Jimbo loves tits

​The Virginia Key Grassroots Music Fest is almost here, and that means a stellar music lineup, camping in the cool winter beauty of the subtropics, and more hippies, rastas, and traveling kids than you can shake a beach at.

Meanwhile at Jimbo's, $2 beers, Southern rock and roll, and topless biker mamas rule, and so will your weekend (starting Thursday) when you party at the free Jimbo's Music Festival.

We spoke to music promoter Jeff Sadowsky about food trucks, cheap brews, and smoked fish. Check out what he had to say after the cut.

More >>

​You may have noticed a recent wave of electronic music producers with "spoonerisms" for monikers -- silly twists on famous musicians' names, like Joy Orbison, Jichael Mackson and Wevie Stonder.

Well, New Jersey-based producer Seth Haley didn't choose to toy with the name of an influential pop star. Instead, he's goofing on cinematic icon Tom Cruise. And it makes perfect sense, because the Com Truise sound is pure '80s nostalgia, redolent of the dreamy vintage synth scores from films like Risky Business. Haley even remixed Daft Punk's soundtrack for sci-fi '80s sequel Tron last year.
More >>

​​We don't know what the hell Sweden's putting in its drinking water. But the quiet Scandinavian country appears to be spawning a superior race of DJ megastars intent on world domination!

The Swedish House Mafia dudes have already positioned themselves as the prime EDM ambassadors to this decade's mainstream masses. And then there's Swedish wunderkind John Dahlbäck who's been dropping bombs on international dance floors since the age of 15!
More >>

¡Mayday!'s Bernz.

​The rap game is all about grind. Just ask local six-dude rap crew ¡Mayday!

After scoring a deal with Kansas City spitter Tech N9ne's Strange Music label last year, Bernz, Wrekonize, Plex Luthor, Gianni Ca$h, L.T. Hopkins, and Nonymous took off with their new boss on the All 6's and 7's tour. They played 82 shows in just 12 weeks. As Bernz says, "Just grinding every day."

Yet despite that insane road sked, the ¡Mayday! dudes still found a way to start pounding out tracks for upcoming album Take Me to Your Leader (street date March 27), the follow-up to 2009's Stuck on Island and the band's debut slab for the Strange imprint.

Yesterday, Crossfade talked to Bernz about Tech N9ne, the Strange Music family, post-apocalyptic visions, the new album, and stayin' on that grind.
More >>

Washington, D.C.- and Berlin-based production duo Benoit & Sergio ruled EDM charts and dance floors throughout 2011. And it wasn't just because of the hype afforded by releases on hot labels like DFA and Visionquest.

No, the pair's mass appeal is directly connected to their music's pop sensibility. A Benoit & Sergio song is raw and edgy enough for the underground house and techno heads while still being super accessible, thanks to addictively melodic vocal hooks.

And it's no surprise, given the duo's influences. When Crossfade asked for their all-time top five jams -- the classics without which there would be no Benoit & Sergio -- they came back with a list of sexy pop gems by the likes of Prince and Bobby Brown.
More >>

Wastin' away with Jimmy Buffett.

​If you're too drunk to pay attention to the superdepressing dirty-beach-bum-on-a-bender lyrics, Jimmy Buffet's "Margaritaville" might seem like some perfect little paradise where nobody works, the tequila is always free, and every afternoon is spent lazily "nibblin' on sponge cake" and "watchin' the sun bake."

But that's bullshit. The place is a death trap. And that's especially true since 99 percent of Buffet's fans (AKA Parrotheads) are rapidly aging ex-hippies who've crapped away the last 35 years guzzling endless 40-ounce frozen cocktails on the beach, passing out in the sand, and roasting like human turkeys in the blazing subtropical sun.
More >>

Graham Wood Drout, AKA Reverend Deadman.

​When Graham Wood Drout and Iko Iko first started playing Tobacco Road in 1981, "the owner, an ex-cop named Neil, kept a shotgun behind the bar, couldn't get any strippers to work for the club, and hired us to play for Mariel refugees under a disco ball till four in the morning."

In the '80s and '90s, Tobacco Road was ground zero for live music in the city. But "it was pretty lawless. There was a dirt road, and the bridge was broken and stuck in the up position."

Times have changed, but Drout remains. Here's what he had to say about his first guitar, livin' in Rio, and his Tuesday night residency at The Road.
More >>

Via facebook.com/armandvanhelden

​Despite being a total dickhead in 2011, Armand Van Helden's a pretty cool dude.

When he and Duck Sauce cohort A-Trak teamed up for the "Big Bad Wolf" video last year, Van Helden's face was CGI-ed onto some dude's exposed groin. Thus, via movie magic, the Boston-born DJ became a dickhead.

But special effects can be misleading -- Van Helden's got very little in common with male private parts. In fact, he's one of the best record producers (and nicest guys) in the game, an incredibly talented remixer and DJ who's been banging out beats since the late '80s.
More >>

​Is 21-year-old Nika Roza Danilova (AKA operatically trained goth-pop diva Zola Jesus) more than just a needle in 2012's vast haystack of gloomy synth music?

Film director, transcendental meditation evangelist, and total pie guy David Lynch certainly thinks so. In fact, Lynch enjoys ZJ's digital death rock spin on Kate Bush so much that he asked to remix "In Your Nature," her latest single from last year's Conatus LP. Recently, Danilova told Pitchfork that she normally doesn't do remixes. But, uh, this is David Lynch.

What exactly did the director find so captivating about his latest muse?
More >>

Smooth Benny Latimore.

​"You never get too old to fuck," says 72-year-old R&B singer Benny Latimore. "In case they take me for granted, I may be an old dog, but I still know how to bury the bone."

You may or may not know his name. But Latimore's been in showbiz for half a century. He had a string of chart-topping hits in the '70s (most famously "Let's Straighten It Out") and his latest album, Ladies Choice, is available now on LatStone Records, the label run by 90-year-old music legend Henry Stone.

We spoke with Latimore about lovin' Miami, the new record, and his upcoming concert with the Old Skool Gang. Here's what he had to say.
More >>