Every Act Playing Coachella This Year, Ranked

After you’ve decided to start ranking all the acts on the Coachella lineup, there comes a moment when you realize you’ve made a terrible mistake. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is way too big, too ambitious in scale and scope, too sonically diverse to be reduced to a…

TV Girl Remembers Weird Gigs With Bad Bands in Miami

Asked to recall an amusing anecdote or particularly memorable Miami memory, Brad Petering, the acerbic lyricist and frontman of the Los Angeles-based TV Girl, makes good on the promise offered by his band’s playfully cynical and self-deprecating lyrics. “We only played Miami once before, and our old booking agent would…

Daniel Ash Just Couldn’t Bring Himself to Make an Acoustic Album

“I never really go with trends at all,” insists gothfather/guitar innovator Daniel Ash. “I think that’s the kiss of death, to do that.” On Stripped, his first album in more than a decade, the reclusive Brit breathes new life into highlights from his years as the guitar craftsman behind the…

It’s Been a Tough Year for Music, but at Least We Still Have Iggy Pop

The most widely seen Iggy Pop concert was not performed by the man himself. In writer-director Todd Haynes’ 1998 cult classic Velvet Goldmine, itself a fictionalized, Citizen Kane-style account of ’70s glam rock, Jedi and Scottish sex symbol Ewan McGregor plays Curt Wild, a not-so-subtle analogue to the punk progenitor…

Felisha Monet Is the Voice Miami Hip-Hop Deserves

If you’re a hip-hop head in South Florida, you know Felisha Monet. She’s holdin’ you down on your drive at 5, delivering the hits you want to hear on 99.1 FM. She hooks you up with free tickets and requests, and she always has the right song to get you…

Pearl Jam Remains One of the Few True Rock Gods Alive

Pearl Jam fans, young and old, flooded the American Airlines Arena on Saturday evening for the band’s first stint in the 305 since they played Bayfront Park back in the mid-1990s. But these weren’t so much fans as a congregation. And the six men on stage weren’t so much rock…

Beirut’s First Miami Performance Was a Welcome Change of Pace

For this year’s TransAtlantic Festival, The Rhythm Foundation scored what was possibly its biggest coup in the event’s 14 year history in bringing Beirut to the North Beach Bandshell for the group’s first ever Florida performance. Beirut, a six-piece based out of New York, blends influences as varied as mariachi…

Miami’s Best Concert of the Week: Rakim at Sidebar

Hip-hop is at a crossroads. With rap dissolving into a hazy swirl of over-produced beats and brain dead, mumble robots like Future and Young Thug topping the charts, it’s easy to fall prey to the notion that all the real MCs and lyricists are long gone. Thankfully, that’s far from…

Ryan Leslie Wants You to Have His Phone Number

Ryan Leslie is not your standard musician. He earned a 1600 on his SAT. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in government. He was one of just four orators selected to speak at his senior graduation ceremony. Since then Leslie has produced tracks for artists like Britney Spears,…

Dear Miami, Can We Please Stop Going Out So Late?

I can’t do it, Miami. As far as I’m concerned, the only acceptable reason for leaving your house at 3 a.m. is if your pillow is on fire. Maybe an earthquake or family member-turned zombie situation. The only other conceivable scenario is if you’re the couple from Paranormal Activity. Seriously,…

Stones Throw Records Celebrates Its Birthday at Bardot

Speaking before his DJ set at Electric Pickle last August, Stones Throw Records founder Chris Manak — better known to hip-hop heads, vinyl junkies, and funk enthusiasts as Peanut Butter Wolf — told Miami New Times he planned to return to Miami sooner rather than later. “Next year is our…

Ishmael Butler Talks Record Store Day, Trump, and What Music Means to Him

Ishmael Butler has been writing charged up, innovative rap since 1992’s seminal hip-hop single with Digable Planets, “Rebirth of the Slick (Cool Like Dat).” When Digable Planets retired, he dabbled in a funkier, sexier sound with Cherrywine, before finally joining instrumentalist Tendai Maraire and creating Shabazz Palaces. While Shabazz Palaces…

Oscar G’s Story Is as Miami as It Gets

It’s ten hours till show time and Oscar G is at the SouthSide Barbershop in Coconut Grove. That’s his spot. He’s been going there since it opened six years ago. 2 Pac’s “Dear Mama” is playing in the background as conversation veers between typical Miami topics: local crime, the Heat,…