The Basslights minifestival is a two-night downtown throwdown by EDM speaker-knockers Bassnectar and Pretty Lights. These Friday and Saturday shows at Klipsch Amphitheater will also feature Koan Sound from Australia and the Fools Gold electronic dance rap of Run the Jewels’ El-P and Killer Mike. Bassnectar is currently rushing down…
Draco Rosa is sitting in a cafe, just a few blocks down the road from his L.A. studio, Phantom Vox. “I’m sorry I’m being so rude, but I’m eating this delicious gluten-free cookie. It’s so good. I wish I could give you half,” the ex-Menudo heartthrob laughs. Having been in…
Your great-grandma thinks DJs work at radio stations. The rest of the world believes that disc jockeys have replaced rock stars, living to rule the pop charts, make multi-millions, and play the biggest festival stages on Earth. Oddly enough, neither great-grams, nor the rest of the world is entirely wrong…
When alligators want to fuck or fight, they roar. Females initiate the call, males follow, and they sometimes gang up by the thousands to throw tones so deep that the entire Everglades shakes. Some of these extreme rumbles occur at the level of infrasound, low-frequency oscillations that you feel more…
Claude VonStroke, the Claudefather of Dirtybird records, the big guy behind the ghetto-booty-tech madness that defies genre limitations, is enjoying some highly-deserved time in the spotlight. He’s built his empire from the ground up for years, and 2013 has seen him reap serious benefits. But it wasn’t always that way…
Laidback Luke isn’t just some international EDM superstar. He’s also a kung-fu master. But like all truly dangerous martial artists (and genuinely famous DJ-producers), he prefers to undersell his neck-snapping and ass-kicking skills. “I’m not really a master yet,” Luke insists, modestly. “But I am practicing at a high level,…
When Mount Kimbie, the London-based production duo of Kai Campos and Dominic Maker, dropped 2010’s critically-acclaimed debut album Crooks & Lovers, the media swiftly christened them poster children for the “post-dubstep” movement. But even then, it was a reductionist label for Kimbie’s sound. While held up by broken beats and…
Sensation Ocean of White With Fedde Le Grand, Nic Fanciulli, Prok & Fitch, and Mr. White Saturday, October 12, 2013 American Airlines Arena, Miami Better than: All the colors found in a Crayola 64 box — and that horrible crayon sharpener that never fucking worked! As we’ve gotten older, we’ve…
It’s never easy letting go of the beloved weekend, but sometimes there’s nothing else to do but face the music. And by facing the music, we mean watching talented artists from international musicians to rock legends to indie folk bands, put on a show for us beautiful people. Just check…
Strahil Velchev — better known as KiNK on international dancefloors — took no shortcuts during his two-decade trajectory as a producer. Nor was he given any major breaks. It was pure passion and perspiration that got him where he is today. Raised in Bulgaria when the country was still culturally…
What 46-year-old man do the ladies want to just reach out and fondle? Who sings the dirtiest, freakiest things with a voice sweeter than sugar and smooth as molasses? What American icon can be caught in scandal, time and time again, yet still sell 38.5 million records? There’s only one…
The Breeders With Beach Day Grand Central Miami Wednesday, October 9, 2013 Break out your jelly shoes, your well-worn flannel, your youthful discontent — the ’90s are back. It’s not just some fashionable truth. The classic music of the ’90s is still relevant. And that’s cause for celebration. Some of…
Sigur Rós With Julianna Barwick Klipsch Amphitheater at Bayfront Park, Miami Wednesday, October 9, 2013 We arrived at around 7:30 p.m. to a barely audible Julianna Barwick crooning to ambient drones and hums provided by a guitarist and her occasional piano strokes. A circular screen above Barwick played images featuring…
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Grand Central Miami Tuesday, October 8, 2013 Better Than: That old Marlon Brando biker movie, The Wild One, from which Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took its name. Interestingly the rival biker gang in that 1953 black and white flick were called The Beetles. This makes a…
City life is wild. After zigzagging through clogged streets, you spend all day crouched over some desk until your nerves are so frazzled you end up spitting hot coffee in the poor cleaning lady’s face. Unless, of course, you’re the cleaning lady. Face it — you’re an animal. You need…
Each music festival has its “highlights.” The reason we describe the best moments this way is to make you feel like you missed out. You can’t have it all, and we want you to know that life is cruel. This past weekend at Wynwood’s inaugural III Points Festival, YACHT mastered…
Imagine 10,000 people descending upon American Airlines Arena, every single one of them dressed entirely in white and ready to dance for hours. Inside, they find themselves transported into another world filled with pyrotechnics, giant plastic marine animals, and all manner of spectacular things. Now, add some of the best…
The creative process is one of the scariest things a person can endure. Opening yourself up, either alone or with a group of friends and fellow artists, it can blow up in your face. Or, you could make history. The Breeders were kind of lucky in that regard. Their third…
“This is the weirdest scenario.” That’s how DFA Records founder and former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy half-laughingly reacted to Bardot Miami’s (almost claustrophobic) living room-like setting for his Red Bull Music Academy Couch Session at the inaugural III Points Festival. There were fans sprawled all over the low-lit hipster…
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is a band that remains a protector of the rock ‘n’ roll spirit. In an age when processed pop, phonetic folk, and hyped hip-hop rule the airwaves and bandwidth, BRMC has stayed true to its roots as a propagator of anthemic rock, creating albums as statements…
As much fun as we had banging hard at III Point’s Point Bass show with DJ Shadow and XXYYXX, that shit was, like, only half as fun as the Point Blank bash, presided over by James Murphy and the incomparable Jamie XX. The Sound Stage at Mana Wynwood was flooded…
Back in December, DJ Shadow had kind of a weird experience in Miami. He took the booth at Mansion, just to be kicked off for not playing enough big-room house music. It’s been this great thing for hipsters to lament and bitch over, but with the inaugural III Points Festival,…
