This Weekend: Sangria Luxe Lounge, Edgefest, Mini Luchadores

By Jonathan McNamara Friday, September 26: Sangria Luxe Lounge Ah! Wine mixed with the fruity goodness of well, fruit. It’s a classic drink, but will this new Phoenix hot spot live it to the legacy of its namesake. Find out for yourself tonight. For more information, read “Wild, Wild West…

When Will Rise Against, Gogol Bordello, Flobots, NOFX, Flogging Molly, Pennywise, And The Other Bands At Tomorrow’s Edgefest Be Hitting The Stage? Here’s The Schedule

By Benjamin Leatherman The gypsy punks of Gogol Bordello are scheduled to perform at 5:50 p.m. on the SRP Stage at tomorrow’s Edgefest in Queen Creek. Tomorrow’s Edgefest is sure to be an off-the-chain affair with almost 12 hours of alt-music mayhem. More than 30 different local and major label…

Flier of the Week: AAWL Benefit Show

I picked this week’s flier not because it’s good, as it is certainly anything but. I picked this monstrosity because my flier of the week contest is still going on, and this should serve as a reminder of just how bad the fliers in this town have gotten.

Podcast: Glochids

By Steve Jansen I’m pretty sure that I don’t know a more interesting cat than James Roemer, the Tempe-based sound artist behind Glochids (pronounced “Glow-kids”). Last year, Roemer worked and lived in the wilds of Nevada. Now, at the moment, he is stationed in Antarctica, where he will be working…

Seven Nights of DJs and Dancing

THURSDAY 25 Axis/Radius: Red Bull Ladies Night with DJ MCB (hip-hop, rock, Top 40) Bar Smith: Peppermint Lounge with DJ Brazilia, DJ Mara, & guests (electro, funk, ’80s) Bikini Lounge: DJ HFE (rockabilly, surf, jazz, classic country, indie, obscuro) Blooze Bar: DJ El Dedo (rockabilly) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cash Inn: DJ…

Byrne After Reading: Advice from a Talking Head

This week, we present “Byrne After Reading,” our new advice column by musician/artist (and former Talking Heads frontman) David Byrne. Dear David: I am a singer who used to be in a popular and highly influential ’80s band until we broke up because we all hated each other. Since then,…

Young Jeezy

Fuck Huey Long: Young Jeezy is the master of populism. Here’s a self-made millionaire who empathizes with the day-to-day troubles of the working class, preaches distrust of the media and authority figures, and always gets his base boiling. While he leaves the lofty rhetoric to the arugula-chomping pantywaist he endorses…

Electrostatic

Looks like the DJ freakazoids behind Electrostatic have found a new home for their popular weekly dance night, formerly hosted at the shuttered Glam. And fittingly enough, it’s at Homme, 138 West Camelback Road, where they’ll be working the mixers every Tuesday night. While the gay-friendly lounge ain’t as swank…

Ben Folds

Ben Folds has never strayed far from his trademark geek-pop sensibilities. He’s honed the sound even further over the past few years, playing for crowds of adoring college kids. The excitement of the live shows seems to have made an impression on the Nashville-based singer/songwriter/pianist. His new record, Way to…

Tricky

After the seething, explosive brilliance of Tricky’s first two albums, 1995’s Maxinquaye and 1996’s Pre-Millennium Tension, inspiration is spreading thin. Later releases Angels with Dirty Faces, Juxtapose, and Blowback contained a recommended song or two, but as albums they were jumbled failures. Knowle West Boy doesn’t break that disappointing pattern…

Slipknot

Four albums in (five, if you’re an eBay-stalking obsessive), Slipknot is having an identity crisis. Frontman Corey Taylor’s side project, Stone Sour, has allowed him to unmask his sensitive singer-songwriter side, which is represented here on “Snuff” and “Dead Memories” — the former a half-acoustic ballad, the latter a slab…

Nelly

Brass Knuckles is Nelly’s Thriller. I’m not kidding. Brass Knuckles is not a perfect album, but neither was Thriller. It jumped styles and was not particularly cohesive; similarly, Nelly’s fifth CD skips haphazardly from dirty South jams (“Hold Up,” featuring T.I.) to G-funk throwbacks (“L.A.,” featuring Doggs Snoop and Nate)…

Flobots

Denver’s Flobots seem intent on fomenting a populist revolution — or, at least, cashing in on the sugarcoated, romanticized, anything-can-happen idea of one. Perhaps they’ve struck a chord, thanks in part to appearances on late-night TV talk shows, debut Fights with Tools is closing in on 200,000 units sold here…

Santana

Few artists have gone through more reinventions than Mexican-born guitarist Carlos Santana, going from his Latin-jam days fueled by his unforgettable appearance at Woodstock to his lackluster days in the ’80s (even though his band was still considered a top live act) to his resurgence after his multi-Grammy winner Supernatural…

Ra Ra Riot

When guitarist Milo Bonacci started Ra Ra Riot at Syracuse University in 2006, he was looking to put together a classical-tinged rock band that could stir up dramatic moods but also get a dance party started. On its just-released debut, The Rhumb Line, Ra Ra Riot strikes a fine balance…

Vampire Weekend Plays ‘Take Your Kids To A Concert Night’

It hasn’t quite been 11 months since Vampire Weekend released their first single, “Mansard Roof.” In that time, they’ve gone from the buzziest band since Arcade Fire, to a cultural touchstone for New Yorker types, to last night’s show at the Marquee, where a dad in jean shorts lifted his towheaded son on to his shoulders for a better view during “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.”