If Kurt Cobain can get a hit musing about disposable teenage culture, why can’t a bunch of Swedish Marxists? If, as Marx suggests, communism is a post-capitalistic construct, then perhaps (I)NC is the tipping point. Formed around Dennis Lyxzn, leader of popular punk anarchists The Refused in the ’90s, the…
Most up-and-coming bands lack the range to outlive the shelf life of a time-bomb single or a bad hair fad, but infectious rock locals Desole sound equally taut blaring in a bar or wistfully crooning in a black-lighted bedroom. The boys from Desole (pronounced day-so-lay) are set to bring their…
For hip-hop heads, it just doesn’t get any better than the annual Furious Styles Crew anniversary celebrations around these parts. The b-boy collective, which also has chapters in San Diego and Los Angeles, is turning 12 this weekend, and it’ll commemorate the occasion with a three-day smorgasbord of b-boy and…
Can’t you hear this beer-drowned bar conversation among audiophiles? “We should call all the experimental musician cats around town and form a music collective. Yeah, avant-garde aficionados would really dig it.” Then reality strikes. “Organizing musicians to do something? Shitballs! Want another round?” A similar experience occurred for Jennifer Rogers…
Arriving on the heels of the Get Up Kids’ success, Saves the Day burst out of the box with 1999’s Through Being Cool, a terrific punk-pop album keyed to singer Chris Conley’s lovelorn croon. STD’s follow-up, 2001’s Stay What You Are, vindicated the buzz and set the stage for a…
Because press materials still refer to this Austin singer-songwriter’s last release, I’m Good Now, as his third solo album, it might be a good time to refresh ourselves on the bands whence Bob Schneider came before his career momentum obscures them completely. Fans of H.O.R.D.E. culture might remember his three-record…
To celebrate 10 years in the concert promotion biz, Charlie Levy tried to give Phoenix a really cool present: a big indie rock festival, the city’s first. But without even saying thanks, Phoenix blew Charlie off. There’s got to be a reason the Grand Cayenne Music Festival — scheduled for…
Man, if you think Eminem had a rough upbringing, check out the backstory of Chris Palko, better known as rapper Cage: Born to a heroin-addicted Army father who made his young son help him shoot up, until he was arrested for threatening the family with a shotgun when Cage was…
A new disc from the Rolling Stones is often cause for celebration. Not because the albums are any good — they’ve been shit since, oh, about 1981, right? — but because it means the band will be coming around on tour, and loyal fans will get to see Mick ‘n’…
Those who say metal is all screaming and no melody clearly have never heard Children of Bodom, the Finnish five-piece that just released its fifth full-length album, Are You Dead Yet?, on Spinefarm Records. The follow-up to 2003’s Hate Crew Deathroll is full of guitar sweeps, killer keys and growling…
While The Earlies’ . . . uh, earliest collaborations (1998) didn’t necessarily constitute a band, their first EP in 2002 did. What began as a file-sharing project between two Texans (JM Lapham and Brandon Carr) and two chaps in northern England (Christian Madden and Giles Hatton) who all loved prog,…
One of the most original bands ever to gain a bankable following is beginning to sound a little too comfortable in its own self-invented genre. Not that any other band has duplicated the formula: metalcore mosh with auctioneer-gone-mad vocals, followed by incantational harmonies and exotic-stringed acoustic breaks. And few other…
Anyone confused by 2003’s worldwide Darkness phenomenon — How does a band this goofy compete with U2 on the charts? — shall remain so. The Darkness has nothing up its spandex sleeve but exuberant hard rock and satire. Nevertheless, One Way Ticket to Hell . . . and Back does…
The marriage of death metal muscle to industrial smarts might not be one you’d care to throw rice at, but you can’t deny these two crazy kids make a handsomely bleak couple. Fear Factory is credited as being one of the first to witness this unholy union, with Soul of…
Picture this: It’s three in the morning, long past last call. The parties have wound down, and the only place to go is the 24-hour Quick Mart. Still awake, you need a soundtrack to a dream, something soothing, yet not boring: music to lull you off to another world. The…
While other kids in the dawn of their 20s wax artistic, Atlanta’s Black Lips are stalwart in their scuzzy retro glory. Let It Bloom, their third album as the favorite little brothers of Sonics freaks everywhere, may sound like it was recorded on tin in 1968 — with wisps of…
1. 50 Cent, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (Interscope) 2. Mariah Carey, The Emancipation of Mimi (Island) 3. Young Buck, T.I.P. (M.A. Records) 4. Young Jeezy, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 (Def Jam) 5. Three 6 Mafia, The Most Known Unknown (Sony) 6. Kanye West, Late Registration (Roc-a-Fella) 7…
Power pop, for far too long, has been music wasted on the old. Throughout the ’90s, it seemed only to emanate from bitter people over 30, but now you have accomplished bands not much older than the teen constituency power pop was originally intended for. And self-sufficient ones, too –…
Aside from a bottle of wine and my couch, something that really makes a Friday night for me is music. Loud music, with hypnotic, booming bass. On a Friday night not long ago, I’ve found it right in downtown Phoenix. I’m in the groove with hundreds of warm bodies at…
Punk’s not dead, and thanks to the booming local music site AZPunk, it’s not exploited, either. AZPunk.comp Volume 4 offers equal-opportunity aggression from a mind-boggling 37 bands from across the Valley and such far-flung punk enclaves as Tuba City and Yuma. In almost 75 minutes of music, there’s old-school anarchy,…
Vader? I thought you said Veda, that chirpy adult pop band that sounds like Cocteau Twins if they left the reverb pots alone and stopped being so doggone ethereal. What? Veda is playing the Marquee on Saturday? Sheesh, what are the odds that Indian chanteuse Mira Veda is also playing…
People who bewail shiny, happy new country music but don’t wanna water down their beer with tears should check out this Vancouver quintet, which blurs the line of whatever traditional music you’ve got with its every-song-can-have-banjo-and-fiddle credo. And on this year’s offering, Smart Kid, resident singer-songwriter Trevor Rogers demonstrates he…
