By Lindsey HolderFriday night was the ninth installment of Alice Cooper’s Christmas Pudding, though speaking in Christmas/culinary terms, it was really more of a fruitcake, with ingredients both numerous and diverse mingling to create a final product I would definitely try to re-gift. The differences between the acts on stage…
It was totally fitting to see Lady Gaga in Sin City this past weekend–the girl’s familiar with bad behavior, as she often opts to appear pantless and slings sex like it’s her job. And even though she screwed Phoenix over by skipping our city after her tour with Kanye West…
So the feeling I get from seeing Tucson-based Latin big band Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta, which came to the Rhythm Room Thursday night, isn’t caused by any deep understanding of the super-swinging and hyper-stylized music’s context. No, I had the experience I imagine the majority of the half-seated, half-dancing mixed-age crowd did, which…
Have we made any sort of big deal about Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta show at The Rhythm Room? Just because we ran a preview under the headline “DO NOT MISS SERGIO MENDOZA” and one of our writers called them “The Most Important Band in Arizona” (a title I reserve…
[jump] Omaha’s Saddle Creek Records, Rural Alberta drew the biggest crowd of the night with their sweet and energetic songs about loves lost, haunted railroad towns, and missed opportunities. Almost reminiscent of a Bleed American era Jimmy Eat World, it was no surprise to me what their appeal to this…
Jacob Smigel is hosting a CD release party for his new album, Hope This Passes the Secretary on January 16 at The Trunk Space. The Las Vegas transplant. makes “warm thoughtful folk and found audio” and while the folk is good the found audio project is really the coolest part…
Phoenix Tequila Festival in Photos The first Phoenix Tequila Festival went down this weekend at U.S. Airways Center. How many of them did we try? All of them. Tequila distilleries including Patron, Three Amigos, Cruz and many more were present and representing the agave goodness…see photos Concert Review: Metric at…
“The music in there is terrible,” says a customer to Revolver Records co-owner Steve Zimmerman, referring to the warbling tones of saxophonist Lol Coxhill spinning on the turntable as doom-metal one man band Via Vengeance sets up. The bands gathered to perform at the record store’s Sunday night experimental showcase…
Scarf-and-sweatered, I took my place at the very end of a very long line that wrapped around Martini Ranch and down Stetson Drive. For amusement, confused attendees waltzed up and down the line, asking with perplexity, “Is this the will call line?” I gathered that the majority of the Metric…
Even if you’re inclined to believe Gingers do indeed have a soul — and as a matter of policy I take no position one way or the other on the matter — you must concede that they do not rock. Axl Rose is the only Ginger rock star that pops quickly…
Christmas came early for the couple hundred die-hard Jimmy Eat World fans who came out to catch the Mesa rock band Wednesday at the intimate Modified Arts for a mere $5 cover. The lucky Jimmy fans in attendance – at one of Modified’s last hurrah’s before they switch owners and transform into…
Electric Mustache is speculating that Mesa pop-punks Jimmy Eat World will make a special appearance at the soon-to-be totally-different Modified Arts tonight. After a cryptic message on the bands Twitter it’s looking more like the surprise is going to be Jimmy Eat World. This is the message posted on the…
Phoenix Tour de Coops Shows Off Urban Fowl Phoenicians interested in urban agriculture flew to several Valley locations to see “a self-guided tour of the Valley’s coolest urban poultry setups” in the form of Tour de Coops on December 4, 2009. This eggcelent event was designed to crack open some…
Damn you, Ben Gibbard, you’re fucking up indie rock. Not by virtue of anything you’ve done yourself, mind you. Death Cab for Cutie is fantastic, The Postal Service’s lone album is one of the best of the decade. The problem, which I’m far from the first to recognize but can’t…
The official Web site for the band Kiss has re-printed my review of the band’s show Tuesday night at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale. That’s not a big deal; bands do it all the time. What is a little shady, however, is the way they edited it.Turns out they removed anything remotely negative about…
Even if you’re not a fan of Maynard James Keenan’s two main projects, Tool and A Perfect Circle — and I generally am not — you’ve gotta admit the guy has good taste in comedy. He helped popularize Bill Hicks by bringing the late comic along on Lollapalooza, he’s done…
I’m definitely on the record with my thoughts about Tool’s lame-ass stage “show” but honestly I’m pretty excited to see Maynard James Keenan’s new side project Puscifer at The Orpheum Thursday. Why? Well, this video should help explain, as should the article we ran in this week’s paper, which explains…
The scene: June 28, 1996. Detroit, Michigan. For the first time, in 13 years, Kiss is playing its first show in makeup with the original lineup of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss. It’s nearly midnight at the now-defunct Tiger Stadium, and despicable opening acts Alice in…
J. Tillman is perhaps best known as being the drummer of Seattle based folk-rock group Fleet Foxes. A fact that regional concert promoter Stateside Presents was probably banking on to bring in an audience to Modified Arts on Monday night. But to identify J. Tillman only as the drummer from…
Sunday afternoon, Modified filled to capacity for River Jones Music Label’s Final Folk Fest. Seventeen bands and solo artists played to eager audiences, mainly sitting pretzel-legged on the rickety floorboards, hot beverage in hand, while wintery winds sauntered through the old house. This ain’t your grandma’s Woody Guthrie. This is…
Club Candids: The Final Party Foul at Homme Lounge For the last four years, Homme Lounge has hosted dance nights for every music scene from hip hip to industrial to indie rock; but its most consistently crowded affair for the last year and a half has been its Party Foul…
Real Estate’s self-titled record snagged one of those coveted Best New Music tags stuck to their debut full-length, an homage to The Shins if depressed and dropping lysergic, with Fruit Bats-style naturalist trimmings. Certainly the press helped, but, after some distinct uncertainty about the band’s impending arrive, Real Estate turned…
