Rey Pila is of a different era. It seems the group hitched a ride with Doc and Marty in 1989 but forgot to hop back into the DeLorean. The nostalgic synth-rock band’s music, mood, and even name owe credit to the ’80s — to one artist in particular. The name…
Trap is kind of old hat. The 808-driven, drug-smuggler sound has been a hip-hop staple for 20-plus years. Even its most recent takeover of the EDM world is a phenomenon pushing four years, a lifetime in trend-speak. It seems whatever can happen in trap already has — unless you’re talking…
Of all the guys who’ve been singing songs since the ’80s, Weird Al Yankovic is one of the most adaptable and resilient. This makes him remarkably still relevant. The tales surrounding his album Mandatory Fun are the stuff of modern-day myths. After his label told him it couldn’t afford to…
“But if you’re a DJ, all you need is a laptop, some talent, and one track.” Those are the words that come out of the chiseled jaw of Zac Efron in the trailer for his new movie We Are Your Friends, an upcoming film that follows four bros in their…
Travi$ Scott. Presented by Who’s Who and Vybenation. Friday, August 14, 6 to 10 p.m. Grand Central, 697 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-377-2277; grandcentralmiami.com. Tickets cost $30 plus fees via ticketmaster.com. All ages. He growls. He flashes gold grills with fangs. He’s Travi$ Scott. And this week, the 23-year-old Houston rapper — who just so…
There’s no better place to pop your cherry than Miami, and Skrillex is about to find out. The dubstep dynamo is set to make his Life in Color debut as one-half of the upcoming festival’s first officially announced headliner; Jack Ü. The dream-team duo pits Skrilly against Florida’s own Diplo…
Psychemagik. With Patrick Walsh. Friday, August 7, 10 p.m. The Electric Pickle, 2826 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-456-5613; electricpicklemiami.com. Admission is free before midnight with RSVP via eventbrite.com. “Music is the celestial sound,” Psychemagik writes on their Facebook description, “and it is sound that controls the whole universe.” Experience the mystical vibes of the…
The story of Kansas’ Appleseed Cast is not lacking in complexity or dramatic shifts. Over 18 years and several lineup changes, the band’s sound today hardly resembles the emo-tinged one that put the group on the map. But through it all, founding member Christopher Crisci has retained a singular hold…
In a large office space at MADE at the Citadel, the shared workspace in the former Bellsouth building on NE Second Avenue, III Points has a small squad of people working hard to make sure this year’s festival eclipses 2014’s edition. The III Points team is made up of young…
Eons’ latest EP marks a turning point in the Miami synth-pop duo’s career. “I think we raised the bar a little bit and we were kind of more picky in particular on what songs were to make it onto the EP,” says Johnny Deezal (AKA Johnny D.). He along with his Eons…
The walls were so thin at their old place Afrobeta could hear the parade of hookers marching in and out of their neighbor’s apartment. Luckily, the Miami natives invited us to their new home/studio for this interview. Their friend AholSniffsGlue’s ubiquitous artwork covers a wall next to the new and…
Some people prefer to welcome a new year of life without much commotion. But in the case of Buffalo Brown, a staple in the local music scene for over a decade, candles and a sheet cake just won’t do for his fast-approaching birthday. Brown, together with bandmate Ulysses Perez, are…
New Times’ chief meteorologist is calling for champagne showers, heavy fog, and a storm of LED foam sticks when Sultan + Shepard return to LIV this Thursday. “We’ll be reading the crowd at LIV,” Ned Shepard says. “We’ve been DJing so long that we can take a set anywhere the…
“Everything you hear that has a beat, that has a pulse, is a derivative of Afro roots.” That is Jose Elias’ condensed definition of world music. And as the man behind the Magic City’s 17th-annual Afro Roots World Music Festival, Elias knows a thing or two about worldbeat. “In every…
As part of Swedish House Mafia, Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso, along with third member Steve Angello, proved to the world that dance music was commercially viable. The Swedes topped the U.S. dance charts, headlined festivals, and dominated the party scene with their Masquerade Motel concept. Just as ABBA, Ace of…
My Morning Jacket. With Mini Mansions. Monday, August 3, 8:30 p.m. The Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 305-673-7300; fillmoremb.com. Tickets cost $55 to $75 plus fees via livenation.com. Wheaties may be the breakfast of champions, but in Miami, lechón asado is the meal of legends. That, of course,…
It’s not easy for American bands to break through to pop success. When the Backstreet Boys got started, they were strategically marketed in Europe first, then brought back to the States after they’d already built a fan base. Imagine, then, the near-insurmountable odds stacked against a French-speaking electro-pop band. You’re…
Kind of like when Clark Kent loses the glasses, adorns his cape and becomes Superman, Sam Young morphs into Vanilla Ace before our very eyes when he drops the needle on a 118 BPM house track with an Isaac Hayes sample. While Sam Young has played 30-plus open format sets…
Playing at Churchill’s Pub is a rite of passage for Miami musicians. When Modernage had the opportunity to perform at the legendary Little Haiti dive ten years ago, the band released recordings of the night’s performance — its first ever release — calling it Live at Churchill’s. The group hasn’t looked…
Thanks to Bob Dylan, plenty of rock and roll fans are familiar with the name Hollis Brown. His 1964 hit, “Ballad of Hollis Brown,” is the dark tale of a South Dakota farmer who escapes poverty by killing his family and then himself. These days however, Hollis Brown is a…
The guys of My Morning Jacket are legendary live performers. Given that they’ve been going strong since ’98 and released seven albums, you’d expect them to put on a stellar show. Still, no matter a group’s longevity, stage presence and charisma are rare in music. They’re inherent skills, ones not…
They say you have your whole life to write your first album and two years to write the next. Luckily for ghetto-tech beatmaster Justin Martin, he never got the memo. “I think I’m more relaxed, like almost a little bit too relaxed,” he says. His 2012 full-length debut, Ghettos &…
