The cries and calls for a thriving local music scene in Miami are inescapable. Form a band, become a promoter, train as a sound engineer, and eventually the city’s natural roadblocks will squash your hopes of entertainment industry success like a cat making its way across I-95’s Express Lane. Last…
A week ago local poet, musician, and promoter Benjamin Shahoulian started a comment war on his Facebook page, stemming from his frustration at local musicians’ constant complaints about promoters. As the exchanges were getting pretty intense, hip-hop artist and promoter Erik Grizzly jokingly suggested making a video for “Shit Miami…
If old traditions hold true, and obsessively watching Mad Men has taught us anything, it’s that big advertising firms have their fingers in each other’s pockets. Like Russell Crowe watching pigeons in A Beautiful Mind, patterns can emerge when you look at any given year’s Super Bowl ads. Last year,…
At the end of this week, two hordes of men who have suffered, bled, and fought for five months will meet on a neutral site to bash each others’ heads in, to test the limits of their physical strength and stamina, all in the name of sport, conquest, and achieving…
It’s not easy being a musician in Vice City. The geographical challenge alone is enough to make any band go crazy. Miami may never be called a musical epicenter. But when Radioboxer’s Jota Dazza put out the call for fellow musicians to take part in the Florida Music Get Together,…
Sex. Romance. Jealous lovers. Murder. Tragedy. An episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey? Nope, it’s Georges Bizet’s Carmen. If you thought people were messed up on reality programming, try this 1875 opera. Carmen, a Gypsy, twists the heart of her lover, Don Jose, into such agony that it’s…
Christmas in South Florida doesn’t quite have the same pizazz as other places in the country. Endless sunshine almost always beats the overcast gloom that our northern neighbors suffer through every holiday season, but still, a snowy Christmas must be nice.Since the weather wasn’t enough to satiate our wintertime needs,…
Not too long ago, Ex Norwegian was one of those Miami bands that everyone had to see play. The group’s debut album, Standby, was amazingly well received. Reviewers would offer glowing praises like explodingsound.com’s “Standby is a stellar pop album that should be widely embraced.” Likewise, the follow up, Sketch,…
It’s easy to fall victim to glitz and glamor. It’s easy to see the big stars, the bright lights, the sandy beaches, or the half-naked wannabe strippers of Ocean Boulevard in hip-hop videos and think, “This is Miami.” Reality programming and big-budget Hollywood films portray Miami as a land of…
At this point in their music careers, the men of Stay Hitt have earned local legend status. Like old college drinking buddies or that guy in high school that set the principal’s car on fire, there’s tons of crazy Stay Hitt stories floating around Miami, most likely involving a goat,…
Before Al Gore gave birth to the Internet, sex-crazed men frantically flipped through pages upon pages of Sears catalogs, lingerie ads, or Better Homes and Gardens in hopes of finding just the right images so they could spank the monkey, flog the dolphin, or shake the South Pole. Then God…
For any kid who grew up in the ’80s, it wasn’t about the content of character. It was about the size of Transformer. After school and Saturday mornings, masses of children spent hour after hour parked in front of turn-knob television screens, adjusting rabbit ears, dying to hear the first…
Recently, Crossfade covered local musician and promoter Ricardo Guerrero’s declaration that “Miami Venues Suck Dick.” The scintillating article managed to pile up a total of 117 comments. Some people agreed with Guerrero’s statement. Others tried to offer suggestions to grow this little scene. It’s a classic underground music fight, and…
Proper rock band etiquette dictates: Thou must rock hard, do drugs, and have crazy tour stories. After Crossfade last spoke with Joshua Xmas, lead singer and guitarist of Dyslexic Postcards, he and his band embarked on the Might As Well Get It On Tour in support of their first EP,…
