Salem

The 17 Most Anticipated Metal Albums of 2013

I'm almost a little bummed that the world didn't end on December 21. No War of the Worlds or 2012 scenes became a reality, although I was so sure that the only reason gas prices were down was because all the rich people were holed up in their submarines, burrowed into the Alps like a goddamn modern- ... More >>

Indie Rock is Worth Hating

"Don't rock the boat, sink it!" commands the anonymous scribe behind I Hate Indie Rock, a fiery Twitter account that has been launching crust-punk tinged servos at publicists, nostalgia and vapidity in the indie rock realm. The account has only been around since October, and at this point the feed h ... More >>

Rocktober's Metal Picks: Bloody Art, New Gwar Guitarist, Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem Trailer

If there's one month that you can count on to be on metal's side, it's October. We're allowed to adorn our residences with skulls, fake blood, and motion-sensor demons without being judged. Hell, we are also allowed to indulge in an array of freaky, horrific activities, orchestrated by record compan ... More >>

Top Five Phoenix Music Stories of the Week

The news waits for no one -- at least that's what we read somewhere -- so it's perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants. So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of our biggest stories f ... More >>

Desert Uprising: Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, and More, Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion, 9/28/12

Desert Uprising, featuring Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Buckcherry, Corey Taylor, The Art of Dying @ Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion| 9/28/12There have been a lot of ups and downs during the planning of 98 KUPD's first annual Desert Uprising last night, which found Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie's ... More >>

Desert Uprising: Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, and More, Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion, 9/28/12

Desert Uprising, featuring Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Buckcherry, Corey Taylor, The Art of Dying @ Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion| 9/28/12There have been a lot of ups and downs during the planning of 98 KUPD's first annual Desert Uprising last night, which found Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie's ... More >>

Rob Zombie's Guitarist John 5 Has a Motto: "More is More"

"I love Phoenix," Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 says excitedly. "Rob [Zombie] and the other guys in the band, they like the colder weather, but for some reason I love the really hot weather." He pauses, then anxiously asks, "It should be really warm there still when I'm there in September, right?" ... More >>

Rob Zombie on His New Record, New Movie, and Why Metal Shows Need Girls

Rob Zombie isn't out to terrify you. He's out to blow your mind. He holds a number of titles: director, artist, musician, actor, writer, lover, and freak show. And everything he does is loaded up with theatrics, subtle intelligence, and aggression. Zombie is fresh off his August release Mondo Sex ... More >>

Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson to Headline KUPD's Desert Uprising

See also: We Chat with John Holmberg About "Mom Farts" See also: A Closer Look at KUPD's MILF Contest Phoenix heavy music fans, prepare to bust out the heavy metal sex playlist and celebrate: KUPD has announced Desert Uprising, a huge, two-day metal festival headed to Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pav ... More >>

Slipknot's Corey Taylor and Shawn M. Crahan Launch Production Company; Taylor Explains

There's always been a connection between horror flicks and heavy metal, so it comes as sort of a surprise that it's taken Corey Taylor and Shawn M. Crahan of Slipknot this long to start a Living Breathing Films, a film and television production company aimed at creating "psychological dramas." Th ... More >>

Jen Deveroux Talks Björk, '80s Music, Wye Oak, and the Challenges of Becoming a DJ

NightfuseJen Deveroux​If you're a member of the trendy dance music scene, chances are likely you've seen the name Jen Deveroux before. Most likely on a flier for any of the myriad club events, fashion fetes, and hip parties that she's helped promote over the past five years or so.In recent months, ... More >>

Civil Rites

A Witch in Time

15 Good Songs You Might've Missed in 2010

Peter Storch​I listened to more than 3,000 songs in 2010, so I was asked to come up with a list of the best of the year. But you've probably heard "Swim" by Surfer Blood and "Boyfriend" by Best Coast and "Helicopter" by Deerhunter and "Hustle and Cuss" by the Dead Weather, so I came up with a ... More >>

New Year's Eve Guide 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Your Guide to Navigating Blogger-Created Genre Names

​ "What the fuck is chillwave?????" Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast tweeted back in April, when MTVU blogger Lindsay Hood described her band as "chillwave," after dismissing genres like "lo-fi," "glo-fi" and "Gorillavsbearcore" in her blurb advancing the video for the band's single "When I'm Wi ... More >>

Curtains: Arizona Curriculum Theater's Topical, Disturbing Salem: 1692

Living Art StudiosFrom left: Gail Rae, James David Porter, and Jason Barth reproduce the Salem witch trials in Salem: 1692.​At least three excellent classic 20th-century plays are presented regularly by high schools, which tends to taint them for anyone who was first exposed to them there: Arsenic ... More >>

Hung Dynasty

Be careful what you witch for at Salem: 1692

Most of Lynyrd Skynyrd Is Gone, But Who Cares?

9/11 loons descend on the Arizona Capitol; wacko state Senator Karen Johnson addresses troofer troops from the floor.

Get Inside!

Your three-month forecast of the summer's top movies

Various Artists

White Riot: A Tribute to the Clash (Uncut Magazine)

In Darkness, In Light

M. Ward attends his hero's funeral and walks away with designs for an evocative new album

The Taste Thing

Learning to like the acidic at Perihelion Arts

Expert Tease

A landmark Arizona court ruling leads a Mesa woman, her former physician and expert witnesses through a continuing controversy over flashbacks of long-ago sexual abuse.

Meet the New Boss, Same As the Old Boss

The nation's largest newspaper chain buys the state's biggest paper -- but will anyone even notice the difference?

Letters 06-08-2000

Time Transients

A new millennium in Phoenix, where the motorist in the next lane is your auld acquaintance

Lord's Prayer

Celebrated busker Mary Lou Lord reluctantly steps into the spotlight with major-label debut

Spun, Spun, Spun

All My Caldrons

Soapy Crucible toils and troubles

"A" Bomb

THE SHANE OF IT ALL

SHANE STANT WHACKED NANCY KERRIGAN'S LEG. HERE'S WHY HE THINKS HE'S A VICTIM

TOUR DE FARCETHE AUTHORS OF AMERICA'S QUIRKIEST GUIDEBOOK PUT PHOENIX ON THE MAP

LESSEE GO HOME

TANYA BECKER WANTED A NICE RENTER FOR HER HOME. SHE WOUND UP WITH A REAL-LIFE "PACIFIC HEIGHTS" TENANT

ARIZONA, HOME OF THE OK QUARREL

HEY, WE'RE THE GRAND CANYON STATE. WE LIKE BIG SCHISMS.