Remember when everyone was really big into rapping and rocking and wearing backwards baseball caps all at the same time? Yeah, the ‘90s (and early ‘00s) were a weird era for music. It’s probably best that nu-metal hasn’t made a huge resurgence on the back of ‘90s nostalgia, but here…
Many are the bands profiled in these pages who ask what a bunch of musicians has to do to get a cover story around here. Sometimes it’s by sheer popularity. Sometimes it’s sheer luck, a slow news week when some guitarist turns out to be more visually appealing than a…
Songs for Savages by the Freaks of Nature has been a long time in the making. It’s been more than a year and two personnel changes since Daniel Shircliff led his band of freaks into the studio to begin recording what would become his band’s long-awaited debut. But goddammit if…
Apache Lake Music Festival recently announced the dates of this year’s festival, October 23 and 24. With the announcement also comes the lineup speculation. ALMF in the past has pegged certain bands like Dry River Yacht Club, Japhy’s Descent, Sara Robinson and the Midnight Special, and Banana Gun to name…
“If you’re down with the SS say yes yes,” is one ad-lib that Bronze Candidate and Liaison of Shining Soul are going to be leaving in Phoenix this June when “the most targeted band in Arizona,” as Liaison AKA Alex Soto likes to say, takes their first tour outside of…
Numb Bats – “I Don’t Know Why/To Die” Here is a quick history lesson. There was once a band here called North Dakota, it was a lively trio that featured Emily Hobeheidar, Mo Neuharth and Michelle Blades. Blades went to Paris to write a new solo album and Hobeheidar and…
You’ll have to forgive Sam Groove if he’s been a little busy over the last couple of weeks. Its to be expected, considering the fact that the local DJ/promoter and others behind the scenes at Hades Entertainment have been busy getting everything ready for this weekend’s Dirty Disco out at…
One of the stand out acts of last month’s tremendous FestivALTAZ was without a doubt Family of the Year. Tonight they return to the valley supporting Lord Huron at Tempe’s Marquee Theatre. The band has released some singles deeply rooted in acoustic and folk rock the likes of popular tunes,…
Tempe rapper Futuristic recently released a song with Seattle MC Sam Lachow before the two went on a two-month tour of the country. Titled “Watch Yo Mouth,” the verse by normally apolitical Futuristic has a couple of lines about race and language. “All my white fans say the N-word /…
Every Wednesday is Heritage Hump Day! That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big stops us, Heritage Hump Records (a temporary subsidiary of Onus Records) and New Times will be bringing you a limited edition collector’s item of a much beloved…
Waka Flocka Flame is running for president in 2016, and he’s already establishing himself as a peacekeeper. The Atlanta rapper had a concert at Livewire in Scottsdale last night, and a Youtube video that will just another nug in the jar for the rapper’s upcoming campaign. DJ Whoo, Flocka’s DJ…
Apparently nostalgia is one hell of a drug because there was nothing new and very few kids in the crowd during the New Kids On the Block show last night at Gila River Arena in Glendale. Since NKOTB got back together in 2008 they have made multiple stops in the…
The Western motif that surrounded Lord Huron’s debut record, Lonesome Dreams, is gone, replaced by a collection of strange, mysterious characters who inhabit songs inspired by vintage pulp fiction. “Since the beginning, I conceived this new record as sort of an anthology of weird fiction, a collection of stories that kind…
It’s hard to believe, but EDM wasn’t always the heavily commercialized glut we see raving in Mountain Dew commercials during the Super Bowl. Infected Mushroom, the psytrance DJ duo formed in the Haifa District of Israel, can remember when EDM was considered a fringe genre. But now, thanks to the…
There’s a lot of talent floating around the Phoenix music scene both musically, and otherwise. Some people are creative promoters, others tremendous performers, and every once in a while you even bump into a devastatingly talented musician. Another talent that a few members of Phoenix’s musical world have shown quite…
Like the cassette player in your car, www.phoenixnewtimes.com is in need of a major update. Unlike your whip, our website is getting one. We will launch a brand new, redesigned version tomorrow morning…
If you haven’t gotten your tickets for Lana Del Rey’s Comerica Theatre gig with Courtney Love a few days hence, better get a move on. Its arguably going to be one of the biggest concerts of the week, let alone the entire spring. Its not the only “can’t miss” show…
Bursting out of a musically diverse scene in Miami in the early ’90s, The Mavericks found crossover success with a roadworthy blend of Latin rhythms, classic country, and a liberal dose of rockabilly attitude. Led by songwriter and vocalist Raul Malo, the band’s currently enjoying a creative renaissance. The band’s…
One day, we’ll all tell our children (and/or grandchildren) about why the 24-hour reality television channel is called MTV. We’ll say something like “Sonny, there was once a time, when I was just a wee child, when that station played music videos.” “A music video on television? That’s preposterous, grandpa/grandma…
Motown on Mondays is on the move. The DJs behind popular dance joint — which focuses on remixes of the Motown hits of yesteryear, as well as old-school soul, funk and disco classics — are planning to pack up their tracks and head across downtown Phoenix from the Crescent Ballroom…
A few people have seen fit to inform us recently that there’s not much happening this weekend. Its an erroneous opinion, frankly, but an understandable one. With all the major music festivals of the springtime having come and gone, one might think that Phoenix is pretty much a wasteland between…
View image | gettyimages.com One of the most influential heavy metal songs has a pretty heavy metal backstory. And the album it belongs to is the most controversial in the band’s history. Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett came up with the main riff on “Enter Sandman” while suffering from insomnia. It…
