It’s not surprising that the majority of Yonder Mountain String Band’s record catalog is culled from live performances. A foremost proponent of the so-called “new grass” phenomenon (think the Dead or Phish), the band couples guitars with banjos, bouzouki, and mandolins to spur the communal enthusiasm. Investigate YMSB’s last album,…
As an Iranian-American teen caught up in Washington, D.C.’s ’80s music scene, Ali Shirazinia became a fan of hardcore and New Wave. But when that decade died out, the kid switched, like a lot of ex-punks, to electronic noise. He learned to DJ, eventually adopted the stage-name Dubfire, and cofounded…
Miami native Mike Marsh is no stranger to South Florida’s music scene. After all, the Dashboard Confessional drummer grew up here, cutting his teeth on Rush covers while still a student at Sunset Senior High. And eventually, the trio of Marsh, guitarist Klaus Ketelhohn, and bassist Chris Drueke gelled to…
As long-standing staples of the international EDM scene, German DJ-production duo Tiefschwarz have spanned the last two decades’ worth of popular sounds — from soulful deep house and gritty electro house, to dark minimal techno and back again. Perhaps it’s their adaptability and undying commitment to the cutting-edge that has…
Does Bob Sinclar really need an introduction? The French DJ-producer is practically the Jesus of dance music. But if you lived under a rock throughout the late 2000s and missed out on globe-spanning anthems like “Love Generation” and “World Hold On,” our heart goes out to you. After a Grammy…
Röyksopp albums, like all good things in life, come to those who wait. The duo of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland first began experimenting with synthesizers together around the age of 12 in their small, sub-Arctic hometown of Tromsø, Norway. (Thank cool older siblings who were into Depeche Mode and…
Early this morning, Ultra Music Festival organizers announced Phase Two of its lineup. Added to the 2011 bill are Duran Duran, Underworld, Kaskade, will.i.am, Erick Morillo (Live), Sasha (Vortek Live), Fedde Le Grand, Avicii, and The Disco Biscuits.Also confirmed is our previous announcement that Moby would also make an appearance.Ticket…
This past Saturday, punks from around Florida gathered in Downtown Miami to commemorate the final show at the Firefly. Since 2006, the space has been a locus of the radical, activist-oriented South Florida punk scene, and it’s demise is the product of an all-too-fitting corporate enemy: demolition at the hands…
Dear Fleet Foxes, Thanks for letting us download “Helplessness Blues,” the title track off your upcoming album dropping on May 3, for free. If the song is any indication as to how the rest of the record’s going to sound, the almost three-year gap between your self-titled debut and Helplessness…
Few artists had a greater impact on the transtlantic EDM scene in 2010 than DJ-producer Lee Foss. Both with his solo work and Hot Natured side project with Jamie Jones, Foss’s singular brand of moody, bass-driven electro-funk dominated the charts and international dancefloors all year, while spawning more than a…
Mr. OizoSaturday, January 29, 2011Grand Central, MiamiBetter than: Standing in the hot sun at a certain electronic music festival.If you missed Mr. Oizo’s appearance at Grand Central Saturday night, don’t worry, he’ll be back. He’s scheduled to appear at Ultra Music Festival next month. Problem is, if you are a…
Fillmore Miami BeachSaturday, January 29, 2011Better than: Having your temporomandibular joint examined. Oscar-winning musician and former otolaryngologist Jorge Drexler may as well have been performing in a small, candle-lit taberna for all the warm little jokes and idiosyncratic anecdotes he tossed off during his performance at the Fillmore Miami Beach…
With Billygoat Electric Pickle Friday, January 28, 2011 Better than: Getting fucked by an extraterrestrial? (See paragraph 16.) How does Little Dragon travel from gig to gig? Well, if you’ve spent the last few hours prepping for the Swedish band’s live show by soaking the contents of your skull in…
It’s been a while since the Phase One acts for Ultra Music Festival 2011 were announced. So, what’s taking so long? Well, the wait will soon be over, as our sources tell us to expect something next week. We aren’t entirely sure who will be on the Phase Two lineup…
Easily one of the most multitasking players in the contemporary jazz field, Joseph “Jowee” Omicil returns to South Florida, this time to delight art patrons at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. Multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, and educator, it’s easy to lose focus that he is primarily one…
To Be Hated, Fortitude, ENOUGH!, Gorilla Pussy, and The 707’s: These South Florida hardcore punk rock bands play hard, fast, and because they love it.If you want to enjoy the sound and the fury of America’s fastest form of rock’n’roll, then go to Churchill’s Pub next Friday when all those…
As an Iranian-American teen caught up in Washington, D.C.’s 1980s music scene, Ali Shirazinia became a fan of hardcore and New Wave. But when that decade died out, the kid switched, like a lot of ex-punks, to electronic noise. He learned to DJ, eventually adopted the stage name Dubfire, and…
In 2010, deep house was the sound of the electronic dance music zeitgeist, and German DJ-producer Nick Curly played no small role in bringing that sound back to the forefront of the transatlantic scene. In just a handful of years, Curly has helped put his hometown of Mannheim, Germany, on…
Does Barry Manilow even exist? Or was the Manilow concept brewed by aesthetes in the Laboratory of Cool to give record-store clerks and music snobs a clear enemy to rail against? It might be something like Saddam Hussein circa 2002, only instead of WMDs, we’re dealing with the globally relevant…
Don Omar is a platinum-selling reggaeton artist based out of San Juan, New York City, and Miami. He’s also the guy who trumped Britney Spears for most albums sold during an in-store appearance at Disney World’s Virgin Megastore. And now the Puerto Rican playa and owner of Orfanato Music Group…
For most people, punk rock is a teenage phase. But for San Francisco’s NOFX, it’s a blueprint for living long and growing old. Back in the mid-’90s, when punk was going mainstream, the band refused a move to the majors, stuck with Epitaph, and eventually landed on its own label,…
The story of DJ Bad Boy Bill is like the history of house music itself, a Chicago music subculture that spread across America and the world to become an international mainstream phenomenon. Schooled in DJing during the Chi-town house boom of the mid ’80s, Bill first made a name for…
