of live EDM is promoter Anders Scherberger. And that’s exactly why he launched Massive Wednesdays at The…
He’s gotten “head on the unmade bed” in the Chelsea Hotel. He’s smoked a million cigarettes. And he’s written dozens of perversely profound songs about love, sex, religion, and other dangerous habits. But over a period of several years leading into 2004, Leonard Cohen was also robbed of approximately $9…
The narrow gaps between letters on our keyboard are vile graveyards for curly black whiskers with hints of gray and even red. But all of this lost facial fuzz tells a story, one of stressful days at work spent anxiously twirling the hairs on our chinny-chin-chins in an effort to…
Crunk, where’d it come from? You’d be a fool to believe that it’s a modern phenomenon. In fact, scripture says that God herself was so tired of building an entire planet in just six days that she spent the seventh “Smokin’ Out” with Project Pat and learning ’bout crunk music…
Better Than: Karaoke night with your co-workers. Retribution is a beautiful thing. And after nearly 28 years of pumping out tough riffs and churning circle pits, punk legends Slapshot finally brought Boston hardcore to Miami. The show (which many in the scene considered a gift after so many years of…
He’s a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. But in the restaurant business, Sir Eric Clapton is Hard Rock Café. Throughout the 1970s, Clapton was a regular patron at the first Hard Rock in London. But by 1979, the…
Last week, Story Nightclub kicked its doors open with a massive New Year’s Eve 2013 lineup. But just because the year has been rung and we’re all getting used to dating things “’13,” doesn’t mean the Story crew’s gonna let the mood lighten up. The rest of January is filling…
Femi Kuti is a world-music master, a deep political thinker, and a true Nigerian patriot. Just like his famous late father, Fela, the fearsome legend who pioneered an entirely fresh fusion of complex African rhythms and electrified Western sounds, invented the term Afrobeat, embodied Black Power, defied government oppression, and…
Ellie Goulding is the sweet-voiced crooner cooking up hits from the other side of the Atlantic. And she’s hitting the stage at the Fillmore Miami Beach on Wednesday, January 16. But what do you really know about her anyway? Sure, you know all the lyrics to her hit song “Lights.”…
