Even by Arizona Cardinals standards, 2004 was a gloomy year. That April, Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan. The Cards were in the middle of a 10-year stretch without a winning season. Even though they’d broken ground on a new stadium in Glendale, some locals mumbled that the team should…
Did you hear that?! Modest Mouse is coming to Tempe on February 25. Like, less than a month from now. And tickets go on sale tomorrow. The Issaquah, Washington six-piece sold out the 5,000-seat Mesa Amphitheatre in May 2007, so these tickets for a room half that size will go…
Do you see anything wrong with this display of Cardinals memorabilia at the front of the Wal-Mart at Country Club and Baseline in Mesa? Yes, that’s right, there’s a bunch of Steelers shit on it. The week before the Super Bowl. In metro Phoenix.Now this is Wal-Mart, so if anyone…
Submissions to our weekly You Asked For It local CD review column come in all kinds of packaging. We’ve received everything from CDRs with the title scrawled on the disc in barely-legible Sharpie to thoughtful, handwritten notes with handmade custom art. We’ve never had anything quite as polished as this…
Last week we brought you a debate over the best Arizona musicians of all time after Arizona Premiere Living put out a list that includes Mr. Mister but not Stevie Nicks. Turns out, there are so many great musicians from Arizona it’s impossible to fit them all on to a…
I know my excitement about this show is going to give people a chance to give me shit, but fuck it: Conor Oberst and the Mystique Valley Band are coming to the Marquee on Tuesday, April 14. Already, you can feel the excitement building. Witness this conversation between my friend…
I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s noticed Arizona living has been good to Brenda Warner, Kurt’s wife. Back in the St. Louis days, she drew comparisons to Rocky’s Russian opponent, Ivan Drago, but she was quite a hottie in that segment Fox ran last week. Busted Coverage has…
If I didn’t know better, I’d suspect country music legends entered in to an informal tontine some time in the mid-60s, pledging to play each other’s best songs after the others had passed, all the way down to the last man standing. Depending on who all you’re willing to call…
…and by that headline we mean Dear and the Headlights has been featured in a segment on NPR. Having completed their documentation of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence, every Saab driver’s favorite radio network has put up a podcast of the Tempe band’s “I’m Not Crying. You’re Not Crying, Are You?” Check…
The lack of crossover between the Phoenix and Tucson scenes has always struck me as a little odd, not only because we’re out here in the desert together, without another decent-size city within a five hour’s drive of us, but because the music coming out of the scenes isn’t all…
Surf rock? Garage Rock? Cocktails? Sounds like the recipe for a cool Saturday night to me! The Ruby Room hosts four bands from the two genres Saturday, including The Surfside IV, who get their name on the drum kit in the poster, The Rebel Set, and Thee Jaguar Sharks of…
Pazz and Jop, the annual Village Voice poll of music critics, is out. Conducted since 1971, the poll is the original metacritic, aggregating music writer’s annual best of lists in to one mega list. Unsurprisingly, TV on the Radio won the number one spot, as it did in all the…
Could you imagine this photo in the paper, beside my column on pastor Mason Betha, a.k.a. the rapper Ma$e? Neither could I. And not just because my name is spelled wrong.So this might be a little inside baseball for some readers, but I thought I’d share it anyway, because it’s…
The last time you saw Mason Betha, he was probably in a shiny suit, holding a handful of money, with Puff Daddy dancing behind him. That was 10 years ago, when Mason was Ma$e, Puffy’s protégé following the assassination of The Notorious B.I.G. Back then, Mason was bemoaning the adverse…
With their star swiftly rising thanks to a slate of dates opening for Ben Folds and a showcase at SxSW, a lot of us showing up at Miniature Tigers’ show at Yucca Tap Room last night kind of thought this could be one the last times we’d see the band…
The Houston Press asks that question in this post from their music blog, Rocks Off. Their conclusion? “Green Day can go back to singing about jerking off now. If they feel like it.”Lots of video goodness with this funny piece…
The Neville Brothers/Dr. John concert scheduled for Super Bowl Sunday has been moved to Feb. 3. Celebrity Theatre made no bones about the reason for the move: The Cards are in the Super Bowl, who’s going to go to a show that night? Instead of February 1 the show will…
I’ve always been a fan of public transit map shirts, bags and umbrellas. It’s the classy way to show off from your vacay. I mean, it says “I went to this city” but also “See, I’m cool, not only did I hook up with some Dutch guy at my hostel,…
It’s easy to forget now, when there are over a dozen flavors of Coca-Cola available, but a bottled cherry cola — as opposed to the sort of cherry colas mixed up traditionally at drugstores and diners — was once a revolution. Like you’d probably expect, Coke came up with it,…
Not too many bands would post a flier for a show where they’re not even named, but I thought there was something telling about Third and Maryland’s decision to do so here, where they’re, presumably, referred to as “LIVE BAND !”Third and Maryland, a four-piece gener-ock band from Phoenix/Scottsdale/Buckeye/Cave Creek…
I’m not sure I’ve seen anything that sums up the raucous atmosphere surrounding the Obama inauguration better than this live video for “My President is Black” with Young Jeezy and Jay-Z (a.k.a. Old Jeezy), which I came across over on The Village Voice’s music blog, Sound of the City. If anything, it sure beats…
We’ve got a couple big pieces of news involving Kinch, who recorded what we said was the best album in Arizona last year. First comes news that they’ve been selected for SxSW, joining several other Phoenix bands at indie rock’s biggest showcase. They’ve also got new tracks from their The…
