By Jonathan McNamara Happy Monday, Phoenix. Here’s what you missed while you were decompressing at home from the last work week. First Friday The kids were all right last night as they partied up and down the streets of Phoenix celebrating September’s First Friday. View: this Night Out slideshow with…
By Sarah Ventre The Yucca Tap Room is one of those celebrated landmarks left standing in Tempe, made famous by the bands that grew up there. Last Saturday night, local music fans were treated to a bit of nostalgia when Art Edwards, bassist of the Refreshments, made his first appearance…
By Jonathan McNamara Yesterday we told you which bands would play First Friday. Today, we’re giving them to you.Courtesy of Clubs Editor Benjamin Leatherman, here is a video sampler of the tunes rocked on Grand Avenue and Roosevelt Row last night. Need more First Friday fun? Don’t miss this slideshow…
By Jonathan McNamara September has reared its slightly cooler (we hope) head and bestowed upon us a great deal of new things to see and do. Here’s what we’ll be hitting up this weekend. Friday, September 5: First Friday in Downtown Phoenix You know the drill: a bunch of kats…
By Benjamin Leatherman Mr. Meeble is scheduled to perform tonight at the Hotel San Carlos. There’s gonna be plenty to see and do at the monthly First Friday art walk. Here’s a sample of the bands and musicians who’ll be doing their thing in and around downtown Phoenix…
Here are two big shows that were just announced this week.
By Benjamin Leatherman B.B. King is scheduled to perform on Saturday at the Celebrity Theatre. What do ’80s pop-rockers Hall and Oates, the hip-hoppers of Three 6 Mafia, and the metalheads of Whitechapel all have in common? Other than the fact they’re all on our iPod playlists (yes, we openly…
By Yvonne Zusel Eastern European-gypsy-punk band Gogol Bordello might think they have the market cornered on the gypsy-punk genre. But mustachioed frontman Eugene Hutz & Co. had better think again. New York-based Mad Juana have taken Bordello’s formula and put their own twist on it, led by sultry blues-voiced lead…
By Jonathan McNamara Anybody heard the clanking of chains and muffled moans coming from the club that formerly housed The Loft underneath Gordon Biersch on Mill? Me either, which is a shame because that spot’s new joint, Whip Lounge, wants you to get an S&M vibe from the new digs…
By Justus What’s cracking Phire City? I’m pleased this week to have the opportunity to review the biggest record to come out of the New West Coast: the king of the “New West” Movement, The Game and his new album “LAX.” I’d like to thank my homie over at Black…
By Jonathan McNamara Hot on the heels of the release of her fourth book “Breaking Dawn,” a stake has been driven through the heart of the Twilight Series and possibly its fans as well. Stephenie Meyer reports on her Web site that “Midnight Sun” the fifth volume in the Twilight…
By Benjamin Leatherman If you’re in the mood for a little sexy and sinful nightlife action this evening, head on over to Mill Avenue in Tempe where Whip Lounge is celebrating its grand opening with a primo blowout. Party monster extraordinaire Brian Durkee will be presenting the affair, which starts…
I spent the winter of 1994 through the summer of 1995 soaking myself in the Counting Crows album August and Everything After. I did lots of variations on the theme of playing it through, playing some part of it, and playing some part of a part of it over and…
THURSDAY 4 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 Sting (hip-hop, dance) Cherry Lounge: DJ M2 (hip-hop, Top 40) Club Forbidden:…
On a recent Monday night, I’m inside the downtown art collective The Firehouse, where The Complaniacs drummer Matt Spastic lives. The band is auditioning a new bass player in Spastic’s bedroom. A few Firehouse regulars poke their heads in, grab beers from the mini-fridge, and watch the bleached blond, tatted-up…
You might’ve seen DJ Dino (a.k.a. Denard Webb) rocking the decks with dirty electro tracks last weekend at the Lovestruck party in downtown Phoenix. Or perhaps you saw him when he was doing the same back in July at the Dark Knight, or at any of the dozens of other…
Roca Dolla is the godfather of Phoenix hip-hop. Formerly known as Iroc Beats, Roca’s been laying down lyrical flows and grinding it out in the local scene for the better part of two decades. His studio and record label, 5Fith Coast Records, has produced tracks for some of the Valley’s…
What was it Roger Daltrey sang on The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” — “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”? Maybe it’s the curse of remembering what rock music was like before 1977, but some of the latest by 31 Knots sounds like the stuff the first…
Oberst has the tendency to be heavy-handed with metaphor, often reading like a hipper, more literate version of a 16-year-old’s poetry journal. His newest effort, recorded in a rural Mexican locale dubbed Valle Místico, doesn’t shy away from that kind of grating poetic license. Here, though, his words are absorbed…
Today’s youngsters may have familiarized themselves with the Toadies’ “Possum Kingdom” through Guitar Hero II, but in the game’s multicolored dots and horrendously processed guitar tone, it’s hard to comprehend how foreign and chilling the Dallas band’s bass-driven post-grunge masterpiece sounded in its mid-’90s context. As part of a weirdo…
The Rocket Summer is Texas native Bryce Avary, who has played every instrument on each of his albums and sung with such frenzied energy on almost every song that he makes power pop actually seem dangerous. Imagine Ben Lee singing Christian rock while doped up on so much speed his…
Metallica’s next studio album, Death Magnetic, leaked onto the Internet yesterday, after a French retailer started selling copies of the album ten days before its scheduled release date of September 12.
