Broken Social Scene

Top Five Must-See Shows This Week

Yeah, yeah, yeah...we get it Mondays suck (we've read Garfield). But it means the start of a new week, which means a bunch of killer shows in and around Phoenix. And here are a few of the coolest, our top five must-see shows this week.

Knesset @ Phoenix Art Museum

Feist @ Orpheum Theatre

Jacki Orr, What Are You Listening To?

​Jacki Orr The multi-media artist, humorist, performer and publisher of the ladies' indie adult naughty mag PoolBoy Magazine hosts First Friday Night Live Friday, December 2 at The Firehouse at 11 p.m. Tickets are $7 at the door or $5 online here. $7 tix at the door or $5 online here. When ... More >>

Win a Pair of Passes to See Star Slinger at Rhythm Room

There's no getting around it. No matter how awesome DJ Star Slinger may have been before getting shouted out by Donald Glover, AKA Childish Gambino, AKA Troy on one of TV's best shows, Community, he was immeasurably cooler afterward. The cred boost wasn't entirely necessary. Slinger, known as Darr ... More >>

DJ Racoon on Beat Mass, SLASH Pool Party, & Straying From Top 40

​ By this point in July, it almost feels stupid to talk about how hot it is. Brains are practically melted, and the heat has just become this all oppressing force, destroying day-off plans and any semblance of ambition of doing anything outside. Anything besides lounging by the pool and drinking ... More >>

Top Ten Best You Asked For It Songs

You Asked For It​In creating last week's list of the ten worst You Asked For It songs, I found myself thinking, "Well, I better make a list of the ten best songs, too." It's been infinitely more fun to listen to some local music that I actually enjoyed rather than slog through some crappy, shoddil ... More >>

10 OTHER Songs to Light Up to on 4/20 (Video)

​With Coachella beginning only five days before 4/20 this year, it's a busy week for stoners. One thing that's essential for a good blazing session is a solid soundtrack to light up to. Chances are, you've already seen at least one list of songs -- they're hard to avoid today!So we've left out th ... More >>

Duran Duran, The Strokes Tapped For Coachella; Official Lineup Coming Soon UPDATE

​Coachella's official lineup should be announced very, very soon -- lest anyone forget that this week is usually when the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival makes it big announcement.In lieu of the entire festival lineup, a few acts have already been confirmed for the festival's 2011 editi ... More >>

Top 25 Lists of 13 New Times Contributors

The Whisperlights: Wake Up Dead EP

The Whisperlights - Wake Up Dead EP​Artist: The WhisperlightsAlbum: Wake Up Dead EPBasics: Phoenix's The Whisperlights are amongst the stable of indie rock bands currently making the rounds in Phoenix/Tempe -- Black Carl, What Laura Says, Dry River Yacht Club, and Gospel Claws. Many an opening slo ... More >>

The 88: The 88

​Artist: The 88Title: The 88 Release date: September 28 Label: Rocket ScienceWhat do you do if you're a band like The 88? You're top-flight songwriters and musicians, you get your songs placed in all kinds of big-name TV shows and high-profile TV commercials, you tour the country opening ... 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 >>

Can $10 Million Buy a Weezer Breakup?

​New-Weezer hater James Burns has offered Weezer $10 million to break up, according to Consequence of Sound.Burns, who has been a fan of the band since the 90s, is hoping for $10 million in donations so he can bribe Weezer into never making songs like "Beverly Hills" ever again. The campaign has r ... More >>

Lindsay Lohan Warned By Female Prison Inmates

Century Regional Detention Facility: Is this what Lohan's new home looks like?​According to PopEater and British tabloid The Sun, (don't you just love gossip first thing in the morning?) California prison inmates are warning Lohan that her time in the pen may be tougher than she expects. The Sun r ... More >>

Authority Zero: Stories of Survival

​Artist: Authority ZeroTitle: Stories of SurvivalRelease date: June 22Label: Suburban NoizeI have a friend who's a native Phoenician and longtime fixture in the Valley punk scene, both as fan and musician. He loves West Coast punk, thinks Southern California spawned the best of the best punk, espe ... More >>

13 Must-Hear Songs from the First Half of 2010

Dum Dum Girls​Today marks the halfway point of Nothing Not New. That means I've listen to nearly 140 records in their entirety in the first six months of 2010. Just another 140 or so to go before I can retreat to the familiarity of my record collection.To recognize the occasion, the Up on the Sun ... More >>

Stars

The Five Ghosts

Foals: Total Life Forever

​Artist: FoalsTitle: Total Life ForeverRelease date: June 22Label: Sub PopThough I disagree with a commenter on one of my posts this week (Shawn from excellent local music blog Electric Mustache) about the merits of electro-punk Sleigh Bells, I agree with him that S.B. are a band that you either l ... More >>

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Mojo

​Artist: Tom Petty and the HeartbreakersTitle: MojoRelease date: June 15Label: RepriseHow many of you have acts that you'd never call yourself a fan of, would never buy one of their records, or pay money to see in concert, yet recognize that the acts have been around for so long and written songs ... More >>

Odds 'n' Sods: Delta Spirit, Stereo Total, The Tallest Man on Earth, The Cringe, The Dig, and more

​Let's clear off the desk, shall we?Stereo Total: Baby Ouh! -- This band on the Kill Rock Stars label is a multi-lingual new-New Wave boy-girl band with songs sung in English, German, and French. It's quirky with a capital "Q" and not nearly as charming as it thinks it is. Still, most songs are un ... More >>

Nothing Not New: Podcast #6

Peter M. Storch​Hope you all had a good Memorial Day weekend. Now that you're back on the clock, use company time to give a listen to the sixth Nothing Not New podcast. In this installment, music editor Martin Cizmar and I play 11 songs from recent new releases and discuss the industrial roots of ... More >>

Odds 'n' Sods: CocoRosie, Natalie Merchant, Disco Biscuits, The Sadies, Small Black, and more

​It's been a pretty big past two weeks for indie rock: Hold Steady, New Pornographers, Flying Lotus, The National, The Dead Weather. That's a lot of heavy-hitters. Meanwhile, some lower-profile stuff has been piling up on my desk, so it's time to give you a rundown of the other stuff I've been lis ... More >>

Male Bonding: Nothing Hurts

​Artist: Male BondingTitle: Nothing HurtsRelease date: May 11Label: Sub PopRemember all the buzz about Wavves last year? I thought they were just okay. Hopefully, their next record (slated for release this year) will be better. In the meantime, I'll be listening to the new record by Male Bonding, ... More >>

Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma

​Artist: Flying LotusTitle: CosmogrammaRelease date: May 3Label: Warp RecordsA while back, a reader posted a comment on one of my Nothing Not New posts asking why I continued to listen to electronic/laptop music even though I don't care for it all that much.Well, first of all, in the spirit of the ... More >>

What's Spinning: Radio Phoenix

Dakota Jeane is just one of the local artists that made Radio Phoenix's weekly top ten list.​It's always lovely to see local radio stations supporting local bands. Radio Phoenix always makes an effort, but this week in particular they're spinning our local kids more than a little. Though MGMT's re ... More >>

Could Adam Ant Be Collaborating with a Gallagher Brother?

Adam Ant.​According to NME, Adam Ant has publicly stated that he's made his first album in 15 years, and that you'll be able to hear an ex-Oasis member on it.If you're anything like me, and you were totally and completely devastated when you found out that Noel Gallagher had finally had it up to h ... More >>

Spin's Best & Worst Moments of Coachella

​So if you weren't fortunate enough to make it to Coachella this year -- I along with several of my fellow disappointed New Times staffers fall into that category -- and you're not too broken up about it to find out how it actually went, Spin offers up the high and lowlights of the fest, both from ... More >>

Sasquatch Announces 2010 Lineup

The 2010 lineup for the Sasquatch! Music Festival has been announced, and it is, my friends, rather impressive (finally)​​It's been a long time coming, but the Sasquatch! Music Festival -- held annually at Washington's Gorge Amphitheater over Memorial Day weekend -- has come of age. Too long the ... More >>

Jay Reatard's Cause of Death Determined

​According to the medical examiner in Shelby County, Tennessee, where Memphis is located, 29-year-old Jay Reatard died from "cocaine toxicity, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in his death." His real name was Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., and on Jan. 17 he was buried near Isaac Hayes. At the ti ... More >>

Excess Redefined With Axl Rose

​Axl Rose's latest incarnation of Guns N' Roses, Chinese Democracy,  took over 17 years to complete which quite possibly made it the most anticipated album of the past two decades. You may remember that the folks at Dr. Pepper were so excited and skeptical about its release that th ... More >>

Lymbyc System

Metric at Martini Ranch

Luke HolwerdaMetric at Martini Ranch​Scarf-and-sweatered, I took my place at the very end of a very long line that wrapped around Martini Ranch and down Stetson Drive. For amusement, confused attendees waltzed up and down the line, asking with perplexity, "Is this the will call line?" I gathered t ... More >>

Metric

Most Serene Republic and The Grates Win Hearts, Don't Break Teeth at Modified

​ At first glance, The Most Serene Repulic and The Grates touring together seems unlikely -- even odd. The former is a Toronto-based snapshot of what Arts & Crafts does best: Broken Social Scene's intricate textures and soundscapes with the personality dynamic of Stars. The latter is a pop-inf ... More >>

Amazon Trots out Their "100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums of All Time"

Amazon takes their shot at indie rock's 100 greatest albumsThe fine folks over at amazon.com decided that the time was ripe to assemble a list of the best indie rock albums of all time. Indie rock is a genre either really easy to define or kind of confusing to define, but that sentiment did not hol ... More >>

Rx Bandits, k-oS

Rappin' and skankin' until the cows come home

Poppy Hybrids

Annuals´ sound stems from Brian Wilson, Brad Paisley, and "big-ass dogs"

Indie Kids

See You on the Moon! appeals to grown-ups as much as children

Of Montreal

Psychedelicatessen

Let There Be Rock

Ten albums that make it easy to avoid fretting about your old-fashioned, Rockist ways

Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene
(Arts & Crafts)

Top 10 selling CDs at Stinkweeds, 1250 East Apache Boulevard in Tempe

Chart-busters for the week

Top 10 best selling CDs at Hoodlums Music (ASU Main Campus, Tempe)

Chart-busters for the week

Feist

Let It Die
(Interscope)

Mirage

Getting nostalgic at Coachella

Original Soul

This time, it's personal: Our look back at an intimate year in music.

Broken Social Scene

You Forgot It in People (Arts & Crafts)