It’s a big weekend for landmark local shows in the Valley. At least three different music venues are celebrating birthdays — including The Rebel Lounge, Valley Bar, and Scottsdale’s Chop and Wok — as is indie band Japhy’s Descent. There are plenty of other notable shows also happening, of course…
Japhy’s Descent became a band in the summer of 2011, and that’s right around the same time I became a music writer, so in a sense we, or at least our careers in Phoenix, have grown up side by side. Since then, I’ve written about them. Booked them. Watched them…
There have been moments when Frightened Rabbit drummer Grant Hutchinson was scared for his brother. The words that vocalist and guitarist Scott Hutchinson wrote for the band’s second album, The Midnight Organ Fight, shocked him. “It was terrifying to listen to some of those lyrics,” Grant Hutchinson recalls in his…
There are times when journalistic integrity and putting one’s self well outside of the story are simply too difficult to entertain, let alone do. When the opportunity to speak with drummer Jean-Paul Gaster of Clutch about the band’s upcoming Phoenix show popped up, I met it with, quite honestly, a…
Say what you want about FORM Arcosanti (and our own Troy Farah has already said plenty), but you must admit it’s different. It’s a music festival that this year booked a big-name headliner, Skrillex, and brought roughly 30 more bands, singers, and DJs to Arcosanti, the Paolo Soleri-designed arcology about 70…
Why did I come to FORM at Arcosanti? Was I looking for a good time? Was I looking for something new and different? Or maybe even enlightening or inside? I’m still not sure. But there’s something about music, the desert and seclusion that calls the soul, and lures weary eyes…
Looking for a memorable concert to see over the next few nights? Consider any of the following eight options making up our list of the best shows taking place this week, which include such acts and artists as Filter, Orgy, Atreyu, Titus Andronicus, and Wild Nothing. There’s even a Prince…
If hip-hop or heavy-duty death metal happen to be your bag, this weekend offers you a few different opportunities to indulge your love of said genres. Fans of the former, for example, can check out Vince Staples’ gig at the Crescent tonight, Young Thug’s show on Saturday at the Marquee…
Last May, I was one of the lucky few able to attend FORM Arcosanti, an electronic music festival in the “experimental” hamlet known as Arcosanti, located in Yavapai County a few clicks north of Phoenix. The festival was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life, and the site…
It shouldn’t seem surprising a band with Sunsquabi’s pedigree would come from Boulder, Colorado. Even the band’s name has a kind of stoner mountain vibe to it. Yet, Sunsquabi is not exactly stoner rock, at least not in the sense of bands (Fu Manchu, Kyuss, Eagles of Death Metal, etc.)…
We don’t normally post about concert ticket prices, but this is too good a deal to pass up. From May 13 to May 20, Live Nation is offering $20 tickets to outdoor concerts. That means you can get a lawn seat at Ak-Chin Pavilion for $20 instead of the usual…
When Jack Tatum bought a car after relocating to Los Angeles, he needed some music to accompany his drives through the smoggy metropolis’ traffic. Without an AUX outlet in his older car, he discovered an old CD booklet filled with unmarked CD-Rs at his parents’ house and started to listen…
Things have an uncanny way of coming full circle for John “Johnny D” Dixon, longtime Valley music scene fixture. Example: Back in 1967, he rolled tape at a small Scottsdale club called the Red Dog a Go Go, recording an act fresh from Las Vegas called the Nooney Rickett IV…
Looking for a memorable show to see over the next few nights? Consider any of the following seven options in our list of concert picks for this week, which include such stellar acts as The Internet, Immortal Technique, Daniel Martin Moore, Four Tet, and Drab Majesty. As always, if you’re looking…
It was a night of mixed emotions at the Trunk Space — the final show in the indie venue’s storied 12-year history. There were fewer tears than there were faces of joy amid reunions and tight hugs, but the atmosphere still felt sullen, like a funeral. Sure, Trunk Space may…
This weekend’s slate of concerts happening around the Valley includes a few significant gig. There’s the final show at Trunk Space’s current home, of course, as well as performances by such esteemed and ground-breaking artists as surf king Dick Dale, the legendary avant-garde musicians of Negativland, and rock icon Todd…
When I was much younger, lyrics were supreme. Nothing else mattered as much as what the singer was trying to express via libretto. It was only after years of reviewing music and hearing the same sentiment over and over — the voice is just an instrument — that I finally…
For all the goth-related hype that once surrounded his beloved first band, Bauhaus, and for all of the vocal/artistic parallels made with the late David Bowie, Peter Murphy has always been able to rely on being a voice of originality without artifice. Oh sure, there are moments where the man…
McDowell Mountain Music Festival announced its dates for next year’s festival yesterday. The three-day music festival, which brings major headliners to downtown Phoenix, will take place March 3-5, 2017. Last year’s festival saw Beck and Avett Brothers play. The previous year, Widespread Panic and others came down for the festivities…
Sadie Switchblade of Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit (G.L.O.S.S.) had a pretty simple answer when she was asked why she chose to call her new solo garage rock side project “Dyke Drama.” “It’s pretty straightforward. I’m gay, and the first batch of songs were just like, really personal lesbian love…
Look, we know it’s coming and so do you. And truth be told, there’s nothing that any of us can do to stop it. Summer is just around the corner, its probably going to be as miserable as ever, and the only thing you can do is make sure your…
Few bands have had the power to unify youth the way the Violent Femmes did in the early- and mid-1980s. The band, which stops by Marquee Theatre in Tempe on Tuesday, March 3, had an extraordinary ability to unify the various cliques found in American high schools and colleges. Putting…
