Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible is a dense, academic, and ultimately rewarding album fixated on questions of spirituality, religion and the concept of self — and, more specifically, how to reconcile these things in a bleak world where uncertainty is the norm, hope seems dead, and God isn’t exactly benevolent. (That…
Although Fall Out Boy lyricist/dreamboat Pete Wentz is inveterately verbose, his words don’t mask profundity, and that’s a big reason for his band’s success. A lot of emo acts have a limited audience because of all that freakin’ emotion. But instead of turning songs into platforms for pain, Wentz eschews…
Sex Change starts off re-exploring Trans Am’s journeys on the Autobahn, as the echo of Afrobeat guitars washes over the lull of a trance-inducing synth riff. But they move on quickly while keeping the synth front and center on “North East Rising Sun,” where droning psychedelic vocals tug against a…
Well, Lucinda Williams’ first release in four years won’t be making many people’s lists of Least Depressing Albums of 2007. Someone took her joy again. And this time, there’s no sign that joy is coming back, as Williams struggles through the heartache of her mother’s death while dealing with the…
This trio from Richmond, Virginia, includes singer/songwriter/guitarist Jacob Thomas Berns; Earnest Christian Kiehne Jr., a multi-instrumentalist who plays almost every folk instrument you can think of; and Sonya Cotton, who supplies breathy mountain harmonies. The gentle ambient folk music here spins a subtle web, and while the music is light…
Alternative Press included Moneen’s latest effort, The Red Tree, on its “10 Essential Albums of 2006” list, and went on to say that if you’d give your favorite record of the year five stars, The Red Tree would get six. Now, chances are, you’re thinking, “That’s just crazy talk.” And…
Few hard-edged punk bands were as blatantly pissed off about politics in the ’90s than Naked Aggression. Formed in 1990 by singer Kirsten Patches and guitarist Phil Suchomel among the breweries and cheese factories of Madison, Wisconsin, Naked Aggression’s original purpose was to protest the first Gulf War. The band’s…
After scoring two platinum albums and one massive hair-metal anthem (that ode to statutory rape titled “Seventeen”), Winger officially crashed and burned with the commercial failure of 1993’s Pull. And while most rock fans had written off the band, which actually rocked harder than most of its peers, guitarist Reb…
See ya never, Blonde Redhead! The top spot for bands made up of one sprightly Asian singer plus two experimentally oriented white guys has been usurped by Northern California spazzers Deerhoof. Last year was Deerhoof’s year. Finally, plenty of show-going indie fans caught on to what a few have known…
MSTRKRFT’s “Easy Love” video will get you fired if you watch it online while you’re at work. Nobody in the video has sex, and, unfortunately, there’s no nudity, but the vowel-shunning Canadian production duo churns out a heavily disco-influenced, grimy electro sound while squirming women in examination chairs are doused with strawberry milkshakes. “Easy Love” […]
There’s tons of stuff going down this weekend in connection with the annual Art Detour in downtown Phoenix (just check out our special insert in this issue). With three big days of artistic shenanigans, by the time Sunday, March 4, rolls around, you’re gonna want some place to cool your…
Petterson was born in New York City but lives in Nashville. He’s not a punk, nor is his music bluesy, so the title of the CD is puzzling. Maybe he’s just venting some leftover NYC attitude. Petterson’s music is folky, funky and country, with a skewed vision and gruff vocal…
Thursday 1 Axis/Radius: Ladies’ Night (hip-hop, rock, dance) Bikini Lounge: Scratchy Rekkid Night with DJ Shane Kennedy (various) Blue Note: DJ Soloman, & Fredj (acid jazz, trip-hop, house) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Chilly Bombers: DJ Statik (rock, hip-hop, dance) The Door: Pink Thursdays with DJ Astonish (hip-hop, Top 40) Dos…
1. Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Don’t You Fake It (Virgin Records U.S.) 2. Explosions in the Sky, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone (Temporary Residence) 3. Jesu, Conqueror (Hydrahead Records) 4. Comeback Kid, Broadcasting . . . (Victory Records) 5. Authority Zero, 12:34 (Big Panda Records) 6. Alkaline Trio, Remains…
Skerlak Dead’s tunes from the vault Sometimes some really weird shit comes across my desk, like this album, Remnants Resolved, by Skerlak Dead with four songs this Phoenix-based guy M. Skerlak recorded back in 1984, and two that he recorded in 1961. According to his myspace page, dude is 61…
don’t buy this I happily admitted in a previous column that I was a fan of Authority Zero frontman Jason Devore’s solo album, Conviction. But I also made it clear that I don’t appreciate or understand AZ’s music; I find it generic, formulaic, and oftentimes a bad blend of genres…
trippin’ out with the Squid A few weeks back I wrote here in my column Revolver about the instrumental sensation that is Attack of the Giant Squid, and in the blog I’ve mentioned Squid homeboys An Aesthetic as well. Both are fucking great bands, and I just received word from…
these guys scare me I’m not sure what it is about me that attracts the dregs of humanity; there are numerous examples I can site — I spent a year dating a stripper, then my friends try to hook me up with a (half-assed) recovering heroin addict as a girlfriend…
Okay, so that comeback album never quite came back, stalling out on the quality trail somewhere between It’s Hard and Roger Daltrey’s latest solo album. And the band’s down to two crucial members from the glory days of “Substitute” and “I Can See for Miles.” But if The Who can…
Upstairs at the recent One Stop Shop hip-hop producers’ conference (sponsored by G-Unit), I’m at the booth of Money Management, the company that manages 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Tony Yayo, and more, talking to a cat named Kasper about the state of music in Phoenix. I tell him…
In the theoretical “school of rock,” Isis front man Aaron Turner would be the kid at the head of the class who has an eloquent answer for every question and writes the essays that the teacher always reads aloud to the rest of the class. Or maybe he’d be the…
The pioneering British gore-metal band Carcass may’ve disbanded in 1995, but its legacy has never been stronger. In fact, not content merely to borrow from the masters, an entire new subgenre of unashamed copycat bands has arisen in Carcass’ wake, each one an attempt to cut closer to the heart…
