​It's been entirely too long, 14 years since a Monica and Brandy collaboration. However, the wait may soon be over.

"The Boy Is Mine" divas spent this past weekend inside a Miami studio laying down vocals for "Turn the Lights On," a track off Monica's forthcoming record, New Life.

Monica tweeted a digi-collage of herself, Brandy, Rico Love, and Breyon Prescott looking unbeweavably "blessed beyond measure." Over 100 people retweeted the news and several commented on the picture.

Check out what they had to say after the jump.
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There were strange sounds simmering over at DJ Craze's Slow Roast Records earlier this week. The Miami beat maker was holed up in his studio with Codes cooking up some dance beats.

Here's how it all came together ... Codes was visiting Miami from New York City to celebrate Grand Central's one-year anniversary and the video release party for Craze's new single "Dance Alone." And since these two dudes happen to be serious workaholics, they immediately got to work on a brand-new track and a kickass remix.

We caught up with Craze and Codes at SAE Institute this week to ask a few questions about their collabo.
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Photo by Ian Witlen

Radio fun with Bonnie "Prince" Billy!

​Yesterday, we watched and listened as Bonnie Prince Billy, Cairo Gang, and Angel Olsen brought beautiful, soulful, sad music to Sweat Records.

But before they headed off to the steamy Little Haiti store, brimming with people, they swung by our very own MTV Woody-winning college radio station WVUM for a quick little session.

And luckily, it was all recorded for posterity.
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Evan Davies' Facebook

The Jacuzzi Boys have definitely made it big.

You know why we know this? Not because they have a live album out on Jack White's Third Man Records. And not because they just got back from a monthlong American tour. But because they've got a performance featured on WFMU. More >>

Behind The Music Miami Part 2 follows host Mayweather Live through Miami Recording Studio, where Triple X produces and engineers what he calls "urban Latino music, "and Suthun Boy Studio, where Gorilla Tek makes beats.

Suthun Boy talks about Liberty City's Pork N Beans projects and why living there is all the reason in the world to try your hardest not to have to. Mayweather Live also produced a show called Prostitution Live and Online in America, a documentary where prostitutes are booked online and then confronted in real life.

Locos Por Juana go live on WDNA 88.9 FM.

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via Drop Dead Beats

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Clockwise, L-R: Producer Cyrus of NFG, engineer Ryan of Capsule, Oren of Jacobs Ladder (mostly hidden), Sammy of Jacobs Ladder

​I stopped by the old standby Dungeon recording studio in North Miami Beach last week to visit local trio Jacobs Ladder, who were working steadily and meticulously on a new five-song EP. Some people think a rock band's recording session at a pro studio is some kind of wild party. It's not.

Studios are actually quite relaxing in their tomb-like silence, thanks to all that soundproofing everywhere. A session itself is usually a bunch of antsy, unshaven people either being bored and waiting their turns. If it is their turn, they'll spend part of the time playing an actual instrument, and the rest of it staring at a computer screen, watching one note set across it over and over again in search of the right tone. The process is actually kind of meditative to observe, in its almost mind-numbing repetitiveness.
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On Crossfade, I've been following the Boca rock and rollers of Stonefox as they've worked in their home studio, and prepared for their upcoming July 30 CD release show at Propaganda. (For a refresher, click here for a free MP3 from that new album, Back on the Wire.)

I visited them again recently to record them playing "Fuzzy Ray," which sounds a lot like its name -- dirty and distorted. Hit the jump for the video.

P.S. Local bands: Want to invite Crossfade into the studio to check out your recording sessions? E-mail me here.
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