It doesn’t take long to get into El Ten Eleven. Hell, I was hooked a few songs into the L.A. post-rock duo’s self-titled debut. Then, toward the end of my listen, I got a call from a blocked number. It was “Dave,” who had dialed the wrong number, but didn’t…
Artists will spend their whole career searching for the elusive beast that will turn out to be their defining work. Portland, Oregon, artist/musician Jona Bechtolt, who records under the moniker YACHT as a solo artist, has likely done that with his fourth album, See Mystery Lights. Throughout, Bechtolt exercises his…
Outside of jazz circles — and people who actually pay attention to the Grammys, where she’s been a perennial nominee and/or winner for well over a decade — Canadian-born singer/pianist Diana Krall’s name usually rings a bell because she’s the wife of Elvis Costello. The pair married in 2003, and…
The Reverend Horton Heat is the undisputed king of psychobilly, but you could make a helluva case for Nekromantix frontman Kim Nekroman as the genre’s crown prince. In many ways, Nekromantix epitomize the psychobilly look and sound even more than the good Reverend himself. With their gravity-defying pompadours and fixation…
Black Metal Box Black Metal Box (Self-released) Grade: B 98 KUPD is the premier (if not the only) radio station in the Valley for rock and metal. The station has a devoted following of music lovers in it for the soul-crushing bass and the scream-your-pain away vocals, not the cookie-cutter…
The power of a good party never ceases to amaze us. Not even triple-digit heat can stop the droves of drinkers from spending Friday night on the patio at Dos Gringos in Scottsdale. While it was tough to tell whether it was sweat or just an over-active misting system, but…
It’s true that the posters tabbed as a Flier of the Week often tend toward the gimmicky, trading on a cheap laugh or a little shock value. Sometimes, though, we like to pick a poster that’s a little more artsy. This one for What Laura Says, Yellow Minute, Chaska and…
Southern rock never dies; it just hangs on the sidelines until another of its native sons takes up the mantle. Maylene frontman Dallas Taylor is another artist picking up the greasy licks, hard-charging boogie, and country-fried rawk codified by acts like The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and .38 Special. Taylor’s…
The cover of Asher Roth’s latest album, Asleep in the Bread Aisle, employs all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in its portrayal of the rapper passed out on a grocery store shelf surrounded by white bread. The cover is a presumably self-deprecating statement about Roth’s status as the latest suburban,”white-bread”…
The Motor City is the site of the three-day Detroit Electronic Music Festival. Meanwhile, Miami holds the ginormous Ultra Music Festival during the annual Winter Music Conference. And jolly old England hosts a half-dozen turntablist throwdowns, including the Global Gathering and Creamfields. Could The Big Event at Firebird Lake, 20000…
Castanets auteur Ray Raposa resides in a sparse, windblown expanse where his creeping country-folk echoes through the cavernous emptiness, shimmering for a moment like hot summer road haze. His songs creak under the weight of portentous pauses before pushing forward, his voice shuddering as if he might buckle at any…
A funny thing has happened in country music in the past decade or so. Acts such as Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, and Keith Urban and Sugarland (who share a bill this week) have risen to prominence playing music that is nothing like your father’s country music. In fact, it’s not…
Pals since elementary school, The Donnas marked their 16-year anniversary of friendship and slumber parties with a greatest-hits album, released earlier this month. The poppy, punk-rock ladies from California jokingly titled the disc Greatest Hits Vol. 16. It’s filled with B-sides, rarities, and live renditions of faves like “Take It…
Beyond The NowSubject to Change (Self-released) Grade: CIt’s hard to believe, but tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of Woodstock 1999. Though organizers have done everything they can to protect the Woodstock brand since, distancing themselves from the fiery debacle in Rome, New York, if you ask me the event was…
There are “bars in Scottsdale,” and then there’s Pranksters Too, the younger, yet significantly more sizable brother of Prankster’s in Tempe. With its spacious rooms (we counted four) plus a giant patio, Pranksters Too draws a crowd that includes everyone from middle-aged truck drivers to sorority girls to skateboarders. Of…
It’s true I’m a sucker for anything appearing to be in the aesthetic of Kill Bill, so it’s probably not surprising this flier from Phoenix punks Reason Unknown caught my eye. Nunzilla, who made the cover of New Times (Niki D’Andrea’s story that made it in to the the 2008…
Personal space is most definitely at a premium inside the recently remodeled CenPho gay bar Incognito, 2424 East Thomas Road. So much so that when the throngs show up for the biweekly dance night Social on Friday, July 17, for an evening of alcoholic escape with a chaser of house…
One day, perhaps, Oklahoma psych-pop ensemble Starlight Mints will finally escape the long shadow cast by fellow Okie weird-rockers The Flaming Lips. But that day isn’t coming anytime soon. The gratuitous use of the word “jelly” — echoing the Lips’ breakthrough “She Don’t Use Jelly” — in “Zoomba,” one of…
If this year’s Rockstar Mayhem Festival inspires a sense of déjà vu, it could be due to the fact that Slayer and Marilyn Manson already did the co-headlining summer tour thing just two years ago. It could also be because Rockstar seems to slap its corporate logo on so many…
It hasn’t been long since Jessica Lea Mayfield played the Rhythm Room. Only six months, actually. But things are a lot different for the singer-songwriter discovered by Black Keys singer Dan Auerbach. Since her gig opening for Annuals in Phoenix, she’s had a South by Southwest coming-out party, opened for…
Let’s hope Midwest metal warriors Skeletonwitch preview new material this week when they headline PHiX Gallery. Though no slouches so far, the band — which revolves around two brothers, lead singer Chance Garnette, known for his guttural shouts and high-pitched shrieks, and guitarist Nate Garnette — appears to have its…
It’s probably not a coincidence that there’s nothing new to say about Tool. After all, it’s been a while since the band had anything new to add to the world. (Well, presuming they ever had anything new to add to the world.) Whether it’s their cookie-cutter riffs, their interchangeable drum…
