It’s kind of crazy that Martin Gore turns 50 today — Depeche Mode’s first album, Speak & Spell, is 30. We wish Martin Gore health and happiness. Gore is an incredible guitarist, keyboardist, mixer, lyricist, and, when he sings lead in Depeche Mode, which is rare, what a high-pitched but…
Surf Rock may be more than 50 years old, but it’s far from being a dead genre.On the contrary, it’s a style of music that has continually risen from its grave. It seems that every so often, small pockets of bands appear to twist and tweak it as they see…
Word on the playground is, FTLien rapper and proud father Protoman has announced plans to release a children’s album. Inspired by a lack of songs not including excessive cursing or fictitious plots to murder prostitutes to play for his daughter, Proto recently penned “Get Tucked Up” — a kid hop…
It’s not surprising that of all Don Henley’s massive hits — with the Eagles as well as solo — his most massive chart triumph was his first individual effort, “Dirty Laundry,” in 1982. Henley, who turns 64 today, wrote the song as a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the sad state of…
Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel was not content to rest on his Pro Bowl laurels this offseason. With the 2011 NFL season still in question, the Fort Lauderdale native has spent some time locally with his friends in Goons United by the New School (G.U.N.S.), a rap group with members…
Cat Stevens offers definitive proof that hit records and religious devotion often don’t mix. Then again, he didn’t much try to attain both until recently. In 1977, he suddenly renounced both his pop career and his worldly possessions and gave himself a Muslim moniker, Yusuf Islam. The change was supposedly…
Mike Mineo is a gifted if inscrutable musician who has taken many epic leaps in his artistic life. Last year, the charismatic multi-instrumentalist released his debut, Eccentricity. The 18-track cornucopia of pop, soul, funk, jazz, blues, calypso, and zydeco ultimately found a place within South Florida’s fickle music scene and…
County Grind would like to wish Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell a very happy 47th birthday.Born Christopher John Boyle, Cornell brought an operatic and athletic vocal quality to the grunge scene while fronting Soundgarden and later headed up super-disappointing supergroup Audioslave with three-quarters of what had been Rage Against the Machine…
Although Hey Monday vocalist Cassadee Pope is only five weeks shy of her 22nd birthday, she’s racked up more legal trouble than most people see in a lifetime. We recently reported on the $50 million lawsuit filed by her managers for six years, Driven Entertainment Group, and have since discussed…
Here’s an interesting concept for anyone trying to make money selling remixes of songs they don’t have permission to remix: Make the consumer pick up the tab for you.Legitmix, which as been in private beta since March, just released a new Diplo mixtape today called Mad Legit. The known purveyor…
Ladies and gentlemen, we are a few months away from the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind. That is a big deal, not only because it makes a lot of us feel old and nostalgic but it also reminds us that there was a time that bands that were really good…
The Astrea Corporation, much like the noted science fiction author referenced in their cryptic song title, are on some space shit. Awash in dark and sweeping atmospheres, “Third String Asimov” continues down the interstellar path of psychedelic sci-fi meets beat-heavy electronics that the group is known for — see Disposable…
As reported earlier this week, the “Rock the Bells” tour 2011 will be making a stop at the Fillmore Miami on September 13. The tour serves as a flagship of everything that is right with hip-hop both today and in days past. The festival regularly features performances from the many…
It has been two-and-a-half years since Blink-182 announced its re-formation, not long after drummer Travis Barker’s brush with death in a plane crash. Since then, the band has toured the world, headlined huge European festivals, and embarked on solo albums (and, in the case of Barker, toured with Lil Wayne)…
We are now at the finish line. DJ Khaled’s Cash Money debut, We the Best Forever, is out next Tuesday. After many, many, many months of buildup since “Welcome to My Hood” entered our consciousness back in January, the rollout has been steady.Most will hold every Khaled track to come…
Everyone loves a rap supergroup. From newer crews like Slaughterhouse and EMC to older classics like the Firm and Crooklyn Dodgers; rarely is the whole greater than the sum of its parts but they’re still pretty damn entertaining. Now introducing, for the first time ever, Bonus, Dirty Dem, GAPS, Jabrjaw…
In a post-Drake world, respected hip-hop superstars can be pulled from almost any sort of background. Consider Jermaine Cole, who raps as J. Cole and was the first signee to Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s partnership with concert giant Live Nation. He’s a well-spoken guy from North Carolina who studied communications at…
Miami’s Awesome New Republic — these days seeming to prefer the more compact version of that name, ANR — has been churning out its unique take on Prince-influenced dance-pop for more than a half-decade. Throughout the band’s existence, the duo of Michael-John Hancock and Brian Robertson has often been the…
TMZ just reported that police were called to the home of ex-Queens of the Stone Age bass player Nick Oliveri after neighbors reported a “disturbance.”It turns out Oliveri had gotten into a fight with his girlfriend the day before and had struck her. She was returning to the home they…
Perhaps Lil Wayne has softened a bit in his late 20s. A couple of years back, he was telling Katie Couric, “I am a gangsta, Miss Katie. I don’t take nothing from no one. I do what I wanna do.” But today he dropped a mixtape apologizing (!) for the…
As South Florida dashboards become blister centers of heat and doom, it’s apparent that the Jacuzzi Boys’ “Cool Vapors” couldn’t have come soon enough. The first MP3 to emerge from the trio’s Hardly Art debut, Glazin’, is a riotous bit of fun. This song is keyed in perfectly to the…
Miami’s Psychic Mirrors are onto something. After listening to their debut seven-inch, you’ll feel like you’re lounging with Shaft, Tony Montana, and Daft Punk in a treetop discotheque in the Amazon. Live, they are more like a party than a band — the ten members of the Psychic tribe are…
