CrossFade - Broward

Groove Cruise Sets Sail January 23

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:14:41 -0500

Now in its fifth consecutive year, Miami's Groove Cruise has provided terminally-chic partiers with their own floating dance club and a spring-break-for-adults type of hedonistic experience. Past cruises have showcased alot of dime a dozen unknown DJs, but this year patrons are in for quite a treat. The infinitely in-demand Deadmau5 will be coming on board, in rather unprecedented fashion, along with a dozen other considerably less famous DJs. After his last show at Mansion, it seems more like a nightmare than an escapist dream vacation being trapped at high seas with Deadmau5's migraine-inducing live cacophony. The again, maybe now that he's selling out to the lowest common denominator he'll tone down a bit and lay out the commercial cookie-cutter dance crap these meat heads love.

Whet Travel, exclusive purveyor of online bookings for this cruise, is now claiming that 99% of tickets are sold out. Visit their website at www.whettravel.com and you might still get lucky.

Watch the Groove Cruise promo video after the jump.

All Ages Punk-ish Show at GXE Entertainment Sunday Night with Mute Issue, Racing Exit 13 (Staten Island)

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Racing Exit 13 is, technically, a hardcore-influenced Staten Island band. But calling Racing Exit 13 "New York hardcore" makes you think of a bunch of beefy Biohazard-type dudes running around. This quintet has a much subtler vibe than that, name-checking plenty of those heavy, but, errr, thoughtful acts of the mid- to late-Nineties as influences: Texas is the Reason, Samiam, Grade, Hot Water Music, et. al. (Ah, to return to the days about a decade ago when "emo" wasn't a four-letter word.)

This Is Hell to Bring Long Island Hardcore to Ft. Lauderdale on Jan. 15 at Culture Room

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:00:00 -0500

Like a pissed-off, mistreated dog, Travis Reilly yelps, This is how downward spirals start. Then he growls, This is a convoluted attempt to find some source of hope. Later, he barks, This is the best and worst things will ever get. Reilly's Long Island-based hardcore outfit, This Is Hell, seems to know a whole lot about what "this" is. In this case, it's hurtling, relentless rock that manages to be simultaneously nihilistic, idealistic and existentialist.

The Shelborne Announces Its Heavyweight WMC Lineup

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:30:00 -0500

I know, I know, WMC talk already -- yikes, we just celebrated the new year. But if you've got any interest in WMC then you know that the Shelborne always grabs absolutely stellar lineups who play legendary parties. If you like big-room house music, you've already been to some of these, and you already know. This year doesn't disappoint, as the hotel (and home of the classy club Shine) has teamed up with DJ magazine this year, to host all of the publication's workshops, signings, and parties this year.

After the jump, check out all the info.

Hippie-ish Band Donna the Buffalo to Play at Hippie-ish Venue City Limits, Jan. 16

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:00:00 -0500

(Photo via www.donnathebuffalo.com)

Donna the Buffalo, a band who hails from Trumansburg, New York, sounds inseparable from the Great Outdoors. These are the kind of old Deadheads who probably chose to cover John Anderson's Everglades ode "Seminole Wind" because it's got otters and gars in it. Their originals suggest holistic hippies squeezing accordions and strumming washboards on the front porch, two-stepping in the shadow of yonder mountain range. They constantly get cosmic about Mother Earth, and they're known to flesh out their rustic sound with African juju grooves. But, at least on record, they don't go hog-wild with the jamming.

Silverlined, DTB's seventh album, ponders the force that binds all living things. One song mentions butterflies and dragonflies; a few tracks later, there are bumblebees and beetles. Meanwhile grand finale "Forty Days and Forty Nights" -- partly about how a dog pooping in the grass helps maintain the circle of nature -- references Noah's Ark and the Beatles. It's an autumnal record, shuffling and choogling and often weary indeed.

Ultra Music Festival Announces Phase Two of Its Lineup

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:30:00 -0500

Ultra Music Festival released the second phase of its lineup, and while the biggest names in the list offer no big surprises, a number of other, smaller acts added to the bill demonstrate more of the festival's forward-thinking approach this year.

So here are the titans who will play (again): Paul Van Dyk and Armin Van Buuren. Another dance legend to play is Moby, who didn't appear at Ultra last year, but is generally always lurking around during WMC and thus seems not too rare.

But remember the heady days of the mid-Nineties when it looked like "rave music" (or whatever) might actually become mainstream, while still staying a little scary? Relive it all when the Prodigy headlines the second night! Actually, this is pretty awesome -- that day two of the festival is when acts like Crystal Castles and the Presets play. The addition of the Prodigy is a very smart, very, very epic way to link dance-rock past and present.

Holy Terrors Reunion Show Saturday at Churchill's to Include Sam Fogarino, Now of Interpol

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:00:00 -0500

Miami New Times recently ran a feature on the still-alive Holy Terrors, legends of the Miami rock scene. Click here to read that story, which in help sparked the band to get together another reunion show.

Rob Elba, William Trev, Dan Hosker, and Sam Fogarino form the classic Holy Terrors lineup that old people remember and younger people talk about when discussing the Nineties South Florida music scene. Later on, Fogarino made the time-honored trek so many talented Miami musicians make to NYC and joined a little band called Interpol. But as a Terror, he was the steady hand behind Elba's inventive (and sometimes obnoxious) vocalizations.

Jazmine Sullivan's "Bust Your Windows" - Palm Beach Remix with Lyrics

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:00:00 -0500

Mr. Pupp "Da Quarter Million Dollar Man" and 21 Reese from Palm Beach have a message to any female that would dare bust the window out their cars. Here go the video and lyrics to their remix of Jazmine Sullivan's smash hit as well as I could transcribe them.....

On the List - Tony Rohr, White Room One Year and Sébastien Léger

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:44:20 -0500

Happy New Year, ya'll! It's 2009 and with the economy going south, everyone seems to be looking for answers at the bottom of a bottle -- and that means more parties! And January is already gearing up to be spectacular. But let us not get ahead of ourselves, because here is what you definitely want to check out this weekend:

Reading Panic Bomber's treatise on why he does what he does, one could easily suspect that Richard Haig is bitter that live music doesn't get as much respect as DJs do in Miami. But from listening to his tracks, we beg you Haig, don't ever move from behind the DJ booth, because you're everything we love about electronic music. Catch Haig's alter-ego Friday at The Vagabond.

Also on Friday, White Room's Pl0t party hosts Brooklyn techno master Tony Rohr.

Show at Churchill's Tomorrow Night to Benefit GOO, New All-Ages Venue

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:42:17 -0500

This Friday's excursion into sonic brutality at Churchill's Pub is not just another exercise in aggression. This time, it's to support a nascent all-ages venue in the inner city, tentatively called GOO. The project is being spearheaded by a local music fan, Kenneth Fee. The graduate of Hialeah High has been saving his pennies and looking for a suitable spot somewhere between 79th street and the Design District where "different kinds of people can be exposed to different kinds of music." Fee is inspired by the International Noise Conference and plans to feature an extremely wide variety of music.

Since the closing of the Alley, many of the all-ages gaps in shows have been filled in by Andrew Santa Lucia, with his Andrew's House of Pain. He's ceasing operations in support of the new venue, and reports being really excited about its possibilities.

CD Review: hey willpower, Playing Both Miami and West Palm, Jan. 16 and 17

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:12:16 -0500

Scottish indie rock act Bis' overtures were expressed rather neatly in its 1997 single "Tell It to the Kids": "And now, coming through the airwaves into your home/Introducing the new transistor heroes." San Francisco's hey willpower lacks a similar expressive salutation, but it shares Bis' affinity for trash culture, "kandy pop," and smug phrasing.

hey willpower eschews caps as much as it does any sense of adult maturity. The group's debut release, P.D.A., is full of enough lyrical piffle to convince you that chief songwriter Will Schwartz (who also plays in Imperial Teen) would draw just as much joy assembling a monkeys' tea party as he would pop songs. From "Magic Window": "With you my work is never done/Be there from Lent to Ramadan," or "I can make you scream/I'm better than a Krispy Kreme."

Yo Majesty to Try Miami Again, Jan. 20 at White Room

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:04:13 -0500

Little, it seems, can stop the improbable Tampa-based female party - rap juggernaut that is Yo Majesty. Not even the occasional almost-implosion of the group itself. Early last summer, some undefined internal meltdown sent home half of the group, the gospel - trained vocalist - turned - rapper Jewel B. The duo's backbone, the verbose and sheerly ass - kicking Shunda K, somehow pulled off the rest of the tour by herself, with the help of various special - guest friends. Still, the two insisted the group hadn't broken up, even as they sometimes refused to conduct interviews or pose for new photo shoots together.

Nothing, however, has come easy for the group (which was originally a trio). Their sun-bleached Florida hometown simply wasn't ready, at Yo Majesty's inception, for tough women who rapped. On top of that, it certainly wasn't ready for tough women who rapped who were also outspoken lesbians and evangelical Christians, to boot.

Slideshow: Off the Radar at The Standard

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:19:21 -0500

Justin Namon

Our cameras stopped by Off the Radar's return last night at The Standard in Miami Beach. The off-beat party is looking once again to be the music aficionado's sanctuary in an often stale South Florida nightlife scene.

Click here to view the full slideshow.

Tree/soundz Releases a New Video

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:00:00 -0500

from the band's myspace

Treesoundz is a band that could make millions of dollars. I found them on the Internet while I was lurking around for a blog post. I'm a freelancer; I get paid by the piece, like selling crack rock on commission. They need to quit editing my words though, let a cracker speak his mind and shit.

Anyways, Treesoundz: They look like they fell out of a Starbucks commercial, and their song was the soundtrack. Does Starbucks even have commercials? I don't own a TV. Either way, Treesoundz just dropped a video, which is tight work:

The Juan MacLean Returns to Miami January 21

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:00:00 -0500

Last time I saw The Juan MacLean, it was at Poplife when it still called The District home. I actually didn't know who he was and had just sort of stumbled into the party. But soon after that, I was hooked. The Juan MacLean sound is so smooth and cool, it's hard to resist him calling you to the dancefloor.

And I will heed his calling when he stops by The Vagabond Wednesday, January 21, as part of the Scion House Party series. Also on the bill is New York duo Still Going along with Poplife resident Induce and Heathrow Lounge beauty Jessica Who?

Scion House Party with The Juan MacLean, Still Going, Induce and Jessica Who? at The Vagabond. Door open at 10 p.m.; 21+; free with RSVP at www.scion.com/houseparty.

-- Jose D. Duran