Djentrification and Peso One

If you’ve been wondering why all the cool obscure vinyl from places like Eastside Records and Tracks in Wax has disappeared lately, chances are these platters have found their way into the collections of Djentrification and Peso One. Don’t worry, they ain’t hoarding all the wacky wax from you charlatans…

A Series of Unfortunately Cool Events

Listen up, P-Town peeps. When it comes to holidays, Halloween is the shizzle. What other day on the calendar allows you to transform yourself into a pimp, priest, or politician without getting glares from onlookers? Back during your juvie delinquent days, you spent most of the year agonizing over which…

Pretty Vacant!

As if he wasn’t already busy enough running the ultra-popular Shake! on Saturdays at The Rogue East, DJ William Fucking Reed is kicking off another weekly dance night for hepcats and hotties alike with Pretty Vacant! at Anderson’s Fifth Estate, 6820 East Fifth Avenue in Scottsdale. Every Friday, Reed will…

Seedy Release

Face it, drummers don’t get much respect. There’s an overabundance of easily quoted jokes illustrating this fact, usually underlining surly sentiments about how skinbeaters are viewed as useless and interchangeable, including one oft-quoted barb asking, “What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians?” (A drummer.) But for local…

Bloodfest 2

Remember Quentin Tarantino’s sensational revenge flick Kill Bill Vol. 1, particularly when the Texas Rangers happened upon the gory, blood-splattered aftermath of a slaughtered wedding party? That’s probably what you’ll see near the end of Bloodfest 2: A Wedding Massacre on Friday, October 13. This red-drenched rave will feature a…

Underground Thursdays

Although temperatures might be cooling down with the onset of fall here in the PHX, San Francisco’s DJ Jacaranda and the flame-flinging freaks of local fire performance troupe S_T_3 are gonna be heating up your Thursday nights over at Ichiban Japanese Restaurant, 1435 East University Drive in Tempe. At their…

Zach Attack

Zach Yoshioka is the Valley’s version of Robert Rodriguez or Roger Corman. Since 1999, the self-taught auteur has cranked out 15 different no-budget flicks with such luridly visceral subject matter as gang violence, love triangles, cyberpunk shenanigans, and witchcraft. Schlocky cinematic adventures like Urban Pressure and Synthetic Truth have occasionally…

Goodwill Hunter

Everyone needs a pal like Corey Busboom. Besides helping keep countless local thrift stores afloat by dropping more than $100 weekly on vintage electronics and other junk to sell on eBay or transform into bizarre electronic musical instruments, this 27-year-old musician and punker packrat also seeks out various tchotchkes that…

Blur

Riddle me this: Which award-winning, NYC-based turntablist has created best-selling dance mixes for MTV and Tommy Boy records, and remixed the likes of such superstars as Dido, Christina Aguilera, and Janet Jackson? The answer to the oh-so-easy brain teaser: DJ Riddler. Besides a gig at Gotham’s dance station WKTU (alongside…

Hell’s Belle

Cecelia Walker has a hot pair of breasts, literally. As the thumping congas of Santana’s “Soul Sacrifice” pump from the Paper Heart’s loudspeakers, the scantily clad 62-year-old burlesque dancer stands onstage at the downtown Phoenix performance venue, preparing to light her size 42D boobs on fire. Walker, who’s known by…

Fusion Music Festival

If you want to see the best and brightest of the Valley’s turntablist scene (without having to hit up a dozen different nightclubs), beat feet down to this ginormous rave and music shindig at the Icehouse, 429 West Jackson Street, on Friday, September 22. In addition to appearances by Philly’s…

Bone Daddy

Tiny fragments of fractured machines, antique medical tools, pill bottles, bleached animal bones. These are some of the ingredients composing the bizarre boxlike found-object sculptures of Chris Caufield, 38. Looking like something outta the Nine Inch Nails music vid “Closer,” these kooky contraptions (frequently lighted with neon tubes) evoke an…

Andy Rourke

While he might not be as famous as Morrissey or Johnny Marr, bassist and guitarist Andy Rourke was still a vital part of legendary English rockers The Smiths. Handling his bass like a warbling weapon of twang, Rourke added his distinctive sound to such classic Smiths albums as The Queen…

Saturday Nights at Trax

When the old Sail Inn closed its doors late last year, Tempe scenesters shed plenty of collective tears as one of their favorite hangouts went kaput. Now the drinking den has been reborn as Trax, a “casual but trendy” nightspot with a posh interior, 14-foot video wall, and lineup of…

Dylan

Long before he became known as the “Sultan of Sickness,” the drum ‘n’ bass devotee known as Dylan began his career spinning records over the pirate radio airwaves in his native London. Since those quasi-legal days, this dope DJ has risen to international fame and fortune, with his mixes covering…

The HorrorPops

No doubt about it, The HorrorPops are headed for Hades. Not because the fearsome foursome of Holland-born hipster hellcats committed any mass murders (that we know of), but simply because we’re certain they’ve somehow sold their souls to Satan. How else would you explain the devilish fervor in which punky…

DJ Irene

Here’s a real-life kind of needle exchange for you: A decade ago, superstar lesbian DJ Irene was shooting up meth and living out of her car in between gigs working the wheels of steel at L.A. dance clubs like Arena. Thankfully, the spiky-haired Sapphic spinstress eventually swapped out the tracks…

HeadSpace

Sunday afternoons are meant to be spent maxing and relaxing, instead of stressing out about returning to your hellish job for another week of rat-race-style torture. So it’s a good thing that Counter Culture Cafe, 2330 East McDowell Road, has its weekly event HeadSpace, at which you can kick back…

DeVotchKa

Pity the poor music journalist charged with the task of describing the enticingly exotic and eccentric music created by DeVotchKa. Over its six years of existence, scribes and screed-slingers (including this one) have used a plethora of hyphen-laced phrases to describe the Denver foursome’s strangely sumptuous sound, including such idioms…

The Arcade Fire

Ever since local DJ William Fucking Reed debuted his “motherfucking rock and roll dance party” Shake! last year, Saturday nights at The Rogue East, 423 North Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale, have never been the same. Every weekend, hipster hotties crowd this East Valley punk mainstay to bust and bop to…

Off on a Bender

Corey Busboom’s house is a gloriously ginormous mess. Quite frankly, it looks like a thrift store exploded inside the cluttered confines of the 27-year-old’s central Phoenix residence, as almost every inch of floor space is choked with a collection of castoff items, including colorful kids’ toys, vintage home electronics, bygone…

Jen Lasher and DJ Icey

There’s plenty to love about female DJ Jen Lasher. The saucy 24-year-old spinstress siren and fashion plate is not only easy on the eyes, she’s also a classically trained pianist, a gifted singer-songwriter, a fan of the metaphysical realm, and a topnotch turntablist. For the past few years, she’s been…