The Voodoo Organist Comes To Trunk Space August 29

As spooky as the organ usually sounds, it’s a wonder it took so long for someone to come up with the idea of combining The World’s Creepiest Instrument and Misfits-style horror-punk. Scott Wexton, better known as The Voodoo Organist, brings vintage equipment and some solid songwriting to The Trunk Space…

Gwen Stefani Smells: Rock Star Fragrances Reviewed

What does P.Diddy smell like? We wanted to know, so we headed to a fragrance store to sample the scents marketed by some of pop music’s bigger stars. Some were great, some were terrible and all were very, very telling. Check out this slide show to see what we thought…

Mariah’s Memoirs, The Thermals in Phoenix, Jackson Nurse Served

Electric Mustache: The Thermals Return to Phoenix in September Idolator: Ghostface Has Not Received The Memo About The Death Of Autotune Idolator: Mariah Carey Making People Wait For Her “Memoirs” NME: Jack White to open White Stripes’ archive to fans Pitchfork: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s Alec Ounsworth Talks Upcoming…

GiantONE Proves to Be One Giant Party at Cream Stereo Lounge

It was quite a shock stepping into Cream Stereo Lounge in Scottsdale last night, and not because there weren’t any VIP hostesses pestering me about getting bottle service. Truth be told, there was a decidedly un-Scottsdale aura flowing through the joint as Joe DiPadova brought his popular “ONE” dance night…

Flier of the Week: What Laura Says at Last Exit

It’s true that the posters tabbed as a Flier of the Week often tend toward the gimmicky, trading on a cheap laugh or a little shock value. Sometimes, though, we like to pick a poster that’s a little more artsy. This one for What Laura Says, Yellow Minute, Chaska and…

Lessons Learned from George Thorogood

Some people look to holy texts for guidance on how to live their lives. Me, I look to George Thorogood. See, George is from Wilmington, Delaware, and I grew up in nearby suburban Philadelphia. Around those parts, Thorogood was, and is, a god. When I was a little kid in…

Seven Nights of DJs & Dancing

THURSDAY 23 Bikini Lounge: INTOXICA! with DJ HFE (blues, R&B, rock, rarities, vintage) Bobby Q’s: All-Star Thursdays (hip-hop) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Club Red: The Blunt Club with Pickster One, Element, & more (hip-hop, soul, funk) Copper State: Copper Club with DJ Kavi, & guests (hip-hop) Drinx: ROC Thursdays with…

Emery, & Maylene and the Sons of Disaster

Southern rock never dies; it just hangs on the sidelines until another of its native sons takes up the mantle. Maylene frontman Dallas Taylor is another artist picking up the greasy licks, hard-charging boogie, and country-fried rawk codified by acts like The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and .38 Special. Taylor’s…

Asher Roth, & Kid Cudi

The cover of Asher Roth’s latest album, Asleep in the Bread Aisle, employs all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in its portrayal of the rapper passed out on a grocery store shelf surrounded by white bread. The cover is a presumably self-deprecating statement about Roth’s status as the latest suburban,”white-bread”…

The Big Event

The Motor City is the site of the three-day Detroit Electronic Music Festival. Meanwhile, Miami holds the ginormous Ultra Music Festival during the annual Winter Music Conference. And jolly old England hosts a half-dozen turntablist throwdowns, including the Global Gathering and Creamfields. Could The Big Event at Firebird Lake, 20000…

Castanets

Castanets auteur Ray Raposa resides in a sparse, windblown expanse where his creeping country-folk echoes through the cavernous emptiness, shimmering for a moment like hot summer road haze. His songs creak under the weight of portentous pauses before pushing forward, his voice shuddering as if he might buckle at any…

Keith Urban, & Sugarland

A funny thing has happened in country music in the past decade or so. Acts such as Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, and Keith Urban and Sugarland (who share a bill this week) have risen to prominence playing music that is nothing like your father’s country music. In fact, it’s not…

The Donnas

Pals since elementary school, The Donnas marked their 16-year anniversary of friendship and slumber parties with a greatest-hits album, released earlier this month. The poppy, punk-rock ladies from California jokingly titled the disc Greatest Hits Vol. 16. It’s filled with B-sides, rarities, and live renditions of faves like “Take It…

Coming Soon: Beatallica’s Second

Between them, The Beatles and Metallica have probably sold something like 5% of all records ever manufactered. So I was pretty excited to hear the sophomore record from Beatles/Metallica mashup band, Beatallica. The Masterful Mystery Tour, slated for release August 2, takes it’s name from Metallica’s 1986 release, Master of…

Yo La Tengo to Play Marquee in October

As announced via the Matablog, Matador Records’ blog, seminal indie rockers Yo La Tengo have announced a spiffy new fall tour, complete with a date at the Marquee Theater October 14. This is in support of their new album, Popular Songs, due out September 8. This is a boon for…

Beyond The Now: You Asked For It

Beyond The NowSubject to Change (Self-released) Grade: CIt’s hard to believe, but tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of Woodstock 1999. Though organizers have done everything they can to protect the Woodstock brand since, distancing themselves from the fiery debacle in Rome, New York, if you ask me the event was…

Tool in 140 Characters or Less

Most Tool fans at U.S. Airways Center last night were more focused on the stage than their phones, trying their best to take in the laser show — or get a glimpse of enigmatic frontman Maynard James Keenan as he lurked in the shadows — instead of texting their friends…