In watching the presidential campaign for what feels like forever, the phrase you keep hearing that’s supposed to define people called to public service is “personal narrative.” Experience, judgment, policies, character, good grooming habits . . . They’re nil if you don’t have a compelling life story that you can…
Weekends start early in Rocky Point. The sun hasn’t yet set on a Friday night, but the beach is already spattered with vomit. Most people entering the tony Peñasco Del Sol hotel, overlooking the beach, plop cans of cerveza down on the marble counter as they check in. Where they…
This year’s Arizona State Fair has an Old School Jam, featuring Naughty By Nature, Tone Loc, Coolio, Young MC, Klymaxx, Club Nouveau, and Timex Social Club. What many don’t realize is that these bands already toured together once — in 1995, when many of them were at their height of…
Harmonious Ottawa indie rockers The Acorn bring their folk-minded sound to the Valley this Saturday. Along with them will be Portland hipsters The Shaky Hands, who have impressed critics and wooed fans with their eponymous 2007 debut and this year’s brilliant follow-up, Lunglight. The Shaky Hands, with their irresistible rhythm…
You know that old saying about how bumblebees were never designed to fly but nobody told the bees that? Well, that’s kind of how it is for the members of Cowboy Mouth — four radio rockers who probably should’ve called it quits in the late ’90s. But instead of taking…
Ranging in style from hip-hop to punk to, arguably, metal, The Stiletto Formal is creating quite the buzz. Sure, it could be because it’s one of the few signed local bands, or it could be because of its forthcoming CD, ¡Fiesta, Fiesta, Fiesta, Fiesta!, or it could be because its…
Phil Elverum began his shambling psych-pop effort The Microphones during the late ’90s, mixing fuzzy drone, pastoral songwriter folk, and lo-fi experimentation in music that often is as shrouded in sounds as his Olympia, Washington home is in clouds. He scotched the moniker after 2003’s moribund concept album Mount Eerie,…
Like the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. So even though it’ll break their hearts to see it go, the DJs of the Salacious Beat Slingers are ending the long-running Fat’s Breaks night. Debuting last spring, the Tuesday-night affair (originally called “A Case of the…
By Jonathan McNamara When Music Editor Martin Cizmar asked me to accompany him to Mexico to cover a Roger Clyne concert for the debut of his column, Sonic Truth, I knew it was going to be a big deal. But it wasn’t until I was hanging from a scaffold trying…
By Martin Cizmar
It’s been a good day in metal, what with Metallica opening their World Tour here in Phoenix Tuesday night, and now Guns N’ Roses announcing a release date for Chinese Democracy.
By Jonathan McNamara Something amazing happened at Clubhouse Music last night. In the old tales of concert-going I’ve heard of this mysterious phenomnenon called “interaction,” but it wasn’t until a group of Japanese musicians in orange jump suits with rectangular sunglasses took the stage at the Clubhouse that I witnessed…
By Martin Cizmar
As promised, we’ve got a link to New Times Staff Writer, and former Music Editor, Niki D’Andrea’s review of last night’s Metallica show for Spin.com.
By Lilia Menconi Get something a little more metal in the slideshow. So, after reading the New Times Best of Phoenix Award for the death metal band, Hellen, we thought one of their live shows would drudge up a club candids-worthy crowd for sure. And, just as we suspected, Joe’s…
By Martin Cizmar
It’s not often that a band’s only top 10 hit is the low point at a concert – let alone by a band that’s been around 25 plus years and released 40 plus singles – but that’s exactly what happened Tuesday night in Glendale.
Graceful Degradation
There You Go
(Self-released)
By Martin Cizmar
As I wrote last week, every band selected for You Asked For It, no matter how bad, gets at least one spin when they go in the queue. Graceful Degradation got a lot more than that as I listened to their three-song EP, There You Go, at least ten times today. Honestly, I still can’t think of much to say about it.
By Martin Cizmar
You know a local band is big when they get not one but two CD release parties. The Stiletto Formal will be all over town this weekend, celebrating the release of ¡Fiesta, Fiesta, Fiesta, Fiesta! at The Clubhouse on Friday and The Rogue on Saturday.
What makes Barack Obama such a pop culture icon? There are numerous things, but here we present The Top 10 Reasons Barack Obama Is Cool.
By Jonathan McNamara Weezer at The Arizona State Fair Music Editor Martin Cizmar admits that he’s been neglecting his old friend Rivers Cuomo. Streetlight Manifesto at The Venue of Scottsdale Streetlight Manifesto filled The Venue of Scottsdale with a skank-tastic Ska frenzy on Friday, October 17, 2008. Friday Night Out…
By Martin Cizmar
I don’t know why anybody would want to celebrate or encourage Phoenix and Tucson growing together, but apparently someone does, which is why there’s a Phooson festival leading this week’s upcoming show announcements.
By Martin Cizmar
OK, I admit it, I’ve been neglectful of my old friend Rivers Cuomo. I haven’t really paid much attention to Weezer since The Green Album and I haven’t seen him since 2002, when I went a couple shows to see The Strokes, who I was spending a lot of time with at the time, open for him. As far as I knew, though, Rivers was a little nutty, in a harmless sort of way, but seemed like a pretty cool dude. I wasn’t in touch much, but hearing the singles off the last three albums filter through the radio, it seemed like things were pretty normal. Rivers was doing his thing, I was doing mine, everything was cool. We weren’t close, like we had been back in my high school days, but I had no reason to suspect he’d fallen on hard times.
By Joseph Golfen Some say that punk is dead, but Streetlight Manifesto’s frenzied show at the Venue of Scottsdale proved that at the very least, Ska is still alive and kicking widely. Friday night’s show packed the house with manic kids flailing their limbs to horn-fueled mayhem. See more shots…
By Benjamin Leatherman Streetlight Manifesto is scheduled to perform tonight at the Venue of Scottsdale. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17: Back N the Day Concert [R&B/hip-hop] With Adina Howard, Case, H-Town, Troop, SHAI, Next, AZ Yet, and more 8:30 p.m. $25-$300 (visit www.celebritytheatre.com) Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix, 602-267-1600. Guitar…
