Ras Kass - Green Room, Brown Bag Wednesdays - May 23

Categories: Concert Review

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Ian Witlen

Ras Kass  

Green Room, Brown Bag Wednesdays 

May 24, 2012

Better than: The same old Wednesday night gatherings.

Posted up in the back of Green Room Wednesday with a bottle of Patron in hand, heralded West Coast lyricist Ras Kass sat on the edge of his seat waiting to take the stage.

"They told me the crowds here usually arrive late," Ras told County Grind in between swigs of silver tequila straight out of the bottle. "I'm ready to go."

Coming from California, where clubs close at an obnoxious 2 a.m., it may be hard to understand us South Floridians casually strolling in to a concert after midnight. In Los Angeles, we would be greeted with "last call," while bartender Johnny at Green Room instead greeted us with a tab-opening vodka and soda (only $4.75 -- nice). 

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Jabrjaw Shares Five Spots for Late Night Eats

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Eating is great. But, let's face it, drunk eating is even better. And isn't it strange how just about anything tastes like the best food on earth after a late night of drinking with friends?

However sometimes we're just not in the mood for the same ol' Taco Bell burritos or 24-HR McDonald's fries. So we asked local rapper Jabrjaw -- who performs tonight at Black Locust Society's new monthly event -- to advise us on some late night spots to check out after last call.

Take a look at the delicious list after the jump.
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Rock 'n' Roll Ladies Night with Avenida Zero, All the Pretty Cars, The Reckless Dames, and DJ Sweetswirl


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Joan Jett, bad-ass leading lady of all time? Probably.

Green Room nightclub, the growing epicenter of the Fort Lauderdale's live music scene is hosting a girls' night of rock on this Saturday. 

The event, appropriately called "Ladies That Rock," is a tribute to all of the fabulous female-fronted bands of yesterday, today, and tomorrow who have helped shape the often male-dominated music industry. Think bad asses like Joan Jett and The Runaways circa 1976 meets No Doubt and Paramore -- need we say more?

The line-up of fierce performers are all headed up by lovely and talented ladies. There's Latin pop/punk five-some Avenida Zero, fronted by lead singer Lisa Abreu. Abreu agrees that Joan Jett exudes everything that is bad-ass, noting the frontwoman's influence on her own music. Madonna is another leading lady that Abreu admires, saying, "When I first discovered her (at age 8), I knew I wanted to be an artist/performer for the rest of my life." No arguments there. We think Madonna rules too!

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Ver Des Makes Verdant Debut Performance at Mother Earth This Friday

Categories: Concert Preview
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Just one month ago, Ella Herrera was anxiously walking the Palm Beach State College grounds. The bright-eyed 18-year-old fought hard to earn a spot in the school's medical assisting program, and on this particular day, was participating in orientation. It was then that the gifted musician had an epiphany. "When I was soaking it all in, going to school just didn't make sense, because I knew what I wanted to do since I was eight-years-old, and that's becoming a singer-songwriter," she said. 

Although she had made "a big fuss," about enrolling in the program, and had already gone so far as to purchase scrubs, it took a deep gut check, just three days before classes began, for her to open her eyes and come to the realization that music was all she wanted to do in her life. "Shoot for the moon, and if you miss you'll land amongst the stars." Herrera quotes the saying. The pressure from her family concerning a "backup plan" likely clouded her judgment on the matter, but now, she has clarity. 

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Five Music Icon Makeovers in Ingrid Michaelson's "Blood Brothers" Video

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Indie songstress Ingrid Michaelson took a cue from the "Evolution of Beauty" clips in her latest music video for "Blood Brothers". The song's message of "we're all the same on the inside" stands pretty strongly on its own, but the music video compliments it perfectly.

Michaelson selected a handful of pretty recognizable musical icons including Bowie and Lady Gaga to emulate. Kudos to the makeup artists and hair stylists on this project for executing each shot flawlessly. Time-lapse videos like this one make you wonder how long each transformation actually took.

Take a look at five makeover moments from the video after the jump.
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South Florida's Best Hole in the Wall

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There are bars meant for being showy, with their cordoned-off VIP sections and $150 bottle service, and then there are the bars that are meant for straight-up boozing. In anticipation of New Times' Best Of Broward/Palm Beach 2012 issue in June, County Grind has assembled a list of five of the best hole-in-the-wall drinking establishments in South Florida. No frills, no fuss; just cold drinks and cool people. Got a nominee for the list? Leave your suggestions in the comments.     

1. Hut Lounge and Package Store 

One word: shuffleboard. A Fort Lauderdale fixture for more than 50 years, the Hut is well-hidden but worth the hunt. Though in the deep end of the tourist pool, it's a mecca for locals and regulars who can challenge one another to bar-game favorites like darts, pool, or the aforementioned indoor shuffleboard. Enjoy cold beer, sports on the TV, and a crew that's been slinging drinks in the same spot to many a familiar face year after year.
 
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Five Things You Don't Know About the Lovely Songstress St. Vincent

Categories: Heads Up
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The widely recognized dreamy indie musician/songstress known at St.Vincent is debuting her latest album Strange Mercy to a Miami audience, finally, thanks to the movers and shakers of Mute Miami, on May 31 at The Stage. Last week, our sister blog Crossfade broke the news on this hot upcoming affair. Mute Miami has worked long and hard to bring this indie queen to our neck of the woods, since St. Vincent usually sticks to festivals and the like, making this a momentous and exciting moment for the South Florida music scene.

Seeing as this is her first appearance in front of a ravenous SoFla audience, we only thought it was appropriate to flip the script a little. Rather than telling you all the things you probably know about her, like her real name -- it's Annie Erin Clark -- or that she was part of Sufjan Stevens' touring band before pursuing her solo career in 2006, instead, we're gonna tell ya some things that you probably don't know.

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Pool Party's Creep Guirdo Demands That Ponderosa Not Name Their Next Album "Pool Party"

Categories: Good Ideas
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Please, have some respect for bare chested greaseballs.
Editor's Note: Creep Guirdo, frontman of the band Pool Party and local character responds to Southern rockers Ponderosa's announcement that their new album will be called Pool Party. We've chosen to let his goofy-guy vernacular stand without edits. Enjoy. 

Hello my faithful friends from Broward and Palm Beach, I am Creep Guirdo from the band Pool Party. You probably have - or maybe haven't, I don't know - seen me and my sexy band play sometimes at the Snooze or the place that closed down called Monterey Club or the place with the high ceiling and good bass speakers, Green Room. If you seen my band, you know that we take our name very seriously. We have rules about what a Pool Party is, we adhere to them, and we expect everyone to understand, agree, and do the same.

So, imagine how I felt when I got this press release that a band called Ponderosa is making an album named Pool Party. I felt pretty honored, assuming they were going to be covering all of our songs - I read the song titles, these are not Pool Party song titles. Pool Party song titles are "Pool Party Yeah," "Pool Party Party," and "Pool Party Wut," not "Navajo" or "Black Hill Smoke," or "Cold Hearted Man" - those are Hardy Boys book titles; no offense to Franklin Dixon, or Frank and Joe Hardy.

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International EDM DJ Sharam on Drum and Bass Producers and New Album Night and Day - Gryphon Nightclub on May 27

Categories: Heads Up, Q&A
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It's not everyday that an Iranian-born DJ with roots in house music comes to the Sunshine State, but Sharam -- who fits this description -- will be spinning all sorts of dance music for South Florida electro-heads this Sunday. One part of the electronic duo Deep Dish, Sharam has created his share of remixes and a few compilations, and spends most of his time bringing sonic joy to those in clubs around the world.

His newest endeavor Night and Day, set to be released at the end of June. He says, "It's an extension of what I do as a DJ, what I do as a producer, and as a music lover. I'm into all kinds of music." Through beats, the album looks at two sides of Sharam and two kinds of parties at which he works. "Day parties have become very popular. It's different from a night party. I wanted to represent both things," he says. The DJ enjoys both parties equally. "I've been doing this for a long time. I'm a music lover. I love all kinds of dance music," he says. Sharam gets bored with music quickly, just as he becomes inspired, he becomes disinterested, "I need to constantly be exposed to different formats in music. Otherwise I'd become stale in what I do." 


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Ten Musicians We'd Like to See Collaborate with Justin Bieber Other Than Kanye

Categories: Tour Diary
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The number of cases of Bieber fever just rose around the continent. Justin is back this fall on a North American tour, and he's heading all the way to the dirty south to wrap things up on January 26, 2013 at the American Airlines Arena

Lately, the Biebs has been treated like he's hot shit, and not just by housewives and 12-year olds, but by legitimate, mostly hip-hop artists. Sure, Drake is up his bum -- they're both Canadian and Bieber could definitely boost his listenability. But like even Raekwon, of Wu-Tang Clan, got with the baby boy and Kanye to make "Runaway Love." For Believe, Biebs release slated to drop on June 18, he worked with Nicki Minaj, Luda, Big Sean, and even had Usher produce it for him. All we can assess is that these musicians have money signs in their eyes. Sure Biebs has a sweet, almost girlish voice, but what the Biebs does best is sell. God bless capitalism (sort of) for causing such odd musical pairings.

We were thinking about it, and came up with ten other living artists that Justin B. should work with musically. Be prepared to think too much.
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