“I may be an ice queen, but I like it fucking hot,” Siouxsie Sioux says from the stage at London’s Royal Festival Hall, site of the Dreamshow concert DVD (Rhino). The disc was shot over the course of three shows in June 2004 and, in between continually bitching about the…
If you want to get rich during a gold rush, you don’t go digging for gold. The guaranteed money is in picks, axes, wheelbarrows, and the land deeds that surround the boom. Only rubes sweat out the risk in the hills. Well, there’s a gold rush going on right now…
British post-punks/pre-New Wavers Echo & The Bunnymen released Songs to Learn and Sing in 1985, and 10 of the tracks that made the first comp are included here, most notably hit singles like “Rescue,” “Do It Clean,” “The Cutter” and “The Killing Moon.” But this new collection contains 10 more…
Sharon Stone makes another movie, bands of the 1978-1982 epoch reunite, technology advances, trans-fats are banned — yet The Fall persevere, with Mark E. Smith the sole remaining founding member. Tart-tongued leader Smith still rants like he’s got the world’s number, though portions of Reformation find phone-it-in weariness creeping in…
Ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr knows a little something about dealing with strong-willed vocalists (ahem, Morrissey), so it’s no surprise that his contributions to the poppiest Modest Mouse record yet are solid. But it’s still a treat to hear how focused Isaac Brock and company are on the lushly arranged Ship,…
During its heyday in the ’70s, reggae powerhouse Trojan Records never released an album in the U.S., but Trojan imports were must-haves for every serious reggae collection. Although it’s not obvious in his work with Radiohead, Johnny Greenwood is a huge reggae fan, and he’s one of the few non-reggae…
Musicians working solo in the singer/songwriter category don’t have it easy — the label alone scares off a lot of listeners, thanks to a stigma of ceaseless sameness and average acts flooding the genre with acoustic guitars, granola warbling, and philosophical-hippie-shit-meets-posturing-confessional lyrics. And they lack the attention-grabbing power of a…
The kings and queen of raw, naked pain and quavering, sheltered emotionalism will bring their irresistibly precious brand of experimental indie pop to the Valley next Sunday. Songwriter Jamie Stewart, his cousin Caralee McElroy, and drummer Ches Smith come in advance of the April 10 release of Remixed & Covered,…
Listening to Angélique Kidjo’s forthcoming album, Dijn Dijn (Razor & Tie), is like attending a crash course in World Music 101. Her 11th full-length, scheduled for a May 1 release, is filled with familiar Western classical-inspired formulas — poppy hooks, radio-friendly durations, and a star-studded list of guest musicians from…
When indie-rock radio embraces a song before a band has even released a proper full-length — which is what happened to Lovedrug and the ethereal “Down Towards the Healing” — it’s easy to think the group is riding high on musical Easy Street. But instead of resting on its laurels,…
When they aren’t busy letting loose in Black Rock City, local Burning Man freaks DJ Kodama and Chromatest J. Pantsmaker (a.k.a. the Salacious BeatSlingers) have been giving Valley hepcats a reason to stay out late on a school night with their weekly gig, A Case of the Tuesdays. Consider them…
This ain’t a scene, it’s a bottomless, underground-market glut: ’00s noise upstarts spinning off fly-by-night collabos à la ’80s Marvel Comics limited series. Members of dronecore sorcerers Double Leopards and ever-metamorphizing duo Mouthus teamed up previously as White Rock and, in 2005, released Tarpit (named after the studio the two…
Thursday 22 Axis/Radius: Ladies’ Night (hip-hop, rock, dance) AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) Bikini Lounge: DJ Shane Kennedy (various) Blue Note: DJ Soloman, & Fredj (acid jazz, trip-hop) Bobby Cs: Willie B (old school R&B) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Chilly Bombers: DJ Statik (rock, hip-hop, dance) Club Vibe:…
“Ten bucks says I can get one of these guys to show me their wiener,” my friend Toxic JuJu tells me, as we grab some seats at the bar inside Pumphouse II to take in a gay male revue. I look around the bar. The place is packed with men,…
Not that we needed an excuse to go out and get drunk, but at least this time, we had a good reason to buy a new green shirt, because it was a St. Patrick’s Day celebration, baby, and we sure as hell didn’t want to invite any pinching (we get…
Fracture Point All the commotion on here lately regarding my distaste for Marshall “Fucking” Beck, formerly of the metal band Rebirth, seems to have left many metal heads (or at least Marshall’s Myspace friends) under the impression that I either don’t care about metal or don’t appreciate the genre. Granted,…
Army of Robots… dramatic! This is an early heads up so that if you can cruise up to Flagstaff on Friday, make plans now. Not only is it not in the 90s up there, Friday night at the Hotel Monte Vista (one of my favorite venues up there) Army of…
shaking in my Adidas…. Mr. Marshall “fucking” Beck, “the most controversial motherfucker in the Arizona music scene” thought it’d be funny to print my home phone number and address up in this piece; which he can certainly do on Myspace, but not here, where I moderate what goes up. While…
I wasn’t sure what to do tomorrow for Saint Patrick’s Day; I’m Irish as fuck, but my local Irish pub, Casey Moore’s, is a madhouse on 3/17, with souped up prices and a bunch of jackasses crowding the place. Another alternative had to found. Luckily, I saw Jared from the…
Marshall Beck and his sisters The Marshall Beck “Mr. Controversial” debate continues to rage on Ear Infection, thanks in great part to his admittedly posting Myspace bulletins to his 45,000 friends. (PEN15 wrote “I WISH THIS WOULD STOP SO I DONT HAVE TO SEE 26 MYSPACE POSTS A DAY BY…
This week, we decided it was high time to turn our attention to the local labia-lovin’ ladies, so we hit up e-lounge on Saturday, March 10, where it was packed with smokin’-hot mamas looking to drink, dance, and fondle each other in the corners. Not only were there plenty of…
Consider this a call to arms. In the wake of the arrests of DJ Drama, Don Cannon, and their crew, the Aphilliates, in Atlanta in January — for distributing mix tapes with copyrighted songs (that the major labels were paying them to pimp) — I’m asking all local DJs to…
