Listening to “Paper Bag,” the scuzzy, shuffling opening track from Phoenix-based garage rockers The Chandails’ forthcoming EP, it’s easy to imagine a good-for-nothing street gang, maybe the “cholos performing satanic rituals while eating pozolé” described on the band’s Web site. But the group of 16- and 17-year-olds hardly casts that…
If Jamey Jasta, Hatebreed frontman and former host of MTV’s Headbangers Ball, ever gets sick of the music biz, the dude could probably make a decent living as a motivational speaker. Take the lyrics from “In Ashes They Shall Reap,” a song from his long-running hardcore band’s new self-titled album:…
If Jamey Jasta, Hatebreed frontman and former host of MTV’s Headbangers Ball, ever gets sick of the music biz, the dude could probably make a decent living as a motivational speaker. Take the lyrics from “In Ashes They Shall Reap,” a song from his long-running hardcore band’s new self-titled album:…
“Oh yeah,” Nathan Williams of Wavves leered as I introduced myself last night at The Rhythm Room. “You’re the guy who wrote the article with the ‘Wavves spits on a guy’ headline.” That wasn’t the headline, exactly, but the article he was referring to clearly set the stage for an…
It’s been a pretty solid year to be a Yo La Tengo fan. The Hoboken-based indie-rock institution (25 years and running) didn’t just release one new album this year, they released two. Their latest, Popular Songs finds the band exploring their entire stylistic breadth, indulging in the orchestrated pop, Motown…
The headlines usually accompanying Nathan Williams, better known as Wavves, seldom have anything to do with his music, a low-fi blend of classic West Coast pop buried under layers of hiss and distortion. His drug-fueled onstage meltdown at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Festival in front of a couple thousand people fanned…
It’s hard to take Wavves serious, but really, that’s kind of the point. Everything about the project, the work of California “Weed/Beach Demon” Nathan Williams, comes across as tossed off: the scuzzy, no-fidelity sound of the records, the “So Bored” lyrical stance, the moronic misspelling of the band name (and,…
For all its hazy definitions, there was a time when “emo,” maligned as the genre has always been, indicated the smart, melodic pop-punk of The Get Up Kids and their breakthrough 1999 sophomore record, Something to Write Home About, instead of conjuring up images of mopey girls in heavy eyeliner…
Valley singer-songwriter Stephen Steinbrink wears many caps. Not just in the obvious sense — though Steinbrink is rarely seen without his trademark trucker cap or feathered Peter-Pan style headgear — but in the sense that though many Phoenix artists are content to sit around bitching about the state of the…
Any attempt on my part to play “rock critic” on this assignment would be complete bullshit. Few assignments have ever made me want to high five my inner fifteen-year-old more than a chance to interview Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids, a band that dominated my Walkman in early…
Up until the middle of last week, it was hard to say exactly where Brooklyn’s Woods would be performing September 6th. Fliers circulating around town indicated the freak-folkers would be playing venerable Tempe establishment, The Manor. Folks won over by the band’s recent opening spot for Dungen at the Rhythm…
Blowing up a borrowed amp belonging to a guy who plays a Flying V and is known to wear face paint or cover himself in blood should be badge of honor for a local band. Blowing up an amp that belongs to notably loud garage-punk Jay Reatard? Shit, Earthmen and…
Given the name Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, it’d be reasonable to assume that the lo-fi songs of one-man band Owen Ashworth are cringe-worthy emo stuff that reasonable adults know to avoid. You know the kind of music: It works best with a new driver’s license and Boone’s Farm. It’s…
Jenny Lewis is certainly an entertainer. “From Los Angeles, with love, here’s Jenny Lewis,” the announcer belted Vegas-style as she took the stage at the Marquee on Saturday night, and Ms. Lewis wasted no time making her indie-diva status abundantly clear. As her ace-card backing band cranked out solid seventies-folk…
Despite sweltering heat and scarce air conditioning, about 160 folks crammed into Phoenix’s Modified Arts last night to watch the much-hyped Deer Tick as they rolled into town in their converted school bus to support their new record, Born on Flag Day. The boys, lead by singer/songwriter John McCauley, plowed…
It’s hard to say exactly what Brooklyn-via-Providence alt-country band Deer Tick’s coolest claim to notoriety is: Hanging on NBC with Brian Williams, the undeniably fantastic cover to their debut album War Elephant (replete with enough girls and guns to make the late great Warren Zevon happy), associations with members of…
It’s hard to say exactly what Brooklyn via Providence based alt-country band Deer Tick’s coolest claim to notoriety is: Hanging on NBC with Brian Williams, the undeniably fantastic cover to their debut album War Elephant (replete with enough girls and guns to make the late great Warren Zevon happy), associations…
