Hanging out with the guys from ENOVA is a lot like being inside a kick drum: There’s excitement and tension; limits are stretched. It’s a constant shift of high and low energy frequencies, just like the insistent force on a drum’s tightly drawn skin. Let’s call it a challenge. The…
The phrase “big in Japan” is rife with negative connotations for American musicians. What does it mean when another nation is crazy for a band that remains a lesser-known act in their homeland? In the case of Phoenix indie-rock band Knesset, it simply means that the Japanese are ahead of…
Analog obsessives and audiophiles may bemoan the inevitable digitalization of music on the grounds that MP3s lack the sound quality of vinyl, but there’s been no greater victim of the download revolution than the album cover. Think about it — would those Frank Frazetta-painted Molly Hatchet records scream thunderous menace…
Looking back, it’s safe to say that the hyperbolic fervor surrounding the early 2000s’ “rock revival” was embarrassingly misplaced. Jack White certainly built a black-and-red empire, but The Strokes have been battling skepticism for their past three albums and The Vines barely made it out of the starting gate. In…
Thursday 3 16th Street Bar & Grill: Kickback Thursdays with DJ Cedric Ceballos (hip-hop, classics, neo-soul, reggae, R&B, Top 40, old school) Azucar Cuban Lounge: Latin Night with DJ Los & DJ Yoshi (cumbia, reggaeton, bachata, rock en Español, old school, funk) Bar Smith: Double Vision Thursday with DJ Kyko,…
Although Cinco de Mayo is a more celebrated holiday in the United States than it is in Mexico, nothing marks the occasion like a little mariachi music. A traditional mariachi band combines trumpets, violins, a large five-string guitar called a jarana, a smaller guitar called a vilhuela, and the guitarrón,…
Entrance Band, Amen Dunes, and Wooden Indian Chasers Bar and Night Club Tuesday, May 1, 2012 See also: Amen Dunes on Living a Million Musical Lives I’m sitting at a table with Paz Lenchantin a few hours before her heavy psych-blues outfit, Entrance Band, decimates the stage at Chasers in…
As a recent graduate from Arizona State University, I can attest to the student showcases the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication regularly hosts. The second floor of the school’s downtown building houses the First Amendment Forum, where CNN constantly airs. The public space normally is used as…
Brian Jonestown Massacre Crescent Ballroom Tuesday, May 1, 2012 See also: Tripping with the Brian Jonestown Massacre I have a serious question for diehard Brian Jonestown Massacre fans: Is frontman Anton Newcombe a perfectionist or just an asshole? I’m no BJM scholar — I haven’t seen DIG!, the documentary that…
Fans of ultra-bizarre DJ collective/party crew Sadisco* have probably jonesing for fix of industrial music and mayhem lately. After all, it’s been more than nine months since Fight Club Sadisco*, their most recent event, took place last June. The drought, however, is about to come to an end. The Sadisco*…
How’s this for a depressing statistic? According to 2012’s Quality Counts report, as presented by K-12 education newspaper Education Week, Arizona ranks 44th out of 51 states (including Washington, D.C.) in public education. Plus, our desert state got a mere D+ when it came to school finance and an F…
Alt-country stumblers Deer Tick know how to keep up the pace. Songwriter John McCauley started the band in 2004. Since then, it’s morphed from a solo project into a full-fledged rock ‘n’ roll machine, spitting cheap domestic beer and rangy Americana fury. In October, they released Divine Providence, and before…
The trio of Pete “SuperMix” Salaz, Sean Badger, and Edson Madrigal admit they haven’t been getting much downtime (or even sleep) as of late. That’s because they’ve been working nonstop running two downtown Phoenix clubs, including the newly launched Monarch Theatre. Salaz says the trio pulled 24-hour shifts in the…
The year is flying by, and heating up as usual. As the days get hotter, the nights tend to get wilder in Phoenix and its surrounding burgs. We’ve culled a selection of our best nightlife photos in April, including hip bashes at American Junkie, Elevated Music Festival, the Sticky Fingers…
See also: Record Heat, “Meta Commentary” Like haiku, the classic comic strip is simple, direct, and brief. There’s not room for the kind of exposition or development found in full-size comics or graphic novels. It’s direct and to the point, a quick shot at a joke or a feeling. Like…
What a wonder prime time slots at Coachella two years in a row will do for you. Everything’s coming up Milhouse for The Black Keys these days. The blues/indie/garage group played a sold-out show at Mesa Amphitheatre last year and will return to a much larger venue in October. Thanks…
See also: Frank Turner Discusses Touring, London Riots, and Drinking With Grandma I may be biased, but I think Frank Turner is one of those underrated artists everyone should know about. He blew me away at The Rhythm Room last year and stole the show once again when he opened…
Rosie Thomas is an upbeat, cheery gal who walks “with a skip in her step,” though one would be hard-pressed to believe it given the often sullen and dark mood found on her albums. Some of that gloom could have come from her living in the rainy Northwest or a…
See also: Ted Nugent’s Still a “Special Deputy” to Sheriff Joe Arpaio (2012) See also: Ted Nugent Talks Guns, Meth, and Hippies Before NRA Convention in Phoenix (2009) Ted Nugent doesn’t need much of an introduction. To put it lightly, he’s intimidating. It has nothing to do with him being…
See also: Up on the Sun the Podcast, Featuring Amen Dunes and Our Levon Helm Tribute When New York-based songwriter Damon McMahon, the man behind the shadowy, warbly pysch-folk of Amen Dunes, says he’s lived a million musical lives, he’s exaggerating only a little. He spent his early 20s in…
How does one come up with a killer name for their weekly club event? The promoters of Bar Smith’s über-popular Sticky Fingers night, for instance, cribbed from the Rolling Stones. Meanwhile, the folks behind The Blunt Club parlayed the hip-hop world’s love of weed into the name of their night…
See also: Kelly Clarkson Is Coming to Town (But You Might Have to Sit Through The Fray Before Watching Her) I don’t have cable and I don’t have one of them there digital converter boxes plugged into my TV, so it’s not often I get to catch commercials. On Saturday…
