What is it about the the 1980’s? Not too many clubs are throwing 50’s sock hops. 1960’s nights came and went with the cancellation of Mad Men, and the 70’s are deader than disco. But the 1980’s has continued to be a focus point for nightspots and the fun loving…

Nicky Siano, who will help Miami ring in 2017 with a New Year’s Eve DJ set at Bardot, has been behind the turntables since the beginning of modern dance culture. As a teenager in the ’70s, he opened his own New York City club, the Gallery, and is the last surviving original resident DJ for the legendary Studio 54. He spoke with New Times about his past.

After leaving the heavy-metal band Attila in 1970, Billy Joel found himself working as a lounge singer in a piano bar. In painstaking detail, he recounted that chapter of his life in the song that shot him to fame: “Piano Man.” It’s one of the saddest songs ever, describing people…

When Caitlin Krisko moved her rootsy rock band the Broadcast from New York City to Asheville, North Carolina, it took some getting used to. “My mom moved me to New York City when I was a freshman in high school,” Krisko tells New Times while she sips a glass of wine. “New York is an exhausting place. Asheville is a lot quieter and slower, which can drive me crazy,” she laughs.

As soon as those first seven words come on — “Oh, baby, you got what I need” — the 1989 hip-hop classic “Just a Friend” will stay lodged in your head for the rest of your waking hours. Written and recorded by the gravelly voiced Biz Markie during the golden age of hip-hop, the song has a timeless quality that sounds like drunken nights and unrequited love.

Singer Adi Elcida Hernandez and guitarist Ernesto Paez have known each other since high school. After getting married four years ago, they decided to form the band Modern Mimes. “I’ve been in metal bands since I was 13,” Paez says. “She’s always been a singer-songwriter. Two years ago, we said…

Ricco Black says his band Pandora Black is influenced by Massive Attack, Berlin, and Depeche Mode. Indeed, you can hear it in the dark and moody debut album Into the Shadows. But when he tells New Times his biggest inspiration was the ’80s rockabilly band the Stray Cats, that takes some explaining. “They were able to take 1950s sounds into the ’80s. We want to take ’80s sounds into the new millennium.”

What is neo-Cuban blues? It’s what local singer-songwriter Sol Ruiz calls her Spanglish sound that mixes music from two countries that are so close yet so far apart. “My parents are Cuban, and I was born and raised in Miami Beach, so I was interested in my roots,” Ruiz tells New Times.

Floridians don’t really know how to handle winter. While the rest of the country is shoveling snow and huddling around trash-can fires, we’re wearing shorts and hitting the beach. But we still find ways to celebrate the season — for example, with “Lots of good…

Top 40 radio is a beloved institution for a vast number of listeners. And few stations in America have been playing the hits as long as WHYI-FM. Better known around these parts as Y100, the pop station has been broadcasting whatever the kids happen to be listening to that week…

Though he’s recently had albums titled Global Warming, Globalization, and the upcoming Climate Change, lately Pitbull has not been the most political of rappers. His verses in “Timber” had nothing to do with deforestation, and “Give Me Everything” makes no mention of where he comes down on tax rates. But…

It’s an ironic truth that sends a mixture of anger and confusion shooting up the spine of out-of-towners: South Floridians who live near the beach tend not to actually go to the beach very often. Maybe we’re jaded, spoiled, or don’t want to get sandy — who knows? But the concert…