Extreme metalheads have at least two festivals on their calendars for this fall. Each promises a collision of heavy metal and horror, and both are looking very exciting. The first is the inaugural Housecore Horror Film Festival on October 24-27 in Austin, hosted by none other than Down/Pantera front man…
Few metal bands rocked as hard as Pantera, and few of the many tribute bands that try to project their image on stage are up to the task. The biggest Pantera tribute bands are either appreciated or hated, and most of them don’t even merit consideration. On stage, Arizona’s Cowboys…
It wasn’t until Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s seminal work on Paul Simon’s Grammy-winning Graceland that the world truly took notice of the South African a capella group, but the ensemble’s been on a cross-cultural journey from the moment the members came together in the early 1960s. In the years since, they’ve…
If you’re going to be a quasi-one-hit-wonder in the United States — at least as far as Casey Kasem is concerned — you could hardly do better for name recognition than these shrewd Scots, who had the IQ to enshrine forevermore their band’s name in the title of said hit,…
She climbed the entertainment ladder by writing songs for artists like Britney Spears and Flo Rida before releasing her debut album, Animal, in 2010, and its follow-up, Warrior, in 2012. To this day, her party anthem “Tik Tok” is the second-best-selling digital single in history. Her live performances are known…
It’s been more than a decade since legendary crooner Waylon Jennings shuffled loose the mortal coil and headed for the big honky-tonk in the sky, leaving behind an ample discography of 50-something albums of magnificent down-home material and a heritage as one of country’s bona fide outlaws. According to local…
People either love or hate cover bands. Some think they are fantastic tributes, while others think they are blatant rip-offs. Personally, I love tribute bands. They give music fans a chance to hear songs live and celebrate a favorite band–and often it’s a band that’s disbanded, one you’ll never be…
Metalheads are some of the most devoted music fans on the planet. No–I mean we really love our music. Oh, you memorized Lady Gaga’s music video dance moves? Check out my Kreator Coma of Souls back piece, and meet my friend’s daughter, Sabbath. Later we’re going to karaoke to cover…
Robbie Rivera has seen and done plenty during in 17 years in the electronic music biz. You could fill an entire novel with a list of all the gigs the superstar DJ/producer has pulled off during his career — from his salad days spinning at high school dances in his…
Wanna know what happens when you mix hundreds of raucous Juggalos and Juggalettes hyped up on hip-hop with gallons of Faygo and the wicked antics of the Insane Clown Posse? Probably the same sort of wild and sticky that ensued at the Pepsi Amphitheater up in Flagstaff when ICP brought…
I saw Fall Out Boy right before they got super popular and seemingly unavoidable–the last time they played the Marquee Theatre for an intentionally Intimate show. If my Google skills are correct, it was with New Found Glory at Marquee Theatre in 2007. What’s even stranger is that the band…
Here’s how I feel about Juggalos, the Insane Clown Posse’s hyper-devoted-fanbase-cum-culture: They definitely aren’t a gang, but if I were the FBI, I would probably pretend they were just so I could spend all day at work reading about them. ICP and their fans were out Flagstaff on Sunday, where…
I was watching the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony the other day. I usually don’t watch a lot of made-for-TV rock and roll stuff, mainly because they try to be everything to everybody, but I couldn’t resist tuning in to watch the RRHOF rectify the biggest…
It’s only partially Matisyahu’s fault that all his interests conspired to make him the perfect poster to hang next to Bob Marley in your freshman dorm room. That is, lots of teenagers and young adults find meaning and truth in following Phish around and reconnecting with the family traditions and…
It’s been 10 years now since Jewel released 0304 and loosed the sell-out police on herself, trading in hyper-earnest folk for a dance-pop single in which she declared herself “a simple girl / in a high-tech digital world.” It was all knowing and wink-wink — at least theoretically — but…
Promises, the latest album from indie rockers The Boxer Rebellion, proves that you can give your fans what they want and still surprise them over the course of an album. How does the London-based band do it? It’s quite simple, really: It starts with the hook-filled, radio-ready synth rock single…
Didn’t think apocalyptic chic could translate into an existential-blend blink-182? Think again. The Thermals swirl your Interpol with Ted Leo before throwing in a dash of humor to balance out the depressing despair of existence in the shadow of nuclear bombs, drone strikes, and rising sea levels. But if your…
[needle exchange] Dubstep might have exceeded its expiration date, if the statements by a few prominent EDM bigwigs are to be believed. Last month, influential dubstep early-adopter Skream mentioned in a UK tabloid that the once-groundbreaking genre has become meaningless and that “the movement is over,” essentially echoing like-minded statements…
Our intrepid Club Candids photographers began May covering Cinco de Mayo at the Spanish Fly and ended it on Mill Avenue, at the newly opened Gringo Star Street Bar. In between, they caught nightlife in the Valley in these photos:…
It’s rare that musicians or other people in the public eye actually admit they’ve been lying–unless they’re found out, Tiger Woods-style–but Trent Reznor is excited about his own “betrayal” of Nine Inch Nails fans. I guess the lie is okay when the truth stuns and excites millions of fans, right?…
[The Valley is a big place, and it puts out more interesting music than we could ever hope to cover. Every week or so, Mike Bogumill will use this space to cover a little more of it. This week: Gay Kiss’s birthday party, St Ranger’s upcoming tour, and a look…
While piecing together this list of photos from last week’s Punk Rock Bowling festival in Las Vegas, I tried to figure out how to approach it. “The hottest girls of Punk Rock Bowling” would be too easy. “The weirdos of Punk Rock Bowling” requires a bit more work, but the…
