What do real, passionate music lovers do when faced with a scene marred by commercial interests and that no longer caters to their discerning tastes? They pool their resources, say “fuck this industry,” and take matters into their own hands! “We’re doing it because we’re really passionate about this music,”…
During a career that’s – so far – spanned well over 40 years, Bonnie Raitt established herself as an indomitable force in the music community. Known for her brilliant guitar work, bluesy ballads, searing, soulful vocals and, of course, mass of flaming red hair, it turns out, there’s plenty about…
Billboard Magazine reported the mind-blowing news earlier this week that Outkast may reunite to headline Coachella in 2014. The internet then cried with joy. Over the years, organizers of the massive California festival have made a point to facilitate the reunions of other classic acts, like the Pixies, Rage Against…
Back in the 1990s, we wore Blossom hats. That’s right. And we rolled the sleeves up on our oversized T-shirts. We put on comically massive jeans called JNCOs and parted our hair so far over, that our comb-over gave our Uncle Jerry’s a run for its two dollar bills. Despite…
There is a misconception about Spotify. That is places all the music in the world merely a click away. The online streaming service has changed the way we consume music. And it does allow you to type in the name of pretty much any artist, song, or album, and listen…
Every big superhero has a secret identity. Local comic book author Mike Kaye claims his creation, the awkward frog man Amphoman’s alter ego is Dr. Ulrius Joules. But as New Times interviewed him, it turned out both Amphoman and Dr. Joules might actually be Kaye’s own alter egos. Kaye pours…
From the Shangri La art Tell this guy about the death of the album. By Michael Corcoran “The album is dying in front of our very eyes,” Variety columnist and music business know-it-all Bob Lefsetz wrote recently based on weak LP sales, including Katy Perry’s Prism, which sold only about…
The excess that characterized the 1980s has since been decried, extolled, and examined ad nauseam. The musical landscape that developed during that decade was one of the most compelling in history, not necessarily based on the content that flowed through the mainstream (which was unique in its own right) but…
Stephen Marley is a man of few words. Asked what it’s like to follow in the footsteps of his famous father, Bob Marley, a man who comes as close to deification as our popular culture will allow, Stephen replies with only a sentence fragment: “Rastaman vibration positive.” That response could…
Deriving as much influence from Pink Floyd as it did from Primus, Smitty started off in 2004 as the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist/bass virtuoso Matthew Mackle and ace ax man Brian Liebman. Rounding out their funky, ethereal sound with a regularly changing cast of drummers over the course of a decade,…
To be a fan of nü-metal is the equivalent of being a self-hating Juggalo. In every iteration — the two major poles being rap-rock or spooky-scary-angry mud-butt-rock — the genre is negative and immature. Lyrically, musically, ideologically: There is no redemption. In the second decade of the new millennium, we…
“I really feel like I did some of my best work while at the Miami Herald,” Evelyn McDonnell admits. The writer spent eight years there as the pop music critic. But she was familiar with Miami even before moving here. She’d attended years of Winter Music Conference (which she calls…
One Direction[Editor’s Note: In his column Serrano Time, award-winning scribe and goofball Shea Serrano writes about his life and times.] By Shea Serrano Last week, I wrote about why One Direction’s “This Is My Story” sucks. Usually, whenever one of these pieces goes up (and they go up often), I…
With the way young teen stars are portrayed in the media today, it’s easy to envision newbies as headed toward a downward spiral of drug overdoses, dramatic scandals, and mental breakdowns. Indie alternative band von Grey, however, is a pleasant exception. When interviewing 17-year-old singer-songwriter Annika von Grey of the…
If you are a loyal County Grind reader, you’ve witnessed the meteoric rise of indie-rock starlets Surfer Blood. Starting out as most local bands do, begging promoters for a shot and hustling for gigs, the sonic quartet rode a lightning bolt of success that ultimately landed them on Universal Records…
There’s no good reason for the producers of The Hunger Games to recast its sequel, Hunger Games: Catching Fire with pop stars. The first movie about a dystopian future where teenagers are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death, grossed 400 million dollars with normal…
When you look up Miami on Wikipedia and you do a search for the word “cocaine,” you will find nothing. As a native that has spent most of my life in, ahem, the Magic City, I am most definitely bored-to-fucking-death of your Scarface-themed man cave and/or ya day-glo “I’m in…
Certainly there are local shows aplenty blowing out eardrums all over the 954 and 561, but we’d like to tell you about a few huge concerts storming through our area this week. A few are throwbacks, and a couple are dubstep. And that’s what it’s all about up here: dichotomy…
Patrons and employees were swaddled in pearl necklaces, fishnet, boas, and other prohibition era attire this Saturday at the grand opening of Fort Lauderdale speakeasy Stache. The sax was the instrument of choice at this Great Gatsby-style event and the decor consisted of sophisticated bookshelves, sparkling chandeliers and, oddly enough,…
Back at the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012, when Avicii’s “Le7els” was pumping out of any device with a speaker attached, I couldn’t get enough. I cherish pop sensibility as much as chops or technical prowess. Baby-faced Swedish producer, Tim Bergling, does not exactly conjure the most complicated…
Ahhh, the beard. There’s something about this particular form of facial hair that not only screams manliness but demands power. While mustaches look creepy or weird and being clean shaven often makes men look like babies, it is the mighty beard that turns an average-looking guy into a ruggedly handsome…
Sierra Mizrahi, AKA James, got her second name in the ballroom scene amid drag queens, men dressed like moms and club girls, and artists of the vogueing sort. “I knew that I wanted to be in women’s clothing. I knew that I wanted to do drag,” Mizrahi says. Slight and…
