Q&A with The Juan MacLean

It’s been a while since The Juan MacLean has had a stop in Miami, and while he won’t exactly be playing live, we are still excited to hear him spin. Since his last release, 2005’s Less Than Human, we’ve only had a handful of tracks and remixes to hold us…

Head Spins: DJ Justin Sheppard

The fact that DJ Justin Sheppard is the son of a drifter makes sense when you consider the smooth, supple soulfulness he brings to his spinning. That he’s also got a degree in computer science, however, might not make as much sense, especially when you consider just how dizzying he…

SP Global Radio on MiamiBeatz.com

SP Global Radio is a weekly show on www.miamibeatz.com hosted by local DJs JD and Rob Solomon. With over 40,000 iTunes podcast downloads per month worldwide, they are now hitting the airwaves with their eclectic mix of underground EDM. Tune in for their exclusive weekly broadcasts where you will hear…

The Methodaires – Strictly Roots Music

     Check out this live video of The Methodaires playing at Churchill’s. The Methodaires play a mix of ska, soul and rocksteady music, are currently gigging and have recorded material coming out this year. If you see their name on a flyer, go check em’ out, they’re worth it…

New Minimal Mix from Sabox

Local producer and PL0T resident DJ Alejandro Sab a.k.a. Sabox was a staple of the burgeoning downtown minimal scene in 2008. For those of you who missed out last year, here’s a killer mix encapsulating some of the sexy stripped-down funk sound patrons heard at White Room Fridays and other…

New DJ I-Dee Video: “Swollen Dome/1991”

Much like his previous video, for “The Right,” featuring Jean Grae and Wrekonize, DJ I-Dee’s latest video is also based on his beloved early 16-bit video games. “Swollen Dome/1991” features another downtempo-ish track (mostly “Swollen Dome,” with “1991” just at the end), with just enough scratching, and the wunderkind battle…

Go S.E.E. the Notorious One

Finally, the movie on Notorious B.I.G. hits theaters today and it seems that the anticipation for the film’s release is running high. Notorious actors have been hitting the talk show circuit, Lil’ Kim is up in arms about how she was portrayed, Diddy is being all dramatic on YouTube, and…

Iggy Pop Gives CNN a Tour of Miami

At times I forget that Michigan native Iggy Pop now calls the Magic City home. In fact, last I heard he lived in the Village of El Portal, a small municipality located between Miami and Miami Shores — which also happens to be the area I grew up in.Well, Pop’s…

Off the Radar is Back on the Screen

In 2005, a recently separated (from Poplife) Ray Milian wanted to explore the b-sides, new cuts, and rare grooves of underground and so-called indie and electronic music. To do so, he created at a weekly party, Off the Radar, at the then-newly minted Buck 15. Then there were several venue switches (the Marlin,…

Yo Majesty

Little, it seems, can stop the improbable Tampa-based female party-rap juggernaut Yo Majesty — not even the occasional near-implosion of the group itself. Early last summer, some undefined internal meltdown sent home half of the duo, the gospel-trained vocalist-turned-rapper Jewel B. The group’s backbone, the verbose and sheerly ass-kicking Shunda…

¿Que Pasa, M.I.A.?

Against my better judgment and sense of comfort and convenience, I went camping. Into the woods. Into the night. With fire. And “Beware of Bears” signs. Bears that want to open my sleeping bag and eat me like a pastelito de carne. A group of friends invited me to Wekiwa…

This Is Hell

Like a pissed-off, mistreated dog, Travis Reilly yelps, “This is how downward spirals start!” Then he growls, “This is a convoluted attempt to find some source of hope.” Later he barks, “This is the best and worst things will ever get.” Reilly’s Long Island-based hardcore outfit, This Is Hell, seems…

hey willpower

Scottish indie rock act Bis’s 1997 single “Tell It to the Kids” rather neatly expressed the band’s overtures: “And now, coming through the airwaves into your home/Introducing the new transistor heroes.” San Francisco’s hey willpower lacks a similar expressive salutation, but it shares Bis’s affinity for trash culture, “kandy pop,”…

Alejandro Escovedo

Journeyman singer/songwriter Alejandro Escovedo has performed solo for a number of years, but he sure has played in a lot of bands too. It’s a theme that recurs throughout his latest album, Real Animal. A loose memoir of sorts, the disc spans Escovedo’s 30-year musical career, touching on key locations,…

Scion House Party Miami

Even in the flannel-flapping grunge era, The Juan Maclean pretended he was I, Cyborg in his old band, Six Finger Satellite. A decade on, post-rock-band breakup and crack-rock breakdown, he again dons the chrome pate, made fashionable anew in a century populated by Daft Punk and the return of Battlestar…

Head Spins: DJ D-Up

Anybody who’s ever heard a track by Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers knows the deep power of go-go, that mighty blend of pure funk and raw soul that could only come from the streets of D.C. It’s a heady mix of down-low and way-up-on-high that brings to mind nothing…

Last Week: The Holy Terrors at Churchill’s

Sometime in the early 1990s, the Holy Terrors were playing at CBGB when an earnestly keyed-up Dee Dee Ramone stuck around and told the guys he loved their music. Dee Dee’s reaction seems to have been widespread among those who witnessed the Holy Terrors in the flesh; by all accounts,…