As a kid, you dreamt about becoming an astronaut and part-time music critic. The future looked promising, a gnarly life of walking on the moon and reviewing advance releases of culturally relevant buzz bands. Real life, however, eventually caught up. NASA scrapped the shuttle program, and “relevant” acts stopped playing…
Two Door Cinema Clubwith Clap Your Hands Say Yeahand Bad VeinsRevolution Live, June 5Better than: Sneaking out of your parents’ house to catch a show.Tweens and teens donned their best florals, short shorts, and crop tops yesterday afternoon to catch a glimpse of their first rock concert. They hopped in…
Normal He’s a musician’s musician who has inspired generations of artists and invented the “ambient music” genre. Coming out of the early British prog scene as a founding member of Roxy Music, his ego was too big to be contained beyond the band’s first two albums, so he went solo…
Music vet and New Times scribe Lee Zimmerman shares observations, insights, and updates relating to South Florida’s musical environs. This week: birthday greetings and online affirmation. I had another birthday the other day, an occurrence that seems to take place with increasing frequency at this stage of my life. The…
Nick Zammuto immediately raves about the Radiohead concert he’d just seen the night before after calling for an interview. “It was my first time ever seeing them; I’m still kind of riding high from that. It was amazing,” he says. His newest band, Zammuto is, like Radiohead, currently also on hitting…
Just before the new year, the guys in psych outfit Ice Cream packed their gear and boarded jet planes for New York City. They had just released their first EP, Good, and, having grown a bit too big for their Miami britches, these five guys sadly parted with South Florida. Well,…
City and Colour with David Bazan Culture Room, Fort Lauderdale Monday, June 4Better than: An Alexisonfire show. Last night, City and Colour — the solo musical project of former Alexisonfire guitarist and vocalist Dallas Green — made its South Florida debut. The sold-out Culture Room show was filled with romance,…
They may not have invented Americana music or even redefined it, for that matter, but the BoDeans were responsible for one of the genre’s rare mainstream hits, courtesy of the driving anthem called “Closer to Free.” Thrust into the top ten after being tapped as the theme song for the…
If GET LOW were a human being, it’d be an absurdly loud, dancing toddler, drunk on beats and tallboys. The weekly dubstep and hip-hop blowout is hitting its three-year mark on the Miami scene this Thursday, celebrating with Japan’s Goth-Trad, New Zealand’s Truth, and resident DJs Juan Basshead and Ashworth. The (((SHAKE)))…
Down with PonykillerStone Mountain FreewayCulture RoomJune 1, 2012Better Than: Most of the Sabbath influenced bands playing these days. When County Grind spoke with Down guitarist Pepper Keenan, he mentioned how mind boggling it is that the rock-metal supergroup managed to tour 39 countries since releasing its third studio album, Down III: Over…
Better than: Finally finding the needle goddamn in the haystack.Kathy Griffin brought her saucy one-woman act to the Hard Rock Live this Saturday night. We brought you an inside look at Griffin’s life in an interview last week on County Grind, and figured you’d want more. The gigantic stadium that is…
Dr FameusThe Funky Buddha Friday, June 1, 2012Better than: All of the pro button pushers calling themselves DJs these days. Lately, I find myself less and less inclined to make the trip across the county line and all the way up to Boca for a show. But, when I heard that…
Does DMX really need a comeback album? If you’re over the age of 20, and have heard of this music we call “hip-hop,” you’d likely say, “no.” But the Ruff Ryder is coming back on the scene this fall with a tour and a new album Undisputed. He collaborated with Swizz…
Lately, the heavy-metal environment offers some pretty interesting terrain: There are popular death-core bands with eight-stringed guitars playing polyrhythms they’ve rehashed hundreds of times, a full-on early Megaforce Records-style thrash revival, and more blossoming subgenres than you can shake a stick at. And while it would appear that a lot…
Nü-metal Ann Arbor, Michigan, outfit Taproot set the charts ablaze with its pioneering 2002 hit “Poem.” The track hypnotized audiences with its mix of thunderous heavy-metal riffs over lead singer Stephen Richards’ shifty, rumble-to-pristine-clean vocals and a melodic hook with colossal appeal. Taproot presented the world with hard rock that both…
For a man who came from the seed of Roger Waters — one of Pink Floyd’s founders and key songwriter — Harry Waters has a humble attitude. Before he began touring with his dad as part of his backing band in 2001, Waters, 34, spent many years honing his piano…
Allen Aucoin is all about pushing his musical limits. The Georgia-born, Berklee-bred drummer joined the Disco Biscuits in 2005, and since then, he’s presented artistry beyond imagination, drumming up beats and patterns seemingly impossible from human limbs. On his Zildijan drums and mix of Edrum pads, Aucoin’s precision and pace…
Music vet and New Times scribe Lee Zimmerman offers his insights, opinions, and observations about the local scene. This week, three distinct and disparate artists bring South Florida some national glory.Clearly, South Florida is no stranger to the national music scene. Past graduates of our area that have achieved wider…
Kathy Griffin, sensational comedian and notorious foul-mouthed Queen of Mean, is bringing her solo act to the Hard Rock Live, and no celebrity is safe. “I’ve played more cities in Florida than in any other state,” Griffin says. “But you guys are sick bastards — I think that’s what it…
Killmama is the newest project by South Florida musician Sophie Sputnik who has traded in her acoustic guitar for a stripped down drum kit. Together with guitarist Rob Kingsley, she’s spent the past few months crafting a more aggressive and infinitely louder sound. Drawing heavily on blues and rock influences,…
You may not know his face or sweaty chest, but everyone’s familiar with the songs of Neil Diamond. This old crooner was quite the baja panti in his day. Hell, he remains a sex symbol for more women and men than the Biebs. New Times writer Lee Zimmerman claims this…
Contagious choruses are hardly anything new to the music industry; they’re almost the heart of it. Three-piece band Two Door Cinema Club makes climbing the charts look crazy easy even without straight pop hooks. Its genre-bending fusion of pop, indie rock, and dance makes it stand out from the rest…
