If you were wondering how much longer the blues will be around, you could have gotten some strong clues about its future by attending the Second Annual South Florida International Blues Festival last weekend. At times, the genre seems like it’s dying off slowly, like a patient in a hospital…
Within Miami’s Latin music scene is an endless number of bands delving into all sorts of homegrown genres, from salsa and merengue to bachata and Cuban son. But when it comes to reggae, only a few Latin bands do it well, and El Chino Dreadlion is definitely one of them…
So last night I was at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino when I saw an interesting poster on display. Billy Joel’s sexy mug was plastered on the wall. Come on, ladies still think he’ sexy…and I noticed that he’s got not one, not two, but three sold out concerts coming…
T-Pain Thr33 Ringz (Nappy Boy Entertainment) How has T-Pain done it? He’s not attractive, his fashion-sense leaves much to be desired (at least for those without Dr. Seuss/ LSD fetishes, in any case), and without the benefit of the computer program Auto-Tune his voice is nothing special. And yet, considering…
By ANDY VIHSTADT After giving it away for a limited time on eMusic, the Postmarks’ sophomore effort, By the Numbers, is officially released worldwide today. The all-covers album boasts a numerical theme and includes renditions of songs by David Bowie, the Cure, Jesus and Mary Chain and even the Pointer…
So here’s a really cool music video that describes my Tuesday night almost perfectly. Middleweight hip-hop champ MURS is in town tonight playing a show at Churchill’s Pub and anybody that’s never seen the West Coast veteran live should consider going. He’s an indie hip-hop legend in the vein of…
News has come in from Italy this morning that prominent South African singer Miriam Makeba has passed away today from an apparent heart attack. Makeba, who collapsed while exiting the stage right after performing in Southern Italy, essentially died doing what she loved most–singing. She was 76-years-old. Widely revered by…
Aww, I thought today would be a slow blogging day, but alas, there’s joy in Mudville. South Florida’s favorite indie-pop trio, the Postmarks, are releasing a brand new album next week, entitled By the Numbers and finally, there’s some material floating around to help give it a buzz. This video…
So rapper Kanye West has teamed up with the once celebrated Hype Williams to create an animated video for his upcoming single, “Heartless.” What they put together isn’t bad (it’s sort of got that Waking Life feel to it) and I can’t complain about their choice to go with an…
So if you listen to Rick Ross’ music, you probably already know that he likes he’s ganja green and sticky. And according to Miami New Times reporter Jason Handelsman, he can also roll blunts one-handed. I’m not sure if the latter is true, but there’s a hilarious new video on…
Gospel music often pigeonholes itself as a genre only to be enjoyed by Christians. But two artists are having success making sure secular ears hear their songs, and they’re gaining fame in the process. Long-time gospel veteran Kirk Franklin was one of the first to make Christian-themed music that crossed…
Florida’s hip-hop notoriety is going from hot to scalding with the release of Jacksonville-based DJ Bigga Rankin’s latest mixtape, From Dade to Duval. It’s a part of Rankin’s longtime Real Nigga Radio series, where he takes urban artists and tries to break them to a larger market. Luckily for him,…
Gospel music often is often pigeonholed as a genre to be enjoyed only by Christians. But two artists are having success making sure secular ears hear their songs, and they’re gaining fame in the process. Longtime gospel veteran Kirk Franklin was one of the first to make Christian-themed music that…
The neighborhood of Carol City is known for producing strong musical talent. Rick Ross and Flo Rida are from there, as are JT Money, Poison Clan, and mega-producer Bigg D. But before those artists grew to national attention, one local group, Freestyle Evolution, gained significant notoriety for combining electro-funk with…
Here’s a last minute show announcement for a party that sounds like it’s well worth attending. Former Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell is playing a gig tonight at the Florida Room inside of the Delano Hotel that should be a lot of fun. The show starts around 11 p.m. The…
Over the weekend, I had the treat of heading over to Nassau, Bahamas to cover the Millennium Countdown 8, a mammoth three day concert broken up by genre. The line-up for the first evening, somewhat strangely tagged “International Night” was stacked with stellar acts like Morgan Heritage, Etana, Sanchez, and…
So this week’s Throwback Tuesdays falls on the most important election in American history. There’s no reason not to kick it off with a video that captures the way a lot of Americans are feeling this morning. Today is truly a historic day, and it can be an even more…
So I just watched this new six minute video from T-Pain for his song, “Karaoke” and it’s both weird and hilarious. I can’t seem to find much info on who directed it though which is unfortunate. My guess is Gil Green, but it doesn’t totally fit his style. This video…
So former childhood star Malcolm-Jamal Warner is in town and performing a bit of soul music and spoken word poetry tonight at 88’s Dueling Piano Bar inside of the the Hard Rock. A lot of folks don’t know that the actor known as Theo Huxtable from the Cosby Show to…
“We Do This” by Toro Just a week ago, I wrote my first cover story in six months on the current urban phenomenon of rappers taking their music to strip clubs to get discovered. It’s a trend that’s prevalent in certain parts of the country, South Florida especially, so I…
Halloween is one of Elijah Rentas’ favorite holidays. The inside of his two-bedroom Margate apartment is lined with skulls and crossbones and looks ready for trick-or-treaters to show up at any minute. The 1978 cult film Zombi is blaring through his television set and intermittent blood-curdling screams fill the air…
It was three weeks ago when I first heard rumblings that Barack Obama was being labeled a terrorist supporter. John McCain and his fellow conservatives were giving him that label for his friendship with Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground member and current professor at the University of Illinois at…
