When offered the assignment of interviewing Johnny Cash, I had a moment of insane excitement as I imagined asking questions about “A Boy Named Sue” and Sun Records. But then I remembered the Man in Black had been dead for over a decade. The Johnny Cash with whom I would…
Growing up in Little Havana, Aura Peralta found inspiration in the unlikeliest of places, an episode of The Simpsons. “Watching Lisa Simpson play the sax back in sixth grade, that’s when I knew music was what I wanted to do,” she recalls. Now grown up, she sings in a band…
Ever been tempted to take a time machine back to 1950s Havana, but the only thing keeping you in 2015 was you wouldn’t be able to dance to Pitbull in the ’50s? Well, now the 1950s and Pitbull’s music don’t have to be mutually exclusive. This Friday, April 10, Pitbull…
Thirteen is a number considered by many to be unlucky, but the organizers of the 13th-annual Heineken TransAtlantic Festival see themselves as incredibly fortunate. When this world music-focused fest was launched in 2003, it seemed unlikely that a decade-plus run lay ahead. But as Rhythm Foundation director Laura Quinlan explains,…
It’s hard to imagine how the founders of Miami Beach envisioned their island paradise a century in the future. It’s unlikely that they foresaw Miami Beach residents in 2015 using selfie sticks or drones. They also probably could not see Flo Rida coming. But Flo, along with fellow 305 superstar…
You’d think the man who wrote and performed the reggae fusion smash “It Wasn’t Me” might have trouble convincing his love interest that he can be an honest man. Shaggy laughs at that notion. “I had a girlfriend when I wrote that song. She knows I’m a big storyteller and…
We here at New Times always figured it was just a matter of time before local band-gone-big Jacuzzi Boys’ lead singer and guitarist Gabriel Alcala’s artistic endeavors would be seen on a late-night talk show. But we just figured it would be as lead singer of the Jacuzzi Boys, not…
If Michelle Beebs hadn’t been gifted with the sultry voice of a powerful frontwoman, she could always fall back on a successful career as ghostwriter for talk-show guests. Her larger-than-life stage and fashion presence as the singer of Orlando ska band Beebs and Her Money Makers proves she’s got the…
“Music is about being brave and not being afraid to fail,” the easy-going Zach Deputy says. The guitarist and singer/songwriter will live up to that philosophy when he headlines the New Times Music Showcase at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, playing with a drummer, bassist, keyboardist, and percussionist that he’ll…
“If you add up the numbers in 2015, you get eight,” says Danny Burns, singer, guitarist, songwriter, and numerologist for Miami garage rock band Grey 8s, when asked about his plans for the upcoming year. The group began in Dania, where Burns and drummer Andres Bedoya formed the foundation of…
“I’m like Willy Wonka with his chocolate factory, always coming up with ideas,” My Deer’s Jo Viscaino says. “I just checked my phone and I have 367 recordings saved of ideas for songs.” To some completing 367 songs might seem an outlandish ambition, but as many a fortune cookie have…
At 11:30 p.m., a gaunt, bespectacled Phil Collins walked on to the stage of the Fillmore Miami Beach, flanked by his ex-wife Orianne Collins-Mejjati and their young son, to tell the sold-out Little Dreams Gala crowd that he had to cancel his performance. It was to be Collins first concert…
“Whatever happens, we feel we already won,” says Palo! pianist Steve Roitstein from Las Vegas as he waits to find out whether his Miami Afro-Cuban funk five-piece’s record Palo! Live will win the 2014 Latin Grammy for Best Contemporary Tropical Album. “Submitting the album was daunting. Not the process, which…
Brazilian Girls With Eons and the Hongs Ball & Chain, Miami Thursday, November 13, 2014 Better Than: Any band featuring Gisele, Sônia Braga, or even Carmen Miranda. Walking into the new Ball & Chain bar, it was a little jarring to see a packed room staring at a three-piece jazz…
“Who knows how many people come to our band’s website looking for porn?” wonders Aaron Johnston, drummer for NYC’s Brazilian Girls, who in every interview is forced to proclaim that no one in the group is Brazilian and only one of the four members is actually a girl. “The name…
There is a stigma attached to Christian music. And Atlanta-based rapper Lecrae wants no part of being stereotyped. “My music is not Christian, Lecrae is,” he often explains to the press. “I think Christian is a wonderful noun, but a terrible adjective,” he tells Crossfade. “Are there Christian shoes, Christian…
Just as seasons change, so do musical fads. What is stylish eventually grows passé before becoming cool again. However, legendary singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris has never paid any mind to waves of popularity. Over the course of her four-decade career, she has been too concerned with staying true to herself, no…
Ten months of working and spending time in America was all it took for the Moscow-born, Australia-based, half-Dominican electro-soul singer Fantine to perform in front of Michelle Obama. “The First Lady was at an event in Miami Gardens, and what happened was, a few days prior, I was singing the…
When people think of the presence of foreign cultures in Miami, Cuba’s comes first, followed perhaps by Haiti, Columbia, or Israel. France would generally be far down the list. With French Weeks Miami, the French-American Chamber of Commerce is trying to change the pecking order. Started seven years ago, the…
Foster the People With Soko Fillmore Miami Beach Thursday, October 16, 2014 Better Than: A no-hit wonder. “Pumped Up Kicks” is such a good fucking song. It’s cool and catchy and inspires people to use their Shazam app when they hear it on a TV show or at a bar…
In 1994, singer and guitarist Warren Haynes never imagined Gov’t Mule would still exist in the year 2014. “In the beginning, it was just a side project, because Allen Woody and myself were full-time members of the Allman Brothers Band,” Haynes says. “We had no ambitions or aspirations. It was…
You know Chris Stein as the guitarist for Blondie and co-songwriter of the immortal “Heart of Glass.” But in the four decades of Blondie’s existence, the New Yorker has been just as likely to have a camera strapped around his neck. So, to celebrate Blondie’s 40th anniversary, Rizzoli is publishing…
