When we hear the name Hoodie Allen we envision a cross between Big Baby Jesus, a.k.a. Dirt McGirt, or Wu Tang Clan’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and Larry David. Sounds too soft for you? Well, in the absence of an MC that dares to pair gangsta ribaldry with Hasidic orthodoxy, we’ll…
Last October, panty-droppin’-music aficionados across the country were dealt a devastating disappointment: John Legend was postponing his highly anticipated tour to finish Love in the Future, his first album since 2010’s Wake Up! We’re crazy about Legend, his eyebrow-singeing vocal pipes, and the mega-smoove urban R&B he has helped maintain…
MTV News’ online program RapFix streams live, so when Carol City rapper and guest Denzel Curry dropped an N-bomb, host Sway Calloway seemed like he was going to pee-pee in his pants. But who can blame Curry for being casual and slipping up? He’s still in high school and already…
“It feels like a perfect night,” Taylor Swift flirtily professes, perfectly in sync with the equally coy 4/4 backing beat, “to dress up like hipsters/And make fun of our exes.” Those are the first lyrics she sings on “22,” the newest single from her dominating and inescapable Red album, released…
If a band could sound like a drunken sex party on the beach, the Gun Hoes are it. Busting out song after song of surf-tinged, fuzzed-out garage punk, singer/guitarist Gabe Miranda, drummer Anthony Hernandez, and one of a few bass-playing friends, get the late-night crowds dancing all over Miami and…
The entire of South Florida — we’re talking the people, the streets, the ocean — heaved a sigh of relief after two weekends of EDM intensity came to an end when Ultra Music Festival finally closed the gates to their entirely-too-long rave. For those who didn’t attend, there isn’t much…
Music vet and New Times scribe Lee Zimmerman offers his insights, opinions, and observations about the local scene. This week: the one, the only Tom Jones! Of all the accolades Tom Jones has earned over the course of his career — a Grammy, an MTV Video Music Award, a star…
Aside from being occasionally (and incorrectly) filed near one another by record clerks who don’t know how to alphabetize, the Beatles — particularly the pre-LSD hits — and Bob Marley don’t really have a whole lot in common. Can you think of two genres as disparate as reggae and British…
Music vet and New Times scribe Lee Zimmerman offers his insights, opinions, and observations about the local scene. This week: Blue Sky Drive appears to be on a path to a shining future. It’s always a thrill to find new Broward bands that are willing and able to write and…
Boca native Ariana Grande’s seriously high notes boosted the young singer to the top of the iTunes charts today. Just released, her second single, “The Way,” features college rapper dude Mac Miller and some heart-warming, wholesome lyrics, well, at least for an R&B song.Grande sings emotionally, like a teenaged Mariah…
Does rock music matter in the strobes-and-XTC, uhntz-uhntz-obsessed age of Avicii?The real answer for 99 percent of consumers is, “No. Rock is dead.”But if you ask the few members of that other 1 percent, despite being stupendously outnumbered by dorks in spirit hats, doing poppers, they will respond with the…
Photo by George MartinezMolly Casa, AKA Miami’s PLUR Mama. Wassup, Miami! And all you foreigners breathing our air. We here at New Times are covering all your Ultra Music Festival shenanigans. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t chronicle the adventures of the PLUR nation’s royal queen, Molly Casa of…
Photos – Jacob KatelWelcom to Twerklandia Getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha freak on! We all know that there are lots of ways to become immortalized at a massive outdoor music gathering like Ultra Music Festival. Say, humping a tree. Or dancing naked while getting arrested. But yo’ momma would probably…
The end of any Ultra Music Festival weekend is when things start to get real. After three full days of dancing and pounding music, mostly in the sun, only the strongest make it to the end, and even they can get cranky. So while positive vibes ruled over 99 percent…
Your teeth just stopped chattering from the bass like 20 minutes ago, and every time you turn your head, you still hear vestiges of screeching synths. But that doesn’t mean you’re thrilled WMC and Ultra just ended. EDM-heads will not stop pulsing with beats for any sort of practical reason. Work?…
Photo by Liz Tracy 16. Best Bieber At first we thought: “Holy shit! That’s Justin Bieber at Ultra! Wow! This is better than Madge’s crash (and burn) last year!” Alas! It was merely a cardboard likeness of our favorite pothead newbie. But for desperate Bieber fans like us, any Bieb’ll…
Better than: Anything Have Heart ever did. The straightedge ethos and lifestyle, as it was defined by hardcore punk pioneers like Minor Threat’s Ian MacKaye, can be a difficult one to understand for the uninitiated outsider. However, for those that identify with the movement — regardless of how long their commitment…
Better than: A Yes greatest hits show. Consider me won over. I had a feeling seeing Yes live would crystalize the band for me. For all these years, I have been a fan of certain bands of progressive rock (though not necessarily of the genre as a whole), I had never given Yes…
The uhntz-uhntz hasn’t even died down. But just minutes after wrapping its six-day 2013 edition with Swedish House Mafia’s last show ever, Ultra Music Festival has already announced a plan for next year’s insane EDM extravaganza. “See you all next year at Ultra Music Festival 2014!” the fest’s organizers tweeted,…
Ever since George W. Bush had to pull his dick out of the mashed potatoes (yes, it was definitely “that kind of party”), the United States of America, the politicians that govern it, and the voting populace at large have all been tied to a swinging pendulum of manic populism. Who…
Photo by Marta Xochilt Perez After going all country music on Ultra 2013 this weekend, Avicii’s taking vacay for a day. (At least until it’s time to return to UMF tonight and “come, rave, love” one last time with his countrymen in SHM.) And it’s totally obvious where the Swede…
Via statigr.am/jasonmalliaHow quickly some stars have ascended in the EDM boom. Just a few years ago, in 2009, Toronto-based producer Deadmau5 could be found at Ultra Music Festival on the live stage, essentially opening up for Simian Mobile Disco. Last night, though, trying to get the main stage to witness…
