The Soft Moon on Live Performance: “It’s a Living Thing”

Listening to Luis Vasquez’s three dark industrial albums as the Soft Moon, you would think he always lived in Berlin. But he originally hails from sunny Southern California. “I was born in L.A., where I watched MTV every morning. It was mostly glam rock like Poison, Mötley Crüe, Cinderella, and…

SunGhosts Break Down New EP Track by Track

SunGhosts, our reigning readers’ choice for Miami’s best band, just put out a new four song EP, Parhelion. The title keeps with the Kendall band’s solar obsession. Parhelion is the scientific name for a rainbow halo phenomenon seen around the sun in case you were wondering. Recorded in both Davie…

France Camp Promises Raw Fish and Dirty Old Men at Gramps Show

Jay Simonson’s prediction for Friday’s show: “It’s going to be loud, and I’m going to climb on stuff.” It’s one of the few straightforward answers Simonson, lead singer of the Minneapolis garage-rock band France Camp, was willing to give over the phone, where he was joined by drummer Dylan Rosebringeth…

Miami Music’s Craziest Moments of 2015

Maybe it’s the heat, or the traffic. The perhaps easily available flakka probably doesn’t help either. But Miami has always been a magnet for insanity. So why should we expect any less from Miami’s music world? 2015 is officially in the past, but before we leave it there completely, it’s…

1349’s Lead Singer Breaks Down the Finer Points of Black Metal

When asked to define black metal, there is a long pause from Olav Bergene, the lead singer of Norway’s 1349. A second passes and then another and then, in his Norwegian accent, he explains the fundamentals of the loud, fast and heavy musical genre that his life revolves around. “Black…

28 Newsstand Is a New Pop-Up Hiding in Plain Sight

No, that is not a newsstand that has opened up on the site that once housed Railroad Blues and PS 14. Not really, anyway. It’s a slightly more lucrative scheme than print media. While it might appear to be a vendor selling candies, old copies of New Times, and vintage…

Cavity Is Back, and Miami’s About to Get a Lot Sludgier

The last time we spoke with Cavity bassist Dan Gorostiaga, his band was gearing up for an April 10 benefit show that he insisted would be a one-time reunion. But since then, the local sludge legends have already played one show at New York City club Saint Vitus back in…

305 Fest Showed Us Why Miami Needs Metal

The layman might have expected a very different sort of “305 Fest.” By inserting Miami’s area code into the name of 305 Fest, the punks and headbangers behind the two night extravaganza challenged an outsider’s expectations of what Miami music all about. If some poor schlub strolled into Churchill’s this…

Gramps’ Friday Nite Live Will Start Your Weekend Off Right

Psychomagic’s latest record came together fast — maybe too fast. “We only had three weeks to write the songs and three days to record it,” singer and guitarist Steven Fusco says. But they were able to pull it off. The album, Bad Ideas, mixes and matches garage rock with psychedelia…

305 Fest Is Two Days of Loud, Unfiltered Miami Rock

With two nights featuring over two dozen bands, 305 Fest aims to be a showcase for all that is punk and hardcore about South Florida. The night’s roster will include just about every face from the local scene you could imagine, as well as some out of town legends, like…

Third-Annual Woodystock Hosts Expendables, Cris Cab, and More

Five years ago a rugby accident left Florida Atlantic University student James “Woody” Beckham paralyzed from the chest down. But despite the long road that injury would set Beckham down, the injury hasn’t defeated the Coconut Grove resident. “Sometimes I got worn out and tired,” he says. Shortly after his…

Lolo Reskin’s ’80s Prom Has Become a Miami Thanksgiving Tradition

“We keep saying maybe we won’t do it this year, but then we decide why not,” Lolo Reskin says. Lauren “Lolo” Reskin, the owner of Miami’s Sweat Records, will — thankfully — once again throw her signature Thanksgiving Eve ’80’s Prom this year. This Wednesday night at the Electric Pickle…

Miami Music Project Aims to Raise $50,000 for Give Miami Day

Birthed in a Doral warehouse, the Miami Music Project has spent the last five years teaching kids who might not otherwise have the chance how to sing and play musical instruments, from the violin to the tuba. “Our goal is to transform communities using music as a vehicle,” explains Stephen…

The Ten Saddest Moments in Miami Music History

In life, there are ups and downs. So when we posted a list of the 15 greatest moments in Miami music history back in September, it got us thinking about the darker times. And Miami has seen plenty of those. Not to imply that any one death is somehow sadder…