2010’s Top 10 Workout Songs Evaluated by a Gym Rat

Although we’re slowly easing our way into 2011, we’ve only come a short way since last week musically. Well, you didn’t expect Ke$ha and Flo Rida off the map just yet, did you? The super-stat-oriented folks at RunHundred.com have revealed their Top 10 Workout Songs of 2010 that have taken…

Five Problems With Justin Bieber’s Vanity Fair Cover Story

The Justin Bieber fever — nay, epidemic — has infected the cover of Vanity Fair. In a look that recalls Mad Men and the bubblegum pop era, this portrait of the young singer should rival VF’s typical “reporting rigor” found in Lady Gaga’s cover spread from the fall. We kid…

Download: M.I.A. Drops WikiLeaks Mixtape

Now listening to M.I.A.’s second mixtape of her career, Vicki Leekx. This 36-minute single track emerged over the weekend, and it seems to be no less fiery than MAYA, an album we actually liked in spite of the massive truffle fry inconsistencies (“Born Free” video wasn’t exactly kind to ginger-haired…

MP3: 20 South Florida Tracks From 2010

Over the course of a year, County Grind offers up a lot of music at the affordable price of free. Much of this tuneage is home-grown, and reflects the boundless interests of the local freelance corps contributing to the blog. Area hip-hop, goth, electronica, punk, folk, and ska all got…

MP3: Lavola’s “The Queen Is Dead”

Oh, has the world changed, or have we changed? Arguably, it’s a bit of both coming to play in West Palm Beach rock trio Lavola’s latest single, “The Queen Is Dead.” Just to get the question on newcomers’ minds out of the way, no, this is not a cover of…

In Print: The Heavy Pets & the Dirty Dozen

On this second to last day of December, there are plenty of reasons to cling onto the last scraps of 2010. After all, this was the year of County Grind’s birth — as well as Celine Dion’s twins. However, there’s a seedier side of this idyllic paradise we call home…

Ring in the New Year With Usher at American Airlines Arena

This generation’s celebrities are terrible at reclaiming their stories. Vows to fight back against gossip outlets and the bloodthirsty public result in tell-alls that tell little, on-camera sniveling about the perils of being on camera (see authorized documentaries of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears), and harrowing continuations of the cycle…

Lauderdale Jam Act the Heavy Pets Returns Home for New Year’s Eve

There’s definitely something Phishy about the Heavy Pets. However, any tie-dyed elitists out there quick to write off the SoFla favorites as knockoffs should consider increasing the dosage of their preferred method of consciousness expansion. Certainly, the Fort Lauderdale quintet follow a lineage that traces back to the Grateful Dead,…

Blast From the Past: Blowfly – The Weird World of Blowfly

Blowfly The Weird World of Blowfly (Weird World Records) www.blowfly.com There’s not much we could say about the great Clarence Reid (A SOUTH FLORIDA FUCKING TREASURE) that hasn’t been said already by me or my peers. But taking a page out of his alter-ego’s playbook, I vow to spread my…

Mp3: 5oh! Spreads the Holidubstep Spirit

The inescapability of holiday music is already starting to make me despise the (less) balmy winter months in SoFla. It’s become impossible to step foot within a Starbucks or Best Buy without hearing Harry Connick, Jr.’s rendition of “The Christmas Song” or “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” And up…

South Florida’s Ten Best Local Releases of 2010

The methodology for this list was simple: Any local recording that made a huge impact in 2010 would be considered. This included EPs, mixtapes, Mediafire .zip files, Bandcamp profiles, split cassettes, and ringtones. Music consumption in South Florida shouldn’t be confined by technicalities or “official release dates” — that would…

Night Watch: Korrigans Irish Pub

Korrigans An Irish Pub 2301 W Sample Rd #20, Pompano Beach Call 954-974-0251, or visit hereIrish pubs are a fundamental part of our South Florida drinking landscape. Hundreds of Guinness-soaked temples dot South Florida, from McSorley’s on Fort Lauderdale beach to Slainte in Boynton. I’ve toured fetish clubs, gotten drunk…

The Doors Don’t Support Jim Morrison Pardon

Earlier this month, outgoing Governor Charlie Crist, recent Doors convert Alex Sink, and the two other members of the Florida clemency board issued a full pardon to frontman Jim Morrison for a 40-year-old indecency charge that remained on his record at the time of his death in 1971. County Grind…

In Print: Palm Beach Pop Festival & South Florida’s Top 10 of 2010

Fanfare here goes to Lee Zimmerman for tracking down some fascinating details of the 1969 Palm Beach Pop Festival. It was a bit like Woodstock, and the Rolling Stones performed, but no one’s talking about it now. Documentarian Ken Davidoff (oldrockphoto.com) and his co-producer on the project, Jack Connell, are…

New Disqus Comments Section Kicks Captcha to the Curb

As much as County Grind would love to associate its comments section with the happy realm of online concert ticket purchases, that Captcha feature that made you type in a random series of garbled numbers and letters is gone. Captcha is released, unpenned, and unassociated with us anymore.What comes instead…

MP3: Bright Eyes’ “Shell Games” Is the Beginning of Goodbye

Although Conor Oberst is far too prolific to ever stop putting out records, he managed to put three years of space between entries in his flagship enterprise. Bright Eyes is back with a vengeance on the first single off The People’s Key, “Shell Games.” With a production style on this…

Night Watch: The Dubliner

The Dubliner Irish Pub 435 Plaza Real, Boca Raton Call 561-620-2540, or visit hereIrish pubs are a fundamental part of our South Florida drinking landscape. Hundreds of Guinness-soaked temples dot South Florida, from McSorley’s on Fort Lauderdale beach to Slainte in Boynton. I’ve toured fetish clubs, gotten drunk at a…

Local Motion: Hometeam-Music’s Mixtape – André Benjamin is…

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…