County Grind is counting down 2011’s best local albums in South Florida. Monitor our progress here.If ever a band existed that embraces the “other” vision of Florida music, it’s the musty, psychedelic surf pranksters Cop City Chill Pillars. Instead of four-on-the-floor breakbeats, Held Hostage on Planet Chill is dotted with…
County Grind is counting down 2011’s best local albums in South Florida. Monitor our progress here.Whether you believe that hip-hop is dead or that it’s just kicking through its latest rehash, one thing is certain: Hip-hop albums are six feet under the ground. Even Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the…
Things are hopefully erring on the verbally vicious side of things for Ludacris and Mike Posner’s Red Bull Soundclash event happening New Year’s Eve at Bayfront Park in Miami.In a four-round musical battle royale, the two artists will each hustle hard to outdo each other. In general, it feels like…
Update: Click here for a slideshow of the Is Anyone Up? New Year’s Celebration at the Speakeasy Lounge Dude is the word Hunter Moore says most in a bro-riffic tone during our 40-minute phone conversation regarding his revenge porn website Is Anyone Up? Over the past year, this smutty portal…
When many South Floridians read this, the reaction is going to be, “This guy is more deranged than Scott Stapp.” This January, I am packing up my things and, like a snowbird flying backwards, heading to Minnesota to take over as the new music editor of the Twin Cities alt-weekly…
Need something to do on Christmas? After the presents are opened and family time at home is getting a little stale, head over to join Mike Mineo at Hurricane Bar & Lounge for an evening dubbed an “X-Mas Mixer” set to go as long as the yuletide cheer flows. Mineo…
We recently announced County Grind and Fort Lauderdale’s Green Room are teaming up for the first of what we hope to be a regular series of live music events. The first one comes on Saturday, January 14. We are beyond excited that the inaugural event is headlined by Miami’s synth-pop…
Nicki Minaj has always had a knack for the classroom flow — at least according to Better Education Place, who named her Teacher of the Year — but this lesson is best left for her regular sparring partner Lil’ Kim. It comes in the form of “Stupid Hoe,” a new…
The cult of Tool is a fan base in which you’re either a black-hearted, tattooed member, or you’re dust. Within the art-metal kin who follow Maynard James Keenan’s musical output, drink his wine, and chuckle at his April Fool’s Day humor, there’s a nod of recognition across the brunch tables,…
As an official South Florida welcome to New Times contributor and Brickell transplant Jesse Serwer — who recently dug up Blowfly/Clarence Reid’s best tracks for us — here’s a heavy nudge to check out his “The 50 Best Miami Rap Songs” list at Complex.com.The usual suspects like Trina, DJ Khaled,…
Yes, this is happening. The Beach Boys have been an entity for 50 years, but their architect Brian Wilson has been absent from the band for the past 15. In honor of hitting the half-century mark, the closest thing to an original lineup — being that Wilson’s brothers Dennis and…
We can’t wait until Hipster Runoff wakes up today so that he can sing the praises of the ultimate object of his affection/scorn, Arcade Fire’s Régine Chassagne. She is center stage in one of the most expensive-looking music videos not created with helicopter assistance ever made…
Over the course of pop music’s evolution over the past century or so, history continues to repeat itself. New stars are “the next (fill in the blank),” genres are hyphenated versions of established music styles, and unless you come up with song titles like “The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory” or…
Young Money rappers Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj have been singled out as Male and Female Teachers of the Year by the South Florida-based education service Better Education Place (BEP). The pair, seen above teaching the basics of giving and receiving a lap dance at BankAtlantic Center in April, are…
The entire New Times family was hit with a tremendous shock Wednesday afternoon when we learned that our brother Jeff Stratton had passed away suddenly after apparent complications from a stomach ulcer in Honduras. He was 47.As part of an accomplished journalism career around the country, Jeff served as New…
There was a huge online response following the news of the West Palm rock station Buzz 103.1’s sudden ouster from FM radio on Monday, December 5. With its departure — it will continue as an online and HD radio station — the spot on the dial is occupied by Now…
It has been quite the year for John Ralston, who might be Lake Worth’s coolest dad. In addition to expanding his family with a newborn daughter, he also brought his strongest solo album to date into the world during the past 12 months. The country-rock collection, Shadows of the Summertime,…
Today we take for granted that there were such things as “cola wars” going on, but New Coke was an elaborate marketing disaster undertaken by the Coca-Cola company in 1985. It was a messy expensive time that got people saying “Coke is It!” but for all of you rooting for…
Although it only just happened last week, the reverberations of the Buzz 103.1’s format shift are being felt deeply in South Florida.More than 225 comments have piled up on the original news report of the Buzz leaving the FM dial posted on December 5, and subsequent entries focus on the…
The retro-soulful Miami men of Ketchy Shuby have a holiday jones, which is fully expressed via A Ketchy Shuby Christmas. The album just made itself available on Tuesday, and there’s a little release party scheduled for the Stage this evening (details below). This release caps a busy fall of activity…
Anyone who has witnessed the Pied Piper of R&B afloat in the “Step in the Name of Love” video hoped that this day would eventually come: R. Kelly is hosting the Love Letter Cruise in October 2012. Embarking October 1-5 from Miami aboard the comfortable Carnival Destiny, this is a…
The trailer for Rock of Ages — the big-budget musical starring Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Russell Brand, Mary J. Blige, Julianne Hough, and a ton of other people with haircuts from 25 years ago — is now online. You might recall that the production was filmed here in…
