“When he finally understood that I was serious about learning how to spin records, he’d have me sit there for hours spinning the same two records for six hours.” DJ Donnie Lowe says, explaining how he learned the craft from club veteran Matt Spector. Lowe taps his feet and leans…
The nineties were packed with meaningful and defining moments. Walls were torn down, dresses were stained, our economy was the healthiest it’s ever been — but most of all, the music industry thrived in ways it could never thrive again. Not to say music doesn’t currently thrive, but the idea…
“At the last show we brought in goat skulls from [a party supply store] and painted pentagrams on them. We ran gauntlets and wore black metal shirts. I’m guessing that’s why we’ve never been asked back to the Funky Buddha Lounge,” Simone Puleo, singer and rhythm guitarist for Dr. Martino,…
The laws of the universe are simple. There is ebb and there is flow. The moments where the end game is nowhere in sight are always followed by times where just getting started is the end game itself. It’s those times of lull, though, where the go-getters remain in action,…
It’s Thursday night on Clematis and although it’s early, the sidewalks are overflowing with bar-goers in search of an early start to their weekend. Heavy bass beats rhythmically into the streets and neon letters light the windows, “Corona,” “Budweiser Select” — two reasons to endure the work week. A quiet…
Fidgeting in her seat outside of Brew Coffee House in Fort Lauderdale, Sophie Sputnik checks her text messages with one hand and holds a Camel light in the other. Her dog Astro, a terrier mix of some kind, paces beneath the table and mimics her energy. Meanwhile, her Killmama band…
The sun beats down on the concrete and lifeless buildings right outside of Las Olas in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The least likely place anyone would suspect to find five strangers who stopped being polite and started getting real. The truth of the matter is that all of those actual strangers…
“Noise is everyday fucking life,” or at least it is according to the notoriously loud Kenny Millions, of experimental noise duo Death Fuk. And while Broward County is surely brimming with the sounds of “everyday fucking life” as well as contributions from a diverse range of talented and homegrown musicians,…
The difference between Brantley Gilbert and Tim McGraw isn’t just a well established western hat or a perfectly taut pair of faded jeans. The difference isn’t a matter of a loyal fan base or a bad boy attitude. The difference between Tim McGraw and Brantley Gilbert is simple: about twenty…
A man with thirty number one singles and eleven number one albums who has starred in a handful of hit movies, possesses a pilot’s license, and owns an island in the Bahamas, it’s easy to say that Tim McGraw is so much more than just a one trick “hat act.”…
Edward Sharpe is fictional character from the whimsical mind of Alex Ebert, founding member of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The character was put here to save the world but is constantly distracted by perpetually falling in love. This is a sentiment that resonates with the ten-plus band members…
When New Times sat down with STS9’s David Phipps last week, the moral of the interview was that great music comes from a combination of talent and intention. The band’s goal, as Phipps put it, is to make music that makes people feel like “this is the best life ever.”…
Real talk: The south Florida music scene is changing. Influences are being muddled — those playing to a specific genre these days are likely to fall to the wayside, and while it’s never easy to coordinate even a handful of bands for one show, Block x Blog soared over the…
We saw you. We saw you standing outside Radio-Active Records, as early as 2 a.m. on Saturday, April 20, 2013. We saw you panic a little when we walked into the store from the back door before it was time to open the front and sift through the records to…
Suede Dudes at Block x Blog April 20
Should any instance occur in which your musical taste assists in getting you laid, chances are very slim that an MP3 collection would be the responsible format. MP3s make a vacant effort to fill moments of silence with careless noise. The day has come where Pandora picks the soundtracks to…
In real life, the Suede Dudes are some cool cucumbers. But on stage, they bring the sludgiest, surfiest, fuzziest psych, and a weird, dark energy, strong enough to lure any sweet-faced pigeon-toed teen or delightfully stoned sonic junkie. They’re backing up Radio-Active Records on Record Store Day, playing their after-party…
Club Q is now a thing of the past. But for those raised in Broward, or even Palm Beach County, Club Q was all us poor suburban alternative music kids had. Today, its veterans proudly are scattered throughout the local music scene. No matter which “scene” you branched out to,…
There is something bigger at work than just Auto Tune or electronic beats or guitars on the eponymous debut album of South Florida natives, Gravel Kings. What’s at work is a group of musicians who not only understand vocal harmony, but the harmony of acoustics in a fashion that surrenders…
When you can woo an Indigo Girl over dinner one night with just your vocal talents, it’s clear you’ve got it good. The Shadowboxers did just that and ended up the backing musicians for the “girls” on a handful of tours. But this trio isn’t just a bunch of good…
When it comes to needs versus wants, we at New Times find it easy to draw the line in most places. Shelter, clothing, cable — these things are great, but stick a stack of records next to a cable box and watch us clutch that stack for life while we…
Touring is a way of life for the Mantras, a jam band native to the Southeast, and since their fourth studio album wrapped, they’ve been bringing their strongest energy yet. After losing a founding member last year, the Mantras have been busy polishing their new sound, minus that lead guitar. New…
