Chicago’s The Sea and Cake continues to refine its unique bossa nova-tinged blue-eyed-soul dream-pop with Car Alarm. Though there are few surprises, it’s a consistently captivating throughout. The opener “Aerial” and the title song charge from the speakers like outtakes from the Flamin’ Groovies’ Shake Some Action. A solid beat,…
Those who’ve heard the first two Eagles of Death Metal albums predominantly fall into two camps: either fully onboard with the tongue-in-cheek bluesy rock and offbeat shenanigans of frontman Jesse “Boots Electric” Hughes and Josh “Baby Duck” Homme, or left cold by their ’70s-rock homage and accompanying antics, like those…
Some artists emerge fully formed from the gate; others have to wait and see how their talents evolve. For some years now, Larkin Grimm, a singer/guitarist raised mostly in Appalachian Georgia who now roams about the country, has worked somewhere between those two descriptions: a compelling musician who has yet…
Fourteen years into a largely unheralded career, Elf Power is still at it, even if the band has never made the big time. In fact, it never came close. Led by frontman Andrew Rieger, this indie-rock band has been the odd man out in some buzz-worthy scenes. Despite its association…
When it comes to avant-garde rock bands, there are usually two distinct routes: noisy cathartic (Sonic Youth, Dead C) and dissonant/drone-y ominous (Spiritualized, This Heat). Then there are the bands that go to a third extreme, exuding a smug “Gosh, aren’t we just so zany and quirky?” attitude. Few bands…
Writing a song that paints a picture of a fire in a Taco Bell is no easy task, yet Detroit’s Electric Six laughs at such a notion. The band’s infamous 2003 single “Danger! (High Voltage)” easily sums up what kind of effect the genre-bending band is going for. Dick Valentine,…
There’s nothing especially new about douchebag rock. The Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, and countless others have shoehorned the subgenre into the larger pop canon. But in the present decade, plenty of indie boys have gotten in touch with their inner assholes: The Walkmen, Say Anything, The Strokes, and, most notably,…
If you miss following the Grateful Dead or Phish from gig to gig, munching a few funky brownies and spinning in circles as the bands play, fire up the VW bus this weekend and head up to the Spirit Room in Jerome, where Tempe’s Mojo Farmers host their semi-annual Mountain…
On last winter’s intriguing Watershed, k.d. lang’s first disc of original material in eight years, the Canadian-born singer/songwriter seemed to have picked up a few things from the legendary Tony Bennett, with whom she has repeatedly collaborated over the years since his MTV Unplugged special in 1993. The instrumentation on…
By Benjamin Leatherman Hip-hop, R&B, and other urban jams have always been big sellers at Circles Records & Tapes, 800 North Central Avenue. So it’s only natural a majority of the shop’s top 10 best-selling albums for this week are chartbusters from those genres. For instance, the No. 1 album…
Last Exit, Halloween, Club Candids
By Martin Cizmar
It’s not often an album I’ve never heard before makes me nostalgic for my high school days, let alone one that came out last year and is sang partly in Japanese. But so it was with Toybox’s five-song EP, Five Seconds To…, which really took me back. Despite the fact that it’s Toybox is three ASU Japanese-exchange-students-turned-locals, and perform some of their songs in Japanese, they sound like the bands all my friends were in during my school days, old school pop-punkers of the 924 Gilman Street persuasion.
By Martin Cizmar Halloween fun doesn’t end Friday, as the poster for this underground rave shows. This forum has some info, but for the location, call the infoline on the day of the show, (602) 501-5466…
As any 18- to 21-year-old will probably tell you, our fair city is in serious need of places where underage types can party. The folks behind The Spot at Johnny’s Uptown, 40 East Camelback Road, must’ve thought so, too, as they’ve launched a weekly after-hours shindig that’s sure to pack…
Boasting a new guitar player and radio-friendly appeal, the Secret Machines’ third full-length meanders through the band’s trademark shoegaze sound. Founding guitarist Benjamin Curtis left the band in 2007 to form his own band, but the remaining members recruited Phil Karnats of Tripping Daisy fame to fill the large void,…
With his final works, the American Recordings series, Johnny Cash had some of his biggest commercial and critical success, setting the bar ridiculously high for departed country singers. On Waylon Forever, billed as the country outlaw’s final record, Jennings doesn’t come close to Cash, though the record has a few…
Mambo was all the rage in the 1950s, thanks to Cuban maestro Pérez Prado. And among the best artists of the era was Bronx-born Ernesto “Tito” Puente, a prolific musician, songwriter, and bandleader whose legacy resonates to this day. Though his best-known tunes are readily available in stores, his earlier…
Yet another band moniker for a solo performer, Castanets is the nom de musique of Raymond Raposa, a San Diego singer/songwriter with a playfully warped approach to American roots music. Not quite country, not quite folk, not quite blues or gospel, Castanets weaves aspects of each into a haunted, doom-laden,…
Sometimes the journey is better than the destination. Take Oasis’ musical career. As hungry upstarts trying to become rock stars with their first two albums, there was no more exciting band on the planet. With stardom achieved, has there been a more boring one? Here’s the proof: Spot someone all…
The term “hip hop supergroup” gets thrown around a lot, but Bay Area outfit The Mighty Underdogs can make a pretty good case. Composed of MCs Gift of Gab (from Blackalicious) and Lateef the Truthspeaker (of Latyrx), and backed by producer Headnodic (of Crown City Rockers), the group just released…
Hip-hop punk rockers Kottonmouth Kings, fresh from their performance at this year’s Edgefest, return to the Valley with a show that is sure to be a frightful event. The band’s new The Green Album will no doubt fill out the night’s set list of bizarre theatrics and stoner antics, a…
Long Beach’s Crystal Antlers have mastered the art of thrash, that combustible buildup of noise and melody that so many others have tried to harness, only to fail in a miserable pool of fuzzy annoyance. Blending messy, raspy vocals with pummeling drums, writhing riffs and strident organs, the band produces…
