According to a famous quip from John Lennon, when asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world, he said Ringo wasn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles. But to be fair, that was some tough company to keep. One superlative the man born as Richard Starkey Jr…

You’ve seen them outside Miami Heat games thirty members strong with their trombones, trumpets, and percussion playing “Hot Hot Hot” while dragging members of the crowd into a limbo line, but the Miami Heat Street Band also play non-Miami Heat affiliated events under the title “the Street Band” including Pumpkinfest…

“How does he make that guitar talk?” listeners often wonder when they hear Peter Frampton noodle around. It’s not the drugs or drink you imbibed that’s making you think his guitar is vocalizing. Rather, it’s an intended effect achieved through technology. The English rock legend uses an effects unit called…

Perhaps you received an invite on Facebook to a mysterious event dubbed “It Is The Takeover A Record Store Tour.” The description for the October 6 event reads: “2 notorious troublemakers with nothing better to do will be taking over South Florida record stores with protest and pizzaz. It is…

Must be something about bands that start with Z. After ZZ Top, the longest running professional band still playing with all its original members is Zebra. The band known for early MTV hits like “Tell Me What You Want” and “Who’s Behind The Door” is currently touring, but on a…

From the Caribbean island of St. Lucia to the stage at the Funky Biscuit in Boca where he’ll be performing this Friday night with his band Adowa, reggae singer Taj Weekes has undergone a long, interesting musical journey. “We would sing to our parents in the living room,” he reminisced…

Two weeks ago, 500 million iTunes users found the new U2 album Songs of Innocence downloaded into their libraries. There’s been a certain amount of backlash against U2 and Apple for this move. First, because if you don’t want the album, it is very complicated to get it off of…

Nobody works as hard to keep the popular music of the early 20th century alive as Michael Feinstein. From his PBS documentary. Michael Feinstein’s American Songbook to the memoir he wrote, The Gershwins and Me: A Personal History in Twelve Songs which chronicled his time learning from the legendary songsmith…

Though based in Nashville, Tennessee, nothing of the electronic indie act Wild Cub reeks of the Grand Ole Opry. The band’s excellent first album, Youth, is more Peter Gabriel than Hank Williams, with polished worldly beats rather than confessional crooning. When New Times spoke with Wild Cub singer Keegan DeWitt,…

When I told my brother I’d help him move out of his house in Gainesville, I planned to pay tribute to Tom Petty’s place of origin by visiting sites that were important to him as a young man. Jacksonville gave us Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tallahassee spawned Creed, Jim Morrison was born…

When New Times spoke with Ernest Greene, the mastermind behind the chillwave act Washed Out, he was as adept at conversation as he was at creating a relaxed melody. Whether he was discussing how the TV show Portlandia jumpstarted his career, the transition of recording an album solo versus sharing…

You could be forgiven for thinking Washed Out’s Ernest Greene is from Portland, Oregon. He gets it all the time since his song “Feel It All Around” is the theme for the TV satire of all things hipster, Portlandia. But if you have a conversation with the man, as New…

Subscribers to guitar magazines are probably those most excited about Slash coming to town August 29 at Hard Rock Live. But a close second would be hat aficionados. Slash might still be a household name for his blistering guitar playing with Guns N’ Roses alone, and while his trademark hair,…

“I think of myself as a drummer who plays notes,” the man known as Freekbass explained to New Times about his distinctive style of playing the bass. “I think of the beat first.” The Ohio native started out as a youngster playing drums. Then fate intervened. Oberlin College had a…