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Naming Phoenix's best records is always a tough task. As far as year-end lists go, it's exponentially more difficult than naming the best albums overall. Why? Well, for a...
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Listening to Green Day's major label debut, Dookie, in 1994, who could have imagined that they'd be a video game in 2010? Not me, certainly. For one, the idea of a video game...
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Jim Bachmann, a country-styled man about town whose a fixture at Tempe's Yucca Tap Room. Bachmann once did a Sun Session cover of Alan Jackson's "Chasin' That Neon Rainbow"...
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Like a lot of people, I really, really need to be in the mood to listen to third wave ska. And by "in the mood" I mean I need to be in high school again. Still, I kinda dig...
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The Tractor Pull Divas are our own version of a plucked-from-obscurity success story. Though, in this case, obscurity is defined as Chandler and success is defined as being one...
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Brian Wilson is not a great interview. Actually, the best quote I can pull from 10 painful minutes of taped conversation between me and my all-time favorite musician is...
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Sweeps week is just around the corner which means you'll soon be left without Grey's Anatomy's indie rock picks for a few months. Feast before the famine as Patrick Watson...
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As the debate about bringing indie rock to Phoenix's NPR station, KJZZ, continues to bubble, you'll see some mentions of internet-only Radio Phoenix as a possible solution to...
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What local bands do you book for a 4/20 festival? Headquarters has tapped Fred Green, The Plainfield Butchers, Masters of the Universe and SAF will perform at Tempe's 910 Live...
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Remember the good ol' days, when area indie rock festivals were "Presented by Such-and-Such" or "The Such-and-Such Company's Festival/Throwdown/Party/Show"? That's apparently...
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In 1978, Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau stood in the shadows of Akron, Ohio's sputtering smokestacks, penning a 5,000-word piece about the city's music scene.
Why...
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I'll be real with ya: I don't often get excited about a DJ coming through town especially since Girl Talk (a) never comes through town and (b) is supposedly not a DJ.
A-Trak...
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Not too many local shows sound more fun than this: Some of the Valley's best Americana, country, and rock singers getting together for a full night of Tom Petty songs at Yucca...
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It’s not often an album I’ve never heard before makes me nostalgic for my high school days, let alone one that came out last year and is sang partly in Japanese. But...
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We haven't heard much from our pals Antique Scream since they moved to Seattle late last year. We featured them in a story that had one of my all-time favorite quotes from a...
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One of the things I love best about Bright Eyes (yes, I unapologetically love Bright Eyes) is the way the band mingles so many rootsy sounds in songs that end up sounding...
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Maybe it's because I don't listen to a lot of it in my off hours, but I'm constantly surprised by the depth and quality of the Phoenix metal scene. I've yet to have a bad local...
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"Punk rock, comedy, and politics" can be a great combination — look at NOFX. But when a local band declares in its self-penned biography that it's playing with these...
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Rarely does a death metal act succeed in spooking a seasoned critic like me, but I have to say there was truly something unsettling about Iwatchedherdie's The Ill Effects of...
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Local pretty boy rockers Anarbor will just one of the acts on this year’s Take Action! Tour. It’s put together by Anarbor's emo-pop-rock label, Hopeless Records,...
