Reel Big Fish Entertains Both Ska and Beer Lovers

Reel Big Fish started off at the perfect time for a ska band. Just as groups like No Doubt and Sublime began dominating rock radio in the mid-’90s, the Southern California six-piece started gaining attention for horn-heavy, punk-influenced ska. Ska’s popularity has ebbed and flowed over the decades…

Endless Summer at Churchill’s Kicks Off Miami’s Underappreciated Locals’ Season

In most corners of the world, summer is the season when people shed layers of clothes to show off their skin, crank up the air conditioning to unnaturally frigid temperatures, and discover which parts of their bodies are prone to leaving sweat stains. By those metrics, it is always summer in Miami — a theme that will be celebrated with lots of rock ‘n’ roll during Miami’s Endless Summer, taking place Saturday, June 3, at Churchill’s Pub.

Symbi Roots, the Only All-Female Rara Band, Play Little Haiti Book Festival

Rara is Haitian festival music played with drums, maracas, and bamboo trumpets, which are known as vaksen. Until recently, the music was always played by men. That changed when Dieuvella Etienne bucked tradition and formed the group that is now called Symbi Roots, the all-female rara troupe that has taken up residency in South Florida over the past couple of months.

Venezuelan Duo SanLuis Makes Hopeful Music for Its Troubled Homeland

It is an understatement to say Venezuela has been in a state of unrest. The South American country has been dealing with widespread inflation that has left a large swath of its population unable to afford food and medicine. As the tragedy plays out, South Florida’s Venezuelans have been feeling their friends’ and families’ pain.

Miami Director Xavier Manrique Helms First Feature Film, Chronically Metropolitan

Growing up on Key Biscayne in the ’90s, Xavier Manrique’s foremost passion was playing tennis. But there was always something about the movies. “Any time it was raining, we couldn’t play tennis, so we’d watch movies,” Manrique tells New Times. “I’d obsess over everything on the screen: the photography, the music, the costumes. Same with every Sunday, when my Dad would take me to the Riviera or the Miracle Center to see a movie.”

Fashion Bug Chasers and Xotic Yeyo Rock Churchill’s LGBTQ Fest

Rod Reiter’s gig at Churchill’s falls on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia.  “I grew up when homophobia was a normal thing,” he says. “I got abuse in high school in Boca Raton just for being friends with a gay kid. In my lifetime, homophobia’s thankfully…

The Weeknd Will Croon Until You Can’t Feel Your Face

One of the curses of being a millennial is that 60 years’ worth of musicians got to go through the dictionary and cherry-pick their act’s name before you got around to it. So when Abel Makkonen Tesfaye wanted to christen his dark R&B project the Weekend but discovered there was already a Canadian band that had copyrighted the name, he didn’t give up.

Baauer Is Bringing More Than the “Harlem Shake” to LIV This Thursday

The lyrics of one-hit wonders’ songs get stuck in your head. The names of the artists who recorded them usually don’t. Admit it: You don’t know who recorded “La Macarena” or “Tootsee Roll.” Some songs inspire dance crazes that seem to pop out of the cosmos, belonging to us all equally and democratically rather than associating them with a particular person.

Spam Allstars Release New Album, Trans-Oceanic, First in a Decade

A full decade after the release of their last album, Miami’s favorite funk fusion instrumentalists, Spam Allstars, have finally issued their sixth record, Trans-Oceanic. “Our last album came out in 2007,” says the band’s mastermind, DJ Le Spam. “I was burnt out, and most of my downtime from gigging was spent recording other people in the studio.”

Why Do We Keep Forgiving Chris Brown?

Chris Brown often says Michael Jackson is his biggest inspiration. And it’s easy to see the foundation laid by the King of Pop in Brown’s work. Take his video for “Party,” for example; as the 27-year-old Brown dances, you can imagine Jackson’s moves, so much a part of Brown that…