Promoter Lance Wilson will host his annual Rock for the Cure (aka “Save the Boobs”) benefit concert Saturday, March 21 at Tempe’s Last Exit Bar & Grill. The bill is packed with some of Arizona’s finest including Let Go, Audra, Five High, The Bollox, Breaking Down, Pants, Sleepwalk a Robot,…
When No Depression, The New York Times of roots music, stopped publishing last May, then stopped updating the site frequently shortly thereafter it left a huge hole in the alt-country scene. Now it’s back. Sorta. The magazine, named for a Carter Family/Uncle Tupelo song, launched in 1995 is now a…
Phoenix’s prime place in the vast desert between Los Angeles and Austin really comes in handy this time of year, as we get tons of shows by otherwise-usually-too-hip-to-play-here acts stopping by on their way to South by Southwest. Jose Gonzolez rounded a bunch of them up for you in the…
Heavily tattooed blues singer/songwriter Jake La Botz will perform twice this weekend – at West Phoenix’s Rogue West on Friday and Tempe’s Last Exit Bar & Grill on Saturday. The Friday show, kicking off somewhere around 9 p.m., will be a more intimate gathering with drink specials throughout the night…
When I got The Pack A.D.’s new record, titled Funeral Mixtape, in the mail this week I wasa little interested, but not enough to actually pop the CD in. Well, after seeing this super cool flier for their Saturday show at The Ruby Room, I tossed in in the ol’…
Jacksonville, Fla. indie rockers Black Kids will grace DJ William Fucking Reed’s popular weekly dance/rock night Shake! Saturday, April 25 following their show at The Clubhouse Music Venue at south Scottsdale’s The Rogue Bar. Some of the members will guest spin for what is sure to be a packed club…
For those of you who may not know, this coming Tuesday is St. Patrick’s Day – a day to revel in the sheer glory of Ireland and all that Irish culture has bestowed upon us. As I have also been told, St. Patrick’s Day is an excuse to get shitfaced…
[jump] THURSDAY, MARCH 12: Bob That Head Tour With Rascal Flatts, & Jessica Simpson [country/pop] 8 p.m., $40-$78.75 (visit www.ticketmaster.com) Cricket Wireless Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave., Phoenix, 602-254-7200. Neil Halstead With Courtney Marie Andrews [indie/folk] 8 p.m., $10-$12 (visit www.ticketweb.com) Rhythm Room, 1019 E. Indian School Rd., Phoenix, 602-265-4842…
On March 11, the Wall Street Journal ran an article titled “Concert Tickets Get Set Aside, Marked Up by Artists, Managers” written by Ethan Smith. In it, Smith explains the practice of large promoters, Ticketmaster, and artists teaming up to take the best seats at concerts and then not selling…
Like many musicians, Charlie Brand was not a happy high-schooler. Discussing his days as an art school dropout — a troubled kid sent to a Scientology-run youth camp, where he lied to the E-Meter reader to escape, only to become a chronically depressed and morbidly obese pothead — the 24-year-old…
Young Jeezy rapped it best: “It’s the recession — everybody’s broke!” That being the case, South by Southwest, Austin, Texas’ annual orgy of music and networking, is beyond many of our means. While catching local SxSWers, Dear and the Headlights, Kinch, The Love Me Nots, The Maine, Miniature Tigers, and…
What Wavves’ Nathan Williams vividly renders on cassette and aluminum isn’t the Beach Boys’ carefree beachscape, with its bathing beauties, surfboard-wielding Adonises, and pinks-on-the-line drag races. Last year’s Wavves (Fuck It Tapes) and new disc, Wavvves (Fat Possum), paint a decidedly grimmer, less idyllic picture: goth zombies everywhere, early 20-something…
“Punk rock, comedy, and politics” can be a great combination — look at NOFX. But when a local band declares in its self-penned biography that it’s playing with these elements, I get a little nervous. The new album by Tempe punk rockers VW Trainwreck, Dramaturgy, is exactly why. With a…
THURSDAY 12 Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cherry Lounge: Scandalous Thursday with DJ Juan Rocha (house, electronica) Club Red: The Blunt Club with Tricky T, Pickster Uno, DJ Element, more (hip-hop) Copper State Tavern: DJ Kavi, & guests (hip-hop) Cream Stereo Lounge: Blush Thursdays (Top 40, hip-hop, mash-ups) Homme: So Paid!!!…
PHOENIX Kinch: The piano has gotten a bad rap lately, thanks mostly to schmaltzy lite-pop bands like Keane and those dueling piano bars that seem to be springing up everywhere. Fortunately, Kinch has come along to give the piano its balls back. The band’s debut, Advances, veered from rollicking, up-tempo…
Though the term “guitar hero” means less in mainstream music than it did, say, 25 years ago, that doesn’t mean the world doesn’t have or need them anymore. Clapton and (Jeff) Beck are still active, but who’s going to carry on when they join Stevie Ray Vaughan and Rory Gallagher…
Valley indie rockers Emperors of Japan have already contributed two excellent albums to the local music canon in the form of 2006’s Your Freak Majesty and last year’s Activator. Based on the lineup for this weekend’s Shizzfest, you may as well add “ace concert promoters” to their list of accomplishments…
Trying to pull off a cello in today’s indie/alternative rock scene is tricky. On one hand, a cello can set a band apart from a mass of whiny, boring acts, and having an accomplished cellist adds a touch of class that bearded, flannel-loving four-piece bands from the Pacific Northwest will…
On St. Patrick’s Day everyone is Irish, and everyone’s liver gets a workout. Music is, of course, a big part of the fun. Who doesn’t love day drinking while listening to the likes of Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly, bands whose style of music is the perfect complement to pitchers…
It seems as though the summer arrives earlier and earlier each year, as that unforgiving beeyotch Mother Nature delights at ratcheting up the Valley’s thermostat way before we’re ready to start enduring the sweltering, 100-degree-plus temperatures. So it’s good to know that Joel Davis (a.k.a. DJ Epidemic) is already preparing…
We don’t typically write up concert announcement blogs for shows in tiny, all-ages venues but this one deserves it. Because, well, YOU HAVE TO SEE WILLIAM ELLIOT WHITMORE! The bluesman who lives on a horse farm in Lee County, Iowa mesmerized me at Virginia’s MACRoCk a few years back.Whitmore, who…
At long last, it has come to this–after weeks of watching tone-deaf wonders humiliate themselves during the first round of auditions, some slightly less tone-deaf wonders forget the lyrics to their songs during Hollywood Week, Casey Carlson give a bad name to bubble tea makers everywhere and Pacittigate–we finally get…
