Artist: April Smith and the Great Picture ShowTitle: Songs for a Sinking ShipRelease date: February 23Label: April SmithHere’s one for fans of musical theater. With a flair for the dramatic, April Smith and her band weave in and out of various old-timey American musical idioms: Dixieland, ragtime, swing, doo-wop. It’s…
If you believe that record sales equal musical relevance, then you may think that classical music — which accounted for less than 3 percent of all record sales in 2009 — needs to be locked up in some museum archive along with the dinosaur bones. However, if you listened to…
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is hosting its induction ceremony tonight.Too bad you can only watch it if you get the Fuse channel, or if you happen to be at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.The list of inductees this year is diverse, and will feature…
On July 31, Lady Gaga will hit U.S. Airways Center on her massive summer Monster Ball Tour. Gaga told Rolling Stone that she sees the show as a sort of “pop-electro opera.””The theatrics and story elements are in the style of an opera. Imagine if you could take the sets…
A new video from Phoenix/Tucson alt-reduxers Race You There is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen a local band do. Made entirely with Google Street view, “Starcrossed” takes you through a beautiful desertscape while vaguely Coldplayian rock whizzes by.Yes, this sort of thing has been done before, but…
Nothing beats a little outdoor drinking on a cool spring night; and not even the wind and sporadic spats of rain could deter the party people from yucking it up outside at The Vig on Saturday night. Check out the slide show…
Title: The Last Stand, the band’s first full-length.Basics: The band, a classic mix of hard rock and punk influences, recently had their song “Game Face” named as the Phoenix Coyotes’ home intro song, an honor their song “Superblinded” previously held.Despite their prominent place in the Jobing.com Arena playlist, “arena rock”…
Artist: The Morning BendersTitle: Big EchoRelease date: March 9Label: Rough TradeObviously, summer ain’t no big deal in Phoenix. No one here actually looks forward to the dreadful season. But everywhere else (including my native Midwest), people have had more than enough winter by this point, and are waiting for the…
I’ve always thought that folk and punk had way more in common that people gave them both credit for having.They’re both strongly focused on community and social justice. They’re both working class movements. And while they both achieved mainstream success at some level, the seeds of each movements are to…
Chelsea Handler is everything you could want in a comedian — she’s incredibly smart, super-sexy and pokes as much fun at herself as she does the celebrities she rags on.Plus: she is not shy about her love for vodka, and some fans even say she was tipsy when she took…
Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we give you a look inside the industrial cozy space of Phoenix rockers The Dust Jacket. If you would like your band featured, tweet…
AKA: DJ Tsunami Club Nights: Tuesdays at Charlie’s, Fridays at Z Girl Club, Saturdays at Incognito. Preferred genres: Rhythmic pop urban dance How did you get started DJing? Ever since I was born, my family raised me on music. I began making DJ tapes when I was 8, doing voice-overs…
Phoenix rapper Trap has released a new song from his forthcoming mixtape, I Never Sleep. The song is called “My Gucci” and features Trap flowing over a trippy beat and a Slick Rick “La Di Da Di” sample.Here what Trap had to say about the new song and the status…
D-JR is the top party DJ in town, at least according to the Red Bull Thre3Style contest held at the Venue of Scottsdale Wednesday night. D-JR, who prides himself on his technical skills, won the local stop on the energy drink-sponsored 13-city tour, where he faced off against eight other…
There’s no shortage of strip club action in the Valley of the Sun. From high-end gentleman’s clubs like Christie’s Cabaret and Le Girls Cabaret to the low-rent flesh parlors of the West Valley’s skeezier industrial neighborhoods, Phoenix is definitely skin city.Despite what you might think, the buxom babes baring it…
The world of off-road racing has its share of hot shot drama, as we chronicled in our recent cover story on local trophy truck driver “Pistol” Pete Sohren. But the desert racing community can be close and charitable, too, especially in times of crisis.To wit: The Larry Beshaw Ride set…
This week’s music feature is about Antique Scream, who moved from the Valley to the Pacific Northwest over a year ago, and is now coming back on tour.Also in this week’s issue, you’ll find the lowdown on every Valley band headed out to Austin for SxSW in the coming week…
According to the calendar on our wall, more than a week remains until spring has officially arrived. But for all intents and purposes, it feels like it’s already sprung. The last gasp of winter has come and gone, temperatures are rising, imaginations are racing, and creative juices are flowing.Sounds like…
Everyone knows how difficult it is to raise the funds for a musical project you want to start. Josh Wise, a member of Brooklyn’s French Kicks, is working on a multi-faceted solo project.It’s ambitious. It involves limited-edition LPs, a video project, paintings, and live shows. The problem is, even though…
Conan O’Brien has announced via his twitter account (@ConanOBrien) that he will tour North America this spring.O’Brien’s “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” will span 30 dates will kick off April 12 in Eugene, Oregon and will come through Phoenix on April 30. Much speculation had been made whether…
Artist: Black Rebel Motorcycle ClubTitle: Beat the Devil’s TattoosRelease date: March 9Label: Abstract Dragon/VagrantThere’s something kind of quaint about this new Black Rebel Motorcycle Club record. It isn’t bad, by any stretch, but it doesn’t sound nearly as dangerous as the band name and album title would have you believe…
Our man Kevin Murphy at So Much Silence is probably the biggest hip-hop head you’ll find in this town — at least when it comes to the obscure East Coast stuff of the mid-90s. So it’s no surprise that he correctly named the inspiration behind The Main Ingredient, a new-ish…
