The news waits for no one — at least that’s what we read somewhere — so it’s perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants. So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of…
Gospel Claws, Sleep Money, Vial of Sound, Knesset, Zero Zero, Me Vale Madre @ Crescent Ballroom|11/30/12 Leave it to Crescent Ballroom to have such a fantastic representation of local acts here in metropolitan Phoenix. Last night may have been an LP release party for Gospel Claws, but the lineup (including…
With a name like Leftover Cuties and a penchant for unabashed use of ukelele, how could the Los Angeles-based quartet of Shirli McAllen, Austin Nicholsen, Stuart Johnson, and Mike Bolger be anything other than adorable? The group’s folksy sound evokes images of happy couples strolling down a boardwalk decades ago…
Bret Michaels is known nationally for his big hits and the big hair he sported as the singer of glam rock band Poison. More recently, his reality TV appearances on VH1’s Rock of Love, and The Apprentice, have brought him to the attention of people who couldn’t sing a single…
What does emotional heavy metal sound like? Well, believe it or not, it’s kind of folky, but mainly acoustic. It’s mostly sad, but strangely fanciful and supremely intense. At least that’s how Marivel Luna and Jesse Simms, the duo comprising local outfit, Revizor, describe it. The pair have been quietly…
Of the many pearls of wisdom that Yoda dropped on Luke Skywalker’s ass in The Empire Strikes Back (“Size matters not,” “Wars not make one great”) it was the green-skinned Jedi guru’s Zen-like mantra of “Do or do not…there is no try” that probably resonates the most with Joe Maldonado…
Elizabeth Kennedy Bayer The composer hosts the podcast Trainwreck in Progress. Listen to it here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? I drive a scooter! (You know, the orange one with the green, fuzzy seat.) So no…
Curious about what’s going on around town this weekend? Need some suggestions where to rock, dance, or krump in the Valley of the Sun? Don’t fret: These are our Five Shows to See This Weekend…
Lauryn Hill @ Celebrity Theatre|11/28/12″Life out of context is living ungodly,” Ms. Lauryn Hill sings in “Black Rage,” the new song she’s named her 2012 tour after. Built over a jazzy interpolation of the Sound of Music’s “My Favorite Things,” the song is heavy, exploring the brutal and checkered history…
Local Latin, reggae, and punk peddlers Fayuca have seen their fair share of success as a productive year comes to an end. Now the trio is ready to step up their game with a brand new album that’s almost within earshot. We document the band’s 11-year run in this week’s…
Phoenix rock ‘n’ rollers The Technicolors are into big things: Big guitars. Big drums. Big vocals. Big hair. Big sound. It’s only appropriate then that they would record their debut album, Listener, at Studio at the Farm. The recording house, tucked away on three acres of farmland in nearby Gilbert,…
By Dan Moore Psy’s Gangnam Style is now the most-viewed YouTube video ever, and as we go to press Monday morning that means it’s been watched coming up on 830 million times. That means that the single biggest pop culture event of 2012–the video you’re most likely to talk about…
Singer, harmonica player, songwriter, and frontman — Rick Estrin wears plenty of hats leading Rick Estrin & The Nightcats down the ever-bumpier blues road. Estrin, who inherited the Nightcats when former band namesake Little Charlie Baty retired in 2008 after 30 years and nine albums, has breathed new life into…
If Robert Fripp had discovered mandolin and bluegrass instead of guitar and classical symphonies, he might have formed a band like The Punch Brothers instead of King Crimson. The honor of actually founding the Punch Brothers goes to former Nickel Creek mandolin player Chris Thile. The MacArthur Fellow kick-started the…
Minneapolis breeds a certain kind of musician, one that’s tough and able to thrive through biting, bitter winters. Fiery five-piece Off with Their Heads hails from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but don’t expect them to recall the band’s alt-punk heritage like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. “I never really…
Karl Wallinger has been conspicuously absent from the music scene the over the past decade — but with good reason. The former Waterboy and World Party founder suffered a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2001 that left him unable to walk and talk, let alone sing or play any of the…
Call it an occupational hazard: Almost every DJ or producer in the world has a tendency toward swagger and bragging. In fact, self-aggrandizement is as much a part of the job as remixing and learning how use Ableton Live or ProTools. So we didn’t bat an eyelash when Jakarta-born beatsmith…
David Bazan was a pretty cool Christian in 2002. His band, Pedro the Lion (of which Bazan was the sole consistent member) had a string of impressive releases to its name, including 1998’s It’s Hard to Find a Friend and 2000’s Winners Never Quit, plus a couple of singles and…
It’s a good time to be a member of Beat Circuit. After all, the local EDM duo, which consists of siblings Miles and Demian Porter, produced a hot dance song (“Bring the Night”) that’s charted fairly well on the popular site Digital DJ Pool in recent weeks, they’ve finished their…
John Reis’ musical résumé includes at least four defunct bands that people would pay lots of money to see today. One is Hot Snakes, a San Diego-based quartet that blends the simplicity of three-chord garage rock (à la the Wipers) with the downstrummed aural assault championed by Johnny Ramone. But…
“Fayuca” is Spanish slang for the contraband markets that spring up in Mexico. These are places where any assortment of illicit goods can be found and purchased, from televisions to leather jackets, prosthetic limbs to staple foods. And it is where that Phoenix’s reggae-punk-Latin rock band gets its name. “We’re…
Thursday 29 Afterlife: Touch Thursdays (Top 40, dance) AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Bar Smith: International Thursdays with DJ EC, DJ StarMarz, & DJ Clavo El Parientito (hip-hop, Latin) Bobby Q’s: All-Star Thursdays with DJ Phlava, DJ Dark Vader, & DJ Skoolboi (hip-hop, reggae, R&B,…
