Grade: B- I generally try to make the weekly You Asked For It review at phxmusic.com more about music than career counseling, but there’s no way to avoid it with this week’s artist, Phoenix rapper Chad Krystal$. Krystal$ has some things going for him. His white-boy flow isn’t bad, he’s…
Few people have benefited from the Obama administration more than John Vanderslice’s fans. Whether you voted for McCain or Obama, you probably agree that the country would be a lot better off if we could come to a bipartisan agreement to stop writing songs for or against the war in…
Last time you heard from Scott Bondy, he was fronting an Alabama grunge act called Verbena and ripping off, first, the Rolling Stones and, then, Nirvana, with the help of producer Dave Grohl. Now he’s going by A.A. Bondy and channeling Bob Dylan. The name change seems to be a…
Now in its third season, this smorgasbord of all things death metal proudly bills itself as “the most extreme tour of the year.” Hey, we ain’t arguing. When you put together a lineup that includes Dying Fetus, Decrepit Birth, Winds of Plague, Cattle Decapitation, and bunch of other bands that…
2 Live Crew have fallen hard. While they’re still on the scene — with a new lineup change — they’re not playing massive concert venues any longer. And when they come to Tempe this weekend, they won’t even be playing the Marquee Theatre or the Clubhouse Music Venue. The foul-mouthed…
Being in a tribute band is like being a porn star: Once you get famous for doing it, that’s it; sure, you can try to cross over and make original music, but no one will take you seriously and you’ll always be remembered as “that dude who was John Bonham…
It’s been a year since Kevin the Makeout Bandit and his misfit DJ pals debuted their decadent dance night Party Foul!, which has become an electro-rock Pleasure Island for the stylish masses at Homme Lounge over the past 52 weeks. A lot’s gone down: Mixmasters like Bigie and Craig Citizen…
Hollywood Heartthrob The Takeover Grade B- When financial considerations mean songs needs to be replaced for a DVD release of a film or a TV show, producers usually turn to generic sounding music to take the place of the more popular, but prohibitively expensive, tune. Tinsel-town just might come knocking…
We’ve been to Star Swim and we’ve been to Cheap Thrills. So our Saturday nights seemed pretty packed with options already. But now, we’ve got one more to add to the list. It’s called Tune in Tokyo, it’s at the Hotel San Carlos’ Copper Door Bar and it’s the latest…
This is an odd, but pretty cool poster for J.D. Stooks CD release party at Modified Arts Saturday. If this CD is as good as his last one, should be worth checking out the show too…
Shhh! Can you keep a secret? Good, because we wanna drop dime on the laidback, under-the-radar-style affairs that are going down at speakeasy-like Merc Bar, 2525 East Camelback Road, every Sunday evening. The night is cooler than owning the entire Miles Davis catalog on vinyl, with DJ Joe DiPadova and…
Lead singer Aaron Weiss wants to set the record straight: MewithoutYou are not a Christian rock band. Unless you want them to be. “It’s not like I’m offended if someone calls us a Christian band,” Weiss told journalist Matt Fink back in 2007. “I just don’t think it’s true. I…
Where can you find a fix of pure, unadulterated sensual pleasure for the insanely low, low price of $6? You know, without habit-forming side effects or the use of needles? Try the Trunk Space, where some of the region’s top up-and-coming ska and surf-rock acts will convene for a night…
Baby mama drama is all the rage when it comes to rappers. And like many rappers before him, Rick Ross is dealing with some major shizz. The burly Miami MC — who is signed to Def Jam Records and often hides behind a pair of sunglasses — is the father…
A quick history of Cryptacize: Chris Cohen, former Deerhoof guitarist, met Nedelle Torrisi while recording as The Curtains, plucking Torrisi from obscurity as a back-up singer. The two began collaborating in 2007 and, shortly thereafter, released Cryptacize’s first studio album, Dig That Treasure, after recruiting percussionist Michael Carreira. The two…
Authority Zero frontman Jason DeVore is one hell of a juggler. He sings and plays guitar in the Celtic-rock band The Bollox, who have quickly attracted a fan base in the Valley, and has a successful career as a solo artist. Thankfully, DeVore hasn’t let Authority Zero, his bread and…
Sometimes, we just like to pay a little attention to the regular folks in town. So rather than heading to a big event with all the scenester kids wearing their flashiest crap, we decided to check out a relatively new spot in the downtown Phoenix drinking rotation.The Turf is just…
Today’s Flier of the Week is for a show we told you a lot about in our print product this week, Waylon Day at Yucca Tap Room. Click here to read more about the show and, if you’re a fan of outlaw country, or paying respects to one of The…
Cardiac Party singer Ryan McDowell had it all planned: By including a pack of Skittles with a copy of his band’s new EP, Teen Challenge, he says, he was assured of getting at least one positive remark in my review: “The songs sucked, but the Skittles were delicious!” Actually, Teen…
Autobots and Decepticons are gonna be battling across the silver screen at your neighborhood megaplex in a couple of weeks, so it’s only natural that some local EDM promoters are putting on the robot-themed Transformers 2 rave to cash in on the mechanical madness. And though it would be totally…
The pale, delicate-boned wraith known as Peter Murphy gained his seat as an anointed dark king in the 1970s and ’80s as frontman of the legendary Bauhaus. Channeling the glam theatrics of David Bowie by way of the morgue, Murphy was drama incarnate, a Count Vlad look-alike who sometimes drove…
Virtually everything that musician/producer Dave Sitek touches — including albums by his own band, TV on the Radio — turns to gold, and the Sitek-helmed Dance Mother from Brooklyn avant-synthpoppers Telepathe is no exception. The previous material that emerged from the duo of Melissa Livaudais and Busy Ganges was compelling,…
