County Grind is counting down the best local albums in South Florida. Monitor our progress here.Holding the Jameses’ first release in your hand is to understand near-perfection. The killer cover art, the equally haunting tracks on both sides. It is, dare we say, poised. Of the trio’s two murky, slow-moving…
So who is Yanni, really? Is he merely a pin-up and a poser, some sort of schlock jock, a kitschy crusader like those who are unmoved by his grandiose symphonic hyperbole tend to suspect he is? Or is there something more to his New Age manipulation, something so compelling, it’s…
Coral Springs resident and super-producer Jim Jonsin is richer than God from his work making hit singles for folks like T.I., Beyonce, Lil Wayne, and B.o.B. In the vein of x-treme tycoons like Richard Branson, he’s expanding his empire and living dangerously via his new Rebel Rock Racing company –…
County Grind is counting down the best local albums in South Florida. Monitor our progress here.Miami hip-hop powerhouse Mayday first tasted crossover success a few years back thanks to “Groundhog Day,” a collabo track with Cee Lo Green and DJ Craze whose bouncy sing-song raps dovetailed nicely with the era…
Happy Holidays from the Jameses, who have been instrumental in getting the inaugural Zitfest together. Although the guys are generally reluctant to be photographed, as was made clear in my interview with them this week, there are always exceptions.On to their gift to you: tonight and tomorrow’s schedule for Zitfest…
Hometeam-Music André Benjamin is… Mixtape (Hometeam-Music) www.hometeam-music.com Hometeam-Music takes us on another musical journey of discovery within known environs. Here’s a collaborative effort between DJs Manuvers, Reese and Ideal painstakingly reproducing the better and lesser-known moments of Outkast’s charismatic fifty percent André Benjamin. The tweaks and productions work well here…
County Grind is counting down the best local albums in South Florida. Monitor our progress here.Beings’ self-titled debut CD/LP is an impressive achievement. Elements of punk-rock, shoegaze and heavy ass rock blend together to create a classic and catchy album for the ADD generation. The record is brutal, abrasive and…
County Grind attends and details some of the finest — and occasionally subpar — events from a given week. On Sunday, Kyriaki Tsaganis hit up the Kitty Klaus Market in the back parking lot of Kreepy Tiki Tattoos & Boutique/the Monterey Club in Fort Lauderdale. Seeing how I still hadn’t…
County Grind is counting down the best local albums in South Florida. Monitor our progress here.The Band in Heaven and Weird Wives’ thrilling, caustic jams embody the physical and psychological scorch that comes along with every South Florida summer. By mid-August, any thermometer looks like a middle finger, everyone’s back…
Aspiring rapper Raymond Edwin Adderly Jr. was fatally shot in front of his family during a home invasion robbery in his Miramar home Tuesday evening, according to his brother-in-law. The father of three and his wife had just returned from a Christmas play at the time of the attack. He…
EpicaWith Scar Symmetry, Blackguard, and the AgonistCulture Room, Fort LauderdaleWednesday, December 15, 2010 In the world of metal, Epica frontwoman Simone Simmons is a queen, and these black-clad, mostly unwashed, tattooed, and pierced folk are her loyal subjects…
“Is there a non-local photon field around ‘Coatman’ for which there is ‘no time’?” — Dennis “Coatman” Marsella, December 2010Doubtless you too have asked yourself this question repeatedly since first seeing the “trick marathon runner” slowly but relentlessly jogging his way down Broward Boulevard with a streamered tray full of…
A musical starring Travulous & Friends, goodies for sale, local bands, and candy canes: This sounds like a stimulus overload, but it’s all holiday magic.Travulous was once described by our own Erica K. Landau as a “glam-fab superstar,” a wonderman with a Ziggy Stardust steez. This was last summer, when…
If there’s one thing you should know about Serum, it’s that this guy shoots videos like the phony rappers he hates shoot imaginary victims in their songs. That and he also has one of the strongest, most consistent rapid-fire flows in underground hip-hop. And he’s a pretty big dude. So…
With Shake Off the Dust… Arise’s release in 2005, Matisyahu initially seemed like a cultural hybrid who could exist only as a postmodern gimmick: a Phishhead who became a Hasidic Jew rapping in Rastafarian inflections. Here’s the thing, though: He’s so earnest, so true to his faith, and such a…
In front of Lake Worth’s Little Munich, the Jameses’ Dan McHugh politely endures one of the longest conversations he’s ever had about his band. While smoking nearly a pack of cigarettes in the sub-50-degree air, he seems less than eager to unpack the influences behind the whirring delight of organ…
Big Sean might have jumped the gun a little bit when he titled his first official mixtape Finally Famous in 2007. And then again in 2009 with Finally Famous Vol. 2 and yet again with Vol. 3 in 2010. But judging by collaborations with Drake, Eminem, Rick Ross, Kanye West,…
Ben Prestage boasts no shortage of musical talents. The Vero Beach-based one-man band is proficient with acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lap steel guitar, banjo, fiddle, diddley bow, and foot pedals he manipulates with his toes and heels. A nimble picker, he specializes in a folky form of blues shaded by…
Justin Bieber has a classic coming-of-the-digital-age story, and his YouTube-abetted rising star became an easy target: Facebook groups rallied against him, Twitter rebelled against his trending-topic stranglehold, and a prank internet campaign was waged to “help” the kid “tour” North Korea. His greatest offenses seem to involve his gender, his…
Although it has long been trendy to have a laugh at pint-sized wailer Ronnie James Dio’s expense, it’s actually not as popular now that he’s dead. Dio and his devil horns passed into the next realm last May. His brand of mythic metal both parodied and revered by Tenacious D…
Christopher O’Riley is not your grandma’s classical pianist, though she would probably enjoy his playing. O’Riley, who is also famous as the host of NPR’s From the Top, has earned critical acclaim for his classical arrangements of Generation X Mozarts like Radiohead and Elliott Smith. Although he’s not the only…
Update 6:30 p.m.: Lil Wayne tweets, “I will not be in Pompano Beach!”This is tricky business. Power 96.5 is running a promo featuring a recording of a guy who could very well be Lil Wayne saying he’s appearing at Pompano Beach venue Club Cinema on Friday, December 17. “Hello world,…
