Almost every local venue has been going through a long post-holiday slump, booking-wise. Not Trunk Space. The Jewel of Grand Avenue has been staging a ton of shows lately, including the Back Ted N-Ted concert we shot earlier this week and the concert promoted by this cool flier, local folkie…
You’d think the good people of Scottsdale suffered enough during the reign of Dirty Scottsdale, when any drunken night in an Old Town club could lead to online humiliation, but they’ve been targeted again.No, Nik Ritchie is still basically ignoring his roots, and posting stuff about British soccer players instead…
Hot Chip’s “Ready For The Floor” is my favorite song of the moment, so I was interested to learn that the band’s next project, an EP with Robert Wyatt and Geese is scheduled to come out on Jan. 27. If you want it, though, you’re gonna have to go in…
Few bands are anywhere near as funny as they think they are — The Dag Nabbit Stubbs is an exception. I mean, they’re not, like hilarious, but they play their hand for all it’s worth, backing up their redneck rock posturing with a sound like what the dead and zombified…
The Internet age has finally done what Eddie Vedder couldn’t: Break Ticketmaster’s stranglehold on concert ticket sales.Starting now, tickets to Dodge Theatre will be available only through Livenation.com. Sarita Ray, public relations coordinator, says Cricket Wireless Pavillion, the mega-promoter’s other big Valley venue, will have its own system sometime soon,…
The International Pop Overthrow is coming to Phoenix.What’s that? You haven’t heard of International Pop Overthrow before this? Don’t worry, neither had I and I’m a) a music critic and b) someone with a softspot for indie pop.Still, this plucky little multi-city indie festival seems pretty cool, and will be…
A couple weeks ago we brought you news that local favorites Dear and the Headlights recorded a session for Daytrotter, which is sort of Chicago’s answer to The Peel Sessions, with upcoming indie acts doing four-song semi-live sets. Since then, two more bands with Arizona connections have been on, Tucson’s…
Old timey rock chick Wanda Jackson has canceled her January 11 performance at the Rhythm Room due to a family emergency. The 71-year-old Oklahoma native is known as “The Queen of Rockabilly” once dated Elvis Presley… before setting down with a IBM programmer named Wendell. Refunds are available through The…
See more shots in our Bob Log III slide show.I’m not usually much for gimmick bands, but when Phoenix’s paltry post-holiday concert calender has us planning to review Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and Reel Big Fish within a week, options are limited. And so it was that I found myself at…
We’ve got a lot of show announcements for you this week, though by and large they’re D-listers. The major exception is The Game, who’s coming to the Celebrity on February 21. As a long time West Coast partisan, I’ve always admired the way the Compton rapper went to head to…
This week’s Flier of the Week only hits at an explanation of the spectacle which is a Bob Long III show. I’m not going to bother to explain the concept of “Boob Scotch” to you myself, but you can read all about Log on wikipedia or you can venture over…
The desert is dancing. At least that’s the impression you’d get from this list of the 10 best records of the year, which reflects the synth-y sound of Phoenix. Lately, it seems electro-pop/rock of acts might grow to define the Valley’s music scene in the way the jangly country/pop/rock of…
Happy New Year! Up on the Sun and Phoenix New Times have had a lot of lists for you over the past month. Like, more than we can count. Just in case you missed some, here are a few of our favorites:Phoenix’s best records of 2008: The best 10 records…
Show: Kanye West’s Glow In The Dark Tour at Jobing.com Arena on June 8 The year was only half over, but I knew this was the best show I’d see back in June. Of course, I never knew how many shows I’d be seeing, employed as feature writer at The…
As far as I knew knew up until a few weeks ago, Crush came in two flavors: Orange and Grape. Recently I was visiting my family in Ohio when I came across Pineapple, Peach, Strawberry and Tropical Punch. Shocking! Then, I did a little more research and found out that…
Always Randy’s Protect Your Nuts is exactly the kind of record we have Your Asked For It to review. Truthfully, there’s little chance I’d pop in an album with a cover featuring three semi-mulleted old dudes wielding baseball bats and a guitar in front of a background of peanut shells…
Show: Eartha Kitt with Phoenix Symphony at Symphony Hall, May 31Some performers are just golden at any age. Eartha Kitt, my favorite Catwoman (from the Batman TV series in the ’60s), had more flair onstage at age 81 than most performers half her age could ever hope to have. Kitt,…
Show: Blue Man Group at US Airways Center, January 14.I couldn’t tear myself away from this show, not even after I drank a few beers and had to pee. The concept for the show was “How to Be a Megastar,” and included all manner of interactive multi-media, from how-to video…
From the this-is-super-cool-but-would-have-been-way-too-much-work-for-us file comes this: Our man Murph has put together a nice assortment of best of 2008 lists by local indie types on his blog, So Much Silence.Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World and Kevin Murphy himself are both in love with Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight while…
Show: What Laura Says Thinks and Feels at the New Times Summer of Sound pop show at The Sets, June 21.Not to toot our own horn, but we really scored by booking local indie rock sensations What Laura Says Thinks and Feels for our Summer of Sound series this year…
Valley Metro pulled out all the stops for yesterday’s debut of the 20-mile light rail system we’ve been writing about all month. They had parties scheduled at pretty much every stop on the line — though, honestly, I’m not sure there was anything beyond an unmanned purple tent full of fliers…
Not sure how many more folks are headed out to the train today, but if you are steer clear on the eastern most stop. There are several thousand people there, all waiting in a looong line for their chance to take a ride on the Valley Metro’s first day of…
