For someone like me, who is an Arizona Cardinals season ticket holder, this season has far exceeding any expectations I had for the team heading into September. Not to toot my horn or anything, but after watching the Cardinals dismantle the playoff-caliber Miami Dolphins in the home opener, I said…
So, last night, American Idol took its tone-deaf dog-and-pony show to Louisville, Kentucky. But, really, does it matter where we were? Louisville was the same as Phoenix, which was the same as San Francisco, which we all know is going to be just like Tuesday’s show in Jacksonville. There’s the horrible…
Surf rock? Garage Rock? Cocktails? Sounds like the recipe for a cool Saturday night to me! The Ruby Room hosts four bands from the two genres Saturday, including The Surfside IV, who get their name on the drum kit in the poster, The Rebel Set, and Thee Jaguar Sharks of…
Pazz and Jop, the annual Village Voice poll of music critics, is out. Conducted since 1971, the poll is the original metacritic, aggregating music writer’s annual best of lists in to one mega list. Unsurprisingly, TV on the Radio won the number one spot, as it did in all the…
Arizona hip-hop acts Cousins of the Wize and Golden Tung will reunite to play a show at Chaser’s, 8005 E. Roosevelt, on Friday, February 20. The two bands collaborated last year to record “We Do This Together,” a song that is often played at Arizona Cardinals games. Cover is $7,…
Could you imagine this photo in the paper, beside my column on pastor Mason Betha, a.k.a. the rapper Ma$e? Neither could I. And not just because my name is spelled wrong.So this might be a little inside baseball for some readers, but I thought I’d share it anyway, because it’s…
THURSDAY 22 Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Club Red: The Blunt Club with Pickster Uno, DJ Element, Emerg McVay, & more (hip-hop) J-Heads: Thursday Night Artist Spotlight with DJ Kavi, & guests (hip-hop) Margarita Rocks: DJ Mr. Eaton (Top 40) FRIDAY 23 ACME: DJ Design (rock, electro, Top 40, mash-ups) Axis/Radius: Back…
It hardly needs to be stated, but Willie Nelson is an American original — a legendary songwriter, tireless performer (at 75, he continues to tour relentlessly), fine actor, committed activist, and all-around cool dude. Over the course of his celebrated five-decade career, the country music troubadour has been quite the…
Lil Wayne is scheduled to bring his “I Am Music” tour to Phoenix this week, but be warned before you drop $35 to $75 on a ticket. While New Orleans native Dwayne Carter Jr. had the best year of his career in 2008, he has repeatedly wasted fans’ time when…
On the title track of Cattle Decapitation’s 2004 album Humanure, vocalist Travis Ryan growls the line “Here’s to your health.” But don’t get the wrong impression, as he isn’t exactly trying to foster a warm and fuzzy feeling. In the same song, he invites the listener to “defecate upon the…
The last time you saw Mason Betha, he was probably in a shiny suit, holding a handful of money, with Puff Daddy dancing behind him. That was 10 years ago, when Mason was Ma$e, Puffy’s protégé following the assassination of The Notorious B.I.G. Back then, Mason was bemoaning the adverse…
The Nadas are not a forgotten band from that “the” band explosion from 2000 that featured the likes of The Strokes, The Hives and The Vines. Sure, The Nadas existed back then, and their unique name would have lent itself nicely to that particular scene, but things took a different…
In the ’90s, a dead lead singer seemed like a surefire ingredient in the formula for musical immortality. Jeff Buckley garnered way more fans after his 1997 drowning death than he did while alive. Bradley Nowell’s 1996 heroin overdose turned a little-known ska-punk band from Long Beach into an international…
Guitar virtuoso Al Di Meola is quite dazzling when it comes to technique. His blazing riffs exploded in the ’70s as a member of the groundbreaking jazz-fusion group Return to Forever, with his fretwork often defined by dizzying, slashing turns. Over the years, the New Jersey-born Di Meola has ascended…
There’s a well-known saying among diehard fans of dyke-folk duo the Indigo Girls: “Everyone wants to marry Emily; everyone wants to sleep with Amy.” With a new solo album on her own label, Amy Ray (the brunette Indigo; the blonde is Emily Saliers) should continue to stoke her fans’ passions…
In the 1990 film Cry-Baby, Johnny Depp played a rebellious rocker named Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker. Walker’s singing voice, however, was provided by rockabilly revivalist James Intveld, who was trying to make a name for himself. Intveld’s real break came in 1996, when he was invited to contribute a track on…
On its new album, Today We Are All Demons, the band’s fourth, Combichrist effectively ups the ante on the tried-and-true answering machine intro with a message from an unfortunate soul on his way to jail on a concealed-weapons charge. His girlfriend, meanwhile, is in the hospital after swallowing a bottle…
To say that Nik Richie has had a beef with the West Valley is as an obvious understatement as saying that Hamas and Israel are known to get into a minor dust-up once in a while. The infamous “reality blogger” has spent years on his debaucherous tattletale site TheDirty.com labeling…
With their star swiftly rising thanks to a slate of dates opening for Ben Folds and a showcase at SxSW, a lot of us showing up at Miniature Tigers’ show at Yucca Tap Room last night kind of thought this could be one the last times we’d see the band…
[jump] Since the Sail Inn’s old location was unoccupied (a danceateria called Trax had taken over the spot in the interim but eventually fizzled out), Lombardi decided to resurrect her old joint, albeit after a complete renovation. “I had to do a bunch to get this place in shape again…
Tempe-based music artist The Wiley One has been booked to perform at the “Jocks That Rock Super Party” in Tampa, Florida on Friday, January 30. The Wiley One’s newest album, No. 7 Kid, was released on Sun Dawg Records last year, and serves up a well-wrought mix of ska, hip-hop, and folk, with a stylish troubadour touch that the ladies seem to love.
Think comic conventions are only for geeks, nerds, and losers? Well, we may not argue with that, but we will argue that being called a “geek” and a “nerd” are no longer derogatory terms. Those guys who picked on Bill Gates for wearing glasses so thick he could see into the future during the ’70s are now probably the same guys who fix Gates’ plumbing when one of the 18 toilets in his mansion is on the fritz — if they’re lucky.
