Singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins defies a cut-and-dried definition. Influenced by everybody from the Violent Femmes and James Taylor to contemporaries like the Indigo Girls (whose co-founder, Amy Ray, attended Clarkston High School in Georgia with Mullins), the folk rocker maintains a homey pop vibe throughout his albums but doesn’t feel compelled…
What’s that noise? If it sounds like anarchy in the PC, it’s probably the wondrous effectual whirlpool of Valley circuit bender The Coitus. Using “instruments” such as old Atari gaming systems, Casio keyboards, and Commodore computers in combination with modified kids’ toys, synthcarts, and homemade sound contraptions, The Coitus calls…
The former Traveling Wilbury is on a roll these days — in addition to reuniting his pre-fame band Mudcrutch for a much-appreciated CD, he has found a growing number of younger fans during his current tour. According to reports, a large number of 20-somethings have flocked to his shows alongside…
Millar (Wanted, Kick Ass) and Harris (Ex Machina, Iron Man) unveil their hot new collaboration, about regular G.I. Joes who are imbued with superpowers in order to save an alternate-reality United States. Wed., Aug. 20, 1-4 p.m., 2008…
Once upon a time, rock ’n’ roll was about bad dudes singing about bad shit, and it was very, very bad for you. One of my formative images was punk progenitor Iggy Pop stage-diving onto a field of shattered glass. The dude rose slowly, like a demon out of ooze,…
Weston’s life was as sensual as his photographs.
Walk into an art gallery on a First Friday and you’ll see people with drinks in their hands, chatting and laughing — not noticing they just knocked a painting with their elbow. But the crowds at a contemporary art show at, say, the Museum of Modern Art in New York,…
On the surface, Pineapple Express offers precisely what it advertises: a roll-’em-up, smoke-’em-up, blow-’em-up bromantic comedy from the freaks and geeks who have made Judd Apatow’s brand of stunted-man yuks a global franchise. Once more, Seth Rogen’s red-rimmed, half-shut eyes peek out from beneath his tousled Jewfro, which sits atop…
Even as the first girders were laid in the mid-1960s, something about the World Trade Center — that twin-pronged erection jutting from the loins of Western commerce — inspired fantasies of lustful conquest. As James Marsh’s documentary Man on Wire tells it, a mischievous French teenager was sitting in a…
Imagine, if you will, a pasty, bespectacled string bean draped in an American flag, an Olympic medal tugging at his pencil neck, all backed by John Williams’ orchestral swells and the impassioned cheers of thousands. Yes, friends, this is the moment: America has just taken home the gold in professional…
Neal Green remembers when downtown Phoenix spilled into neighborhoods filled with hundred-year-old adobe houses surrounded by acres of land. He remembers groves of towering trees and the thrill of nighttime drives through the Papago Mountains and seeing downtown’s lit-up neon signs as you crossed into Phoenix from Scottsdale. “It always…
When we first heard about Sip & Spin – an event at the jazz-centric Kazimierz World Wine Bar where attendees can sip on fine wines while listening to live DJ music – our jazz-snob radar hit 10. “Great. Way to perpetuate the jazz and wine stereotype, guys,” we thought with…
Normally, when we hit up a potluck, we’re rudely greeted with the same tired-ass cuisine. Processed crap. Stale bread. Tubs of mayo topped with hues of yellow mustard and green relish goo. Every. Single. Time. You’ll see none of this during The Firehouse’s weekly Food Club vegan potluck and hang-out,…
You shunned the road less traveled for the security of a day job. For years, the closest you got to partying like a rock star were the Shop Boyz crammed down your throat. You even gave in to cracking open your cell phone at shows rather than fishing around in…
When the fiercely fun, fishnetted females of Scandalesque shimmy into Wrigley Mansion, they’ll bring “a mix of classic burlesque and neo-burlesque — a little bit more edgy feel,” says the troupe’s Tarah Niccoli. (We say “edgy” don’t begin to describe what these fire-spinning-ballet-trained-circus-artist types will do to ya.) Drag queen…
Ahem. Is this thing on? Okay, thank you for coming today. We’re here to tell you about Edward Weston. Weston was easily one of the greatest photographers of all time, with his impossibly brilliant still life images and nudes. He also authored the Daybooks series, a great insider’s look at…
You’ll laugh – or choke – when we opine that summer is Phoenix’s best season. There’s the snowbird/tourist exodus, the cheap resort rates, the great sunsets, the deserted hiking/biking trails, and, not least, the weather. For nine months a year, we have none, so a rippin’ monsoon burst is as…
The narrator speaks in the sort of stentorian tones that used to explain photosynthesis, democracy, or continental drift in eighth-grade classroom films. But this time, he says: “This is marijuana. Official name, cannabis sativa. Its mind-expanding power has been known for two thousand years. The secret of its sexual power…
Summer shorts are typically made of light, wrinkle-free cotton and are de rigueur in July and August. Less typical and much more entertaining is the Summer Shorts Festival at Theatre Artists Studio. The company, founded just a few years ago by such theater stalwarts as like Judy Rollings and Patti…
Two things in life make us want to spit: 1) drivers who cut into our lane without signaling and 2) pop-ups on the Net. One that’s particularly galling is an azcentral.com survey that stops you from reading further without answering a bunch of questions. Well, we’re not ashamed to say…
If nothing else, the members of Tucson indie rock outfit seemingly have an endless supply of confidence in their sound. How do we know this? Just check out the slogan on their MySpace page, bub, featuring the declaration that they’re the “Most Underrated Band in The World.” Normally we’d just…
If our local sports-media cadre was an athletic squad, it’d be toddler-league wiffle ball. What a bunch of cowering prisses! Read the Republic, listen to KTAR, it’s all one big Chamber of Commerce love-in between the “journalists” and the teams. This is especially true of the Arizona Cardinals, an organization…
