A dirty slide that initiated a beanball war in front of a raucous Chase Field crowd. A for-the-ages, come-from-behind win in extra innings. Stars and unknowns stepping into the spotlight and delivering big plays. And one of the most unbelievable and scary moments baseball has ever witnessed. Before the ’09…
We had an epiphany the other day: modern music that’s heavy on the woe-is-me whine or anything that’s cute is, well, not good. Agent Ribbons, who are like a rocking, what-the-crap-are-you-looking-at version of Vermillion Lies, is pretty much the opposite of these things. The band’s sound is firmly rooted in…
In our experience, local bands that promote the crap out of themselves with flier bombardments, MySpace bulletin blitzkriegs, and/or free CD-Rs aplenty turn out to be not so good. But Pigeon Religion, a Tempe-based rock-punk group that personally hands out oodles of fliers and business cards, is worth all of…
Brazil seems pretty cool and stuff. Fine fútbol, beautiful woman, and music that, if you dig below surface of the typical samba, bossa nova, and Brazilian jazz, is pretty darn awesome. Take Database for example. The Brazil-based, French-house emcee collective started making music together in 2007 in the vein of…
If one of your friends ever allows this phrase to purse his or her lips – “The Phoenix music scene sucks” – we suggest defriending the dude or dudette. From MySpace. From Facebook. From the planet. Why? Because they’re just yapping about something that they don’t jack poop about. For…
Following a pathetic sweep at the hands of the Washington Nationals in D.C., the Arizona Diamondbacks basically saw the official end to their disappointing season. So now that there’s nothing to play for, the team should start having some fun, which is exactly what they did last night at Chase…
Even when things are going well for the Arizona Diamondbacks, somebody or something takes a big ol’ dump in their Cheerios. For example, during Wednesday night’s victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, star outfielder Justin Upton strained his right oblique while attempting to swipe second base in the ninth. (Upton has…
Since the British Invasion, Americans have been such suckers for any artsy music from overseas. Because of this, we imagine that Caspian Hat Dance – a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based band that plays traditional Gypsy, klezmer, and “misbehaved village wedding” music – will attract a mighty following when they perform at The…
Call it the second coming of Independence Day or the perfect excuse to wear that stars-and-stripes jacket, but don’t call Freedom Concert ’09 a concert. Yeah, there will be music or whatever by “Achy Breaky Heart” pioneer Billy Ray Cyrus and Lee Greenwood (best known for the tugging-at-the-heartstrings hit “God…
This was almost the ultimate disaster in a season chockfull of them. On the same day that Brandon Webb had season-killing surgery, the Arizona Diamondbacks were in New York’s Citi Field, putting the hurt on the host in an attempt to win three out of four from the struggling Metropolitans…
The other day, we were trying to organize all of the piles of paper crap that were dumped into various grocery sacks when we stumbled upon an old flier, circa 2003, for Lymbyc Systym. Motivation to clean and organize gone. That’s because we’re still mourning the loss of the Bell…
Baseball is one of those sports where any team, no matter how good or bad, can beat another on any given day. But when the good exploits the bad, then, well, it’s not a pretty thing to watch. Just in case you missed it, the Philadelphia Phillies are in town…
While stoners of the early 1990s were listening to Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and all of that other grunge stuff, there was another weed-smoking subset that was all about the stoner-rap-ish groups Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Cypress Hill. While the Cleveland-based Thugs employed slower-paced summer soundtracks with an almost doom-metal sensibility,…
If you’re the adventurous type, you’ll love this caveat from the folks at Maricopa County Parks & Recreation about the Mountain Bike by the Moonlight event: “This is not a guided ride. Volunteers will sweep the course to ensure all riders return safely.” Sweep the course? What, for Bell-helmet-wearing, still-warm…
You know what we’re tired of? People complaining about the scorching heat. Guess what, dudes? You live in Phoenix. It’s a desert. If anything, you should complain about the fact that folks can now pack heat in Arizona eateries and bars. Instead of making us go all hick-tastic and say,…
What’s the best news for the Arizona Diamondbacks following last night’s 10-6 loss against the Colorado Rockies in Denver? They live to play another day. Or maybe that’s a bad thing, considering the way this sorry season has gone. Not sure what to say about Monday night’s laugher, which occurred…
Take a look at this behind-the-scenes video (courtesy of MLB.com) from Monday’s 2009 All-Star Game Home Run Derby and let us know what you think of the cool threads on display. Adorable, right? By the way, we’re not talking about the players’ jerseys – that would be über-weirdo to call…
Maybe your favorite part of each calendar day is morning, when it’s too early to receive bugaboo messages on your CrackBerry. Or possibly it’s the afternoon, when you turn off your phone for a nappy-poo Personally, our most beloved occurrence happens each weekday evening when Mega 104.3 plays love dusties…
If actor/musician/artist Richard Edson turned into the Troy McClure character in The Simpsons, this is what he might say: “Hi, I’m Richard Edson. Though my name isn’t known on, say, a Michael Jackson-like plane, you may remember me from films such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (I was the joy-riding…
Following Mark Reynolds’ verbal peppering of his teammates in Denver, the Arizona Diamondbacks were a different animal for fifty consecutive innings (that’s five and a half games, in case you’re counting). The team finally started playing all easy breezy, winning five straight while simultaneously climbing out of the National League…
If you’ve ever listened to Eugene Chadbourne and eternally wrote him off as a hack musician, we suggest taking life a little less seriously, bro. You see, performing goofball nonsense is part of the experimentalist’s shtick. A frequent collaborator with the Sun City Girls, John Zorn, and the Violent Femmes,…
If you’re reading this from your personal computer, consider yourself pretty damned lucky to have easy access to such badass technology. Once upon a time, the only computers in existence were machines like the World War II-era ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) and the Cray-1 supercomputer that weren’t exactly…
