“I’m a Facebook prophet/ I told all the girls that I’d be the hot shit.” Thus sings Kid Cudi on “Soundtrack To My Life,” the uninflected voice of a generation that grew up staring at monitors for hours and spends nights cycling through social networking websites. Embodying the hipster-hop aesthetic,…
The Big Day Out Festival is one of those “some-day” trips to daydream about. An annual series of massive one-off fests throughout Australia and New Zealand, it’s like a Reading or Leeds done Down Under, with the world’s biggest festival draws ever. This year’s edition features seven dates from January…
The upcoming three weeks in South Florida are pretty much heaven on earth for “phans” and other chilled-out festival-loving types. Phish’s four-night stand at the American Airlines Arena begins on the 28th, and, of course, kicks off on New Year’s Eve, with a bunch of other livetronica-type afterparties going on…
The American Legion Harvey Seeds Post 29 off of 64th Street and Biscayne (6447 NE Seventh Avenue, Miami) is named after Harvey Seeds, the first Dade County representer killed in action in World War I in France by a hand grenade exploding over a machine gun emplacement.His post was founded…
You wouldn’t immediately assume it from the traditional balladry of “Sundown,” but Gordon Lightfoot is a dark motherfucker. Like his most successful single, Lightfoot can seem out-of-date, boring, and stodgy until you spend a weekend with him. Then, it becomes obvious that dude’s just as oversexed, drunk, and angry as…
It’s been almost two years since jam juggernaut String Cheese Incident called it quits in 2007. Since then, things have slowed for some of the former members, while others have picked up the pace with new projects. The latter holds true for the String Cheese rhythm section of Jason Hann…
Who hasn’t been to a post-1998 wedding in which the couple danced to Edwin McCain? The saxophone-drenched ballad “I’ll Be,” in which McCain promises, in essence, never to be a douchebag, granted him the one commercial success he needed to live easy. He’s since dropped off the mainstream music radar,…
A few years ago, the world of every Gen X-er and quasi-’90s kid was unpleasantly rocked when 68-year-old teenager Paul Anka decided it was a good idea to cover Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Sure, it’s easy to see where this smarmy, crooner take on grunge was supposed to be…
The temperature dropped the weekend, which finally gave us reason to take out our Cosby sweaters. But in case the cold kept you indoors, here is what you missed over the weekend:Surfer Blood at VagabondWest Palm Beach’s Surfer Blood finally came home after being on the road to a warm…
When Gainesville anarcho-punks Against Me! released their fourth album, 2007’s New Wave, the band’s hardcore fundamentalist fans immediately swung into crisis mode, organizing counseling and puke circles for heartbroken indie kids nationwide. Understand though, the mass freakout didn’t start because the CD sucked; it was OK. The panic started because…
Ambivalent is the moniker of NYC-based DJ/producer Kevin McHugh, of Richie Hawtin’s prestigious Minus label. McHugh’s early production credits include a music series he developed for the multidisciplinary artistic platform Creative Time in the mid ’90s. By the mid 2000s he became associated with the Minus family after sharing the…
Music is a science. It is like Geometry. It makes us feel really good, or really sad. Music is like Astronomy or gravity or electricity. You know it is there but you just can’t see it. It can give you life. It can kill you. I just drank a whole…
It’s hard to believe that at the end of the decade, any band once labeled “nu metal” is still going strong. So leave it to a band from South Florida, land of anomalies. In late 2009, Fort Lauderdale natives Nonpoint still enjoy am active touring career and a healthy, loyal…
If you’re not onto Afrobeta by now, this must be your first time here (and if it is, allow me to welcome you and thank you for the time you’ll spend perusing). Because here at Crossfade, we’re not exactly reserved in our appreciation for the Miami duo of Cuci Amador…
Not inappropriately, Mexican Institute of Sound makes its home nestled in the quaint little town of Mexico City, otherwise known as the DF, a sprawling capital ranking amongst the 10 most populated cities in the world. And it’s not so much an institute as one man with incredible vision. Though…
Phish is in town for another New Year’s Eve. And with the jam giants come some truly epic parties that not even the most fervent Phish hater can deny are glorious. In addition to the makeshift shindigs that will inevitably pop up on the beach, the White Room will host three afterparties…
Call your ganja dealer, pick up a pack of Rizlas, and break out your red, yellow, and green dreadlock cap. So it looks silly on your non-dreadlocked head. Who cares? This weekend is the Pop n’ Reggae Fest 2009, and you know you’ve been waiting for it. Because where else…
In middle school, an older female cousin asked if I knew what O.P.P. meant. I admitted I didn’t. “Other people’s privates,” she said. “OK,” I said, still unclear about it. How did one come to be “down with O.P.P.” exactly? Was it cool or shameful? Had the acronym been in…
If you aren’t aware yet, it’s the holiday season, which means the advertisements on television are focusing heavily on toys that kids don’t really need and will probably forget about a month after unwrapping. Still, that didn’t stop Crayola from brainwashing children into thinking they need a silly contraption called…
Fedde Le Grand has been a staple of the Netherlands’ electronic dance music scene since the early ’00s, when he cofounded the renowned Sneakerz club night in Amsterdam and the Hague. But in the past few years, the Dutch DJ/producer has enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame, beginning with the…
The Techno Loft at Space has consistently delivered the goods since launching earlier this year. It has showcased some of the top techno talent from around the globe, with a special emphasis on the Berlin sound dominating the scene today. This Saturday continues the trend with a stellar double booking…
Fans of Rhythm Foundation’s concert series regularly chock full of tasty selections of world music will be pleased to hear that the non-profit org that this year alone brought Zizek, Ximena Sariñana, Aterciopelados, Curumin and Cucu Diamantes to our fair shores has just released the first bits of news regarding…
