The Sets in Tempe Closes for Business

It saddens us to report this, but Tempe music venue The Sets has gone belly up after five years. As in closed. Finito. The big goodbye. The multi-room bar and nightclub shut its doors permanently on Sunday night following a local battle of the bands showcase. But as startled as…

Phoenix DJs React to Death of Adam Goldstein (a.k.a. DJ AM)

The music world was stunned and saddened by the tragic and untimely passing of DJ AM (a.k.a. Adam Goldstein), who was found dead in his NYC apartment this past Friday. It’s been reported that the 36-year-old superstar was the victim of an apparent accidental drug overdose. The shockwaves from Goldstein’s…

DJ Dossier: Rob Wegner

In 2001, Wegner launched a class dedicated to the ins and outs of the DJ biz over at Scottsdale Community College, the first of its kind in the Valley (which got some ink in the pages of the Wall Street Journal). It’s since expanded to three separate courses that cover…

Silver Medallion Posts New Music Video

Filmed and edited by local lensman Giulio Sciorio (who’s photog work has been featured in New Times over the past few years), the three-minute video is for the single “Gravity” and is a vibrant nighttime tour of some of the cooler/funkier parts of downtown Phoenix. Oren and Carnegie hop onboard…

Love Mania

Phoenix has been good to DJ Emile. Throughout a big chunk of the ’90s, the outspoken mixmaster amassed some hefty fame and fortune as one-third of the PHX’s notorious turntablism triumvirate, the Bombshelter DJs. Together with Z-Trip and Radar, the trio rocked many an underground party while working the wheels…

WWE Smackdown in 140 Characters or Less

As the terrifying titan known as the Undertaker walked through clouds of smoke during last night’s WWE Smackdown tapings at U.S. Airways Center, thousands of raucous wrestling fans held up their cell phones like Zippos at an arena rock show to pierce the darkness with glowing points of light. That’s…

WWE Smacks Down the U.S. Airways Center

While this will undoubtedly cause a certain amount of disgust to our readership, World Wrestling Entertainment’s visit to the Valley last night had much in common with many of the concerts we’ve reviewed on this blog: blaring rock music, bad makeup jobs, spandex tights, and plenty of pyrotechnics. The U.S…

Z-Trip Wins America’s Best DJ Contest

Bad Boy Bill, DJ Skribble, Adam Goldstein, Scotty Boy, Steve Aoki, and Q-Bert. What do all these cats have in common? They’re some of the best DJs and turntablists that our country has to offer. And every last one of them were soundly defeated by Z-Trip to become “America’s Best…

Geek-Friendly Hip-hop Artist Maja Featured on FOX-10

Things just keep on rollin’ for Vince Payne (a.k.a. Maja). If you didn’t catch Lauren Gilger’s recent post on Chow Bella, the local geek-friendly hip-hop lyricist (who I wrote about back in 2007) was tapped by McDonald’s to spit some rhymes for some TV and radio ads touting their summertime drink…

Dream Fridays

If ever there were a theme song for Scottsdale’s current nightlife situation, it would undeniably be David Bowie’s 1971 hit “Changes.” Especially since Old Town’s scene has been in major flux this summer. Renowned establishments like Sugar Daddy’s and Mickey’s Hangover have blinked out of existence and weeklies like House 7340…

Smackdown on Jefferson

For Valley pro-wrestling fanatics, March 28 can’t get here quick enough. That red-letter date is when next year’s WrestleMania XVII comes to town, and the pay-per-view extravaganza (dubbed the “Super Bowl of wrestling”) promises to be one hell of a party. For grappling groupies, it’ll be like Woodstock, Christmas, and…

DJ Dossier: Bobby Musselman

When the 34-year-old drops his tracks, it isn’t happening inside some bourgie-looking DJ booth at an Old Town Scottsdale club like Martini Ranch or Axis/Radius for a couple thousand peeps. Nope, his chosen venue is a wee bit larger. Namely, Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, where an average of 25,000…

Reggae Sundays

The force is quite strong with DJ Dark Vader. While he doesn’t wield a lightsaber or bomb around in a TIE Fighter (at least, not that we’re aware of), the renowned mixmaster has spent the past few months making the East Valley a little bit more irie with his weekly…