Don’t call Sunset Voodoo a reggae band. Not that its members have anything against rocksteady rhythms. It’s just that the Tempe trio, who identifies as straightforward rock mixed with psychedelia, just isn’t sure how it got the label in the first place. Lucas Roth (bass, backup vocals) says he can’t…
From now on, when someone asks you what the day in the middle of the week is, no longer need you say, “err, hump day.” Now you can say “It’s Heritage Hump Day!” That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big…
Hip-hop has been an integral part of Armon Collins’ life for a long time — nearly three decades now — but the music wasn’t quite what brought him to the music. Before Collins became better known as Scarub — a speed-rap-proficient MC who rose as part of the well-regarded Los…
Guitarists Julian Lage and Nels Cline lead wildly different musical lives. Lage operates primarily in a jazz realm, having collaborated with Jim Hall, Gary Burton, and Eric Harland. Yet, he’s also worked with mandolin master David Grisman and fiddle and bluegrass virtuoso Mark O’Conner, among others. Cline, when not fronting…
They say women love blues pianist Henry Gray, and Henry Gray loves women. He married a woman 30 years younger than himself. Rhythm Room owner Bob Corritore recalls him joking that you shouldn’t put two older people together. “You don’t get a spark with two dead batteries,” Gray told him…
The Phoenix Rock Lottery is happening on Saturday, January 17, which means we are only days away from draft day. On Saturday morning, 25 of Phoenix’s finest musicians will convene at Crescent Ballroom and be randomly placed into a five-piece band. Then they will spend the day writing three original…
Death metal bands that have been able to permeate the metal industry up from the core of the underground scene are few between. But a band that has been able to do that consistently for a quarter of a century, and still not view their artistry as a “job,” well…
The biggest impression a band leaves usually comes from the lead singer. After all, we all (well, most of us) speak English, but we don’t all play music. So understanding and connecting with lyrics and the expressive range of the human voice is usually the easiest thing for a musical…
The music world is abuzz with Wu-Tang Clan’s announcement yesterday that the single copy of the group’s double-album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, will be sold, like a Rembrandt or a Rothko, at auction sometime this year. It’s a lavish production. The album comes “presented in a hand carved…
The garage rock wave is definitely coming into Phoenix, as yet another local lo-fi act, Soft Deadlines, prepares to release its new album, Critic, on 56th Street Records. But Soft Deadlines isn’t making the same sound as the Rubber Brother crowd — it brings a more shoegaze feel to its…
It is not every day an international music legend gets a second chance at making a first impression on the ever-changing landscape of popular music. And yet for Dave Wakeling, that is precisely what he is getting in 2015. After three decades, The English Beat is releasing a new album…
Poet, rapper, hip-hop artist, educator, activist, and community leader are but a few of the titles that define Phoenix resident Myrlin Hepworth, who got his start doing slam poetry on Mill Avenue while simultaneously studying English at Arizona State University. As Hepworth sees it, it was something of a double…
From now on, when someone asks you what the day in the middle of the week is, no longer need you say, “err, hump day.” Now you can say “It’s Heritage Hump Day!” That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big…
Keith Richards, in his autobiography, Life, claims to remember everything from his lengthy musical career. Clearly, there’s some embellishment. Kim Simmonds, who’s been playing music approximately the same length of time, and has fronted British blues rock heavyweights Savoy Brown for almost as long as Richards has led the Rolling…
Few R&B vocal groups command as much respect as the O’Jays, inducted in both the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. Eddie Levert attributes the group’s longevity and why everyone from Don Cornelius to Donald Trump has licensed their…
The Maine announced their “American Candy” tour today, which will kick off with a date at the Marquee Theatre on April 3. Real Friends, Knuckle Puck, and The Technicolors will open for the Tempe-born band…
Korbe Canida was always that loud, obnoxious girl who constantly was singing and who thrived in a musical theater setting, eventually making her way to the K-12 Arizona Conservatory for Arts and Academics. She says her animated nature led to her being bullied as a kid. Now, she is modest…
Kaye Bohler will perform at the Rhythm Room on Tuesday, January 6, to push her new CD, Handle the Curves. She has a wonderful voice. People have compared her Turner because of her high-energy, in-your-face performance style that draws the audience in. Bohler remembers watching Turner when she was 10…
If you happened to check out the entire list of nominees for this year’s Grammy Awards that were announced yesterday, you might have spotted a familiar name about halfway through — especially if you’re familiar with the old school DJ scene in the Valley. House music turntablist Eddie Amador, a…
The year 2014 ended with a hell of a heavy metal season, with shows like Yucca Tap Room’s “Not So Silent Night” ushering in the New Year — but unlike the insane holiday spending and the snowbird-thick traffic pace, the show calendar isn’t slowing down any time soon. I’m aware…
Anti-Flag, one of the nation’s most prominent political punk bands, is playing in the Valley on Sunday, January 4, but it’s far from an ordinary show. The concert will be one of a handful of tour dates in which the band plays their 2003 release, The Terror State, in its…
December was what you might call a busy month, and not just because of all the holiday hullabaloo. Granted, there was plenty of that happening, but it was just one of many things we had on our to-do list over the last 31 days or so. Between celebrating the season…
