Pokafase It’s been a while since I last checked in with Pokafase, the ‘Nix’s long-suffering aspirant to establishing PHX hip-hop as a west coast powerhouse. His latest album The Martyr is due out any time, so I grabbed a couple of his tracks (one off of Mastermind, and one off…
Yolanda Bejarano A few bar nights back I went out with my old friend Yolanda Bejarano, who’s not only a swell girl but an incredible musician, and who’s been cranking out music since I moved here eleven years ago, in bands like Slugger, the Slowdown, and a mariachi band that…
Walk into Trax on a Monday night, as I did recently to grab a beer, and you’ll run into a strange amalgamation of sonic styles emanating from the outdoor stage in the back, courtesy of the Dave Wade Trio. I saw the Dave Wade Trio accidentally the first time, and…
Joe Pernice has published a book of poetry, a popular novella based on The Smiths’ Meat Is Murder for the 33 1/3 series, and “B.S. Johnson” — the most anthemic offering on the Pernice Brothers’ latest, Live a Little — pays tribute to a little-read English writer who died by…
. . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead may be a victim of its own success. The Austin-based post-rock group’s ragged and glorious indie-punk albums, like 1999’s Madonna, and 2002’s brilliant Source Tags & Codes, didn’t make it onto the Billboard charts, but the latter…
Wow, there’s a lot of pre-Turkey Day festivities tonight, ’cause y’all ostensibly have tomorrow off of work, and you’re expected – no, it’s mandated – that you get completely shitfaced till the wee hours tonight. First of all, GWAR’s playing at the Marquee tonight, if you like blood, guts, costumes,…
Mu-Fuckin’ DJ Radar Wow, that was a particularly uninspired heading for a blog post about one of the ‘Nix’s only superstars, DJ Radar. Astute longtime readers may already have realized that I’ve long been a homey of Radar’s as well as a fan; I once took him back to my…
Eyes Set To Kill The three-girl, three-boy young’uns (the age range is 17-20) in Eyes Set to Kill are having quite a year. The screamo outfit released a well-received EP earlier in ’06 and just recently dropped a DVD with eight songs performed live. Better yet, they’ve been signed to…
Niki Kwik Poorly written, silly-ass press releases are one of the humorous perks of this job; the flipside is when you have to actually listen to the CDs that they come with. Exhibit A: local female-fronted trio Niki Kwik’s upcoming EP, No Need to Apologize. Here’s a couple excerpts from…
BFH Word came to me recently that local lap-guitar troubadour Brodie Hubbard (aka Brodie Foster Hubbard, aka Brodie Fucking Hubbard) is leaving the ‘Nix soon to head back to La-La Land. That’s a loss for the singer-songwriter set here; as I wrote earlier this year, Brodie’s sometimes tortured, acoustical folky…
Radio Free America I know what you’re thinking, but no, this isn’t a recap of how I spent the weekend. It’s almost the holidays so I had to forego the hookers this time around. Rather, this post is marking a milestone of sorts for Radio Free America, soon to be…
There’s a veritable glut of great shows this weekend, so this is the extended remix weekend edition of the Show Picks series. First, tonight (Friday, Nov. 17) at Stray Cats, for a mere six bucks you can catch a punk rock extravaganza with the Fed-Ups, Thirteen Black, Dick Hazard, Walt…
Last night was an aural adventure (unfortunately not an oral adventure), wherein I hit up both a country show by my cowboy buddy Andy Hersey (who’s opening for Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers at the Marquee this Saturday), and later caught a pretty amazing rock show by Vayden. Vayden’s kind…
An, ahem, Aesthetic A while back I threw up a “show pick” blog post where I dissed locals An Aesthetic for their silly band name. Luckily these guys have a sense of humor, and sent me the following reply… Ha ha… Thanks for posting up the flyer for our show…
As of today, the voting is open for the ’07 PLUG Music Awards, the indie market’s version of the Grammy’s, or, uh, not really. PLUG’s pretty tight though, giving ups to artists that wouldn’t otherwise ever see an award or trophy. And it’s all based on internet voting, so it’s…
Despite the best efforts of several generations of right-wing extremists, it’s impossible to watch this DVD, Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Shows (Image Entertainment) today and truly understand just how electrifying Elvis Presley would have seemed to the kids tuning in to Ed Sullivan’s weekly variety show in an age…
Last month, two Argentinean children appeared on the popular free video Web site YouTube with their endearing rendition of the classic Sepultura protest song “Refuse/Resist,” live from their living room. Within days, the video became the latest Internet phenomenon. At press time, an estimated four million people had downloaded the…
Old folks’ music. An antique museum piece. A bleak and forgotten cause. All stereotypes to describe the American-born and -bred art form known as jazz. By these standards, the music created by 76-year-old jazz legend Sonny Rollins belongs locked in a climate-controlled room along with Renaissance paintings, 17th-century novels, and…
American Music: The Hightone Records Story boxed set (Hightone Records) is extremely likable in concept. The imprint is a hardworking indie out of Oakland that has spent the past 20 years documenting modern roots music. In fact, Hightone has released records by some of the last great bluesmen, including R.L…
Drunk on Tuesday Yeah, Wednesday, but nonetheless, I’ve got a couple of songs from the punk rock quartet Drunk on Tuesday for you. These Phoenician ne’er-do-wells are preparing a full length for your listening pleasure, busting out with some classic/basic West Coast p-rock in your face. Whatever that means. I…
Who Jesus? Ask Willie…. Ordinarily I’m a pretty blasphemous motherfucker; Jesus and I haven’t had much of a rapport since I was in short pants. But, like an early Christmas miracle, I got a little bit of the Lord up in my hot little hands recently that, although its unlikely…
Fat Rhabit Last month Casey Lynch reviewed Fat Rhabit’s self-titled debut EP, giving the local rockers a pretty glowing assessment. Just this morning, the band’s manager Sean Shepherd sent over a couple new tunes from the Rhabit’s upcoming full-length “rock opera-ish” album, due out around March. The Grand Rapids transplants…
