When it comes to fostering an a level of unmatched enthusiasm for South Florida's music scene, brothers Greg and Eddy Alvarez are in a class of their own. The pair strive to keep things fresh and exciting in Miami through their efforts with their DIY audio/visual outlet, Audio Junkie. They bring touring bands to the area to perform, and along with Janette Valentine, they infuse the city with something a bit different with their own band, the Jellyfish Brothers, a unique blend of doom and surfy psych. The Alverez brothers are invaluable members of Miami's music community and proper cheerleaders for others, always there with a bit of encouragement.
Most recently, the brothers have put together an interactive website to preview the new Jellyfish Brothers album, they provided a smashing time with their contribution to Sweat Records' Record Store Day festivities via the Audio Junkie Stage at Churchill's Pub, and booked a rising star in noise music, B L A C K I E, who will be performing at their studio tonight. We caught up with Greg Alverez for the details.
See also: DIY Video Journal Audio Junkie Breaks Ground in South Florida
New Times: How was tour?
Greg Alvarez: Tour was awesome, man! We went to New York and Boston!
How was the reception of the band?
Dude! It's so amazing going over there. The people, the kids over there are so into music. It's a different world, man. We sold a bunch of merch, the shows got rowdy as fuck, it was really fun! We played with Ken South Rock in New York and Unstoppable Death Machines in Boston and it was really, really fun.
Sweatstock was an absolute blast! My band had a great time playing, and I felt like the event as a whole was just such a great celebration of Miami's music community, particularly the Audio Junkie stage.
Oh, dude, it was amazing! So many kids of different ages, and it brought the whole community together. There were bands that were good a year ago, but now, they've improved their game so much! Like, everybody was vibing off of each other, Hoachi Waves, the Gun Hoes... All of these bands are becoming so much more professional, musical. They're all just kicking so much more ass. I'm just happy that I book bands that have improved so much.
It was just a great experience. Sweat Records was really kind to us. They let us do whatever we wanted to do, so it was really fun. We had the 3D Holly Hunt episode, we had noise bands between the regular bands, we booked all different kinds of music. It was a really good experience, man!
Can you explain what Audio Junkie is to someone that's unfamiliar with what you guys do.
That's the problem with Audio Junkie: It's so much stuff that it's kind of hard to pinpoint and we're having a problem with that. It's a videoblog, but it's a scene, we do events, and we do shows, and we market, and it's a whole bunch of branches that we're trying to do with Audio Junkie. Mostly, it's a community, a local artist community group, that try to support each other.
On the website and media outlet, you guys are doing some wild stuff, such as the Holly Hunt in 3D episode. How did you get involved in the video production end?
Well, we got involved because back in the day they had all of these great music-based video blogs like La Blogothèque, and for people like that to get down to Miami is so hard. We're a state that is so tucked away in the United States and hard to get to, and we didn't have anything like that going on.
So, we wanted to do something more special for the bands that we liked, we liked to help promote. And it started with different bands that were traveling and we kind of like make it worth it for them to come down if we promote a show and do a video for them. So it's kind of like bringing in new blood from other states, and that's how we started.
I can afford it, because I work in a video production place, so why not do video production for your friends? And to make people from other states want to come down here, and want to play here. Miami, everybody has the idea that it's just techno and disco music, but we have so much stuff here, and I think Audio Junkie provides an outlet for all of that to come out.
For example, I met this guy in Boston -- amazing, amazing, amazing noise artist that just blew my mind! Everything kind of connected and we're doing a show at my house. This guy from Texas, he's been in Noisey, Pitchfork, everywhere -- it's like extreme noise rap. His name is B L A C K I E, and the guy's insane. That's something that Audio Junkie does. We're bringing him down, he can stay at our place, he can chill, and we'll put a show on for him. It's a real do it yourself community.
I know you and your brother pretty much live and die for your work at this point.
We don't get anything out of it monetarily, we get a whole a heap of other stuff out of it, like the chance to spend time with these bands and to talk to them, to actually help them out, to chill, to do something different for them. We just love doing it!
Your band, The Jellyfish Brothers, has a new album coming out, correct?
Yeah!
And I heard you're running a special website to preview the record?
It's a special website created just for the album. It's an interactive website that you can go in and there are two new music videos on the website, you have to look for them, though. It's called
B L A C K I E. 9 p.m., Thursday, May 1, at 164 NW 20 St., Miami, Suite 206. Visit sentinelsofthespaceage.com.
New Party Rules for Millennials
10 Best Hipster Bars in Broward and Palm Beach Counties
Top 20 Sexiest R&B Songs from the '90s to Today
Ten Best Florida Metal Bands of All Time
Follow @CountyGrind
