Belle and Sebastian

Top Five Must-See Shows in Phoenix This Weekend

It's the weekend. Oh, yesh. We're pumped to bring your our Top Five Must-See Shows in Phoenix this Weekend. See also: -Eight Must-See Concerts Over St. Patrick's Weekend in Metro Phoenix

How Matt Costa Went From Pro Skater Prospect to Soft-Focus Folkie

Parenthetical Girls Aren't Lacking for Kinks

Parenthetical Girls' Zac Pennington Learned To Loathe Popular Music While a Music Journalist

It's not easy being beautiful. Just ask Zac Pennington, frontman of experimental pop group Parenthetical Girls, whose vocal strains fall halfway between Perfume Genius and Lightspeed Champion, complimented with the baroque pop stylings of Belle and Sebastian. Pennington, known for his gender-neutral ... More >>

Ryan Gaumont, What Are You Listening To?

Ryan Gaumont Gaumont is a member of local sketch comedy troupe Bully Mammoth and is a stand-up comedian. See him perform at Stand Up Scottsdale! in Scottsdale this Friday, August 31 at 9 p.m. For more details, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would ... More >>

Ceremony: One of Punk's Most Unpredictable Outfits on Rising, Raging and Changing

By Reyan Ali Finding a young, lesser-known band in the pages of Rolling Stone is not a noteworthy event. However, seeing a review of Ceremony's new record, Zoo, in the magazine recently still constitutes one of those I-can-believe-it's-happening-but-I-still-can't-believe-it moments because Ceremony ... More >>

Army Navy: The Last Place

Army Navy - The Last Place​I must admit that the first time I heard L.A.-based indie rock trio Army Navy was on the fantastic podcast Sklarbro Country. The brothers Sklar had the band join them this past May in their tiny podcast studio, letting them play a song or two to help round things out. Wh ... More >>

Indie supergroups Amor de Dias and Jonny deliver distinctively delicious debut discs

Merge RecordsJonny features Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake, left, and Euros Childs, formerly of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Childs: "Why don't we record some music together, Norman?" Blake: Why, that's a fine idea, my friend!"​You know indie rock has reached full maturity when longtime genre protag ... More >>

Top 25 Lists of 13 New Times Contributors

A New Times Writer Fights "Aesthetic Atrophy" by Listening Only to New Music in 2010

Neil Young: Le Noise

​Artist: Neil Young Title: Le Noise Release date: September 28 Label: Reprise Neil Young is a first-rate iconoclast and one of the few successful rock artists who has remained truly uncompromising throughout his long and storied career. Of course, uncompromising can result in inconsistency, ... More >>

Girl Talk: All Day

​Artist: Girl Talk Title: All Day Release date: November 15 Label: Illegal Art Whether sample-happy mash-up act Girl Talk is "good" or "not good" and whether you "like" or "dislike" Girl Talk are completely irrelevant to any discussion regarding Girl Talk. The only things I care about when it ... More >>

Orange Juice Box Set Offers Complete Serving of Edwyn Collins' Seminal Indie Pop Group

The original Orange Juice line-up with frontman and chief songwriter Edwyn Collins, second from left.​What is rock 'n' roll if not the sound of youthful exuberance? In that context, Orange Juice might just be the greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time. Led by a young Edwyn Collins, he of th ... More >>

Tierra del Fuego: Queen of the Rendezvous

​Artist: Tierra del Fuego Title: Queen of the Rendezvous Release date: December 11 Label: Scapular Winging Through pure happenstance, I witnessed this local band, Tierra del Fuego, on Saturday night play as they played to a small but appreciative crowd at Trunk Space. It just happened to be t ... More >>

DJ Roya Talks Obscura, Tron Legacy, Daft Punk, Temper Trap, Pussycat Dolls, and More

DJ Roya​Name: Michele Chinichian AKA: DJ Roya Current gigs: Obscura, held at Rips Bar every second Saturday of the month. Genres spun: I play a blend of indie, New Wave, and Britpop at Obscura. I also enjoy spinning '80s pop, old school, electro, and the occasional Top 40 guilty pleasure. How ... More >>

Odds 'n' Sods: Helmet, Michael Franti & Spearhead, The Charlatans, Small Black, and more

​It's amazing how much music is released in a year. I've listened to nearly 270 records in their entirety this year, yet I still have a huge stack of unlistened CDs on my desk, several unlistened digital downloads in my iTunes, and a lengthy list of high-profile stuff I never got a chance to h ... More >>

Mini Mansions: Mini Mansions

​Artist: Mini Mansions Title: Mini Mansions Release date: November 2 Label: Ipecac One of the biggest musical curveballs of the year has to be the debut record by the Southern California trio Mini Mansions. I say it's a curveball because I wouldn't have guessed such a Beatles-esque display o ... More >>

Sun City Girls: Funeral Mariachi

​Artist: Sun City Girls Title: Funeral Mariachi Release date: October 26 Label: Abduction Sun City Girls' last-ever record -- they've made dozens since forming in Phoenix way back in the early days of West Coast punk -- comes off as a more somber affair. And some of it is downright -- odd to ... More >>

Daft Punk: Tron Legacy (Original Soundtrack)

​Artist: Daft Punk Title: Tron Legacy (Original Soundtrack) Release date: December 7 Label: Walt Disney Records I'm a little surprised by the buzz surrounding the release of a soundtrack to a Disney movie. I understand that the kids love the helmeted French house duo Daft Punk and that said ... More >>

The Parting Gifts: Strychnine Dandelions

​Artist: The Parting Gifts Title: Strychnine Dandelions Release date: November 9 Label: In the Red Last week, I didn't have many good things to say about the new record from Kanye West. This morning, a white co-worker walked into my office and said, "I read what you said about Kanye West. Whe ... More >>

Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

​Artist: Kanye West Title: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Release date: November 22 Label: Roc-A-Fella Fitting, perhaps, that Kanye West's new record, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is one of the final 15 or so new records that I'll be listening to before this Nothing Not New project t ... More >>

Sharon Van Etten: Epic

​Artist: Sharon Van Etten Title: Epic Release date: September 21 Label: Ba Da Bing! If you're relatively unknown as a musical artist, as is Sharon Van Etten, and you name your record Epic, you'd better be damn sure your record doesn't suck. The good news for Van Etten is that her seven-song r ... More >>

OFF!: First Four EPs

​Artist: OFF! Title: First Four EPs Release date: November 23 Label: Vice Records In 2010, few things seem more ridiculous than a punk supergroup anchored by two guys who made their most indelible marks on American punk rock nearly 30 years ago. But, damn, OFF! pulled off an unlikely feat, ma ... More >>

Robyn: Body Talk

​Artist: Robyn Title: Body Talk Release date: November 22 Label: Interscope The critics sure do love the Swedish dance-pop star Robyn, who's been releasing Body Talk in chunks throughout 2010 and now has finally dropped the entire album as one 15-song compendium. But there seems to be a commo ... More >>

Five Beatles B-Sides That Foreshadow Entire Genres of Rock Music (with Video)

The Beatles: Unquestionably the most influential rock band of all time.​Today The Beatles and the company formerly known as Apple Computer Inc. struck a deal resulting in the release of the band's music on iTunes for the first time.The band's entire output -- 12 studio albums with 193 tracks from ... More >>

The Fresh & Onlys: Play It Strange

Fresh & Onlys, Play It Strange​Artist: The Fresh & OnlysTitle: Play It StrangeRelease date: October 12Label: In the RedAnd just like that, I find myself a little bored by the sound plied and, possibly, perfected by San Francisco's The Fresh & Onlys. It's the sound that has passed for g ... More >>

Matt & Kim: Sidewalks

​Artist: Matt & KimTitle: SidewalksRelease date: November 2Label: FaderI suppose I should mention up front that I didn't like Tears for Fears in 1985 and I still don't 25 years later, even in a nostalgic sense. So it stands to reason that I have little use for Matt & Kim in 2010.It's not t ... More >>

Gospel Claws: C-L-A-W-S

​Artist: Gospel Claws Title: C-L-A-W-S Release date: October 26 Label: Common Wall Media Gospel Claws are a local band (Tempe, I've been told) that is currently enjoying a little bit of national exposure, residing in a reasonably high position on some relatively obscure indie-rock-tallying ch ... More >>

Elvis Costello: National Ransom

​Artist: Elvis Costello Title: National Ransom Release date: November 2 Label: Hear Music I really wish it weren't the case, but I'd have to file the new record by Elvis Costello under "For Completists Only" (of which I'm sure there many when it comes to Elvis Costello fans). If you heard hi ... More >>

Warpaint: The Fool

​Artist: Warpaint Title: The Fool Release date: October 25 Label: Rough Trade The musical path taken by L.A. foursome Warpaint is well trodden -- but this kind of ultra-moody, sort of experimental, Joy Division-indebted music is usually plied by men. But Warpaint is a quartet of women, and in ... More >>

Screaming Females: Castle Talk

​Artist: Screaming Females Title: Castle Talk Release date: September 14 Label: Don Giovanni Back in the day, I'd hate to miss a good show (I'm still not happy that my parents wouldn't let me drive to Kalamazoo one Monday night to see Scratch Acid and Big Black play, ditto the time I couldn't ... More >>

Kings of Leon: Come Around Sundown

​Artist: Kings of LeonTitle: Come Around SundownRelease date: October 19Label: RCAI think it's funny that people are getting all bent out of shape over the supposed "selling out" of Kings of Leon, saying their new record sucks worse than that sucky one that sold a bajillion copies a few years ago. ... More >>

Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz

​Artist: Sufjan Stevens Title: The Age of Adz Release date: October 21 Label: Asthmatic Kitty The new record by indie-music deity Sufjan Stevens is an hour-and-12-minute endurance test, one who's raison d'etre is revealed in the closing seconds of the record's final song, "Impossible Soul." A ... More >>

The Corin Tucker Band: 1,000 Years

​Artist: The Corin Tucker BandTitle: 1,000 YearsRelease date: October 5Label: Kill Rock Stars Who else loves Sleater-Kinney and was disappointed to hear they'd gone on indefinite hiatus after the release of one of their best records, The Woods, in 2006? In my opinion, we're one of the finer bands ... More >>

Unskinny Bop, Local Poison Tribute Band, To Appear in John Cusack Flick

This guy is about to be a movie star.We thought enough of local Poison tribute band Unskinny Bop to give them a Best Of Phoenix award last year. John Cusack apparently thinks enough of them that they're slated to appear in his new flick Hot Tub Time Machine, which is filming in Canada right now. The ... More >>

Snoop Dogg, Amy Winehouse, and Ozzy Explain Hanukkah

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan

Sunday at Devil Dirt
(Vagrant)

Coma Little Bit Closer

San Antonio's Girl in a Coma could be just the r'n'r we need

Seven Nights of DJs and Dancing

Who's spinning what, where and when

Panic Attack

Jett bird-dogs Britpop-tarts and surfs upper badonkadonk while Kreme shoegazes at Anderson's Fifth Estate

New discs from local artists

Trench, Dolphins Kill for Love, The Eleven Forties, The Secret Life of Painters, Longshore, Split the Enemy, Intrinzik, Goliath Monsignor, Shelby James & The Crying Shames

Mr. Happy

Brian Wilson gets his SMiLE on

Asking for It

Storytelling continues Todd Solondz's bluster of sex, rage and insanity

Let's See Action

Mogwai mouths off, shuts up, and releases its most rewarding album yet

Hit Me, Baby, One More Time

Jimmy Eat World gets some Rolling Stone-size love from Blink-182

Recordings