Believe it or not, there are a handful of excellent indie record labels in the great state of Arizona, boasting rosters with some of our finest local artists and some hot underground national acts, as well. This week, we’d like to give a shout-out to Modern Art Records.
If you listen to frontman/bandleader Justin Sullivan tell it, it’s a surprise that New Model Army is still around at all. Formed in 1980 with the intention of playing just two pub gigs in the band’s hometown of Bradford, England, NMA is still heralded today for its politically engaging lyrics and the passionate fury underlying its acoustic guitar-based attack.
Happy April Fool’s Day! In this spirit of this stupid unofficial holiday, we thought we’d take a look at some of the biggest dupes in music, both local and national, as well as some strange things that are actually true. Can you tell urban music legend from bizarre fact?
The Phoenix Film Festival kicks off on Thursday, April 3, at Harkins Scottsdale 101 (7000 E. Mayo Boulevard). In addition to a wide variety of films from both local and national filmmakers, the festival plays host to some of the coolest music acts in the Valley.
This weekend music fans had no trouble finding ear candy.
This year more than ever before, the festival sought to showcase local bands making the event truly reflective of Tempe. Inviting a few legendary hometown heroes to play didn’t hurt either. The most exciting headliner was, of course, the long awaited return of the Meat Puppets. Though they haven’t played here for well over a decade the Meat Puppets did nothing less than awe the crowd.
Fagenson took time out before the concert to reveal his thoughts on playing Tempe Music Festival and his appreciation for Phoenician ladies.
The Black Keys announced their presence at The Marquee on Friday with a flurry of feedback and a crashing wave of pounding drums. There was no chit-chat or pleasantries from the two man band before they began their musical onslaught. They just took their places and banged out their own extra heavy, fuzzed-out version of the blues.
Bob Schneider is a respected singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas, a prolific road warrior who’s managed to release 20 albums in 16 years (eight as a solo artist, and 12 with various bands and side projects like Ugly Americans and The Scabs). His latest record, When Sun Breaks Down on the Moon (Shokorama), continues to establish his mastery of his craft through a rough-and-ready rock/Americana sound that incorporates musical elements from a wide range of genres. (The song “Slower Dear,” for example, tells the story of someone waiting for a loved one to come back from the war through the eyes of a forlorn grocery shopper, and includes steel drums and horns that give the song a melancholy calypso-jazz feel.)
THURSDAY 27 Axis/Radius: Divine Ladies Night (Top 40, dance) Blooze Bar: DJ El Dedo (rockabilly) Bobby C’s: Willy B. (old-school R&B) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Casey Jones: Da Gutter Thursdays with DJ Soulman (hip-hop, Top 40) Cherry Lounge: DJ M2 (rock, ’80s, old school, hip-hop) Club Red: The Blunt Club with Ervin Arana, Pickster Uno, DJ…
It seemed every hipster-artist type with a little extra cash was heading to “SMoCA Nights: Drive” on Thursday, March 20. The car-inspired theme was arguably the best we’ve seen from the think tank responsible for these seasonal parties, and the accompanying lowrider car show was just the right touch to…
Source of pride for living in Mesa, AZ: Google “woman offers sex for gas,” and your hometown comes up on the first nine hits. Source of shame for living in Mesa, AZ: Read those nine stories and see the unappetizing mug shot that sadly illustrates how it was the woman…
If you listen to frontman/bandleader Justin Sullivan tell it, it’s a surprise that New Model Army is still around at all. Formed in 1980 with the intention of playing just two pub gigs in the band’s hometown of Bradford, England, NMA is still heralded today for its politically engaging lyrics…
Now in its sixth year, the Tempe Music Festival brings an annual spotlight to town. As always, the headliners are national acts, meant to draw in a crowd of people who probably have little interest in local music and are far more likely to see a show at the Dodge…
It’s Friday and it’s raining — as if we live in the grungy Emerald City of Seattle. Naturally, I throw on my flannel, itching for a drink when I receive a text from my buddy Guano (really, he goes by Guano). It reads, “I’m done with work pay day wanna…
Some people believe that chakra, a Sanskrit word meaning “circle,” refers to an energy center, a place where the physical body and the “mind” meet as one, where things like aural sensations become visceral stimulations in certain parts of our bodies. If that all sounds like a bunch of seduce-you-spiel,…
Long before hitmakers like Kelis sampled Mozart and Mike Skinner borrowed from Bartok, a ’60s girl group called The Toys layered exquisite teen harmonies over Bach finger exercises and launched a pop-music revolution. Led by Barbara Harris, The Toys brought sonatas to sock hops around the country when their million-selling…
On a Friday or Saturday night, sliding into a nightspot as hot as Taste Ultra Lounge, 6910 East Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale, ain’t too easy, playa. Usually, the super-swanky, Asian-style drinkery is so swarmed with top-shelf trim and bar stars during prime time that the doormen ain’t gonna let your $30K-millionaire…
Three-quarters of the way through a compilation that’s been billed as a locals-only/females-only album, a voice that’s clearly not a girl’s appears. That voice belongs to Chris Corwin (no, Chris is not short for Christina), who, last time we checked, is totally a guy. We didn’t investigate to see whether…
Dave King, frontman for L.A.’s Flogging Molly, writes the lyrics for his songs on a manual typewriter that was made in 1916, the year of The Easter Rising, the rebellion that kicked off modern Ireland’s struggle to free itself from British rule. That touchstone of rebellion is mirrored in the…
Anybody out there remember the ’80s U.K. combo Blue Aeroplanes? They’re the closest comparison this critic’s strained brain can make to the eclectic, happily hard-to-pigeonhole Oakland band Why? While in no way imitative of Blue Aeroplanes, Why? shares stylistic similarities with them — bright, buoyant, terse indie-rock melodies; distinctive, cozy…
The acclaim that so often rains down on (insert overrated dance act’s name here) may soon stumble its bandanna-clad way toward Toronto duo Crystal Castles. While their self-titled debut full-length on Last Gang packs a strain of considerably punky tension under its arcade bleeps and beat programming, the more subtle…
