Earl Sweatshirt has come a long way. He used to be a nervous kid with a knack for language. Then, he was a famous, nervous kid with a knack for language. Now, he’s still got one of the illest skill sets in the game, but a critically-acclaimed album and a…
It’s rarely easy to forge a career out of a passion. Most professional musicians know this all too well. Making a living off what you love is a grind — unless you love hedge funds. In which case, you have other problems. But Phil Barnes doesn’t mind the adversity. A…
Sure everyone’s bummed about the closing of venerable downtown Miami indie haunt Vagabond, but this bad news comes with a bit of a silver lining for those of us north of the Golden Glades Interchange. Popular darkwave night Black Fridays will be making a move back to the Fort Lauderdale…
This weekend at the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL, is shaping up nicely. The seventh annual Purple Hatter’s Ball is taking over for three days filled with live music by notable national acts, workshops — from yoga to juicing — and tons of love and appreciation…
Of all the genres in the musical universe, hip-hop maintains the healthiest level of competition. It’s an art form partially founded on the basic principles of battling, bragging, and shutting down the other guy. In today’s fast-changing landscape, a new generation of rappers is emerging, the most skilled of which…
Indie garage rockers Deaf Poets may have been born in Miami Beach, but the noise this sonic duo emits is anything but tropical. Featuring bombastic guitar strums and blaring snare-drum smashes, this powerful, bluesy two-piece emits sounds more fitting for a grimy hole in the wall in Memphis. Nature of…
Lady Gaga spent about as much time pumping up the self-esteem of her Little Monsters during the first date of her Artpop Ball tour at the BB&T Center as she did sassing them and talking about herself. It was more like sitting at the Christmas table with our real moms…
West Palm Beach’s massive five-day, totally diverse music blowout, SunFest, is prime time for the voyeuristic hobby known as people-watching. It is especially entertaining during the daylight hours when heavy drinking is involved. Sunday at the waterfront provided the perfect scene for peeping the folks of SunFest with plenty of…
Music vet and New Times scribe Lee Zimmerman offers his insights, opinions, and observations about the local scene. This week: Michael Koppy’s local whirlwind. Florida — South Florida in particular — isn’t exactly emblematic of the South as a whole, and yet it seems somewhat appropriate that a musician who…
The Mavericks Parker Playhouse, Fort Lauderdale May 1, 2014 Better than: Anyone might possibly imagine It’s been more than fourteen years since the Mavericks last played in these parts, which made last night’s nearly three hour concert Parker Playhouse clearly a celebratory homecoming. “It’s great to be back in South…
It’s hard to believe that nearly ten years have passed since former Comes with the Fall lead singer William DuVall took the helm as the vocalist for Alice in Chains. It was a move that proved questionable for Alice in Chain fans at the time. How could the group stand…
Wednesday was the first night of SunFest, a five-day, beer soaked music festival at the West Palm Beach downtown waterfront. Fans of old school white-folk rock and roll reveled in the day one lineup, which consisted of five acts: the Vagabonds, Surfer Blood, Dick Dale, Kid Rock, and Cake. It…
Is it here? Could it possibly be? Why yes, the glory of SunFest is already upon us. And while you print out your schedule and grab the closest highlighter, your favorite stars on the lineup are all making their way around our small bubble. Hard to believe that while other…
“I know for myself, when I’m listening to music, I don’t really love being able to place exactly when or where it was made,” Portland-based music man, M. Ward, unsurprisingly assesses. This is a man whose first love is guitar, who still records on a four-track recorder, and who once…
Surf rock legend Dick Dale takes to the stage at West Palm Beach’s SunFest tonight. Sandwiched in between early rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly and the British Invasion, surf rock briefly dominated the charts in the early ’60s. Its easily accessible rhythms and narratives of carefree adolescence conjure images of sun…
If you’re impatient, the idea that “good things come to those who wait” seems like the stuff of assholes or dummies. However, after living some life, I’ve found that though it’s uncomfortable to feel left behind, waiting often yields gratifying results. This is true for first kisses, getting your first…
Almost three years ago exactly, Lady Gaga performed back-to-back South Florida dates celebrating her immensely popular Fame Monster EP. Gaga seemed within reach of Madonna’s Queen of Pop crown. It was hard to argue the contrary. Hits like “Poker Face” and “Bad Romance” dominated the radio, while her wildly creative…
What might sound to you like just a fiery, Latin-fusion guitar solo peeking through the verse and chorus of that new chart-topper by [insert pop star here] is, in fact, the sound of Carlos Santana making more money. The guitar pioneer has helped to cast the mold for the modern…
When we heard Jimmy Buffett, the king crooner of Margaritaville and Land Shark lager, was playing these parts, we grabbed our leis and lawn chairs and headed over to Cruzan to watch him perform. And although there are still cheeseburgers in paradise, it was all the parrotheads that caught our…
From the get-go, DJ Scotty Solomon set the mood at Culture Room for the Stokeswood, Jimkata, and Warp9 show on Saturday night. Outside in the patio area, he played very chill, down-tempo, hip-hop mixes that were the perfect start to the evening, especially with all the high-intensity acts still to…
“Just another one hit wonder,” mused music critics when Sacramento, California alternative pop act Cake first came onto the scene in the’90s, with its pervasive hit “Going the Distance.” Led by singer John McCrea’s dissafected speak-sing style, its deep baselines, and heavy funk grooves, the song smothered commercial radio, cathcing…
In 1989, the year the Mavericks first convened, the divide between pop and country was still relatively wide. “Americana” was a term that hadn’t entered the popular lexicon just yet, and Nashville was by and large still off-limits to any artist who arrived sans a cowboy hat and a good-ol’-boy…
