What is it about the ’60s? Why does that decade still seem to affect music more than any other? Guitarist and keyboardist Adam Smith believes he has the answer.

New Times’ eighth-annual Brew at the Zoo is headed for Zoo Miami on Saturday, May 6, from 7 to 11 p.m. There will not only be food and more than 100 local, international, and craft beers, but also some pretty fine tunes.

A full decade after the release of their last album, Miami’s favorite funk fusion instrumentalists, Spam Allstars, have finally issued their sixth record, Trans-Oceanic. “Our last album came out in 2007,” says the band’s mastermind, DJ Le Spam. “I was burnt out, and most of my downtime from gigging was spent recording other people in the studio.”

Though he calls his current project “Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness,” Andrew McMahon is a man who knows exactly where he is, where he’s been, and where he’s going.

Chris Brown often says Michael Jackson is his biggest inspiration. And it’s easy to see the foundation laid by the King of Pop in Brown’s work. Take his video for “Party,” for example; as the 27-year-old Brown dances, you can imagine Jackson’s moves, so much a part of Brown that…

Outside of country music, no musical genre is as white — or at least believed to be as white — as metal. Blame it on Beavis, Butthead, Bill, or Ted, but if asked to describe a typical metalhead, most Americans would draw a long-haired Caucasian bro making the Devil’s sign…

Movie and television audiences tend to appreciate subtle, understated work from actors. But music is a different story. Singers who simply let the song carry their voice, without theatrical flair, don’t always get the love and admiration they deserve. If they did, Dionne Warwick would have a fancy nickname like…

“It’s soul music. It touches the soul and the soles of the feet that gets everyone moving to the orchestra in my head.” Zach Deputy’s description of his sound is both inspiring and pun-tastic. The Savannah, Georgia-based Deputy, who will play the Wynwood Yard this Saturday, is a 21st-century version…

Kid Koala is best known as a DJ who plays his turntable like an instrument, both as a solo artist and with acts such as the Gorillaz and Deltron 3030. But he is also a comic-book creator. With Nufonia Must Fall, the man born Eric San has combined his twin…

As grownups living out their teenage rock-star dreams, it’s only right that the five guys who make up We the Kings named their band after the Bradenton middle school they attended. “We all went to Martha B. King Middle School,” keyboardist Coley O’Toole confirms. “Travis Clark and Hunter Thomsen started…

Playing Miami in the springtime is nothing new for DJ Laidback Luke. “I’ve been to Winter Music Conference every year since 2001,” he tells New Times. “It helped me as an up-and-comer handing out demos and mixtapes. I remember in 2005, I played a hotel lobby, and only three people…

Hynde is happy to have a headlining date at the Fillmore while on a break from a tour opening for Stevie Nicks. “We get to play a lot of the new songs.” Those new songs are from the Pretenders’ tenth album, Alone, which was released last year. Produced and including guitars by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, it features the punk-rock attitude Hynde has displayed throughout her career.

Right along with being guaranteed the last entry in any alphabetical list of history’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands, ZZ Top has one other quality that makes it stand out from the pack: longevity. And, no, that’s not a reference to the size of their beards.

Brace yourself. Winter is coming. Like all pop culture phenomena, Game of Thrones will not allow itself to be bound to one medium. What began as A Song of Ice and Fire — a series of fantasy books written by George R.R. Martin — Game of Thrones was unleashed onto…

Folk music and punk rock don’t seem to go hand in hand. One is slow; the other is fast. One conjures images of flowing dresses and acoustic guitars; the other makes you think of ripped jeans and safety-pin piercings. But because both genres stem from protest, they often find a…

When singer Dan Lotti and guitarist Mike Sivilli first gigged around Charleston, South Carolina, in 2005, they didn’t want to take themselves too seriously. So they chose a name that made them laugh: Dangermuffin. But something unexpected has happened over the past decade.