Over the next few nights, music venues around the Valley will host performances by the Alan Parsons Live Project, Maps & Atlases, Collie Buddz, Justin Townes Earle, and Sleep.
And with it being a weekend, there are certainly plenty of electronic dance music events happening in the Valley. And with it being the summer, there are also pool parties worth checking out.
All of the aforementioned gigs can be found in our rundown of the best concerts happening in Phoenix this weekend. For even more live music happening in the Valley, hit up the Phoenix New Times’ online concert calendar.
Collie Buddz
Friday, June 8
BLK Live in Scottsdale
When you think of dancehall music, it's safe to assume that the island of Bermuda isn't the first locale that leaps to mind. In fact, though Bermuda is often mistaken as a Caribbean island, its closest neighbor is actually North Carolina. Other Bermuda oddities include the Bermuda Triangle, Bermuda shorts, and the alternative singer Heather Nova, a native.
You may now add to that list the dancehall anthem "Come Around," which is sure to receive the acclaim Damian Marley's "Welcome to Jamrock" did last year. The song is performed by a Bermudian who goes by the handle Collie Buddz. Oh, and did we forget to mention that Buddz is white?
No matter. The song is a monster, from the roots-infused horn intro to the pumped-up basslines. "Finally the herbs come around," sings Buddz, whose stage name doubles as slang for a seasonal high-grade marijuana. His voice resembles Jamaican dancehall staples such as I-Wayne and Wayne Wonder, with a booster shot of rudeboy swagger. Esther Parks
The Paladins
Friday, June 8
The Rhythm Room
In 2004, The Paladins went on hiatus; Gonzalez subsequently started the Hacienda Brothers with Chris Gaffney and played with the country-soul Stoney River Boys. In 2010, Gonzalez reunited with the Paladins for some European dates, and the following year, the trio regrouped for their first American shows in seven years. They're still going strong these days and are scheduled to perform this weekend at The Rhythm Room. Local rockers Grave Danger will open. Jon Solomon
Ufomammut
Friday, June 8
Club Red in Mesa
The three musicians making up this Italian-born trio – who go by the monikers of Poia, Urlo, and Vita – specialize in hypnotically psychedelic doom metal. The repetitive drone of Ufomammut’s sludge riffage is laced with spaced-out fuzz effects that evoke a hallucinogenic trip, with just enough twists and turns to keep you a little on edge. Each song builds slowly, lulling listeners into a trance, before it crescendos into a powerful crash of beefy riffs and frantic drumming that leaves even the most hardened stoner-doom fan completely drained. Jason Roche
Alan Parsons Live Project
Friday, June 8
Celebrity Theatre
Alan Parsons became a household name around the world via the succession of gold and platinum albums that began with Tales of Mystery and Imagination in 1976, which were credited to The Alan Parsons Project. Although his partnership with co-founder Eric Woolfson ended in the ’90s, it did allow for us to finally enjoy the music the duo made in concert, starting with a 1995 European tour. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you ... The Alan Parsons Live Project.
“I do wish we’d done it sooner; the circumstances weren’t right,” Parsons says. “Eric wasn’t interested in touring, and it was only [when] we parted company after making the
Rightly or wrongly, the success of I Robot, Turn of a Friendly Card, and Pyramid earned Parsons his rep as the master of the concept album. Who better to ask if the overriding concept suggested the songs, or did the individual songs when collected
Robert Randolph and the Family Band
Friday, June 8
Crescent Ballroom
If the sacred steel movement has a visionary leader, it's Robert Randolph, a ferocious, enormously talented steel guitarist who has deftly overseen his band's transition from the House of God Church in Orange, New Jersey, to the world's premier stages.
Randolph has always sliced and diced considerable secular influences into his fervid gospel sound, and that was
Release Pool Party feat. W&W
Saturday, June 9
Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale
Get pumped up for W&W's "trouse," or as the DJ duo puts it in their bio, "uplifting and melodic elements of trance" fused with "the raw intensity of electro and progressiveness of house." You can hear it for yourself this weekend when Willem van Hanegem and Wardt van der Harst, the Dutch electronic dance music artists that represent the W's in W&W, headline the latest Release pool party at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale. German-born EDM duo Cosmic Gate, which specialize in mixes of a trance and techno variety, will open. The party starts at noon. Tickets are $20. Laurie Charles
Sleep
Saturday, June 9
The Van Buren
If any band could be accused of hibernating between albums, it’s stoner metal power trio Sleep. Take a look at the band’s small but potent discography, and you’ll see huge gaps between most of their records: seven years between Sleep’s Holy Mountain and Dopesmoker, and 19 years between Dopesmoker and The Sciences. It isn’t hard to imagine the trio of Matt Pike, Al Cisneros, and Jason Roeder lapsing into a fuzzy kush coma between recordings, slumbering beneath sheets of heavy
Don’t write off Sleep as lazy stoners, though: The trio
The other reason for Sleep’s periods of hibernation: The band used to be plagued by label problems. Legal wranglings with Earache Records after the release of 1992’s Sleep’s Holy Mountain led the band to jump ship to London Records, which screwed them even harder with the release of their legendary Dopesmoker record. Composed of an hourlong song that took the band four years to write, and two months of studio time to record, Dopesmoker didn’t get an “official” release until 2012. London Records didn’t know what to do with the original recordings and sat on them, leading to the release of four different versions of the album over the years.
Considering all the bullshit the stoner metal band have put up with over the years, you couldn’t blame them for wanting to hang up their spurs. While they’ve reunited to play shows over the years, it didn’t look like we’d get new material from them anytime soon — which makes the surprise release of 2018’s The Sciences so shocking. The Sciences may be the strongest album they’ve ever released: The band takes the earthquake riffs and beats of Dopesmoker and condenses them into shorter bursts, creating an album with sounds that aim for the
Maps & Atlases
Saturday, June 9
The Rebel Lounge
Maps & Atlases frontman Dave Davison lost his father six years ago to brain cancer. His death served as the inspiration for the indie rock band's latest album, Lightlessness Is Nothing New, their first since 2012’s critically-acclaimed Beware and Be Grateful.
Davison’s father died right before the math rock group toured on that record. The vocalist and guitarist
When the tour ended, Davison took time away from the band to create something new. Instead of writing specifically for Maps & Atlases, he wanted to see where the music took him. As the songs Davison was writing began to take shape, he knew Dada and Hainey would be the perfect musicians to accompany him. “It was interesting to re-form the band in an organic way, not that it ever broke up,” describes Davison. “I’m glad it came back together the way that it did.” Jason Keil
Justin Townes Earle
Saturday, June 9
Musical Instrument Museum
The Musical Instrument Museum's in-house performance venue will get down when Justin Townes Earle drops by to play his soulful songs in a rare solo set. Earle has been proving he's more than the son of Steve Earle for a good while now, and his last album Kids In The Street is pretty wonderful. The always impressive alt-country of Lydia Loveless,
J.Phlip
Sunday, June 10
Shady Park in Tempe
Dirtybird Records might just be the most fun-loving collective in electronic dance music with its barbecue parties, ass-clapping bass music, and