311’s Nick Hexum is less a frontman than a cult of personality, adored by the least savory cross-section of music fans: Freon-huffing 14-year-olds who whip their dicks out in remedial algebra. For more than a generation now, Hexum has been the de facto surrogate parent to hordes of bastard children…
As one of the original nine MCs who came together like a hip-hop Avengers team, Wu-Tang Clan alumnus Ghostface Killah has reached immortal status in the rap realm. He’s been critically acclaimed as a soloist and written off as the same, but like all legends, he hasn’t died, just grown…
According to the number crunchers at Nielsen SoundScan, the sales of vinyl records slowly but steadily have increased over the past six years. That probably comes as no surprise to the cadre of wax-loving DJs behind Classic Album Thursdays, because they arguably have helped beef up those numbers by scooping…
See also: Songwriter Michelle Blades Walks a Tightrope See also: Michelle Blades Streams Album, MarianaIn this week’s issue, we discuss Valley singer/songwriter Michelle Blades and her delicate balance between riot grrrl verve and orchestral grandeur. We ended up with more material than we could fit in print, so please enjoy…
See also: Tommy “LSDJ” Suftko on the Relevance of Industrial Music See also: ///She/// on DJing at Sadisco, Picking Out Tracks, and Nearly Getting Shot By the Cops See also: DJ Apollynon Rocks Rivethead Sounds, But He Held a Sparkly Flag Aloft During the ’96 Super Bowl Halftime ShowThe cathedral-like…
See also: Identity Festival at Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion, 8/19/12 See also: Live Nation Looks to Cash In on EDM Rage with Identity Festival See also: Paul van Dyk on Why He Dissed Madonna, His Quest for the Perfect Track, and the Growth of EDM in America See also: Luke…
See also: Metallica at Outside Lands: The Five Best Parts of the Band’s Fiery San Francisco Show See also: The 10 Most Ridiculous Claims Made By Dave Mustaine of Megadeth See also: Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe Set Free; Five Finger Death Punch Weighs InHeavy metal fans are a tenacious…
There isn’t much that Paul Van Dyk hasn’t done during his 21-year career. The venerated German electronica all-star has won a Grammy and a slew of other awards, performed for hundred of thousands, traveled the world, collaborated with the likes of David Byrne and Wayne Jackson, and is one of…
See also: Improbable Lee: Lee Hazlewood Re-Issues Chart an Unexpected Trajectory See also: John Dixon Discusses the Lee Hazlewood-produced “The Fool,” by Sanford Clark, 1956 See also: 100 Songs That Defined Arizona In this week’s issue, we cover the psychedelic trajectory that brought songwriter/producer/vocalist Lee Hazlewood from Arizona to Sweden…
Social media may have gifted us LOLcats and the like, but it’s also partly to blame for the crushing 24-hour news cycle and a growing collective paranoia about the intentions of our neighbors. The yearning for “simpler times” is understandable, but it’s no coincidence that those simpler times always line…
The future is now, but what do you know? It sounds an awful lot like the past. This could serve as a mantra for Athens, Georgia’s Futurebirds, though it’s rare to find a band so expertly mixing together so many disparate styles. A heady dose of alt-country, replete with pedal…
René Descartes famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” But he was afraid to classify himself a “rational animal” because “then I should have to inquire what an animal is, what rationality is, and in this one question would lead me down the slope to other harder ones.” Heady queries…
It’s a very good time to be a hapless fuzz-rock magnate: Youthful disaffection is at an all-time high as unemployment and student-loan debt reach peak levels. Groovy rippers like Hunx and Mark Sultan dot the landscape with throwback rock maneuvers, while punk burnouts like Wavves’ Nathan Williams pack the bowl…
It may not feel like it right now, what with all the brain-bending and skin-scalding heat, but we’re actually more than halfway through with summer. It means that not only is there only a certain number of weeks left until temperatures start to chillax (we’re guessing around early October), but…
See also: Sound Wave Music Festival 2012 Announced for September 29 See also: Calvin Harris Announced as Headliner for Sound Wave Music Festival The next couple months are going to be a great time to be an EDM fan here in the Valley. Not only is the Identity Festival making…
“Chandler nightlife” sounds like an oxymoron. Sure, the city is home to a skatepark and a big mall, but unless you’re a teenager borrowing your parents’ car, the town isn’t exactly a nightlife hot spot. Because of this, Chandler benefits from businesses that stay open past 10 p.m. There are…
See also: Kanye West’s “Mercy” Explained By Phoenix Producer Lifted If you’ve had “Mercy” on repeat for the past couple of months, you’ll be pleased to know that Kanye West and Rick Ross appear in the double-video/double-single, “I Wish You Would”/”Cold.” Hype Williams combined both of these songs in a…
See also: Lamb of God and Dethklok Cancel Tour See also: We Spoke to Lamb of God’s Chris Adler Before the Band’s Future Was Up in the Air See also: Lamb of God Controversy: Tempe Metal Band TOAD Sounds Off On August 7, Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe was allowed…
See also: The Nectronauts Cover Nirvana See also: Led Zeppelin 2’s Bruce Lamont on Playing Robert Plant, Groupies, and Nirvana’s Nevermind See also: It Came From YouTube: Nirvana at the Old Mason Jar BY KC LIBMAN If you aren’t familiar with Nirvana’s sophomore release, 1991’s Nevermind, you were probably born…
Tomorrow evening is gonna be a big night in the life of local beat-juggler Luke Romero. The same goes for such other local mixer wizards as Brett Ortiz, Tonic Kemestry, Party Reaper, and Nemo. All five of these Valley EDM artists, turntablists, and producers are finalists in the Hometown Heroes…
On any given Sunday in Scottsdale, Old Town becomes something of a ghost town. Although many gin joints and posh watering holes are open and offering libations, the majority of the party crowd generally is at home nursing their hangovers from the night before or resting up for another work…
Aesop Rock is the most prominent of mega-verbose thesaurus MCs, but the veteran rapper has something the others don’t. Busdriver’s pranks are more smugly satisfying, and the proggy kinetics of Themselves more technically impressive, but Aesop creates entire realms with his cascading rhyme schemes. His new album, Skelethon, brought to…
