The holidays are a time of family, schmaltzy Christmas commercials that somehow make you cry, and if you are involved in music journalism, list-making. Lots and lots of list-making. Over the past few years, the availability of year-end critics lists has multiplied faster than the worry lines on Ben Bernanke’s…
Cleveland doesn’t have celebrities. That’s why our contribution to this year-end roundup is star-free. The biggest thing we’ve got (next to LeBron James, who was too busy playing basketball or something to talk to us) is the stripper-lovin’ host of The Price Is Right, Drew Carey. But we’re pretty sure…
For basketball star Diana Taurasi, 2007 was a stellar year. The 6-foot guard for the Phoenix Mercury helped lead the franchise (and the city of Phoenix) to its first-ever basketball championship, toppling defending WNBA champion Detroit Shock on its home court in the final game of a best-of-five series. The…
Margaret Cho has had her own TV show, a couple of bestselling books, a Grammy-nominated comedy album, and two feature films based on her national tours, but 2007 saw a new conquest for the comic: She became a viral video queen. Cho’s sexy, traveling circus-like spectacle, The Sensuous Woman, which…
San Francisco’s world renowned Kronos Quartet has charted an impressive course around the globe, commissioning more than 600 works — and releasing more than 40 records — with composers from China, Russia, Vietnam, and Iraq since its inception more than 30 years ago. Founding member David Harrington cites an unusual…
Dixie Chicks Grammy-winning-song collaborator Dan Wilson released his first solo album this year, the Rick Rubin-produced Free Life. The Semisonic songwriter and former Trip Shakespearean still lives in Minneapolis, still shops at the Electric Fetus, and plans on holing up and writing songs for the next few months. He recently…
We were super-nervous about Chez Nous’ big move from Seventh Avenue to Grand Avenue. Change is scary, especially when it revolves around a Valley staple of nightlife. So when we heard they pulled it off and that they were having a kickass New Year’s party, we decided to check it…
Until recently, the dance floor at the opulent-yet-ookie nightspot Palazzo, 710 North Central Avenue, was solely the domain of the gothy boys and ghouls who turned out on Fridays in droves for Tranzylvania, where they’d thrash about until the wee hours to murky darkwave and nihilistic anthems. But now these…
The holidays are a time for comforting surroundings and family. Since we made Faux Show Fridays at Glam our second home in 2007, we decided to spend some of our holiday cheer there on Friday, December 21, for its black-tie holiday party. (Click here for more photos.) It’s been more…
THURSDAY 27 27th Avenue Bar & Grill: DJ Turtlewaxxx (hip-hop, old school, Latin groove) Axis/Radius: Crystal Thursdays Ladies Night (Top 40, rock, dance) Big Fish Pub: DJ Kocky (club music, underground hip-hop) The Blooze Bar: DJ El Dedo (rockabilly) Bobby C’s: Willy B. (old-school R&B) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Club Vibe:…
As two different Radiohead releases this month prove, rock boxed sets aren’t becoming any more sensible. The “discbox” version of the band’s new release, In Rainbows, is stuffed with extras. They range from useful (music), through aimless (booklets and artwork), to mystifyingly redundant (the album on CD, 12-inch vinyl, and…
The Fiery Furnaces — the frequently conceptual Brooklyn indie/art rock band with siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger at its creative core — is typically branded with such adjectives as “difficult,” “challenging,” “dizzying,” and “unpredictable.” They’re also pretty damn prolific, averaging an album a year since 2003. The group’s latest is…
Jerry Riopelle is an old-school cat, which means that the singer/songwriter’s been making records longer than almost anybody else in the Valley. As a staff writer and producer for Phil Spector’s Philles Records in Los Angeles, Riopelle wrote his first top 20 hit (“Home of the Brave,” recorded by Bonnie…
It’s not uncommon for a rock group to feature guest spots, rotating personnel, or additional instruments. Add a guitarist here, substitute a vocalist there, mic that kit a bit differently, and the textures change. Usually, the band retains their foundational elements. Not so when the Andrew Jackson Jihad includes a…
This East Valley quartet labels its music as “rock/funk/jazz,” but it’s easy enough to file their self-titled debut under just good ol’ “rock.” Many of the songs feature piano alongside precise rock guitar hooks and funky bass lines, along with memorable lyrics like “Revolving doors of whores and deadbeat guys”…
It’s a bloody shame that many folks outside of Chicago have never heard of Down Beat Magazine award-winning flautist Nicole Mitchell. Black Unstoppable, the first Delmark record by a woman in the label’s 54-year history, should help her achieve some much-deserved mainstream cred. Much like Bobbi Humphrey, who, in the…
The ’70s fell to Pink Floyd — and so the Zeroes have fallen to Daft Punk. The French duo started churning out techno/house/electronica music in the ’90s. Now, they’re globally dilated and definers of that diffuse genre. Alive 2007, their new album, is a live recording from a June concert…
If sleaze rock is the tongue-kissing cousin of heavy metal, then Nashville Pussy is Gene Simmons’ hillbilly stunt double. Led by the twin-guitar attack of husband and wife duo Blaine Cartwright and Ruyter Suys, the Atlanta-based act got its start glorifying Southern rock’s excesses in the late ’90s with songs…
There was a time when blues and R&B/black popular music were not so very far apart. Performers such as Etta James, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Little Johnny Taylor merged the gritty, down-home aspects of the former with the polished, up-market style of the latter for a combination that could wow…
“There’s plenty of races on God’s green planet, that doesn’t mean you have to breed with them, goddammit,” rap unrepentant wiseacres Grand Buffet on “Americus (Religious Right Rock),” whose chorus mockingly lauds the child labor that produced its T-shirts. Mounted on cheesy, rudimentary, ’80s-style synth samples and sputtering drum beats,…
Though she gained plenty of attention for participating in Kyle MacDonald’s One Red Paper Clip trade project and her 24-hour lifestreams on the Internet, the music remains the best thing about this Phoenix-based indie musician. Her soulful mezzo-soprano voice fits the bluesy, funk-inflected material she writes. Her influences seem to…
The turntablists are definitely gonna be out in force on Monday, December 31 (a.k.a. New Year’s Eve), as nearly every DJ worth his or her weight in used vinyl has some sort of wax-working session planned for Auld Lang Syne. But if you can’t get into any of the bigger…
