Homegrown success Langerado’s last-minute flame-out in 2009 was one of the biggest and saddest festival busts in South Florida in recent years. With the festival having ballooned from its roots as a hippie-ish jam-down in local parks, the latest incarnation was to be a four-day monster in… downtown Miami? The would-be…
This week, County Grind is taking a look at the tri-county bands representing for South Florida at this year’s SXSW festival. First, a rundown of the “officially” selected artists. Earlier this afternoon we gave you a free MP3 from Awesome New Republic, and now, it’s time for….Dreaming in StereoMiami’s Dreaming…
Ah, South By Southwest. It’s that time again — the middle of March, when seemingly the entire new-music industry descends on Austin, Texas like locusts, leaving shards of empty margarita glasses and dried taco husks in its wake. Day and night, bands play every hour on the hour at endless…
Up-and-coming twin cities artist SimsThanks to the early pioneers of the Rhymesayers crew, Minnesota’s twin cities have long been hailed for their thriving underground hip-hop scenes. And because of the early genre-crossing tendencies of that scene’s leading artists like Atmosphere and Eyedea (R.I.P.), the Minneapolis sound has never been orthodox…
So my buddy Juan Montoya posted a Plasmatics video up on Facebook this morning, and while I was watching it, I noticed an obscene number of people on the discussion board likening the Plasmatics’ awesome frontwoman Wendy O. Williams to Lady Gaga. And then it struck me: I had never actually heard Lady Gaga…
Just thinking about Primus makes it clear how bland the rock music world has become. There was a time, and it wasn’t all that long ago, that MTV and radio stations played what some people — okay, maybe just one person, me — affectionately refer to as “crazy people music.” Primus…
Ra Ra Riot Culture Room, Fort Lauderdale March 7, 2011 Last night, a fashionably dressed crowd filled the Culture Room. And that’s pretty much all they did, except for when Ra Ra Riot, a good but generic indie rock band, played one of their popular songs. At this point, the…
Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon way back in 1973 — long before Pitchfork, the internet, and the birth of Mike Diaz. Still, songs from the Floyd catalog like “Hey You” and “Us and Them” resonate with listeners far younger, and thus we have a stirring version of…
The Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner doesn’t look all that happy to be carrying this flag around in the new music video for “Recharge & Revolt.” Given the amount of location shooting for the clip, which has shots of New York, the Grand Canyon, and a lot of other American postcard…
Grace Potter and the NocturnalsCulture Room, Fort LauderdaleMarch 5, 2011Better than: A Saturday night surrounded by midlife morons. Wishful thinking, I guess.Remember Grace Potter before the bleached-blond mane and sequin get-ups? Neither do I. The raw, uncut version of Potter circa 2006 roared on through for bits and pieces of…
Dear Phil Collins: I just heard that you’re retiring from the music business, mainly because years of drumming caused hearing loss, a dislocated vertebrae, and nerve damage. Seriously? You can’t quit, Phil. You’re iconic. It’s just that no one really realizes how iconic you are. I don’t know why, but…
Secret French Kissing SocietyWith John Ralston, The Dewars, Bobby Yapkowitz and Chris Horgan Propaganda, Lake WorthThursday March 3, 2010Better than: West Palm Beach by way of Brooklyn It was a night of reminiscing for Stavros Polentas Thursday night at Propaganda. The charismatically zany Brooklyn-based frontman reunited his defunct South Florida…
A day before tickets are to go on sale, some nice artist additions have been announced for the 2011 Bear Creek Music and Arts Festival, which will take place at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak from November 11-13. The already stacked, funk heavy line-up –…
Last March, riot grrrl dreams came true when Sleater-Kinney musicians Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss revealed they were working together again. In the fall, the duo, joined by Mary Timony (Helium) and Rebecca Cole (The Minders), announced the birth of Wild Flag, an all-girl quartet.After several months of having to…
Last October’s Matt & Kim show at Culture Room was a big, sweaty party featuring an assortment of tween fashions, crowd-walking, and unabashed revelry. This will undoubtedly happen again in June when M&K’s infectious glee hits Culture Room. The June 5 show also features another act prone to onstage antics…
Cayamo Cruise 2011 proved once again that it wasn’t the destination that mattered, but the journey to get there. Along with more than 2,000 partying passengers and three dozen outstanding artists over the course of February 13 – 20, I felt fortunate to be there for the third year in…
ApocalypticaWith Kinlin Culture Room, Fort Lauderdale Thursday, March 3, 2011Better Than: Not seeing a shirtless rock cellistThe Review: If metal could take animal form, it would have devoured every inch of the Culture Room Thursday with loud, pulsing intimidation during the performance by Metallica cover act via cellos, Apocalyptica. The crowd loved it…
Last week, the festival-going public commenced drooling for perhaps the only decent summer music gathering by announcing the dates — July 15 through 17 at Chicago’s Union Park — for the Pitchfork Music Festival. Today, the initial lineup is unfurled for all to see and critique.At $110 for a three-day…
John Mellencamp Au-Rene Theater, Broward Center for the Performing Arts Thursday, March 3, 2011 “I admire John. He’s trying to survive in a tough business. Yet, he’s stripping it down rather than flowering it up.” That statement comes from photographer Kurt Markus, whose documentary It’s About You opened John Mellencamp’s…
Previously, the Bruise Cruise Kickoff Party, video of Miss Pussycat’s puppet show, Bruise Cruise Day One, Bruise Cruise Day Two, The Black Lips Throw a Bass Into the Ocean, Bruise Cruise Day Three, and Bruise Cruise Slideshow.Sorry to spoil the big surprise at the end of the Black Lips’ latest…
County Grind hearts the Gallery, a super-swell buncha fellas originally from rural Western Massachusetts who decamped to West Palm Beach a few years back. Though they’re nominally based here in South Florida, the longtime friends spend most of the year on the road, chugging through endless national tours. Recently, that…
Pretty Please Self-titled (Pretty Please Music) prettypleasemusic.net To say that Pretty Please’s self-titled album got here without turmoil would be a lie. Quite a tit-for-tat begat this delicious digital slab of 11 tracks. And it is delicious. Sultry and sexy. Svengali drummer Juan Oña has surrounded himself with the best…
