The wait is over for music lovers in the East Valley. Zia Records will open its brand-new Mesa superstore on Friday, July 15, at 9 a.m. The company first announced the store opening back in April. The Mesa location will be Zia’s fifth location in the Valley, and the second…
We’ve learned a few important lessons about Phoenix’s music scene in 2016 – and its only halfway done. A lot has happened locally during the first six months of the year, ranging from old venues saying farewell to new bands making a splash, and we’ve tried to take something from…
Bad Suns stumbled upon everything: their name, their record deal, and even each other. When the band formed in 2012, then-19-to-22-year-olds had left behind former bands—not to mention high school—in favor of new projects. Fronted by vocalist Christo Bowman, the Southern California four-piece formed in 2012 and picked up where Elvis…
Apparently there’s a lot of fan overlap between Weezer and Warped Tour. Vans Warped Tour has announced that it will change the date of its Arizona stop from August 2 to August 4 in order to avoid conflicting with the Weezer/Panic! At The Disco concert scheduled for August 2 at…
It’s not difficult to hear why Pet Sounds, celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer, is considered to be one of the greatest albums in music history. It was a game changer upon its release in 1966, a marked departure point for The Beach Boys and a defining pinnacle of Brian…
Suffering from a little cabin fever after spending all of your free time indoors lately? Can’t say we blame you, considering the average temperature outdoors is around 108 degrees these days. It might do you a bit of good to get out of the house, however, and we’ve got several…
We’re big believers in that everyone should be able to enjoy any concert in any manner they’d like. That said, there’s one stipulation: Your enjoyment of a concert shouldn’t directly interfere with someone else’s enjoyment. That’s it. It’s pretty simple, there’s only one rule of this concert-going Fight Club, and…
We’d understand completely if you’re planning to lay low this weekend. And we’re sure you’d have plenty of justifiable reasons to so. It’s the dog days of summer, for instance, or you could still be recovering from the Fourth of July weekend. And the latest season of Orange is the…
Here we are at the midway point of what has been the worst year for music having nothing to do with what was issued and everything to do with who was discontinued. “Sure,” you say. “We lost a lot of giants early in the year like Bowie and Prince, but…
Mitchell Hillman listens to more local music than just about anyone in the Valley. He presents his picks for best new local music in his column, Right Hear, Right Now. Emby Alexander – “Phoenix Sons” On the 4th of July Emby Alexander released their third full-length album with Sound of…
It’s 2016 and Vancouver’s White Lung have no qualms about it. Although steeped in punk’s history and aesthetic, they prefer to innovate rather than look to the past. While their most obvious influences stem from ’80s hardcore and feminist didactics expressed in ’90s Riot Grrrl fashion, their newest album, Paradise,…
It’s July. I’m not going to go into a rant about how hot it currently is in Phoenix — we all know. We all see the annoying Facebook posts daily of temperature gauges. Yes, we live in the desert. Yes, it’s the price we pay for gorgeous winters. So shut…
Evan Stephens Hall already has an idea of what heaven looks like — creatively speaking, of course. The frontman of New Jersey indie rock band Pinegrove, Hall seems like the kind of musician who just has to get it out via whatever medium he has at hand. Luckily for him,…
You know that licking toads to get stoned isn’t exactly an urban legend, right? If you piss off Bufo alvarius, it will secrete 5-MeO-DMT and bufotenin, two highly potent psychedelics chemically similar to DMT. The Colorado River toad is actually native to the Sonoran Desert, but there’s another legendary psychedelic…
The story of the Replacements was about more than rock ‘n’ roll, and author Bob Mehr’s Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements makes that clear. It’s got everything you want in a rock bio — crazy antics, detailed history, extensive background — but it goes deeper. Unlike so…
Following up from my Hall and Oates essay, I decided it was time to talk about another musical “guilty pleasure” for those not quite cool enough to abandon the idea of guilty pleasures. I’m talking about what the common folk call “hair metal,” but what has alternately been called glam…
See also: The 10 Coolest, Scariest, Freakiest Songs About Heroin See also: 10 Songs About Cocaine See also: 15 Songs to Light Up to on 4/20 Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. It’s in many ways the enduring holy trinity of pop music. Like it or not — we’re not…
Dillon Francis is anything but boring. For proof of said statement, look no further than any of his social media outlets, all of which are filled with hilarious (and oftentimes bizarre) images and videos that illustrate the DJ and producer’s absurd and irreverent sense of humor. Over on his constantly…
Happy Fourth of July everyone. If you’ve still got some mojo and, more importantly, money leftover from spending the three-day weekend partying and playing hooky from work, there are several notable shows happening this week. The list includes gigs by pop princess Selena Gomez, indie singers like Mitski and Japanese…
It’s hard to reconcile what a game changer Odelay was when it was released 20 years ago. Not to say that it changed modern music as we know it. It did not despite its critical and commercial success, but it was a transformative album for Beck himself. Two decades later…
We’re about to hit what’s known as the dog days of summer, a period of the summertime that’s particularly loathsome due to the fact its muggy as hell outside and no sign of relief on the horizon (save for the occasional monsoon storm). Thankfully, we’re also about to roll into…
The Valley’s longtime tradition of underground hip-hop is returning to its roots at a new monthly party, The Rhythm The Rebel, at Rebel Lounge. “There’s a lot of really good underground hip-hop out there that’s more just for listening, that sets a mood or a vibe so people can just…
