The Maine Posts New Video

Girls Do What They Want Tempe kiddie rockers The Maine released a new video via their MySpace yesterday. The video shows the band, which is on the cover of this month’s Alternative Press, doing typical band stuff: hanging out on the tour bus, rocking, hanging out on the tour bus,…

No Depression is Back! …Sorta

When No Depression, The New York Times of roots music, stopped publishing last May, then stopped updating the site frequently shortly thereafter it left a huge hole in the alt-country scene. Now it’s back. Sorta. The magazine, named for a Carter Family/Uncle Tupelo song, launched in 1995 is now a…

Flier of the Week: The Pack A.D.

When I got The Pack A.D.’s new record, titled Funeral Mixtape, in the mail this week I wasa little interested, but not enough to actually pop the CD in. Well, after seeing this super cool flier for their Saturday show at The Ruby Room, I tossed in in the ol’…

Pop Culture: Napa Valley Soda Co. Orange & Cream

It didn’t take long for Napa Valley Soda Co.’s marketing shtick to work on our tasters. “Look, it’s from Napa Valley, I bet it’s good,” said our art director, Peter Storch, upon seeing four bottles of the stuff, purchased from Big Lots for $2. After trying the stuff, he wasn’t…

Arizona’s SxSW Contingent

PHOENIX Kinch: The piano has gotten a bad rap lately, thanks mostly to schmaltzy lite-pop bands like Keane and those dueling piano bars that seem to be springing up everywhere. Fortunately, Kinch has come along to give the piano its balls back. The band’s debut, Advances, veered from rollicking, up-tempo…

VW Trainwreck

“Punk rock, comedy, and politics” can be a great combination — look at NOFX. But when a local band declares in its self-penned biography that it’s playing with these elements, I get a little nervous. The new album by Tempe punk rockers VW Trainwreck, Dramaturgy, is exactly why. With a…

William Elliot Whitmore Coming to Chyro

We don’t typically write up concert announcement blogs for shows in tiny, all-ages venues but this one deserves it. Because, well, YOU HAVE TO SEE WILLIAM ELLIOT WHITMORE! The bluesman who lives on a horse farm in Lee County, Iowa mesmerized me at Virginia’s MACRoCk a few years back.Whitmore, who…

No Age Plays (45-Minute) Epic Show at Modified

By No Age standards, last night’s 45-minute show at Modified Arts was an epic. After all, the the Los Angeles-based noise-pop band’s last album, the critically-beloved Nouns, clocks in at only 28:17. Though it normally feels a little short for a headliner, even at a small club, 45 minutes was…

You Asked For It: Conner Cecil

Conner CecilConner(Old Dominion Records)There was a time when hearing a boyish and manicured voice like Conner Cecil’s alongside a willowy pedal steel wasn’t uncommon in country music. That time is long gone, though, and hearing Conner — a Globe native whose voice matches his cherubic face — on his debut…

Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity Anniversary Show Impressive

All week we’ve been sharing personal essays about Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity, online and in print. Sadly, I don’t have a Clarity story because I wasn’t in to the Mesa emo/pop act until my college paper got an advance copy of Bleed American, the follow-up to Clarity, in July 2001…

The Maine’s Alternative Press Cover

The Alternative Press magazine cover featuring Tempe pretty boy “indie” rockers The Maine is now on stands. Looking good, fellas. The story, by the way, is here. Our you can check out our feature from last month…

Anyone Else Going to SxSW?

So we know who from Arizona is officially showcasing, and we know who’s part of the Unofficial Official Arizona showcase, I Heart AZ, which New Times is co-sponsoring, but it seems like every day I’m hearing rumblings about other local bands headed to Austin in two weeks… like when I…

Flier of the Week: International Pop Overthrow

We’ve certainly had plenty of posters with fancier design than this named Flier of the Week, but this week’s selection wins sheerly for readability and forthright presentation. Want to know when The Love Me Nots are gonna go on? It’s right there! Hell, there’s even a phone number! What better…

The Pretenders Bring Too Much Twang to Dodge

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better-preserved 57-year-old rock star than Chrissie Hynde. Onstage at Dodge Theatre Wednesday night, the Pretenders frontwoman looked incredible and sounded exactly as she did 30 years ago, when the band recorded their eponymous debut. Really. Her distinctive voice — a raspy coo that’s been…

Lights! Camera! Take Action!

Local pretty boy rockers Anarbor will just one of the acts on this year’s Take Action! Tour. It’s put together by Anarbor’s emo-pop-rock label, Hopeless Records, through their non profit organization, Sub City, and also features Meg & Dia, Breathe Carolina, Every Avenue. It’s the eighth year, for the tour,…

10 Emo Songs That Don’t Suck

Everyone hates emo. Well, everyone who matters hates emo, at least. Ten years after Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity set the standard for the genre, it seems to be on its last legs, creatively and commercially, without any real fans among tastemakers. Since critics, not charts, tend to write music history,…

Hogjaw

As much as I prefer music that bears the stamp of the town that birthed it, there’s something to be said for a band that becomes so obsessed with another region’s music that it transforms itself to the point that it plays the music perfectly. The Love Me Nots, regarded…

Pop Culture: Dry Soda (Lemongrass)

As I’ve mentioned a few times before, our tasting panel seems to loathe super-sweet sodas. In our last review, we made them get over it to appreciate Mountain Dew Voltage, a brilliant new Pepsi product. This week, we picked up something your dentist would like: Dry Soda’s Lemongrass. With 50…

Amanda Palmer ‘s “Oasis” Video Too Saucy for Brits

It’s times like this I’m extra thankful for George Washington. It appears Amanda Palmer’s brilliant single “Oasis,” and the accompanying video have effectively banned in Britain for “making light of rape, religion and abortion.” You can read all about it on her blog, where the Dresden Doll gets right to…