If the curtain hasn’t already been lifted for you, let me raise it with gusto: Most people who play in any punk band are, and always have been, pretty big nerds. But for every group of 1,000 Jello Biafras, there is at least 1 Henry Rollins in the bunch. A…
Why should Phoenicians care about a festival that’s happening nearly 400 miles away, in rival territory no less? Some of you diehard sports fans are probably groaning that we’re featuring a music festival in the hometown of the dreaded Lakers, Kings, and Bruins. The short answer is My Bloody Valentine,…
As a Midwestern transplant, I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out what is summer and what isn’t in Arizona. I left my last apartment in the spring, back in April, and arrived here two days later in the summer. From what I’m told, it will continue until sometime next…
Yeah Yeah YeahsMarquee Theatre, TempeAugust 21, 2013 (View the full slideshow in a new window.) It was a flurry of colored strobes, shimmers, and sparkles as Karen O. and her boys Nick Zinner and Brian Chase — best known as the New York-based Yeah Yeah Yeahs — took over the…
Some of my friends think I’m a music elitist. Totally untrue. After 25 years in record stores, and a lifetime of being a music junkie, I know more about music than the average bear. I cannot deny that. But an elitist? No way. I’m not even a decent critic. I…
Lonnie Holley’s art begins with troubled times. The 63-year-old’s first artistic project was carving headstones for his sister’s two children, who died in a house fire in Alabama in 1979. Since then, his found-object assemblages, paintings, and collages have endeared him to the fine art world — they have even…
“It’s money” opens Doris, the way-way-way-too-much-anticipated album from Odd Future standout and internal rhyme genius Earl Sweatshirt. “It’s money,” the intro repeats, “It’s money.” If you bought a physical copy, you’re hearing that opening while thumbing through the artwork: an intoxicated-looking (though he kind of always is) Earl standing next…
Why should Phoenicians care about a festival that’s happening nearly 400 miles away, in rival territory no less? Some of you diehard sports fans are probably groaning that we’re featuring a music festival in the hometown of the dreaded Lakers, Kings, and Bruins. The short answer is My Bloody Valentine,…
Wildly psychedelic, stylishly dressed, always uplifting in spirit (so much that some considered them just another wayward Texas cult), The Polyphonic Spree has kept a relatively low profile lately. The band has been holed up in leader Tim DeLaughter’s home studio jamming the night away — but the pop-psych veterans…
In December 2012, Dagwood Reed was singing, playing keyboards, and writing songs for his sci-fi-inspired local band, Se7en of Nin9. His romantic partner of nearly 20 years had passed away a year earlier from Addison’s disease, but the self-proclaimed most positive person he knows stayed in high spirits. He loved…
Thursday 22 AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Barney’s Boathouse: Thirsty Thursdays with DJ Pulse (Top 40, rock) Bar Smith: Dulce Thursdays with DJ Deuce, & DJ JayOne (hip-hop) Bikini Lounge: DJ Shane Kennedy (juke joint, R&B, French pop) Bobby Q’s: All-Star Thursdays with DJ Freshmaker,…
Think you’re down with hip-hop culture? Okay, son, then which of its four elements — be it rapping, b-boying, graf artistry, and turntablism — is the most vital part of its mix? According to veteran local selector DJ Akshen, it’s the latter, since the beats dropped from the decks help…
Sundressed, Diners, Green Line Operator, and Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold are among the well-regarded local acts performing Saturday at the Rogue Bar, but the headline fact of The Grandest Night of The Season is just what it’s benefiting: the memory of Dan Somers, a local musician whose suicide in…
The Senators are aware that their acoustic sound and vest-friendly look create expectations they didn’t even two years ago. “Everyone is wearing vests and suspenders now,” Jesse Teer told us back in December. “That look is just vogue right now.” Their sound is vogue, too — “Cross of Gold,” the…
Love symphony music, but hate tuxedos? Skip the traditional classical music experience characterized by stuffy crowds and head to Tempe Center for the Arts for a more laid-back show where the musicians dress casually and where attendees get a chance to get up close and personal with the performers before…
Tucson’s Human Behavior is in the business of making you feel more uncomfortable while a banjo is playing than you’re typically accustomed to feeling. All the elements are there for a typical banjo experience — close harmonies, light drumming, restrained, quiet peaks. You could assemble a folk-pop crossover band with…
Think a guest on Good Morning America can’t bring their own chair to an interview? Think again. The weirdness that is Lady Gaga stormed onto the GMA stage this week, as she lugged out her transparent, technology-filled chair that serves to be Gagaloo’s own modern throne as she promotes her…
NSYNC reunion talk has dominated music news this week, because everybody in America really, really misses the ’90s, and despite a non-denial from Lance Bass it seems like there’s still a good chance it actually happens, even if nobody at the VMAs was planning on it originally. (How could they…
Yes, we know. Your fake ID is spectacular. Nobody cards you because your mustache is simultaneously full and rich and completely earnest-looking. Your friends buy cases of Natty Light from extremely vigilant chain stores for sport. But if you’re just getting back in town for the fall semester and not…
I’m going to be honest, here: As a pro wrestling fan who swore off the stuff after WCW hired Vince Russo (come on), I was under the impression that WWE Raw–at the US Airways Center next Monday–was basically a miasma of post-grunge and post-post-grunge and rap-rock at this point, and…
Wooden Indian, Yellow MinuteAugust 29, 2013Musical Instrument Museum Theater Going to the Musical Instrument Museum from central Phoenix feels like an occasion, even when it isn’t–you’re on the interstate all that time, the cars are getting gradually more expensive, and then when you get there, and park your car in…
Lemuria mostly wrote their newest record, The Distance Is So Big, remotely, sending each other videos of melodies, hooks, and songs from their different home bases, but the distance between them has not held them back from creating an album full of catchy songs that capture the high energy ’90s…
