Mad Juana’s MySpace page boasts, “Imagine Django Reinhardt and Patti Smith fronting the Velvet Underground in a Bourbon Street dive, and the exotic soulfulness and inflamed passion rises like a possessed voodoo spirit.” Yeah, well, that’s kind of true, but let’s break it down a bit more simply: The band’s…
ASU prof and one of the smartest guys in town discusses his new book African American Icons of Sport: Triumph, Courage and Excellence, which offers “an examination of African Americans in sports from a variety of perspectives and through a lively range of rhetoric styles.” Tue., Sept. 9, 7 p.m.,…
On a recent Monday night, I’m inside the downtown art collective The Firehouse, where The Complaniacs drummer Matt Spastic lives. The band is auditioning a new bass player in Spastic’s bedroom. A few Firehouse regulars poke their heads in, grab beers from the mini-fridge, and watch the bleached blond, tatted-up…
By Steve Jansen Earlier this week, the group formerly known as the Phoenix Bach Choir announced that they have changed their name to the Phoenix Chorale. Along with the more contemporary-friendly sounding moniker comes a slick new logo (as seen above) and a cool redesigned Web site that is still…
Did you hear what those geezers on the Arizona Cardinals preseason broadcast were saying during the Kansas City Chiefs game on August 16? That the redbirds’ win was a monumental turning point, especially considering that it was coach Ken Whisenhunt’s first exhibition victory in six tries. Give. Us. A. Freaking…
With a football program of ASU’s caliber, a contest against the NAU Lumberjacks is a guaranteed notch in the win column. However, as we learned in 2003 and 2006 when the boys from Flagstaff came to town, not-so-impressive showings by the Devils can spell later-season doom. In the ’03 tussle,…
It’s 3 p.m. on a Saturday and I’m sitting on the floor, Indian-style, across from Teague Cullen in a Mitchell Park home that he rents out with six other 20-somethings. Behind a closed door in an adjoining room, Jen McMaster is messing around with what sounds like a clickety electronic…
By Steve Jansen It’s alive! My only two regrets from visiting the Mill Avenue My Big Fat Greek Restaurant and ordering this custard piled high with vanilla ice cream and caramel? That I didn’t get a photo of dude setting this dish (and almost himself) on fire with flambed brandy,…
By Steve Jansen Cover art for What I Did On My Summer Vacation Have you ever wished you had recorded that epic drunken conversation from the night before? Well, that’s just one goal of local label onewordlong’s What I Did On My Summer Vacation. Listening to this album, which was…
We’re tired of reading the preseason practice reports of college-football squads. They basically all say the same thing. Most teams feel great and think they can compete for the national championship. Whatever. These canned quotes are wack. Thankfully, beginning next week, we won’t have to hear this anymore when the…
Reading the press release for Dearly Departed, a play in the first week of its run at Chyro Arts Venue, comparisons to William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying are inevitable. However, instead of hicks transporting a corpse in a pine-box coffin, the David Bottrell/Jesse Jones comedy follows the emotional journeys…
HDTV. The Internet. Video games. Text messaging. They’re all distractions, man. For real, let it all go, head outside, and remember what life was like, pre-stimuli, for at least a couple of hours. Impossible? We say rubbish to that. So do the bloke and blokette who will lead the Backpacker…
The best music has often been created under the most oppressive conditions. Slave spirituals in the 1800s. Martha and the Vandellas’ Civil Rights Era rallying cry “Dancing in the Streets.” The compositions by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and many others during the Third Reich. Check out an evening of tunes, poetry, and…
By Steve Jansen Papaya on the left, Thai tea boba on the right I remember the first time I had bubble/boba tea. Those tapioca balls tasted as good as the first time my lips met a piss-quality brewski, which is to say that it was a baaddd experience. But now,…
Music licensing corporations aren’t leaving a lot of elbow room for local venue owners(Illustration by Ed Piskor) By Steve Jansen License to Kill the Music On a recent weekday afternoon, I’m standing inside the Trunk Space with co-owner Stephanie Carrico. It’s about 110 degrees outside and a still-sweltering 95 inside…
While many ASU Sun Devils football fans lament the loss of Camp Tontozona – the team’s annual fall-practice home for the past 48 years – we say good riddance. Now the team may actually be good on a consistent basis. Stick with us here for a moment. The squad can…
By Steve Jansen While La Grande Orange gets all of the love (and for good reason), there’s another European-style cafe on 40th Street that deserves some attention, too. Writer Tania Katan turned me on the Bertha’s Cafe a few years ago. When she grew tired of LGO and Mama Java’s…
By Steve Jansen The above flier does indeed say that Foot Ox’s new album, It’s Like Our Little Machine, isn’t out for a few more weeks. But, lucky me, I have it, heard it, and even reviewed it. In-person, Foot Ox is Teague Cullen’s solo singer-songwriter project. On this album,…
Attend a number of Foot Ox concerts, and you’ll normally see project founder Teague Cullen, by himself, frantically running through a repertoire of singer-songwriter tunes about love and hope. His second album in as many years, It’s Like Our Little Machine, slows things down a bit, leaving space for exceptional…
We did it. We listened attentively — and when our habitually short attention span kicked in, inattentively — to Electric Fan Sounds Works presented by The Tucson Electric Fan Appreciation Society. Not once, but three times. And during these listens, we accomplished some things, such as editing and paperwork. We…
Is there anything hotter than a gal playing the theremin? Not in many dudes’ books. Shit, she could have the personality of a kneecap and most fellows would still want to approach her after the show. Betcha some fools would even argue that Clara Rockmore looked pretty good for a…
Starry Safari Nights, a summer-only event at the Phoenix Zoo that features water games and animal presentations, will see its seasonal end on Friday, August 9. Boo hoo. However, since the event is seasonal, that means the end of this supergross heat is around the corner, right? Uh, since we’re…
