After leaving the heavy-metal band Attila in 1970, Billy Joel found himself working as a lounge singer in a piano bar. In painstaking detail, he recounted that chapter of his life in the song that shot him to fame: “Piano Man.” It’s one of the saddest songs ever, describing people…
When Caitlin Krisko moved her rootsy rock band the Broadcast from New York City to Asheville, North Carolina, it took some getting used to. “My mom moved me to New York City when I was a freshman in high school,” Krisko tells New Times while she sips a glass of wine. “New York is an exhausting place. Asheville is a lot quieter and slower, which can drive me crazy,” she laughs.
As soon as those first seven words come on — “Oh, baby, you got what I need” — the 1989 hip-hop classic “Just a Friend” will stay lodged in your head for the rest of your waking hours. Written and recorded by the gravelly voiced Biz Markie during the golden age of hip-hop, the song has a timeless quality that sounds like drunken nights and unrequited love.
For the most of the United States, December 26 is Christmas hangover day. The presents have been opened, our bellies are bloated with eggnog (or coquito), and the millionth viewing of It’s a Wonderful Life is finally, thankfully, over. It’s time to slog through airport security and head home or…
Singer Adi Elcida Hernandez and guitarist Ernesto Paez have known each other since high school. After getting married four years ago, they decided to form the band Modern Mimes. “I’ve been in metal bands since I was 13,” Paez says. “She’s always been a singer-songwriter. Two years ago, we said…
Some people plan to stay at home during Nochebuena so they can wake up early and help to prepare their family’s Christmas meal. But we have a better option for your Saturday night: Cut a Rug. As the name indicates, Cut a Rug is a party that intends to make…
Ricco Black says his band Pandora Black is influenced by Massive Attack, Berlin, and Depeche Mode. Indeed, you can hear it in the dark and moody debut album Into the Shadows. But when he tells New Times his biggest inspiration was the ’80s rockabilly band the Stray Cats, that takes some explaining. “They were able to take 1950s sounds into the ’80s. We want to take ’80s sounds into the new millennium.”
As we all prepare for the end of the garbage year that was 2016, the one thing keeping many of us going is the promise of a work-free holiday. But not Questlove. That’s because Quest, real name Ahmir Khalib Thompson, has about 25 jobs. His CV reads a little something like this: drummer and joint frontman of the Roots, the in-house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; author; DJ; music professor at New York University; and journalist. The guy might never sleep, let alone relax with a cup of eggnog.
What is neo-Cuban blues? It’s what local singer-songwriter Sol Ruiz calls her Spanglish sound that mixes music from two countries that are so close yet so far apart. “My parents are Cuban, and I was born and raised in Miami Beach, so I was interested in my roots,” Ruiz tells New Times.
While many Miamians complain they have to leave home to make it in the music business, Steven A. Clark landed a track on Pitbull’s latest album, Climate Change after moving here from North Carolina. “I was seeking culture,” the sensual singer-songwriter says. “I just wanted to live. I just wanted…
In what’s beginning to look like a yearly holiday event, Matisyahu returns to South Florida to fill our warm winter evenings with sumptuous religious reggae. The Jewish rapper and singer, best known for his hit single “One Day,” was also here last December for the tenth anniversary of his album Live at Stubb’s.
Floridians don’t really know how to handle winter. While the rest of the country is shoveling snow and huddling around trash-can fires, we’re wearing shorts and hitting the beach. But we still find ways to celebrate the season — for example, with “Lots of good…
Top 40 radio is a beloved institution for a vast number of listeners. And few stations in America have been playing the hits as long as WHYI-FM. Better known around these parts as Y100, the pop station has been broadcasting whatever the kids happen to be listening to that week…
Where were you when Hurricane Matthew screwed up your III Points plans? I wasn’t even in Miami. I was planning to head down from college in Jacksonville when the storm steered its cruel, windy gaze toward the Sunshine State. The six-hour drive became too dangerous to attempt as the storm…
As always, there is no shortage of DJs and electronic producers performing in Miami this week. Diplo, Headhunterz, and Zomboy (just to name a few) will all lead bass- and beat-fueled parties into the wee hours of the morning. However, allow us to offer an alternative to the dance floor…
With the advent of social media, our culture’s come to know nontraditional ways of attaining varying levels of fame and the unique artists that often take advantage of those unconventional paths to success. These avenues weren’t available decades or even years ago. And because of that, some rocket from the depths…
Though he’s recently had albums titled Global Warming, Globalization, and the upcoming Climate Change, lately Pitbull has not been the most political of rappers. His verses in “Timber” had nothing to do with deforestation, and “Give Me Everything” makes no mention of where he comes down on tax rates. But…
For Los Angeles-based DJ Amber Giles, AKA Mija, the musical obsessions that make up her frenetic, mercurial sets come quickly, burn brightly, and fade fast. “A year ago, it would’ve been trap, a year before that house,” she says. “I go through so many phases, but right now, my favorite…
It’s hard to believe the world continued spinning after such a monumental loss, but 2016 marked 15 years since Aaliyah’s shocking death. It’s interesting to ponder what the Princess of R&B’s music might have sounded like today, in a world where singers forgo an individual, signature sound and turn to…
To soothe the Art Basel hangover, Miami will host a pair of big names this week in Barbra Streisand and Ms. Lauryn Hill. Perhaps the best show, however — and certainly the most intriguing and intimate — could be Kishi Bashi at the Light Box at Goldman Warehouse in Wynwood…
Perhaps the smartest move Ultra Music Festival has made recently was the creation of the Resistance stage. What began as a single stage in 2015 has become a brand in and of itself. Resistance has grown so much that the festival’s organizers have spun it off into its own standalone event.
In real life, Josephine Phoenix looks a lot like a TV writer’s storyboard blueprint of a hippie character. Her waist-length, curly red hair cascades down, mirroring the breezy, flowing fabrics she uses to drape her petite frame. And she’s likely to wax poetic about “the feminine divine” and gypsy life.
