Dionne Warwick on Diana Ross and Evolving With the Classics

Movie and television audiences tend to appreciate subtle, understated work from actors. But music is a different story. Singers who simply let the song carry their voice, without theatrical flair, don’t always get the love and admiration they deserve. If they did, Dionne Warwick would have a fancy nickname like…

Soul Man Zach Deputy Redefines the Solo Album

“It’s soul music. It touches the soul and the soles of the feet that gets everyone moving to the orchestra in my head.” Zach Deputy’s description of his sound is both inspiring and pun-tastic. The Savannah, Georgia-based Deputy, who will play the Wynwood Yard this Saturday, is a 21st-century version…

We the Kings Keep Their Florida Roots at the Forefront

As grownups living out their teenage rock-star dreams, it’s only right that the five guys who make up We the Kings named their band after the Bradenton middle school they attended. “We all went to Martha B. King Middle School,” keyboardist Coley O’Toole confirms. “Travis Clark and Hunter Thomsen started…

DJ Crespo on Finding Success: “DJing Is a 24/7 Job”

Though Daniel Crespo spent the first years of his life in Chicago, his family’s move to Miami when he was 6 years old was what shaped the performer who became DJ Crespo. “Both Chicago and Miami have a special place in my heart, but Miami has definitely become home,” Crespo…

Laidback Luke Lives Up to His Name

Playing Miami in the springtime is nothing new for DJ Laidback Luke. “I’ve been to Winter Music Conference every year since 2001,” he tells New Times. “It helped me as an up-and-comer handing out demos and mixtapes. I remember in 2005, I played a hotel lobby, and only three people…

Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde Has No Time for the Past

Hynde is happy to have a headlining date at the Fillmore while on a break from a tour opening for Stevie Nicks. “We get to play a lot of the new songs.” Those new songs are from the Pretenders’ tenth album, Alone, which was released last year. Produced and including guitars by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, it features the punk-rock attitude Hynde has displayed throughout her career.

Sharp-Dressed Men of ZZ Top Come to Fillmore

Right along with being guaranteed the last entry in any alphabetical list of history’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands, ZZ Top has one other quality that makes it stand out from the pack: longevity. And, no, that’s not a reference to the size of their beards.

Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience at the BB&T Center

Brace yourself. Winter is coming. Like all pop culture phenomena, Game of Thrones will not allow itself to be bound to one medium. What began as A Song of Ice and Fire — a series of fantasy books written by George R.R. Martin — Game of Thrones was unleashed onto…

Dubfire: Above Ground Level Takes Viewers Inside a DJ’s World

“A lot of DJ documentaries have a glossier perspective of what we do. I wanted a warts-and-all perspective,” Dubfire says of his aim for the new documentary, Dubfire: Above Ground Level.  The 77-minute movie, which will screen at the Miami Film Festival Wednesday night, begins with a career retrospective showing Dubfire’s first snippets of fame…

The Guys of Dangermuffin Are Shamans of the Folk World

When singer Dan Lotti and guitarist Mike Sivilli first gigged around Charleston, South Carolina, in 2005, they didn’t want to take themselves too seriously. So they chose a name that made them laugh: Dangermuffin. But something unexpected has happened over the past decade.

Richard Gere on Starring in Miami Film Festival’s Opener, Norman

You think of Richard Gere as the smooth Lothario in American Gigolo or the smooth tycoon in Pretty Woman. As the title character in Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, Gere is a lot of things, but smooth is not one of them. The movie, which will open the Miami Film Festival this Friday, stars Gere as Norman Oppenheimer, a bumbling Jewish New Yorker with a peanut allergy who is more Larry David than Edward Lewis. The movie walks the line between comedy and drama, mixing in a bit of exploration of Israeli politics. Gere took time out from speaking on behalf of the International Campaign for Tibet to talk to New Times about portraying the ambitious, eccentric Norman, who finds himself causing an international incident.

George Clinton Gonna Bring That Funk to the Fillmore

The past 12 months have been tragic for Parliament Funkadelic. The grandmasters of funk have seen two members of their collective fall. Last June, keyboardist extraordinaire Bernie Worrell died of cancer, and just this past January, their former musical director, Junie Morrison, passed away. But those expecting the group’s show…

Sting Brings His Tantric-Sex-Length Song Titles to the Fillmore

For a man who shortened his stage name to Sting, Gordon Sumner sure does seem to have a thing for wordy song titles. With his great New Wave band the Police, he burdened radio DJs with weighty names such as “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” and, most brazen, “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around.” His solo career, with hits such as “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” and “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You,” showed no more appreciation for brevity.

Novelist Paul Auster and Illusionist David Blaine Will Search for the Muse in Miami

When Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books, had a chance to host what some consider the greatest living American writer, Paul Auster, Kaplan knew he wanted to do something beyond a simple book reading. “We were in talks with Paul about coming down here to celebrate his amazing new novel, 4, 3, 2, 1,” Kaplan says. “His 70th birthday will have just passed, so I really wanted to do something special.”

Why Donald Trump Wanted Flo Rida at His Inauguration

In January, when starfucker-in-chief Donald Trump was looking for some music acts more famous than 3 Doors Down to play his inauguration concert, a vicious rumor was going around that local boy made good Flo Rida had agreed to perform for $1 million. The story circulated so widely that it…

Nu Deco Ensemble Wants to Up the Classical Music Game

Midway through Nu Deco Ensemble’s second season, cofounder Jacomo Bairos couldn’t be more pleased with the 21st-century chamber orchestra’s success. “It has exceeded all our expectations.” he tells New Times. “We never expected such loyal audiences. We’ve been selling out our concerts, so people who love us now know they…

Chris Carrabba Brings Dashboard Confessional Home to South Florida

“That address is a landmark for me,” Chris Carrabba, the lead singer of emo superband Dashboard Confessional, says of Revolution Live, the location of the group’s February 15 show. “Years before it was Revolution, when it used to be the Edge, I saw Fugazi there. We were in line to see Nirvana but had to leave before we could get in for band rehearsal. I saw Jawbreaker there, and I remember thinking, If I work as hard as they do, I could make it.”

Nastia Takes Her Dancing Moves Into the DJ Booth

It’s rare to move from dancer to DJ. But Nastia, a Ukrainian native who spins at Club Space Saturday, feels it is an easy transition. “When you dance for years and then become a go-go dancer in the club, you feel like a fish in water,” she tells New Times…