Who will survive Ultra Music Festival, Winter Music Conference, and Miami Music Week 2013? With UMF becoming a two-weekend behemoth and WMC/MMW turning into a ten-day smackdown, the month of March in the MIA has officially become an insane EDM endurance test. And here is the most important rule: Do…
Ultra is more than an annual music festival. It’s an EDM institution. Just like British house legend Carl Cox. Every year at UMF, the Carl Cox and Friends arena (which has been with the fest for its entire 15-year history) gets bigger, better, and brighter. But it doesn’t only exist…
Do you find yourself falling within that treacherous zone of a Venn diagram that connects “Working for the Weekend” with “The Great Recession”? One surefire way to know: Do you work all the fucking time, yet your wallet functions primarily as a seedy motel for moths? Maybe you need to…
Red Bull gives you wings. But the Austrian energy-beverage giant also gives you a reason stay up all night. And no, we’re not talking about the 27 grams of sugar in an 8.3-ounce can. We’re talking about the company’s forthcoming 3:30 a.m. sunrise breakfast parties on South Beach during Winter…
It all begins with the contagious rhythm of the bongos. Bam! The music hits you like a grenade exploding in the middle of La Saguesera. Then the piano joins in. And at this point, you start involuntarily shaking your shoulders. You try to stop, but then the band surges and…
U.K. production duo Disclosure is a definite contender for biggest EDM success story of the new decade. There’s the matter of the pair’s precociousness: Wunderkind brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence started releasing music when they were only 15 and 18 years old. And what music! Their chops in the studio…
It’s easy for EDM snobs to hate on Tiësto. The Dutch DJ/producer’s house and trance records are nuggets of music easily consumed by the masses. They aren’t always risky or forward-thinking, but they seem to get the job done and, more important, make a lot of people happy. Sure, Tiësto…
We hereby nominate Tommie Sunshine for PLUR president. He seems to be the most positive, well-intentioned person on the planet. But for all his posi vibes, he’s not afraid to stand up and fight. When Ultra Music Festival’s two-weekend 2013 party plan came under fire from the City of Miami…
Do Denmark’s very hyped, babyfaced postpunks Iceage represent The Shape of Punk to Come? That slogan was coined by Refused — another set of Scandinavian agitators, this time from hardcore-obsessed Sweden — as the title for a 1998 opus-collage of the various rock music microhistories. Of course, Iceage sounds nothing…
For the world traveler with a discerning taste in electronic dance music, finding a hotel that not only meets traditional quality standards–like Egyptian linens, an assortment of erotic art books, and a 60-inch LED television–but also keeps European house music on loop in the lobby had always been one of…
There’s something about the curly-haired romantico David Bisbal that makes women melt. Maybe it’s his dreamy lyrics, his Spanish accent, or his music’s sultry Mediterranean vibe. Whatever it is, he’s got it and he’s bringing it to the Magic City once again. Last month, Bisbal put on a passionate performance…
In just about a week, Miami will be transformed overnight into the only place worth being for true EDM fans. We’ll be overrun with wide-eyed travelers seeking beats, bass, and some girl named Molly, who is apparently friends with everyone. But even as true insanity is unleashed all over town,…
It was a cold November afternoon in 2006. “The Greatest Motion Picture of All Time,” Tenacious D’s The Pick of Destiny, had just been released and moviegoers were pouring into multiplexes across the country. But only a handful of stoners showed up, and actually paid for, The D. The film…
He’s admittedly “more tech than Mozart or whatever the hell,” and he has “never really felt like a musician.” Yet Joel Zimmerman — the chart-topping, 32-year-old computer geek otherwise known as Deadmau5 — will still be co-headlining two consecutive weekends of Ultra Music Festival, one of the world’s most massive…
Don’t call it a comeback. Because the Deftones never left. And avoid using the term “rap metal.” Because this band detests musical subgenres. Instead, celebrate the fact that this crew is still tearing the tits off music venues, like the Fillmore Miami Beach, with the same Adrenaline levels as 25…
Whoever heard of an EDM duo with only two songs playing Ultra Music Festival? Well, when the act’s two members are world-renowned DJ/producers Boys Noize and Skrillex, even an electronic dance music institution like UMF will make a special exception. Dog Blood, a crazy collab project from the German electro…
Everyone in the 305 is preparing himself emotionally, physically, and financially for the insane uhntz-uhntz parade (AKA Ultra Music Festival) that’s about to come crashing down. But that doesn’t mean the shriek of electric guitar and finger-freaked bass are gonna be totally drowned out in the March EDM melee. Au…
With the kickoff of Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week just a little over seven days away, our anxiety has reached an all-time high. Only Election Day voting lines throughout South Florida, it seems, are longer than our WMC Party Guides, and that’s becoming increasingly difficult to handle. Still,…
Little Havana rises with the cock. Sunlight gleams off her concrete hips. She revels in her hot and sticky wetness. As fresh, juicy papaya scents float on palm tree breezes, she burns a sacred herb and swallows a cafecito with a piece of buttered toast. Today is her birthday, and…
Among the legion of global superstars alighting in Miami for Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week 2013, one name carries some pretty serious weight at the moment: Maceo Plex. DJ/producer and Ellum label boss Eric Estornel’s rise to international stardom over the last couple of years has been nothing…
Birds of a feather rock together. And that was certainly true for this past weekend’s pre-WMC/MMW Dirtybird mini-showcase at Story Nightclub. It was headmaster Claude VonStroke, leading lady J. Phlip and Tallahassee’s fresh-out-the-egg new guy Mark Starr bringing the serious jams. To be honest, it was probably one of the…
Who down with O.P.P.? Everybody. For over 20 years now, Naughty By Nature has been touring the world off the strength of that crossover hit on its first album. Now fully independent, with new album Anthem Inc in stores, and an upcoming show at LIV, we here at Crossfade caught…
