Recently, my nephew Torin celebrated his fourth birthday. My brother, a sound engineer, recruited a local band, New York Homecoming, to learn a couple of children’s songs and play in his yard at the Saturday afternoon party. Shortly after the band’s 3 p.m. sound check, a Tempe cop showed up…
Right at that loud, sweaty moment when the crowd’s ready to crawl on the stage from too much anxious waiting and too much beer, the lights go dark and the house music switches over to some blaring, swaggering tune fit for a movie about 1950s delinquents. Everyone cheers and hoists…
On a recent evening in a quiet Tempe neighborhood, the guys in Smoky Mountain Skullbusters are in a small padded room at guitarist Dylan Underkofler’s house, practicing for the upcoming release party for the punk outfit’s sophomore record, Yin Through the Yang Door. As drummer/vocalist Rob Davis, bassist/vocalist Mike Roberts,…
Carl Craig’s approach has, from the outset, been far-reaching. Holding it down in techno’s very birthplace, Detroit, the DJ/producer segues from house and hip-hop to techno and drum ‘n bass in Ecstasy-size furies (his label name isn’t Planet-E for nothing). His latest mixdown, Fabric 25, has him front and center,…
Jazzanova has made its mark for long remixes — at times, exceedingly long — for nearly a decade. The six-member German-based collective (or, as the group’s label name suggests, Kollektiv) is more geared toward interpretation than creation, and this compilation gathers four years of their favorite works, each one an…
While you’re tackling Martin Scorsese’s Dylan dissertation, take a break for a humbler rockumentary that’s no less fascinating and a lot more fun. All Dolled Up, the distillation of 40 lost hours of primitive video that photographer Bob Gruen originally shot between ’72 and ’74, is a rare window into…
Seattle, Washington, 1992: The city becomes the music capital of the country with the explosion of grunge, as bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Stone Temple Pilots saturate the airwaves. If that story was on cassette tape, Calvin Johnson would hit “rewind” so everybody could get the full scoop…
If Kurt Cobain can get a hit musing about disposable teenage culture, why can’t a bunch of Swedish Marxists? If, as Marx suggests, communism is a post-capitalistic construct, then perhaps (I)NC is the tipping point. Formed around Dennis Lyxzn, leader of popular punk anarchists The Refused in the ’90s, the…
Most up-and-coming bands lack the range to outlive the shelf life of a time-bomb single or a bad hair fad, but infectious rock locals Desole sound equally taut blaring in a bar or wistfully crooning in a black-lighted bedroom. The boys from Desole (pronounced day-so-lay) are set to bring their…
For hip-hop heads, it just doesn’t get any better than the annual Furious Styles Crew anniversary celebrations around these parts. The b-boy collective, which also has chapters in San Diego and Los Angeles, is turning 12 this weekend, and it’ll commemorate the occasion with a three-day smorgasbord of b-boy and…
Battle Acts for the week of December 1 through 7 Battle Act Dokken Where & When Saturday, December 3, Marquee Theatre, $17 Strongest Selling Point The latest George Lynch replacement? The band’s lawyer for the past 10 years. Okay, everybody all at once: “OBJECTION!” Disclaimer Just because they’re a former…
Can’t you hear this beer-drowned bar conversation among audiophiles? “We should call all the experimental musician cats around town and form a music collective. Yeah, avant-garde aficionados would really dig it.” Then reality strikes. “Organizing musicians to do something? Shitballs! Want another round?” A similar experience occurred for Jennifer Rogers…
Arriving on the heels of the Get Up Kids’ success, Saves the Day burst out of the box with 1999’s Through Being Cool, a terrific punk-pop album keyed to singer Chris Conley’s lovelorn croon. STD’s follow-up, 2001’s Stay What You Are, vindicated the buzz and set the stage for a…
Because press materials still refer to this Austin singer-songwriter’s last release, I’m Good Now, as his third solo album, it might be a good time to refresh ourselves on the bands whence Bob Schneider came before his career momentum obscures them completely. Fans of H.O.R.D.E. culture might remember his three-record…
Thursday 1 Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (hip-hop, dance) Axis/Radius: School’s Out with DJ Roonie G (hip-hop, R&B) AZ 88: DJ P-Body (jazz fusion, funk) Club Dwntwn: DJs Kirby and Chris Shannon (dance) e4: “Eve” Ladies’ Night in the Fire…
Ali Jackson, big-shot jazz drummer extraordinaire, won’t claim encyclopedic knowledge of indie rock, but like all sensible Americans, he enjoys Pavement a great deal. “I like that hit that they had on MTV, that ‘Cut Your Hair,'” he enthuses. “It’s real catchy and real earthy, just playin’ around, like you…
To celebrate 10 years in the concert promotion biz, Charlie Levy tried to give Phoenix a really cool present: a big indie rock festival, the city’s first. But without even saying thanks, Phoenix blew Charlie off. There’s got to be a reason the Grand Cayenne Music Festival — scheduled for…
Three of the Briefs’ four members recently took the time to briefly discuss their new album Steal Yer Heart, punk rock’s brevity, and the truth behind their songs “Genital General” and “My Girl (Wants to Be a Zombie).” New Times: Any downside to being so brief? Steve E. Nicks (guitarist):…
In the annals of rock ‘n’ roll history, nothing matches the Rolling Stones’ 40-year-old reputation for sex, scandal and outrage. To see how well you know the Stones’ self-made legend, take the Shrapnel quiz on these raunchiest of rockers. The more answers you get right, the greater your, ahem, satisfaction…
Man, if you think Eminem had a rough upbringing, check out the backstory of Chris Palko, better known as rapper Cage: Born to a heroin-addicted Army father who made his young son help him shoot up, until he was arrested for threatening the family with a shotgun when Cage was…
A new disc from the Rolling Stones is often cause for celebration. Not because the albums are any good — they’ve been shit since, oh, about 1981, right? — but because it means the band will be coming around on tour, and loyal fans will get to see Mick ‘n’…
Those who say metal is all screaming and no melody clearly have never heard Children of Bodom, the Finnish five-piece that just released its fifth full-length album, Are You Dead Yet?, on Spinefarm Records. The follow-up to 2003’s Hate Crew Deathroll is full of guitar sweeps, killer keys and growling…
