You don’t have to be a special kind of science person to know that the sun and the desert are both hot and that reveling in the hot desert sun will do damage to your body. It’s barely even science at all. So, given that the sun in the desert…
For all the debate that surrounds autism, specifically the myriad of possible and still largely unknown causes, one of the things that may got lost in the conversation are autistic people themselves and their needs. One person who isn’t just talking about it is Patricia Kayser. The Miami transplant and…
Childhood nicknames are rarely sophisticated. John Benitez knows this all too well. When he was a kid, his sister started calling him jellybean, on account of his initials and that old saying “know what I mean, jellybean?” “When I grew up in the Bronx, everyone had nicknames, because everyone was…
Early in our interview, Sharam Tayebi, who — as one of the world’s most respected progressive house DJs and producers — often goes only by his first name, laughs and humbly worries aloud that he won’t have much to talk about. Before long however, despite the lack of details he’s…
After you’ve decided to start ranking all the acts on the Coachella lineup, there comes a moment when you realize you’ve made a terrible mistake. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is way too big, too ambitious in scale and scope, too sonically diverse to be reduced to a…
[Tucker Gumber, aka “The Festival Guy,” has been to over 90 festivals and written a book, Festival Thrower’s Bible, about how to make them an optimal experience. He is also the creator of the FestEvo festival resource app for fans. Ahead of Coachella, L.A. Weekly asked him to share some of…
International music icons and lifelong friends and collaborators, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil will make their first concert appearances as a duo in Miami and Miami Beach this weekend. The pioneering Brazilian singer-songwriters, both 73, share a musical chemistry that’s by turns complementary and telepathic. They’ve obliterated stylistic barriers, nimbly…
It’s been a long time coming, but Miami mainstays the Baboons have finally released a new album. It’s called Spanglish, and the LP is an epic 15-track work inspired by all things Miami culture. “This is almost from a lifetime of experience of this place,” says Baboons founder/drummer/singer Mano Pila. 15 years…
Asked to recall an amusing anecdote or particularly memorable Miami memory, Brad Petering, the acerbic lyricist and frontman of the Los Angeles-based TV Girl, makes good on the promise offered by his band’s playfully cynical and self-deprecating lyrics. “We only played Miami once before, and our old booking agent would…
The reemergence of the record was as unlikely a revival as the world has ever seen. And Record Store Day has played a big part in the resurrection. Held this year on April 16, RSD is the celebration vinyl deserves. There’s live music (Shabazz Palaces headlines this year’s festivities at…
“I never really go with trends at all,” insists gothfather/guitar innovator Daniel Ash. “I think that’s the kiss of death, to do that.” On Stripped, his first album in more than a decade, the reclusive Brit breathes new life into highlights from his years as the guitar craftsman behind the…
Growing up, I had a friend whose dad was older and often in poor health. He was a Cuban immigrant who spoke very little English. He did, however, speak one language: Zelda. Day in and day out, homebound because of his illnesses, this man in his 70s who had more…
The most widely seen Iggy Pop concert was not performed by the man himself. In writer-director Todd Haynes’ 1998 cult classic Velvet Goldmine, itself a fictionalized, Citizen Kane-style account of ’70s glam rock, Jedi and Scottish sex symbol Ewan McGregor plays Curt Wild, a not-so-subtle analogue to the punk progenitor…
If you’re a hip-hop head in South Florida, you know Felisha Monet. She’s holdin’ you down on your drive at 5, delivering the hits you want to hear on 99.1 FM. She hooks you up with free tickets and requests, and she always has the right song to get you…
Pearl Jam fans, young and old, flooded the American Airlines Arena on Saturday evening for the band’s first stint in the 305 since they played Bayfront Park back in the mid-1990s. But these weren’t so much fans as a congregation. And the six men on stage weren’t so much rock…
For this year’s TransAtlantic Festival, The Rhythm Foundation scored what was possibly its biggest coup in the event’s 14 year history in bringing Beirut to the North Beach Bandshell for the group’s first ever Florida performance. Beirut, a six-piece based out of New York, blends influences as varied as mariachi…
Hip-hop is at a crossroads. With rap dissolving into a hazy swirl of over-produced beats and brain dead, mumble robots like Future and Young Thug topping the charts, it’s easy to fall prey to the notion that all the real MCs and lyricists are long gone. Thankfully, that’s far from…
Ryan Leslie is not your standard musician. He earned a 1600 on his SAT. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in government. He was one of just four orators selected to speak at his senior graduation ceremony. Since then Leslie has produced tracks for artists like Britney Spears,…
I can’t do it, Miami. As far as I’m concerned, the only acceptable reason for leaving your house at 3 a.m. is if your pillow is on fire. Maybe an earthquake or family member-turned zombie situation. The only other conceivable scenario is if you’re the couple from Paranormal Activity. Seriously,…
A good indication that you’re really, really cool is if any living thing you interact with becomes really, really cool simply by association. This is what happened with Iggy Pop’s pet Cockatoo yesterday. Known as Biggy Pop, it took the bird all of a few hours to take the internet…
Speaking before his DJ set at Electric Pickle last August, Stones Throw Records founder Chris Manak — better known to hip-hop heads, vinyl junkies, and funk enthusiasts as Peanut Butter Wolf — told Miami New Times he planned to return to Miami sooner rather than later. “Next year is our…
Ishmael Butler has been writing charged up, innovative rap since 1992’s seminal hip-hop single with Digable Planets, “Rebirth of the Slick (Cool Like Dat).” When Digable Planets retired, he dabbled in a funkier, sexier sound with Cherrywine, before finally joining instrumentalist Tendai Maraire and creating Shabazz Palaces. While Shabazz Palaces…
