Cockroaches and ska music have a few things in common. Both are reviled by a large portion of the population and, despite repeated attempts to stamp each out, neither will ever be exterminated completely. Hence the ultimate irony of the recurring Ska Is Dead tour (now in its fourth edition):…
What started as an innocuous side-project — a kitschy little experiment to pass the time in Palm Desert — has exploded into a full-fledged career for Jesse Hughes and his best pal, Josh Homme, of Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss fame. Things started out innocently enough — the…
There are a staggering number of new American indie bands out there. And that means there are plenty of bands going unnoticed. But Little Ones, from Los Angeles, somehow managed to stave off the anonymity that ends the careers of so many bands. How? Well, their sound is hardly original…
When you see photos of the grimacing, vaguely ethnic, dark-haired teenagers known as Black Tide, you may think for a split-second you’ve stumbled across vintage shots of legendary Bay Area thrash band Death Angel, which pretty much fit the same description when they started out over two decades ago. But…
I’ve been pretty hard on Mesa bands in general and Mesa punk bands in particular here in our weekly You Asked For It local CD review column. It’s not that I have anything against Mesa (I live there) or punk bands (I was a big fan of them in my…
Do y’all smell that? No, it’s not the repulsive scent of the titanic dump those Pittsburgh Steelers bastards dropped on the PHX’s collective hopes and dreams for Super Bowl championship. I’m talking about something much, much better: The glorious smell of freshly released albums. The post-Christmastime drought of new discs…
We have to admit, this was one of the toughest Club Candids we’ve ever done…emotionally.We showed up after half time to catch the most intense moments of the game for our slideshow with some super Cards fans at The Rose and Crown Pub. The place was nuts with screaming, hugging…
This week’s Flier of the Week was chosen not because of the art work (which is pretty cool, but not amazing) or the headliner, Magic Bullets, (who are pretty cool, but not amazing) but because it’s the best I can come up with to pimp the new Gospel Claws EP…
Avenged Sevenfold — a band as unique as a tribal armband tattoo and as clever as using the term “thinking outside the box” — has an appeal that’s mystifying. People continue to listen to this band well into the year 2009, and A.S. apparently have enough clout to book an…
Believe it or not, P-town peeps, but there are plenty of other events going on this weekend besides that certain championship football game on Sunday afternoon that everyone seems to be all hyped up about. Case in point: SoCal mixmaster J.J. Keo will be staging a boffo birthday bash on…
Prescott has long been a favorite destination for Valley bands hoping to expand their fan base. Over the years, numerous local bands have made the short drive north to entertain central Arizona music fans at Matt’s Saloon, Sundance’s Place, the Bird Cage Saloon and other venerable venues along Prescott’s historic…
Long Beach-bred punk-ska band Sublime was on the verge of becoming a national success when frontman Brad Nowell died of a heroin overdose in 1996, right after work on Sublime’s major-label debut was completed. To help fill the void left by the band, Rhode Island-based quartet Badfish do a very…
It’s not bad enough that frat-rock pioneers Of a Revolution — known worldwide by their cringe-inducing acronym O.A.R. — are descending upon the Valley to appease the willing masses with their divinely bland style of bastardized college rock. No, they feel the need to play at the TPC Scottsdale. Yes:…
Say what you will about pop punk and its mostly lamentable impact on the music landscape (hey, it’s at least partially responsible for giving us emo, right?), but you have to respect a band that has stuck around as long as NOFX has. The San Francisco-by-way-of-L.A. punk band was formed…
One thing is for certain in today’s contemporary country music — you’ll never hear bluegrass deity Dr. Ralph Stanley singing on a Kenny Chesney record. While Chesney’s grasp of country tradition begins with Jimmy Buffett’s 1977 hit “Margaritaville,” fortunately for country purists, there is Josh Turner, who dueted with Stanley…
Submissions to our weekly You Asked For It local CD review column come in all kinds of packaging. We’ve received everything from CDRs with the title scrawled on the disc in barely-legible Sharpie to thoughtful, handwritten notes with handmade custom art. We’ve never had anything quite as polished as this…
Hyphy sure has faded quite a bit in popularity over the past couple years (check out this story in our sister publication SF Weekly as to the reasons why). The rambunctious and uptempo Bay Area hip-hop subgenre, which helped introduce “ghost riddin’ the whip” into the national consciousness, blew up…
These guys really want you to check the slideshow. It’s not usually our style to go out on a Sunday night. But since we have a soft spot for benefit shows, we decided to actually take a shower and put on a little make-up (for a change).We certainly weren’t the…
Surf rock? Garage Rock? Cocktails? Sounds like the recipe for a cool Saturday night to me! The Ruby Room hosts four bands from the two genres Saturday, including The Surfside IV, who get their name on the drum kit in the poster, The Rebel Set, and Thee Jaguar Sharks of…
The Nadas are not a forgotten band from that “the” band explosion from 2000 that featured the likes of The Strokes, The Hives and The Vines. Sure, The Nadas existed back then, and their unique name would have lent itself nicely to that particular scene, but things took a different…
In the ’90s, a dead lead singer seemed like a surefire ingredient in the formula for musical immortality. Jeff Buckley garnered way more fans after his 1997 drowning death than he did while alive. Bradley Nowell’s 1996 heroin overdose turned a little-known ska-punk band from Long Beach into an international…
Guitar virtuoso Al Di Meola is quite dazzling when it comes to technique. His blazing riffs exploded in the ’70s as a member of the groundbreaking jazz-fusion group Return to Forever, with his fretwork often defined by dizzying, slashing turns. Over the years, the New Jersey-born Di Meola has ascended…
