History of Churchill’s Pub: A Video Interview

It is Miami’s embassy of punk, rock, metal, noise, and pints. After 35 years under the ownership of beloved founder Dave Daniels, the cultural landmark otherwise known as Churchill’s Pub has been sold. Some are worried about drastic changes. Others expect the place to see another million mosh pits. In…

QuESt on Almost Quitting Rap

“I actually wanted to do a mixtape called Iced Coffee back when I was 19,” says QuESt as he drinks an Iced White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks. “Terrible idea. Terrible idea.” The coffee chain’s stores have become temples of freshly brewed ideas for the 22-year-old Miami rapper, who sometimes spends…

Wood Tavern Owner Opening Benchwarmers Sports Bar

“From the hippest hipster to the loudest fratboy, we’ll all be cheering together.” That’s the tag line for Benchwarmers, a new sports bar from Wood Tavern owner Cesar Morales. This latest nightlife venture from the “Wood Tavern Family of Companies” is slated to begin doing business “just in time for…

Miami’s Ten Best Underground Rock Venues of All Time

Music venues in South Florida have always come and gone with an alarming casualness. Over the last 30-odd years, only one place, Churchill’s Pub, has held the torch for Miami’s savvy underground rock fans. Now that new owners have taken control, an era is coming to an end. And that’s…

South Beach Clubs Closing for Urban Beach Week

South Beach is ’bout to be mobbed. It’s almost Memorial Day weekend in the 305 (otherwise known as Urban Beach Week), the annual four-day span during which the beach (as well as mainland Miami) gets swarmed by famous rappers, celebrity strippers, and 250,000 party people from all over the Dirty…

Ten Best Miami Rap Anthems Ever

Everyone loves Miami. Our food, our people, our beaches. But we here at Crossfade would argue that it’s our music that puts us above the competition. We’ve never tried to steal anyone else’s sound. We keep it 100 with grooves and style of our own. We are leaders in the…

Justin Bieber Taking Teen Model to Miami Senior High School’s Prom?

We could hardly belieb our eyes. Could it be true? Has the world’s most popular singer-dancer-badboy been approved to attend the prom festivities at Miami Senior High School? Is some lucky girl (and teen model) from Little Havana named Yovanna Ventura actually dating the Biebz? Are they so super-cereal that…

Churchill’s New Owners: An Open Letter

In the early ’80s, Pepsi had begun seriously encroaching on sales of Coca-Cola, even outselling the latter in supermarkets. In an effort to rejuvenate sales, Coke outright replaced its formula with what would be known as “New Coke” — an “improved” version of the formula that would replace the original…

Afrobeta Moving to Los Angeles, “Only for Summer,” to Seek New Management

“Nooooooo! We party! We party! We party!” Those shrieks are just the desperate pleadings of Miami music fans collectively panicking at the news that Afrobeta’s Cuci Amador and Tony Smurphio might be splitting, like so many promising 305ers, for friendlier (and possibly more profitable) West Coast climes. Don’t worry, though…

Wynwood’s The Social Lubricant Lounge for Sale: $2.3 Million

The Lube’s for sale. Smoothing late-night interaction for just over a year at 167 NW 23rd Street, Wynwood’s The Social Lubricant Lounge is already being peddled to entrepreneurial bidders looking to slip into the ‘Wood hood. But for anybody wanting to purchase this particular location in “the most exciting and…

Miami’s Ten Best Ska Bands of All Time

The Sunshine State was a breeding ground for some pretty cool ska acts in the ’90s. You would almost think the state invented the genre. Maybe it is our proximity to the Caribbean and a large presence of Jamaicans that made the feat possible. Who knows? The reggaefied punk trend…