Breaking Artist: Black Tide

Who: Miami's Black Tide, a foursome of headbanging, Iron Maiden-loving underagers led by 15-year-old metal prodigy Gabriel Garcia.

Sounds Like: Everything you love about Eighties metal gods like Judas Priest and Guns n' Roses without all the irony. In a town dominated by rap and reggaeton, Black Tide began making their mark with blistering all-ages shows, eventually grabbing the attention of major labels like Interscope, who released the band's debut Light From Above.

Vital Stats:

• For the band, school's out. "Fuck school. I was a really bad student, dude," says Garcia. Drummer Steven Spence adds, "Well, it's hard to keep your motivation when you're in seventh grade and you have a record deal." However, Garcia credits his poor grades to a love of marijuana.

• Obviously, releasing an album on a major label will boost your fanbase. "The day the record came out in March, we were playing to 30 kids," says guitarist Lexx Nunez. "The next day, we played to 300." Their MySpace page can look forward to a lot more friends as the band will join Disturbed, Mastodon and Slipknot on this year's traveling Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival.

• Despite being under legal age, the band has developed a love of booze and strip clubs. "We see the world, and people give us free alcohol sometimes," says bassist Zakk Sandler. "We're not on the fuckin' Disney Channel," adds Nunez.

Hear It Now: Light From Above is in stores now, and first single "Shockwave" is thundering its way onto the radio (but not Radio Disney, obviously.) Click above to see a special behind-the-scenes video on the making of the clip for "Shockwave."

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

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