Beginning last week, Milwaukee emo band the Promise Ring made its mysterious return to the internet by way of Twitter. A week after posting the equivocal “Hello, again…” status, the band released a 34-second video titled “It’s All Coming Back to Me Part 1.” The cryptic video contains clips of…
How far will you go to get the finest musical gifts of the season? If your answer doesn’t involve waiting in the dark in a Walmart parking lot with a lot of screaming mommies, perhaps Radio-Active Records can provide some needed cachet for the competitive giving season.Black Friday is very…
Deerfield Beach singer-songwriter Sophie Sputnik is officially a recording artist now. Her raw and emotional October 1 live recording at Radio-Active Records’ old location, titled The Chase, is now out on limited edition cassette.County Grind attended that show, and noted that “her confidence in her material became the room’s pleasure,…
According to numerous sources, past rumblings that the South Florida alt-weekly City Link is closing are finally becoming factual.The 20-year-old arts and culture paper, currently published by the Sun-Sentinel, is expected to cease publication within the next couple of weeks, according to reporting by New Times blog the Pulp…
“They call me Dr. John, known as the Night Tripper.” With that guttural growl, the once and future Mac Rebennack assumed the persona that would continue to define his guise going forward. One of New Orleans true originals and a musician who helped further the Crescent City sound, he was…
Like Elvis Costello, with whom he first shared the spotlight at the height of England’s punk music revolution, Graham Parker drew his image as an irascible, rebellious rocker who was perpetually defiant and decidedly anti-authority. Born 61 years ago today, Parker may have since matured, but that cynicism and intensity…
Had Jeff Buckley not died from a freak drowning accident some 14 years ago, he would have turned 45 today and hopefully added to a recorded legacy that was capped at only an EP, one album, and a handful of demos and posthumous live recordings. It’s tantalizing to imagine what…
Most rappers have never lived in their car, and even fewer are eager to admit it. However, Protoman and I are parked near the intersection of SE Ninth Avenue and Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. This nondescript street of single-level dwellings, only steps from the fat-pocketed tourists populating Las Olas…
Amtrac’s production career just took an impressive turn. Following October’s release of his debut album, Came Along, the gifted Miami dubstep experimenter is still pushing out new material, and the flavor of the moment is his contribution to Mick Boogie’s My Adidas mixtape trumpeting the storied career of rap godfathers…
Jackie Ransom/Luster and Beta Evers Secrets of the World (Zero Hour/Doom & Glamour) zerohour.com.au Aside from being one of the sweetest people around, Jackie Ransom is one local we can be proud of. This seven-inch split with Luster and Beta Evers is proof-positive of vinyl’s superiority as “the” music format…
Petula Clark, born November 15, 1932, is best-known for a series of effusive, infectious songs that helped define the image of the “Swinging London” during its glory years in the mid-1960s. Indeed, for those whose memory is still flush with those halcyon days when all things English dominated pop culture,…
John Linn works for Fresh Beer and knows a lot about drinking beer from experience.Pop cannon suggests that musicians — above all other types of artists — consume an inordinate amount of booze. It follows, then, that many of them looking to expand their entrepreneurial empires beyond selling records turn…
Simply put, Neil Young is an artist of remarkable dexterity and durability. Aside from the fact that he boasts a song catalog rivaling that of Dylan, McCartney and, in fact, every other popular artist of the past half century, he’s one of the few musicians whose every move is subject…
There’s nothing better to call Malcom Lacey’s Arrange than Tumblr-wave. Over the past few months, the Fort Lauderdale resident has provided glimpses into his life and mind through his electronic music and a rather personal blog. Since Lacey has yet to perform a live show — in spite of many…
In the spring of 1789, a quiet revolutionary fervor seized the rebellious bourgeoisie in France. While King Louis XVI and his cake-eating wife, Marie Antoinette, fattened in Château de Versailles, war, economic strife, and class inequality swept the land. A good 222 years after the rebels sharpened the guillotine and…
It has been nearly 15 months since the runaway success of Cee Lo Green’s “Fuck You.” The song netted him a third Grammy and turned out to be the added punch a lot of movie trailers in the intervening months needed. The song came from the Goodie Mob/Gnarls Barkley founding…
Credibility and commercial success don’t always go hand in hand, but in Bonnie Raitt’s case, they seem in sync. Born November 8, 1949, to Broadway superstar John Raitt and his first wife, pianist Marjorie Haydock, she clearly had music in her genes, but it was by riding the wave of…
Joni Mitchell, born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, not only defies description as an artist and musician but also set the standard when it came to young, innocent, wide-eyed female folkies dressed in peasant dresses and tattered jeans, obsessed with wanderlust, patchouli, and all forms of winsome sentiments…
There’s obviously some irony in the fact that two artists with such similar names — namely Bryan Adams and Ryan Adams — should also share the same birthday of November 5, which is Saturday. We were curious to see what other things the two men hold in common, but we…
Even back to his days in Miami metal legends Floor, Torche frontman Steve Brooks has been an unabashed Guided by Voices lover. His Miami-Gainesville-Atlanta quartet has never shirked its responsibilities to forge catchy melodies in the molten fires of its songs.And when you hear the 51-second “Lay Low” from last…
No one gets a record deal slugging Tecates in a beach chair, although the Jacuzzi Boys might have you believe differently. In “Vizcaya,” a track from the Boys’ new candy-coated LP, Glazin’, singer/guitarist Gabriel Alcala proclaims: “There’s no place in the world that I’d rather be, than right here with…
Not that long ago, County Grind got obsessed with Miami R&B-jazz ensemble Ketchy Shuby’s current aesthetic direction. This first took hold with “Broke Like My Soul,” a throwback jam for dancing on backroom hardwood floors with hand-rolled cigar smoke curling in the air.Now, the band takes an unlikely approach by…
