The Necronauts I’ve been wondering what local indie/alt/punk trio the Necronauts have been up to lately; seems I haven’t heard about any shows or tours recently, and they’re one of the most entertaining acts we’ve got around here. If you’ve been missing Billy, Andrew and Dale as well, I’ve got…
After two holiday weekends in a row and the final shake-off of family obligations (phew!), we wanted nothing more than to return to normal life and normal drinking habits. This week, Club Candids skipped on anything super sizzling and flopped into homey Scottsdale punk bar TT Roadhouse on Saturday, January…
“We put Vaseline on the men’s urinal so you can’t do coke off of it,” Tyler King tells me from behind the bar at the Stray Cat in Tempe, on the Wednesday after Christmas. “Cruel, but funny.” King is, of course, cracking on the reputation of certain punk DJ nights…
In April of last year, New York magazine published an article by Adam Sternbergh called “Up With Grups,” discussing the phenomenon of hipster parents. He touched on the sociological and economic nightmare we face if there is no longer a quantifiable generation gap — if parents’ habits and tastes are…
On a recent cold and rainy Thursday night, my girlfriend CooKie and I plan to hit a hot hip-hop weekly — but not the one most people think of, which is “The Blunt Club” at Hollywood Alley in Mesa. With a crew like Emerg McVay, Pickster One, and Brad B,…
Courtney Love and Sharon Osbourne have a lot in common. They are both outspoken, headstrong women who married men who later became monstrously famous musicians. They both had plastic surgery. They are both known for throwing things — Love for hurling makeup at Madonna, Osbourne for pelting Iron Maiden with…
Young men fumbling to grasp the power of their hormones usually look to the brawny lead singers of hard-rock bands to learn machismo and sexual confidence. Unfortunately, these same impressionable teens simultaneously lap up the music’s misogyny, and so they only develop into self-pitying sexist pigs with an overactive interest…
Any band that calls its members “Vagina Rock Warriors” and takes its name from a pseudonym for a slutty friend must be on a sublime mission to spread its, uh, music to the menstruating masses. But the music made by the three ladies of Juicy Newt — vocalist/guitarist Annamarie Sanchez,…
Diddy has yet to bastardize a classic rock riff from Bob Seger, which is great because I don’t care to hear Diddy’s rap tribute to James Brown slapped down over “Night Moves.” The Seger songbook is just too underrated for that kind of modern-day MTV molestation. Indeed, it seems that…
Like Public Enemy and the Wu-Tang Clan, the five pioneering group members in N.W.A were a revolutionary bunch that changed music with unabated street rhymes composed within the framework of gangster rap. However, no rappers were oppressed like Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, Yella, and the late Eazy-E —…
After six or so years on Jade Tree Records, the Richmond, Virginia, melodic hardcore quintet Strike Anywhere — which formed in 1999 from the ashes of Inquisition — jumped ship to Fat Wreck Chords for 2006’s Dead FM, their third full-length. Makes sense, really, as SA’s primary influences (Avail, Sick…
Who invited you? The Donnas may not think you’re cool enough to get into their pajama party, but the five females in Austin-based band The Applicators will not only let you into their pop-punk bash, they’ll probably shove a beer bong down your throat to boot. With songs that sound…
Albert Hammond Jr. is The Strokes’ Ron Wood, or maybe its Izzy Stradlin, or . . . y’know, the guy who’s content to bash out a few chords and look cool while leaving the bulk of the flashy soloing and histrionics to someone else, but who’s usually the band’s secret…
Some things are just awesome together: chocolate and peanut butter, Britney Spears and drunken rampages, trance music and belly dancing. Local DJ collective Overmind Works serves up the latter in spades at its monthly laid-back dance spectacular Aura, which goes down at belly dancing joint the Mystic Jewell Studio, 524…
Live From the MTC, the debut release on Phoenix-based DIY label onewordlong, isn’t exactly music because the conceptual art piece doesn’t abide by any familiar formula. Project founder JRC, co-owner of the Trunk Space art gallery and performance venue, recruited four local artists/musicians (Archbishop Jason Polland, The Coitus, Zach Burba,…
Thursday 11 Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Burn: DJ Jeremy (Top 40, hip-hop) Cat Eye: Punk Rock Thursdays with DJ Diesel (rock, punk) Club Central: DJ Luis (salsa, merengue) The Crown Room: DJ Gable (rock, house, hip-hop) Dos Gringos: DJs Benjamin Cutswell & Kid Vicious (rock, ’80s, old school hip-hop) E-Lounge:…
In a couple of weeks you’ll see my column about a few of the kids that attend the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences, one of the premier sound engineering schools in the country, located right here in Tempe and Gilbert. I’ve been hanging out with a few kids (“kids”…
Dumperfoo on the Canvas Hmmm, having two separate bomb-ass birthday parties, one in L.A., one here in the ‘Nix, seems a little bit ambitious, but if there’s one dude in town who can pull it off its Blunt Club impresario and artistic wunderkind Adam “Dumperfoo” Dumper. This post is to…
Yes, the free booze… not only do you have the always reliable One to hit up tonight for dancing and making out (this one features Rick Ramirez along with DiPadova, and upstairs at Homme Groovetribe First Fridays is popping off), but Sunday DiPadova’s launching a new night at a new…
This story, as originally conceived, was supposed to be a compilation of the year’s best boxed sets and other reissues. But then it hit us — in today’s shuffle-driven iPod world, with the pace of pop culture moving at breakneck speed, it’s pointless to make such temporal distinctions. The past…
It was, according to no less an authority than the New York Times, the year rap went regional. There was plenty of recent evidence to support this claim, beginning with the suddenly paltry record sales racked up by some of hip-hop’s heaviest weights. There was lots of historical evidence, as…
In 2006, the pop singles market continued to dominate, in no small part because the pick-to-click-driven mentality of online music stores and ring-tone sites gave consumers unparalleled freedom to Choose Their Own Musical Adventure. What suffered in the meantime, though, was the quality of pop/rock albums. These platters frequently spawned…
