Saturday’s Freestyle Explosion features some of the biggest names in the genre, and Crossfade’s own columnist, Jose El Rey, interviewed most of them. We’ll be publishing one or two interviews a day in celebration of the show, which takes place this Saturday night at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables…
You may recall reading about a group on these pages called Tiempo Libre. If you’re a Cuban coffee drinker, there’s a chance they may even peek at you from the side of your can of grounds every morning as you curse the five day work week. That’s right, they’re those…
Twenty one years is a hell of a long time to be playing music, much less to be playing someone else’s music, but The Machine is doing just that. They’ve been hailed as the best Pink Floyd tribute band by numerous people, and Spin.com claims they sound “exactly like Pink…
Buy a ticket for a Hank Williams III show and you’re probably expecting to hear a whole lot of country songs about heartbreak, good old boys, and life on the wide open plains. Show up to the Hank Williams III and Assjack show at Culture Room in July and you’ll…
Trey Songz Sunday, May 24, 2009 Sobe Live, Miami Beach Better Than: Anything I could have expected, given the hectic nature of Memorial Day Weekend. The Review:On Memorial Day Weekend the streets of South Beach were full of culture, excitement, and overall craziness, and the same could be said for…
To view a slideshow of pictures from Best of the Best, click here. Best of the Best 2009 featuring Bounty Killa, Mavado, Beanie Man, Rick Ross, Young JeezySunday, May 24, 2009Bicentennial Park, Downtown Miami Better Than: Being stuck on Collins Avenue The Review:Memorial Day signals time for dancehall diehards to…
Lanzallamas MonofonicaSaturday, May 23, 2009Transit Lounge, MiamiBetter than: Bourgeois BrickellGood news Lanza fans: An album cometh. Fabio Patiño and his band of merry melody makers grooved and moved and laid down some serious tracks at Transit Lounge this Memorial Day weekend. The eight-piece “Afro-Latin-America-world beat-mezcla” delivered an impressive two-night performance,…
The light poetics of folk duo Friction Farm provide a nice country-pop respite from the seemingly homogeneous adult alternative world that dominates radio. The group’s songs are not so much ground-breaking tunes, though, as they are melodious and infectious folk nuggets that couple pretty harmonies with a contemplative simplicity. You’ll…
Multicultural funk is coming to Hard Rock Live thanks to WAR and Average White Band. WAR, best known for songs like “Low Rider” and “Why Can’t We Be Friends” has been playing their laid back California style funk for 40 years, but it was their mid ’70s recordings that propelled…
It’s time to break out your black and white checkered Doc Martins and suspenders and brush up on your skanking skills. The Orlando based Supervillains are single handedly trying to revive the ska scene. The five piece band has been incessantly touring for the last 3 years, playing more than…
Micky Fitz and the Business have been doing their thing since the late 1970s — writing songs for the working class, in the tradition of street punk and Oi! Fitz formed the band as a reaction to the arty types co-opting the punk subculture. To that end he focused the…
Fans of the 1990s funk-metal band Primus can’t forget that famous live footage from Woodstock ’94. In it the band’s resident bass god, Les Claypool, dexterously covered Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” by playing the guitar part on his signature Carl Thompson bass using the slap technique. To top it off,…
Folk music certainly seems to be on the upswing again with folks like Bon Iver and the Fleet Foxes enjoying tons of press and popularity (at least as much as an indie act can get). Proof positive is The Avett Brothers’ rapid rise during the last couple years. Seth and…
DJ Desyn Masiello is a true child of the British house movement. Born and raised in London, he experienced the acid house explosion first-hand as a teenager and was schooled in the UK’s diverse subcultural sounds, hopping from Balearic parties to the outdoor traveler raves of the early 1990s, and…
Looking to go on a music cruise but can’t stand the sight of hippies? Well the Jam Cruise is out of the question, but Shiprocked could be right up your alley. Departing on Sunday, November 15, Shiprocked will head to Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Georgetown, Grand Cayman before returning to…
First there were the Three Tenors — or was it the Four Tenors? Sorry, we’ve lost count. Regardless, the standard was set by hefty gentlemen with booming operatic voices prone to dazzling their audiences with rich and riveting performances. Now there’s the next generation, a group of twentysomething Australians dubbed…
South Florida seems to be a haven for jam bands of late. Hot new acts like the Heavy Pets are making their mark, the Jam Cruise announced its biggest lineup yet, and when Langerado dropped the jam, the festival folded. Perpetual Groove is coming to cash in on the Jam…
Theophilus LondonTuesday, May 19, 2009Rokbar, Miami BeachBetter than: The current wave of hipster-hop.I’ll start off by admitting I don’t know much about the up-and-coming singer/MC Theophilus London expect that he’s from Brooklyn, he performed with Solange Knowles at SXSW and has a mixtape out called This Charming Mixtape. I’ll so…
About 25 people watched Michael Borosky, a nondescript 26-year-old opera singer, belt out about seven numbers from various operas Wednesday as part of the first in a series of Opera Mash-Up events at Area 7. He was lit from above by a disco ball, and surrounded on all sides by a bunch of…
Fresh off dropping their longtime record label Geffen, Counting Crows is going on tour and making a stop in Miami at Bayfront Amphitheater. The Counting Crows, who were huge for a few years in the 90s with the single “Mr. Jones”, have been not so steadily touring ever since. Lead…
Deep house is making a bit of a comeback in the world of electronic dance music. It boasts roots in so-called U.S. garage and the soulful, gospel-tinged stylings of early house pioneers such as Larry Levan, but the genre has evolved much over the years. It has left its cheesy…
Watching Young Love mastermind Dan Keyes wriggle his hips behind the microphone as he yelps, “If you get the chance/You must dance, dance, dance,” on the R&B-tinged “Find a New Way,” one would never know he used to be a member of an emo band. Keyes, formerly the moping frontman…
