It’s the Monday after the big game, which means you’re back at the office, standing around the water cooler listening to your most annoying co-worker recreate his favorite Super Bowl commercial in vivid, poorly-acted detail. Excruciating, right? No fear. 5 o’clock is on its way, and this week brings a…
Vagabond Gods @ Rogue Bar|2/2/13For a band like Vagabond Gods, Rogue Bar is the perfect place: rough around the edges, obscure, uh, rogue. As we’ve talked about before, lead singer/screamer and guitarist Bryant Vazquez also divides his time between three other projects. First, there’s Sedona’s decker., where Vazquez plays bass,…
Z-Trip @ Axis/Radius|2/2/13Whatchu know ’bout Z-Trip? In all seriousness, if you asked this question to any of your local peers, I’m willing to bet that nine out of ten will know the ubiquitous DJ name, eight out of ten will know him personally, or claim to know him personally, from…
Jimmy Webb @ Musical Instrument Museum|2/1/13It’s always interesting hearing an alternate version of a popular song. That’s one of the appeals of live music. But that version is especially worthwhile when it’s the original version by the original artist. Such is the case at a Jimmy Webb concert. A prolific…
Paul Oakenfold @Wild Knight|2/1/13Even before veterans like Benny Benassi stepped foot into the EDM worlds, UK DJ Paul Oakenfold was merging the worlds of pop and electronic music. He’s been at it for four decades. He might not be the first name EDM fans name-drop when discussing their favorite DJs,…
Pinback @ Crescent Ballroom|1/31/13After interviewing singer/guitarist Rob Crow and having an at-length discussion of Star Wars, my expectations for Pinback’s live show were set pretty high. He said somewhat vaguely, “Everybody agrees these are the best shows that we’ve ever played,” which made me feel a little skeptical, but the…
Tim Fogarty and Kristian Dunn are two musicians who hate constricting genre labels. These two California-based music makers are known collectively as El Ten Eleven and they make super-duper music that’s not quite math rock, not exactly experimental, and not 100 percent pop. Dunn is a wiz at playing his…
If you haven’t seen Ben Andersen out at any Valley clubs lately, it isn’t because the house and nu-disco DJ/producer known as Swookie Monster is hiding out at home or anything. In fact, he isn’t even in the Valley at all. Although his two-man collaborative project TABS with Tempe’s Eric…
Amber Harrold Harrold is the owner of CamelBackpackers: A Phoenix Hostel. For more information, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? NPR or 106.7 KWSS-FM. What’s the first album you bought? Salt-n-Pepa, Very Necessary. I remember…
If you don’t know Bryant Vazquez from his solo work, you might know him from his three other projects — as bassist in Sedona’s decker. or as guitarist in Murdoch with Flagstaff indie rockers Them Savages. But his work with his brother, Chris Vazquez, under the moniker Vagabond Gods is…
The weekend is finally here! You’re going to want to spend it checking out live music around Phoenix, right? Allow us to help with the top five must-see shows this weekend…
Local DJ and jack of all trades William Reed is a busy guy. When we spoke a couple months ago about the end of the weekly Sticky Fingers dance party, he revealed his plans to start Risky Business, a Thursday night dance party at Gypsy Bar, and his plans to…
Zia Records’ “You Heard Us Back When” compilation has a solid history. The comp has been going strong since 2008, giving a bevy of local acts from Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas a chance to shine. The likes of Snake! Snake! Snakes!, Kinch, Courtney Marie Andrews, Scorpion vs. Tarantula, Dry…
Thanks to the popularity of the programs such as Photoshop, everyone in this day and age feels like they can become a media design mogul with purchase of a camera and a few ideas. What very few realize is that it takes much more than a few hours in front…
It doesn’t matter who synth metal band Element a440 is playing with. It could be a punk band, a DJ, or death metal group. The outfit’s only concern? To put on a theatrically, entertaining show, visually and audibly. In this week’s issue, we profiled the band and delved into the…
I don’t think there’s anyone who disagrees that posers suck, but being a part of the landscape of contemporary underground music can make one feel as though he half-heartedly has to jump on trends to maintain relevance. It’s easy to be a poser. It happens every time someone says something…
After a five-year break, Pinback is back and better than ever. Not that this San Diego math-rock-meets-subdued-pop band really went anywhere — the group has been consistently touring since the release of 2007’s Autumn of the Seraphs. It’s just that duo Rob Crow and Zach Smith took a break from…
Listening to the North Mississippi Allstars’ debut album, Shake Hands with Shorty, in 2000 was like getting hit in the face with a giant blues paddle. I mean, where did that sound suddenly come from? The music was loud, aggressive, and up front, and the raw edge made it hard…
No offense to Andy Steinbrink, whose excellent paintings (bras, containers of mustard, broken glasses) adorn the cover of his brother Stephen’s latest record, I Drew a Picture, but it’s easy to imagine another record sleeve when listening to the carefully arranged pop and folk songs contained therein. Picture a muted…
It’s a whirlwind few years that have landed Los Angeles rapper Murs in Tucson. A prolific artist and collaborator, the 34-year-old rapper spent a dozen years grinding before scoring a major label deal for 2008’s Murs for President. Since then, he’s been dropped by Warner Bros., gotten married and adopted…
Whenever hometown hero Zach Sciacca, known to the masses as Z-Trip, makes like the prodigal son and return to the place where he both cut his teeth and dropped his first killer cuts, it ain’t just an ordinary gig. It’s a major event that thousands attend and noteworthy cohorts support…
Despite cultivating an audience that includes both folk lovers and metalheads, the gorgeously downcast songwriting of Chelsea Wolfe has been mistakenly typecast: The stark cover of Wolfe’s feral, cacophonous 2011 album, Apokalypsis, showed a portrait of the California native with whited-out eyes, an image she has said was intended to…
