When punk rock sneeringly ejaculated onto the music scene in the 1970s, it was all about volume, attitude and, most importantly, the rebellious nihilism of young disillusionment. But in 2012, self-proclaimed punk rockers look like massage therapists at a Winnie the Pooh spa. Just take a look at The Other…
For 31 years, the numerous, ever-increasing stages at gritty, surreal, and spectacular Churchill’s Pub in Little Haiti has been where Miami rock music goes to define itself. A quick scan of the assorted press and awards (including endless clippings for Miami New Times Best Rock Club nods) reveal only a…
Is 21-year-old Nika Roza Danilova (AKA operatically trained goth-pop diva Zola Jesus) more than just a needle in 2012’s vast haystack of gloomy synth music? Film director, transcendental meditation evangelist, and total pie guy David Lynch certainly thinks so. In fact, Lynch enjoys ZJ’s digital death rock spin on Kate…
Last night, Washington D.C. straight-edge stompers Coke Bust ripped open Churchill’s Pub like a moody Norse God leveling some mountains out of ennui. And really, would you have expected any less with a band name like Coke Bust? Straight edge is usually pretty serious business. So while not entirely the…
Cop City/Chill Pillars at Churchill’s Pub January 13
Festivals are sort of the Costco of live music. Take, for example, the upcoming 2012 edition of Coachella. If you purchased individual concert tickets for every artist on the lineup, the cost would far exceed the festival’s more-or-less $400 fee. But when you visit Costco to buy a swimming pool’s…
In 1967, The Beatles released their sprawling Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band concept album, a dense wallop of cutting-edge experimental production techniques, schizophrenic survey of genres, and, most importantly, the psychedelic youth movement’s most prominent statement. Really, the whole record, from start to finish, was about getting faded. And…
TMZ interviewing KISS frontman Gene Simmons about controversial Christian virgin and Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow? Sounds like one of those “…walks into a bar” bits, only the punchline doesn’t give you a case of uncontrollable giggles. It just makes you wanna puke. But whatever … The KISS creep is…
Did you hear about O’Grime’s New Year’s Resolution? Yes, dude, that O’Grime. The big-in-Lithuania, “Kush Smoke and Pussy” guys. Word on the street (and by street, we mean Facebook Chat) is that in 2012 O’Grime is not actually going to give a single fuck. Not one. You didn’t see it…
Though the source (Frank “Rat Bastard” Falestra, prolific producer, musician, and, yes, sole proprietor of Squelch TV) is arguably biased, the assertion is, nevertheless, pretty convincing. Over the weekend, Falestra hosted the latest edition of the series, which has featured Miami-based rock ‘n roll (Snakehole, Holly Hunt) and avant-weirdo shit…
UPDATE: Download Rick Ross’s new mixtape and get Rich Forever right now! We’re only six days deep into 2012 and Rap Radar is already declaring Rick Ross’s latest digital slab — entitled, appropriately enough, Rich Forever — to be one of “the most anticipated mixtapes of the the year.” As…
Oh, King of Diamonds, the adult entertainment megaplex complete with barbershop, basketball court, and, of course, mountains upon mountains of b-b-booty …. We here at Crossfade love KOD more than anyone else in America. Except, of course, acclaimed international pop-rap superstar Lil Wayne, whose frequent and decadent jaunts to South…
Somewhere in this cold, harsh universe, there is a sentient lifeform that gives a flipping fuck about Frank Zappa’s daughter divorcing some bro-ham guitarist from Matchbox 20. But we here at Crossfade just can’t get past the newly hot-to-trot Zappa’s first name: Moon Unit. While Papa Zappa surely struck gold,…
As the dolled-up, sweaty, rip-roaringly drunk revelers counted down the final seconds of 2011, you were standing by the punch bowl (actually, it was a mop bucket) full of vodka water, frantically scanning for your boo-boo, lest you and shawty miss out on that absolutely essential stroke-of-midnight spit swap. But…
The Taxpayers at Sweat Records January 5
The archetypal preacher commands the pulpit like a mad scientist. He gesticulates wildly like a fascist dictator delivering his signature call-to-arms for an assembly of at-attention infantry. Spit collects in the corner of the holy man’s mouth before launching forth like soot spewed from the barrel of a canon. His…
Hare Krishna hardcore? Screamo? Whatever-the-fuck-genre-Flogging-Molly-plays? There’s no denying it: Punk rock has gone through some seriously bizarre permutations. And in keeping with the big-tent genre’s proclivity toward making bedfellows of once-disparate sub-scenes (like suburban US skate-punk and Jamaican ska), Little Haiti’s favorite holy house of wax and vegan cupcakes, Sweat…
According to Wikipedia (The Free Encyclopedia), the term peak oil refers to “the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline.” Similarly, the concept of peak chillwave is that moment in history during which hazy ’80s…
Every generation lampoons those that came before it. Nothing is easier to parody than the ’60s: the hair, the beads, the vibes, maaan. In the ’70s, everybody’s pants were fucking huge, until their hair got Bride of Frankenstein-huge in the ’80s, thanks to all that blow and yacht rock. Unfortunately,…
We understand that Dickens intended A Christmas Carol to be, in part, a critique of class power dynamics. And that the reprehensible-but-ultimately-redeemed Ebenezer Scrooge is supposed to symbolize some kind of hardened capitalist. But no matter how totally 1% the dude was, he had a point when it came to…
Meaty post-punk trio Beings was a South Florida rock crew that transcended the micro-genres — hardcore, No Wave, metal, shoegaze, rock ‘n’ roll — that influenced its high-energy, pogo-friendly anthems. When Beings broke up unexpectedly back in May, the punks, metalheads, and art-damaged fans were all shocked. But percussionist and…
Maybe we were born too late. Or in the wrong part of the country. But quintessential ’80s hair-metal extravaganza rockers KISS have always come off as kinda goofy. Alice Cooper, The Stooges, Black Sabbath … Now there’s some blues-derived din that knew how to get down with underground darkness. By…
