Watching Ultra Music Festival’s idyllic official after-movies, you might get the impression that UMF is some kind of utopian music-based society where the young and beautiful run only in slow motion, where everyone is welcome and everything is pleasant. In some ways, this is true. You’re more likely to have…
Three days and 78 DJs is a daunting task, but it’s one EDM fanatics joyously face when entering the Ultra Music Festival grounds. Yes, the old favorites are there, the likes of Tiesto, Steve Aoki, and Skrillex, but to catch the biggest names is only to scratch the surface of…
Scientifically speaking, you are what you eat. But what if you’re a Grammy-winning house producer and DJ? Does food fuel the creative fire in your belly? In the case of Ali Shirazinia, known to house music fans as Dubfire or half of D.C.-based duo Deep Dish, the answer is a…
A quick listen to the radio or a glance at the modern musical landscape shows proof of a total electronic takeover. Some of the industry’s most recognizable faces smile from behind a laptop rather than a microphone, and the dance scene remains one of the highest-grossing and most resilient outgrowths…
DJs are a dime a dozen. But a few times every decade, the world gets an act with the creativity, vision, and voice to change the course of pop music. Nearly ten years ago, French house duo Daft Punk laid the foundation for an electronic dance music explosion, when its…
We knew this moment was coming. Uncle Luke and 2 Live Crew have finally added a Miami show to their triumphant reunion tour around this great nation that once wanted them to waste away in a jail cell for being As Nasty As They Wanna Be. Call your freakiest ho,…
Our heads are spinning right about now. All these Miami Music Week shows got us blurry-headed and bleary-eyed. Every time someone asks us about our personal party plan, we just scratch out heads and say, “Deeerrrrrp, huh?” If you’re dazed and confused like us and you’ve got $600 to drop…
Did you see Martijn Garritsen at Ultra 2013? Maybe you walked right past him, asked him for a light, or made idle chitchat with him in the line for the port-a-john. Then 16, he was just another face in the crowd. Today, you may know the Dutch teen by his…
It’s March. Are you feeling poetic? Load the paper into your typewriter (are you 80?) and break out your favorite inspirational beverage because O, Miami is just around the corner. The all-poetry-all-the-time celebration begins Wednesday, April 1; runs through Thursday, April 30; and is now accepting submissions for poet participants…
EDM fans are counting down the days until Ultra Music Festival 2015. But ten months ago, the City of Miami wasn’t sure if it would ever return. Following the tragic trampling of security guard Erica Mack and fatal drug overdose of 21-year-old attendee Adonis Escoto, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and…
Strolling through the streets of New Orleans, Tony McGuinness can’t help being charmed by the crumbling, romantic building facades as they peer through the bayou mist. He’s going Insta-crazy, taking and uploading pic after pic. “I’m a huge fan of faded grandeur,” he says. Maybe that’s why, as a third…
If we told you the place to be tonight is a three year old’s birthday party, would you believe us? There won’t be any balloon animals or clown magicians. Instead, be regaled by special performances from Migos and OG Maco. Eat your fill of pipin’ hot chicken and biscuits from…
Turn on your television or open a magazine, and you’re likely to run into someone saying something about “feminism.” For Miami-based performer and artist Cat Del Buono, that’s great news, but it’s not really anything out of the ordinary. “For me, it’s been a hot topic for a while so…
When you think perks of being a DJ, you think about all the time you get to read books, right? Is that weird to you? It isn’t to Tiga, but then again, he’s always been a little different. The celebrated Canadian producer has been lucky enough to find success through…
Dance music’s obsession with trap beats is far from over, but just as in any relationship, you’ve got to spice things up. L.A.-based trap star RL Grime has been in the game for almost four years, and as much as he loves 808s and grimy drops, he needed something more…
It may be Steam Miami’s first Winter Music Conference, but the downtown club builds steadily upon old Vagabond tradition. The new leaders are veterans of the scene, and already, the week is slammed with showcases and old favorites. From Sunday, March 22, through Friday, March 27, it’s going to be…
When LA punk-rap skate collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All first came to Miami for a very special Halloween performance in 2011, Lil Wayne was there, but Earl Sweatshirt was thousands of miles away. The most critically acclaimed of the OFWKTA crew was off at boarding school in…
They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but what about the machine gun? The world never saw such inhuman, bloody warfare until 1914, when World War I changed the nature of battle forever. For the first time in human history, a soldier could kill his enemy without ever…
Four years ago, Ultra Music Festival made waves when it split from the usual date range of Winter Music Conference. Traditionally, the festival and the conference took place during the same week. In 2011, though, the two entities feuded and scheduled separate stretches during the month of March. Thus, the…
There’s still another month until Miami degrades into a giant Winter Music Conference/Miami Music Week mess, but the list of parties is already longer than the city is wide. We can tell you from experience that such a list is daunting, especially when it’s scattered around the Interwebs. How are…
A year ago, Telescope Thieves’ Mario De Los Santos was feeling pretty lonely. “I always felt like the odd guy out,” he says. “At the time, if you were a producer or a beat maker, you’d get booked for shows and be the only beat maker among guys with bands.”…
Miami native Danny Dueñas is the co-creator of My Mixtapez, the number-one hip-hop mixtape app for Android, iPhone, and Windows operating systems. With his brothers Juan and Ricky, Danny launched the mobile service in 2011, giving fans a resource for discovering, downloading, streaming, sharing, and favoriting the freshest, dopest beats…
