It wasn’t exactly a banner year for proprietors of the record-slinging shops. Album sales at in general were down 14 percent nationwide from 2007, and this obviously hit brick-and-mortar retailers where it counts. But while folks are increasingly more likely to boot-up CD Baby or iTunes to get their music,…
The biggest party night of the entire calendar (a.k.a. New Year’s Eve) is upon us. Anywhere and everywhere you go tonight is bound to have some kind of shindig going on. Scottsdale will have the swankiness going on with chic affairs at the W Hotel and Mondrian, downtown Phoenix rocks…
By Wynter HoldenGoing to a wild block party? Catching a couple of local bands play your favorite hangout? Snuggling up on the couch with your sweetie, watching the Times Square ball drop? Whatever your plans tonight, you’ll likely need a couple of days to recuperate from the wild goings-on, and…
Steve Perry (a.k.a. MC Large Drink) jumps and jives for the crowd. (Photos by Jonathan McNamara)I’m at war with myself over last night’s Cherry Poppin’ Daddies show.While the fanboy part of me (who’s followed the band since picking up Kids on the Street in 1997) was jazzed at seeing one…
Show: Kanye West’s Glow In The Dark Tour at Jobing.com Arena on June 8 The year was only half over, but I knew this was the best show I’d see back in June. Of course, I never knew how many shows I’d be seeing, employed as feature writer at The…
It’s been a busy time for debuting Valley nightspots. Within just the past six weeks, not only did American Junkie and The Lodge pop up in Scottsdale, but the long-awaited SideBar finally opened its doors to the public. Add Cream Stereo Lounge (4252 North Drinkwater Boulevard, Scottsdale, 602-222-9922) to the…
Always Randy’s Protect Your Nuts is exactly the kind of record we have Your Asked For It to review. Truthfully, there’s little chance I’d pop in an album with a cover featuring three semi-mulleted old dudes wielding baseball bats and a guitar in front of a background of peanut shells…
Go, Daddies: Steve Perry (center, white tux) and the rest of CPDs swing through town tonight. The rumors are true: The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies will be hitting the Valley tonight. The late-90s swing sensations will perform two separate shows at Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino, 15406 North Maricopa Road in Maricopa, starting…
I’m in a sour mood today even though I shouldn’t be. Christmas, and all its attendant annoyances, is gone for another six months. I just spent some QT visiting with the family. It’s warming up. I still have a job and one or two bucks left in the bank account.The…
Show: Eartha Kitt with Phoenix Symphony at Symphony Hall, May 31Some performers are just golden at any age. Eartha Kitt, my favorite Catwoman (from the Batman TV series in the ’60s), had more flair onstage at age 81 than most performers half her age could ever hope to have. Kitt,…
By Michael McCall Photo by Michael Alan GoldbergTwo young blondes with toothy smiles and hard-core work ethics, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, helped country expand its fan base in these years of shrinking music sales. Meanwhile, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley and George…
By Dan Leroy A couple of weeks ago, an expert on the Harry Potter series told an audience of high school kids how lucky they were to have this Big Shared Experience–these seven books and 41,000 words in common. What does Harry Potter have to do with hip-hop in 2008?…
And now it’s time for the “I love you like a fat kid loves cake” memorial Worst Lyrics of 2008, March Madness-style tournament, this year a terrifying mélange of appalling oral-sex requests, bargain-bin philosophies, grammatical atrocities, and cringe-inducing pillow talk. To elevate the drama, I provided a trusted colleague with…
By Randall Roberts You don’t need a half-wit music critic to tell you it’s been a remarkable year for America, one historians will be discussing and researching for centuries to come. War, financial collapse, politics, technology: All have been dinner-table topics for many Americans. Racial barriers in 2008 were demolished…
Welcome back! We hope you had a sufficient amount of ho-ho-hoing and present opening to last another twelve months. Just in case you haven’t, here’s a package of some of the stories and photos you may have missed during the holiday. Light Rail Launch Hundreds of thousands turned out to…
Tempe’s Last Exit Bar & Grill will reunite The Black Moods on New Year’s Eve, Wednesday, for a headlining performance. The once-hot high-energy trio, who broke up (guitarist Josh Kennedy is now in Violet Wild) more than two years ago, were unlike most bands in the local music scene and brought…
Some of the more well-received albums of 2008 have come from the rainy, bike-loving confines of the Pacific Northwest – a trusty bastion for indie rock and insanely innovative pop. When bands from the two meccas of the Pacific Northwest – Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington – emerge onto the…
Show: Blue Man Group at US Airways Center, January 14.I couldn’t tear myself away from this show, not even after I drank a few beers and had to pee. The concept for the show was “How to Be a Megastar,” and included all manner of interactive multi-media, from how-to video…
From the this-is-super-cool-but-would-have-been-way-too-much-work-for-us file comes this: Our man Murph has put together a nice assortment of best of 2008 lists by local indie types on his blog, So Much Silence.Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World and Kevin Murphy himself are both in love with Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight while…
By Annie ZaleskiPop music often gets a bad rap for being disposable or vapid, and in many cases that’s true. (Katy Perry, Danity Kane and the Pussycat Dolls, step right up!) But every year, a few irresistible bits of innovative ear candy rocket up the charts and seep into our…
Show: What Laura Says Thinks and Feels at the New Times Summer of Sound pop show at The Sets, June 21.Not to toot our own horn, but we really scored by booking local indie rock sensations What Laura Says Thinks and Feels for our Summer of Sound series this year…
Valley Metro pulled out all the stops for yesterday’s debut of the 20-mile light rail system we’ve been writing about all month. They had parties scheduled at pretty much every stop on the line — though, honestly, I’m not sure there was anything beyond an unmanned purple tent full of fliers…
