Yeah, yeah, yeah…we get it. Mondays suck (we’ve read Garfield). But it means the start of a new week, which means a bunch of killer shows in and around Phoenix. And here are a few of the coolest — our top five must-see shows this week…
Alice Cooper’s Christmas Pudding: Don Felder, L.A. Guns, Sebastian Bach, John O’Hurley, Murray SawChuck, and Alice Cooper with Johnny Depp @ Comercia Theatre|12/8/12Local shock rock legend and all Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee Alice Cooper hosted his 12th annual Christmas Pudding holiday bash at Comerica Theatre in downtown…
La La Land Music Festival @ Phoenix Convention Center, 12/7/2012Has the current zeitgeist of electronic dance music about to hit its expiration date? It’s a contentious topic that’s been bandied about by DJs, producers, and online music wonks in recent weeks. No less a source than the great godhead himself…
Orgy @ Joe’s Grotto|12/7/12Alt metal band Orgy had its heyday in the late ’90s/early 2000s, but after singer Jay Gordon retooled the lineup last year (Gordon is the only remaining original member) I was curious to see how they would actually fare live. Luckily, what I found at Joe’s Grotto…
The news waits for no one — at least that’s what we read somewhere — so it’s perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants. So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of…
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band @ Jobing.com Arena|12/6/12Who is Bruce Springsteen anyway? The street rat poet singing about characters straight out of West Side Story? The balladeer casting American youth in B movie glory, Roy Orbison grandeur, and fleets of fast cars? The protest singer, spitting bile at…
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Singer and guitarist David Martinez, 28, resides in the Mesa suburbs but hones his musical chops in a rather unexpected place: the small mining town of Superior, about 60 miles east of Phoenix on U.S. 60, where films like The Gauntlet (with Clint Eastwood), Eight Legged Freaks, and The Skinwalkers…
’80s rocker Don Dokken will make a special appearance tonight at Club Red for an intimate acoustic performance featuring Dokken hits, cover tunes, and the stories behind some of the band’s greatest hits. Dokken fans were prematurely promised a full fledged reunion last year when the singer and guitar god…
Shan Man of 98 KUPD You can hear 98 KUPD’s weeknight DJ from 7-11 p.m. every weeknight and find his KUPD blogs at www.98kupd.com. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? Is this a trick question and are…
Speaking with comedian Gregg Turkington about Phoenix’s storied 80’s punk scene, yielded plenty of yarns about seeing legendary bands in their prime. However, he also painted a vividly grotesque portrait of Arizona during the Reagan ’80s and his own teenage experience in trying to navigate reactionary politics, fried food, and…
Curious about what’s going on around town this weekend? Need some suggestions where to rock, dance, or krump in the Valley of the Sun? Don’t fret: These are our Five Shows to See This Weekend…
John Darnielle has recorded under the name “The Mountain Goats” since the early ’90s, and in that time his records have gone from crude boombox recordings to polished, sprawling efforts. The fidelity has cleared up, but Darnielle’s way with words and flawed-but-noble characters has always been central to the proceedings…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop…
David Bazan Band (with members of Jimmy Eat World) @ Rhythm Room|12/5/12David Bazan’s grandma spent the evening at the merch table. I’m not sure when exactly it struck me, the realization that Bazan’s relentless honesty knows no bounds, and that the man’s grandma must be used to it. Maybe it…
Bloc Party is back, and the post-punk outfit is Tempe bound. Hailing from London, the band is closing out its 2012 comeback tour here in the Valley. The buzz kings benefited from the early 2000s “rock is back” craze, but it stuck around, outlasting the hype and incorporating soul, post-rock,…
When Garland Jeffreys broke onto the New York music scene in the early 1970s — the same scene that spawned Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and (via New Jersey) Bruce Springsteen — his songs were a little too close to the reality of the times. Music was supposed to be an…
There are at least three sets of noted Diaz brothers: Nick and Nathan of mixed martial arts fame; Lu and Hugo, known for producing hip-hop and Miami bass records in the 1980s and ’90s; and the unseen siblings in Brian De Palma’s brutal 1983 classic Scarface (“Fuck the fuckin’ Diaz…
Johnny Depp is a talented actor, ladykiller, and all-around badass. I don’t need to state the obvious, but the guy has played Captain Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissorhands, and Raoul Duke, all characters possessing the rock star mystique. But when he’s not gracing the silver screen, the guy likes to act…
How’s this as a recipe for unmitigated disaster? Three exceedingly old white dudes head into the studio with the guy who produced the last Linkin Park album to record a blues version of a Southern rap classic by DJ DMD, Lil Keke, and Fat Pat called (seriously) “I Gotsta Get…
Bob Weir is a restless soul. Already fully engaged with Furthur — his latest and perhaps most true-to-form post-Grateful Dead venture — his solo band Ratdog, assorted musical projects at his TRI Studios, activity in various political and environmental organizations, plus the occasional mountain bike foray, Weir now prepares to…
In case you hadn’t heard, the bass-heavy hip-hop hybrid of trap music is becoming the flavor of the nanosecond in the EDM world, as big-name producers like Flosstradamus and Baauer (as well as locals like Trapzillas) are pumping its bombastic gravitas through sound systems around the globe. For Vancouver-born bass…
