At one point in their career, the North Carolina trio The Avett Brothers (brothers Scott and Seth Avett, along with Bob Crawford), were better suited to perform at an old fashioned hootenanny than at a classy place like Mesa Arts Center. But though the band started out playing old-timey bluegrass,…
The great “could have been” story is a tired tale in the music business. Anyone with more than a casual relationship with popular music can remember a band that should have been huge, likely an act similar to another act that did hit it big. Mine: Christian pop geniuses, the…
Sometimes, the world just has a way of working out. Like how this year, April 20 happened to fall on a Tuesday — the day new albums are released — enabling Kottonmouth Kings to debut their latest full-length, Long Live the Kings, on 4/20. It’s only fitting for a group…
THURSDAY 22 27th Avenue Bar: Ladies Night with DJ Moy, & DJ Jared Paul (Top 40, hip-hop, Latin) Afterlife: Filthy Thursdays (dubstep, breakbeats) AZ88: Mr. P-Body & Friends (classic and old-school grooves) Bikini Lounge: DJ Shane Kennedy (jazz, blues, country, R&B, rarities) Bobby Q’s: All-Star Thursdays (hip-hop, Top 40) Bomberos:…
Far be it from me to deny these reefer-rap legends the freedom to reinvent themselves, but seriously: What’s the deal with Cypress Hill’s new album, Rise Up? From a cover-art standpoint, it looks like runoff from a Billy Bragg sample book — all played-out Bolshevik lithography and overdeveloped forearms. Not…
Megafaun. Mega-fun? Megaphone? Mega-fawn, as in a big gigantic deer? How are you supposed to pronounce the name of this band? I have no idea. But I do know this: It doesn’t matter. Whether you can pronounce it or not, you’re sure to have good time at this show —…
There’s just over five months until the Red Bull Thre3Style national finals go down in Denver, and Phoenix’s JR Phillips (a.k.a. D-JR) is probably gonna need all that time to perfect his turntable talents. The 26-year-old mixmaster bested six other P-town cats last month to earn a berth in the…
Two types of jazz singing inspired this piece. First, the good: Norah Jones at Tempe’s Red River Opry (now the Marquee Theatre) in July 2002. At the time of this show, Come Away With Me, Jones’ jazz-ish debut, had yet to hit suburbia stereos en masse. However, after blow-me-away interpretations…
The Musical Instrument Museum — which debuts to the public this weekend and will showcase instruments from every single country in the world — is, honest to goodness, to die for. Seriously. Somebody perished in the act of instrument procuring. As you can imagine, stocking and displaying multiple instruments from…
Attention Scottsdale cougars, club goers, and other creatures of the night: Your after-hours options are about to improve, thanks to the impending return of an old friend.Less than a year after exiting the Old Town scene, late-night favorite Mickey’s Hangover is making a comeback, albeit with different proprietors, a whole…
A seething, primal mass of humanity jockeys for position in front of the main stage as the Indio sun beats down on Coachella 2010. They have moved beyond the point of patience and civility. Their shattered minds have but one thought as they claw toward the front of the stage:…
Dear Goldenvoice, Promoter of the Coachella Valley Arts & Music Festival,My name is Michael Lopez, I am 26 years old and I have been attending your festival for the past five years. In those past five years, I have had some of the best music experiences in my life. In…
When you have only 1 minute to sing to people, it’s sort of hard to inspire them. That was the problem the contestants had last night on American Idol, when the seven contestants and four judges were forced to cram their singing and commentary into a measly hour, making for…
Artist: The Apples in StereoTitle: Travellers in Space and TimeRelease date: April 20Label: SimianI’d remembered seeing The Apples in Stereo open for Luna at Chicago’s Metro in 1997 and was looking forward to hearing the band’s new record, Travellers in Space and Time. At that show, they played guitar-based, mid-tempo,…
Last night I was minding my own business when I received a text message saying, “See the stars of Police Women of Maricopa County Wed. Apr. 21st at the Yucca Tap with Hashknife Outfit, Tony Martinez and Barefoot and Preggers.”Given that New Times updates us weekly on the show, my…
It’s said that the average lifespan of a new business is around three years or so. Too bad Howl at the Moon didn’t even make it to one.The Scottsdale location for the national piano bar chain closed sometime in the past few days after only being open for about six…
According to NME, Adam Ant has publicly stated that he’s made his first album in 15 years, and that you’ll be able to hear an ex-Oasis member on it.If you’re anything like me, and you were totally and completely devastated when you found out that Noel Gallagher had finally had…
Just when you thought it was safe, we have three more Coachella 2010 slides shows courtesy of LA Weekly for you to take a gander at. Long live the ‘Chella. Top 25 Coachella Tattoos The 40 Most Memorable People at Coachella Coachella: Hippies or Hipsters?…
This week, looking at What’s Selling is a little different. That’s because Saturday was the long-anticipated Record Store Day, and hopefully you didn’t miss out.Not only did all of our favorite local record stores have live in-store performances, but they sold a ton of exclusive material only available one day…
With Swim, Snaith has found his stride rather brilliantly, combining radio-friendly beats (“Odessa”) with funky, subdued jams (“Kaili,” “Leave House”). The resulting product is one of the year’s best albums — one that will be difficult to top for its ambitious and experimental nature.What the critics are saying: …
How is The Love Me Nots tour of Europe going? Pretty well, at least according to the foreign language reviews we’re reading with the help of Google Translate.Now, honestly, it’s sorta hard to tell just how professional these particular foreigners are, given the kinda-sorta hamfisted way Google’s magical software spits…
We’ve been running into so many photographers from other publications (azcentral.com and Java, just to name a few) at Friday and Saturday events so this past weekend, we decided to bank on the element of surprise and we headed to the Lost Leaf on Sunday night.Sure, it was a little…
