From New York to Miami, Gilbert Stafford graced clubland with his discerning elegance and dry wit.Miami’s nightlife industry is mourning the loss of Gilbert Stafford, who passed away yesterday in Los Angeles. He was 57-years-old. During the ’90s and early part of the decade, Stafford played a prominent role in…
New Year’s resolution: Somehow get a MacBook to edit videos better. Last week, PrunkTV was in the studio with Cash Money Heroes. This week, we are getting acupuncture and listening to a different type of music. It is called Green Music of Thailand, and it is perfect for this frantic…
Here’s the exact email we received from UB Tha UnderbossThe Hottest Label In The Game; MAYBACH MUSIC GROUP & Multi-Platinum DEF JAM Recording Artist “The Boss” RICK ROSS Introduce the newest branch of the label; MAYBACH MUSIC LATINO!!! Presenting MAYBACH RIDERS Volume 1featuring…
Photo by Jeremy HarrisIn this 21st century world where even your grandmother’s getting busy with the Facebooks, MySpacies, and Ashley Madisons, there’s something mysterious and exotic and enticing about a young lady who can’t be found anywhere on the interweb. So when a fanboy asks Google, Who is Diamond Hymen?,…
Night Watch is a regular feature about bars and clubs by nightlife columnist Tara Nieuwesteeg. The Isle Casino & Racing in Pompano proved a good place to erase a bad day. After sampling $1 happy hour specials at the bar inside the casino, my friend Beard and I made our…
It’s been a year of surprises in Latin music. Reggaeton continues fading, albeit slowly, and the industry’s mainstays aren’t garnering the attention they used to. Case in point: Don Omar’s summer release, iDon (no relation to your phone), which remained quiet after its first single, “Virtual Diva.” Some big names…
This year was such a good one for heavy music, I wound up having to cheat when putting this list together. I couldn’t settle on just ten albums that kicked my ass the hardest in 2009; there were dozens of candidates. The best I could do was 14, so each…
While year-end, catch-all wrap-ups are common to every musical genre, in no other style of music do they turn into the hand-wringing, “state of the game” examinations that hip-hop seems to provoke. We worry because we care, of course. But at some point, like a 30-something’s parent, those of us…
We spent 2009 sorting through piles of folk and Americana releases, revising this list in our heads till the bitter end, and failing repeatedly to understand the hype behind the Avett Brothers in the process. While a year of listening brought no shortage of pleasant surprises, our hands-down favorite release…
The Isle of Casino Racing, located in Pompano Park, is like Disney World for degenerate adults, myself included. Seriously, you lose entertainment- and booze-filled hours in a casino and walk out to find it’s already dark (or light, whichever the case may be). So when my buddy Beard was having…
If ever a band were built for an arena, it’s Phish, back after a handful of years with a fresh commitment to its avant-expansive rock. This isn’t one of those comebacks in which a group reprises a “classic” album, thankfully (although Phish covered the Stones’ Exile on Main Street on…
Lady Gaga’s ear for pop hooks and eye for unsettling imagery have landed her atop the creatively moribund U.S. pop scene like a queen stalking a smoldering battlefield. Shrugging her off as a mere magpie assembling a momentarily diverting spectacle from borrowed images is short-sighted. Her sci-fi lunacy will almost…
Thirty years ago, singer/guitarist Mike Palm and the rest of his Southern California trio, Agent Orange, got the good idea to mix first-wave punk-rock and hardcore with ’60s and ’70s surf music, holding onto the loud/fast/snotty approach while delivering melody and clarity too. And with that, they all but invented…
Did somebody say “jam band”? But wait, there’s no hackey sack, no tie-dye, and what’s with all those laptops (like four of ’em) onstage? If you haven’t figured it out by now, Sound Tribe Sector 9 is not your average jam band. Sure, the guys noodle on guitars, but the…
“I’m a Facebook prophet/I told all the girls that I’d be the hot shit.” Thus sings Kid Cudi on “Soundtrack to My Life,” the uninflected voice of a generation that grew up staring at monitors for hours and spends nights cycling through social networking websites. Embodying the hipster-hop aesthetic, Cudi’s…
Matt Keating – Between Customers Keating’s follow up to 2007’s astonishing double disc opus Quixotic is another revelation, a collection of richly affecting songs, ranging from the heartbreaking “Louisiana, a passionate paean to the victims of Katrina, to “Better Than That,” a plaintive ballad that sounds like one of Neil Young’s…
The Deep Dark Woods – Winter Hours Both the band’s name and the album title may seem intimidating, but in truth, Winter Hours shines light on warmly-lit environs via easily embraceable melodies, supple arrangements and the most earnest of sentiments.Bap Kennedy – Howl On The ever affable rocker turned country troubadour who…
Slaid Cleaves – Everything You Love Will Be Taken AwayAfter toiling in the trenches these many years as a folk-tinged journeyman singer-songwriter, Cleaves has finally painted his masterpiece, one that ought to make both his longtime fans and those who are still novices react with awe.Richie Furay – AliveThe good…
Hit the jump to see why this was one of the year’s best.Over the next few blog posts, Crossfade contributor Lee Zimmerman gives his top picks of the best unheralded rock releases of the past year.Lee Alexander & Co., Mayhaw Vaudeville Retro never sounded so remorseful, but thanks to Lee…
LA RiotsWe’ve talked about DJ/production duo LA Riots plenty on this blog. And how can you blame us? It seems like they are in town every chance they get. Recently, they spun at Fort Lauderdale’s Exit 66 only to return soon there after to take over the decks at LIV…
What other DJ can speak it into existence like Khaled does? Maybe none.For a guy whose job it is to play records, he makes it seem like the most important job on the planet, like the entire future of world civilization depends on it, like the very fabric of space…
Night Watch is a regular feature about bars and clubs by nightlife columnist Tara Nieuwesteeg. The Isle Casino & Racing in Pompano has its own universe of bars and restaurants to explore — and if you’re dressed well enough, you can hit all of them. When my friend Beard and…
